If that’s true, if federal bailout billions can’t regrease the palms wheels of the American auto industry, this sucker will grind to a halt before that most magical of years, 2010. I mean, is Big Al for real? Can Ford really have enough cash money to weather that kind of downturn– which is, let’s remember, getting worse. “The downturn is longer and deeper than we foresaw a year ago,” Mulally admitted to Automotive News [sub]. But Ford “had the liquidity to deal with it.” HAD? Mulally told AN that The Blue Oval Boyz have “a good small car collection that would give it a global product line-up to cater to the various markets, in the United States, Europe and Asia, where customers now were asking for these vehicles.” GOOD? WOULD? I know Mulally’s a low-key kinda guy. But I reckon Ford’s catastrophic U.S. market share/sales slide and European cutbacks (a 10 to 15 percent production reduction for starters) require a more Churchillian response. “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” Uh, maybe not… Anyway, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Mulally ruled out a Chapter 11 filing. Or is that “positioned himself in a non-bankruptcy-related context?” Exact words: “Bankruptcy “is not in our consideration.”