(The deal in which the world's biggest car company bought into Fiat Auto over two years ago included an option under which Fiat could force the Americans to buy the remaining 80% after January 2004).
These loyalists are dismayed by Mr Obama's recent softening of his insistence that any health reform must include a "public option" (under which private insurers would face competition from a government-run scheme).
But other political leaders blasted the decision, saying that the prime minister should have followed a different option, under which the Constituent Assembly would be allowed to become a parliament that could continue to try to hammer out a constitutional deal.
Supporters of the phased renationalisation policy were furious at reports that the leadership had decided on a less ambitious option, under which the state would be able to bid against private operators, rather than private operators being locked out of the process.
He had done so because police could now detain terror suspects by using the so-called "threshold test", an option under which they can charge a suspect on a lower threshold if they have a reasonable suspicion that evidence will be compiled in a reasonable time.
Finally, the "check-the-box" option, under which companies can bury profits earned in tax havens in the accounts of other foreign subsidiaries, will be restricted.Barack Obama has encountered opposition not just from business but from tax experts who say he will accentuate the divergence between America's tax code and those of most other countries.
He had different ideas from Mr Montezemolo, not least about Fiat's luxury car business.Among the issues awaiting the new team is a put option under which Fiat can supposedly oblige America's General Motors to acquire Fiat Auto, the most struggling part of the group.
Others have suggested a so-called Abu Dhabi option under which the European Commission and the I.M.F. would promise bailout funds as long as private sector creditors shared the pain, in an echo of Abu Dhabi's bailout of its fellow emirate Dubai late last year.
Q: So if you get into power, will you scrap the current option under which somebody can become a Dominican citizen by making a payment straight into the state budget?
Planners also are looking at a regional option under which the Pentagon would deploy troops in the east and south to help Afghan security forces, and would conduct limited combat operations on their own.
