Your are correct! For instance I thought Bush using the TARP funds to loan GM and Chrysler by purchasing Preferred stocks, nonvoting and 1st in line in a bankruptcy was a good idea. This would have help those companies reorganize and come out stronger and no taxpayer money would have been at risk.
However Obama changed those stocks to Common stock which are voting and value based on market price, putting taxpayer money at risk. By purchasing more than 50% of the companies voting stock the government in essence bought GM and Chrysler. In my opinion he bought those companies as a way to give close to 20% ownership to his union buddies the ones who help support his campaign. 
So you see some of the objection is not so much the bailout but how it was used. Same could be said with Obama's Porkulus bill, a bill designed to fund numerous hair brained Democrat spending that they had been unable to get through Congress