And so whatever hopes and aspirations Republicans might have, no matter how far-fetched, means Politico will cover it as news.

Witness this week's beaut:

Republicans hope General Motors is President Obama's Hurricane Katrina

Republicans are clinging to the what-if that Obama's bureaucratic decision to help bail out General Motors will be the political equivalent of President Bush's epic and historic failure to help the city of New Orleans as it drowned following Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, that sounds about right.

But it's true, even GOP player Grover Norquist said it was so:

“This is somewhere in between Baghdad and fixing the flood in Louisiana.”

Obama's decision to try to help GM work its way back to profitability is just like Bush's decision to preemptively invade Iraq and his failure to rescue New Orleans.

Of course, professional Republican spinners are free to tell whatever kind of tale they want. But Politico ought to be embarrassed to treat the fanciful scenarios as news.

Also, please note that the Politico article basically consists entirely of quotes from Republican members of Congress criticizing the GM bailout. That's all Politico ever needs to justify an article because if Republicans are criticizing Obama it's news. C'mon people. Keep up.

BTW, the Politico article is cribbed from a column conservative Byron York wrote last week for the Washington Examiner:

We might be catching a glimpse of Obama's tipping point with his handling of General Motors' bankruptcy, and Chrysler's before it. The government takeover of the automakers is by far the most unpopular thing Obama has done so far. And it's not just unpopular -- it is partisan, appealing to the base of his party and virtually no one else.

Follow that logic? Lots of Americans are not happy that the government is bailing out GM, but Obama did it anyway; therefore, his job approval rating will likely soon crater. If you say so, Byron. But it strikes me as a bit odd to think that when pollsters call Americans and ask them the very broad question of whether or not they think the POTUS is doing a good job, they will answer that question based on how Obama handled the forced bankruptcy of General Motors. I actually can't think of an issue less significant in terms of today's presidential polling results (in terms of what impacts most people's day-to-day lives), but that's just me.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, Obama's overall job approval rating has gone up since he signed off on the GM bankruptcy deal.