Rick Newman submits:

Commence Kabuki.

With the Detroit automakers in the late stages of supplication, a predictable ritual will now take place. The CEOs of GM, Ford (F), and Chrysler will do as instructed: travel like common men from Detroit to Washington and present the government with new-and-improved restructuring plans showing that this time, they really are serious about slaughtering sacred cows and right-sizing their businesses. Members of Congress will deliver a few lashings about overpaid CEOs and overentitled union workers. Then, in the end, the feds will pony up at least billion—and maybe billion or more, eventually—to help stave off automotive Armageddon.

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