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GM, FORD SEEN AS BENEFICIARIES OF OBAMA AGENDA

Auto makers may be experiencing the worst sales environment since the closing days of World War II, but having a patron in high places might be enough to allow them to limp through to a recovery. Shares of General Motors (GM) have risen as much as 6% Wednesday, while Ford Motor (F) added 2% amid expectations that a Barack Obama administration will make saving the auto industry one of its priorities.

Auto makers appeared to be well-positioned to savor the incoming president's capital largesse. As one of the more conspicuously organized work forces, auto workers would stand well with Obama's focus on fostering unionization. And as one of the lynchpins of the move to convert to cleaner sources of energy, they also fit snugly within the fabric of his alternative-fuel agenda. The president-elect already suggested he would double Washington's recent commitment to help fund the conversion to fuel-efficient automobiles, saying he would lavish $50 billion on the initiative.

The bailout couldn't come at a more auspicioius occasion in the car makers' history. GMAC, the auto finance arm of General Motors, reported its fifth consecutive quarterly losses amid what the company described as the worst sales environment since 1945. Borrowers have fallen behind in their payments to the auto-finance concern, even as it has scaled back its own lending operations, curtailing loans to prospective customers with anything but the highest-quality credit ratings. GMAC, majority owned by the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital, also said that its home-lending unit, known as ResCap, may not survive the current plight of the housing market. As recently as two years ago, GMAC had one of the largest portfolios of subprime mortgages in the housing-finance business. GMAC already received government permission to tap into the Federal Reserve's commercial-paper purchase program, and has been exploring additional means of accessing government funds.