Actually, in Ford's defense, I think their Escape hybrid is the closest thing to a successful American hybrid there is.

In yesterday's New York Times, Ben Stein (yeah, that Ben Stein) made the only decent point I've read so far in favor of a bailout. He argued that we wanted US automakers so that, if we needed to, we could convert them over to making tanks and military trucks in time of war.

That's not a bad point. However, even if we bail out the big three, there's nothing stopping them from selling to Toyota or Honda. Furthermore, I'm not sure why we couldn't build those vehicles in a US Toyota or Honda plant just as easily.