Suddenly, improbably, the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry has put Detroit’s biggest auto company on a path towards a public debtor-in-possession bankruptcy (a move long advocated by NRO, GOP Senator Bob Corker, and many of the country’s top bankruptcy lawyers) and a chance to emerge from the current financial crisis as a viable, equity-building enterprise.

Widely maligned for its lack of auto expertise and an unwieldy, 25-member task force made up of an alphabet soup of Washington regulatory agencies, the task force did its homework, received solid leadership from Wall Street financier Steve Rattner, and issues a clear-eyed report. Its conclusion: GM and Chrysler don’t have a clue.

To that end, the task force did what a bankruptcy judge would do: It fired GM CEO Rick Wagoner and his board (opening the door to a workout specialist who will put its bloated labor and dealer costs through the shredder). Step two, the task force moved to reassure customers by promising that their purchase of GM cars will come with government-guaranteed warranties. Step Three, it made steps to reassure suppliers that their contracts would be honored so that parts keep flowing to assembly lines.

As for Chrysler, the task force was even more blunt. It cannot survive as an independent company. Merge with Fiat, or choose Chapter 11.

Hack through the thick underbrush of political rhetoric (more on that later) in Barack Obama’s unveiling of the task force’s plan yesterday, and reality is in plain view.

“(GM and Chrysler) both need a fresh start to implement the restructuring plan they develop,” said Obama, summarizing his task force. “That may mean using our bankruptcy code as a mechanism to help them restructure quickly and emerge stronger. . . .What I’m talking about is using our existing legal structure as a tool that, with the backing of the U.S. government, can make it easier for General Motors and Chrysler to quickly clear away old debts.”

The news stunned establishment Detroit, which had assumed that GM is fundamentally healthy, that it is a victim of the credit crisis, that Wagoner had a viable plan, and that federal loans were only needed to patch him through — despite the fact that GM was hemorrhaging money long before the credit crisis.

“The government is just supposed to be helping with funds, and oversight, to help the companies through a tough economy and a serious industry transition,” whined the Detroit Free Press, the establishment parrot.

Balderdash, concluded the task force. Its report makes clear that GM’s brand, dealer, and labor structure is unsustainable. It even dismisses GM’s rosy scenario — a scenario embraced by Obama himself! — about “green” cars being its salvation.

“GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt,” finds the task force, referring to GM’s highly touted plug-in hybrid. “While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable.”

So much for GM remaking itself as a green company. It must remake itself as a profitable company first.

But therein lays the problem for taxpayers. For while the task force speaks common sense, it is ultimately beholden to pols like Obama who want to use GM as a guinea pig for America’s “post-carbon” future.

Obama — like his party — is also in bed with Big Labor, which did not spend $400 million on the last election campaign so that UAW labor contracts would be gutted in bankruptcy. Indeed, Obama’s announcement today is littered with labor candy.

“The administration is pursuing much of what (Republicans) pushed for in December,” said Senator Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), who presciently came to the same conclusion the task force did months ago. “But the delay of several months has increased the severity and sent billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain.” He predicts that members of Congress will now begin “kowtowing . . . to curry favor with the administration” to keep auto plants in their states open.

Obama’s task force has shown it has the guts to tell Detroit auto companies what they need to do. But I doubt its political masters have the backbone to carry it through.