Barack Obama may want to make GM into his poster child for government interventions, but the automaker would love to change the subject.  With sales already declining, the US automaker wants to distance itself from the image of being “Government Motors” as soon as possible — and dreads the inevitable and premature spiking of the football they see coming:

In other words, all signs point toward GM becoming a major talking point in the 2012 election cycle. But don’t expect the GM leadership to be particularly enthusiastic about being a poster child of a Democratic agenda — even though that particular party is the one that saved them from further financial disaster.

“No one at GM is happy” that it is “going to be used as one of President Obama’s success stories,” a source familiar with the internal dynamics of GM’s business told The Daily Caller, adding that the car company is not exactly on the same page as the White House in terms of declaring victory.

GM’s “not hanging a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner and they shouldn’t either,” the source told TheDC, citing current economic and industry woes.

“GM is not in a position to declare victory,” the source added.

Small wonder.  The auto industry flopped in May, thanks to high gas prices and bad strategy.  Automakers thought they could raise prices as supply from Japan dwindled and got stung for it:

Car sales sputtered in May, slumping to levels that were much lower than expected as higher vehicle prices led consumers to put off purchases in the face of a weakening economy.

Tightening supplies of vehicles after the Japan earthquake emboldened many companies, including Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), to raise car and truck prices, a strategy that analysts and investors said had backfired.

U.S. automakers General Motors Co (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) reported sales on Wednesday that fell short of expectations as the industry experienced its lowest sales rate in eight months.

“They may have jumped on the price increases a little early when the consumer is not quite ready,” said Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management, which owns Ford shares.

“I think it kind of nipped them in the rear a little bit,” he said.

The RNC has a new spot out today, also noting that the football spiking is a little premature … by like 14 billion yards:

What a difference a year makes! Last summer, Obama promised we’d get all the money back from the auto bailouts, and this year we’re celebrating that we only lost $14 billion. Hooray!