IN his State of the Union address the other night, President Obama credited his auto-industry bailout (he called it "help") with returning General Motors to the top of the global auto manufacturing heap. In terms of vehicles produced, he's right. But in terms of how it got there, the bailout is just part of the explanation.

Among the fact-checkers of that statement was Politifact.com, which found that GM indeed took back the worldwide lead in production, building 9 million vehicles in 2011. Its achievement, however, was aided by a pair of circumstances. First, a world economy still very much in the doldrums wasn't as bad in 2011 as it had been, so more people bought cars. Second, Toyota, which wrested the production lead from GM in 2008, suffered from a series of vehicle recalls and the Japan earthquake, falling to third last year behind a resurgent Volkswagen.

Also, at least one of the nation's Big Three has found success without a government handout. While Chrysler, which also received bailout funds, is regaining solid financial health, Ford, which accepted loans but no bailout money, saw its sales accelerate by a robust 11 percent in 2011.

Consider as well that U.S. taxpayers still own a significant portion of GM. As of this month, the company has repaid just half of the $50 billion that the nation invested in it. Depending on the economy, the escalating level of global automobile competition, and GM's ability to continue producing efficient, reliable, and attractive models, the second half of the repayment could take a while to arrive.

So the president is not wrong to take credit for helping GM emerge from the ashes of bankruptcy and near collapse, but he also had a little help from the economy and the competition's misfortunes. The final chapter has yet to be written.