TeddyRoosevelt
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- Apr 27, 2007
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Take 5 minutes to read this ... It's so worth it!
Had enough?
By Lee Iacocca
Copyright © 2007 Lee Iacocca
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've
got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a
cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we
can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But
instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the
politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the co urse? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned
Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country
anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore
the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.
Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the
wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders
are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in
Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And
the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not
the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.
I've had enough. How
about you?
< BR>I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not
outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years
old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love t o â as soon as I can
pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay
attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think
people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight
shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least
it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they
don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their
interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
WHO ARE THESE GUYS, ANYWAY? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up
with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted f or the m -- or at least some
of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend
the Constitutioon. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding
answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech
treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal
Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the
reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a
people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall
together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us
stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln?
What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There
was a time in this country when the voices of great leade rs lif ted us up
and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
THE TEST OF A LEADER
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a
few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points --
not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call
them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." TThey're not fancy or complicated. Just
clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should
look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this
crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn
something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the
leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the
country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen t o peop le outside of the
"Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because
the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never
reading a newspaper. "I just scan the head lines," he says. Am I hearing
this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a
newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide
whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers
without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the
latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym,
with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas,
he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he
know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of
arrogance. It means either y ou thi nk you already know it all, or you just
don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of
saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when
the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of
the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on
election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't
listening so much as he was
calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something
different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on
never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control.
God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a
disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled
a conversat ion he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into
Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the
President -- the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi
army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The Presideent was serene,"
Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and
that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be
so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over
and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My
instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your
instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was
settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change -- whether you're leading a
company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You < BR>
adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business
School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the
mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and
telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how
to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to
convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know
if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a
while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's
painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other
things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't
cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all
is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening
to him.
A le ader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the
difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right
thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, " If you want to test a man's character,
give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about
his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the
world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the
grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of
thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths -- for what? To
build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once
tried to have him killled? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations
behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has
been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die
for a failed policy.
< BR>A l eader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for
female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George
Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk
like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the
twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a
commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know
it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless
the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of
so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his
most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION -- a fire in your belly.
You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to ge t some thing
done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time
record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President - - four
hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse
himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the
high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound
perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven
days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when
President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people
would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show
for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now,
that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy.
Charisma i s the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the
ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's
my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out
with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where
the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very
presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so
much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from
our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started
squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got
to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to
surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags
about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well,
let's see. Thanks to our_first MBA President, we've got the largest
deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a
half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for
starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we
face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie
Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car
business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East
Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a
huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee,
the only thing you've got goin g for you as a human being is your ability
to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from
a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't
have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know --
Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-
job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home.
I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world --
and I like it here."
I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.
THE BIGGEST C IS CRISIS
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's
easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send
someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield
yourself. It's another thi ng to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time
in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes.
Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in
Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty
minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it
for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to
Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked
people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White
House. He basically went into hiding for the day -- and he told Vice
President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in
front of our TVs, sscared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell
us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It too k Bush
a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at
Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did
he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq --
a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But
Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides
himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the
crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A HELL OF A MESS
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for
winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the
history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while
our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas
prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a cohe rent energy policy.
Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class
is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for
leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders
gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people
of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be
a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get
the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making
us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent
billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how
to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in
the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers
crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms
happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the
next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese
car companies? How did this happen -- and more important, what are we
going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the
debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.
The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at
our country and milking the middle class dry .
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your
asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being
hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is
everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a
name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
HAD ENOUGH?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to
light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America.
In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's
greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises -- the
Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination,
the Vietnam War, the 1970s ooil crisis, and the struggles of recent years
culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You do n't
get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to
take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better
future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge
I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me,
believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So
let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had
enough.
Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca & Associates, Inc., a California
Corporation
Had enough?
By Lee Iacocca
Copyright © 2007 Lee Iacocca
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've
got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a
cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we
can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But
instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the
politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the co urse? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned
Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country
anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore
the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.
Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the
wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders
are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in
Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And
the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not
the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.
I've had enough. How
about you?
< BR>I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not
outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years
old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love t o â as soon as I can
pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay
attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think
people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight
shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least
it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they
don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their
interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
WHO ARE THESE GUYS, ANYWAY? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up
with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted f or the m -- or at least some
of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend
the Constitutioon. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding
answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech
treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal
Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the
reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a
people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall
together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us
stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln?
What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There
was a time in this country when the voices of great leade rs lif ted us up
and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
THE TEST OF A LEADER
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a
few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points --
not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call
them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." TThey're not fancy or complicated. Just
clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should
look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this
crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn
something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the
leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the
country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen t o peop le outside of the
"Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because
the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never
reading a newspaper. "I just scan the head lines," he says. Am I hearing
this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a
newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide
whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers
without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the
latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym,
with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas,
he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he
know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of
arrogance. It means either y ou thi nk you already know it all, or you just
don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of
saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when
the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of
the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on
election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't
listening so much as he was
calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something
different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on
never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control.
God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a
disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled
a conversat ion he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into
Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the
President -- the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi
army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The Presideent was serene,"
Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and
that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be
so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over
and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My
instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your
instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was
settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change -- whether you're leading a
company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You < BR>
adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business
School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the
mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and
telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how
to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to
convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know
if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a
while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's
painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other
things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't
cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all
is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening
to him.
A le ader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the
difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right
thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, " If you want to test a man's character,
give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about
his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the
world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the
grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of
thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths -- for what? To
build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once
tried to have him killled? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations
behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has
been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die
for a failed policy.
< BR>A l eader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for
female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George
Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk
like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the
twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a
commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know
it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless
the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of
so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his
most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION -- a fire in your belly.
You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to ge t some thing
done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time
record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President - - four
hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse
himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the
high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound
perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven
days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when
President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people
would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show
for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now,
that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy.
Charisma i s the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the
ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's
my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out
with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where
the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very
presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so
much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from
our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started
squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got
to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to
surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags
about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well,
let's see. Thanks to our_first MBA President, we've got the largest
deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a
half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for
starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we
face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie
Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car
business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East
Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a
huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee,
the only thing you've got goin g for you as a human being is your ability
to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from
a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't
have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know --
Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-
job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home.
I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world --
and I like it here."
I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.
THE BIGGEST C IS CRISIS
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's
easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send
someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield
yourself. It's another thi ng to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time
in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes.
Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in
Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty
minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it
for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to
Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked
people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White
House. He basically went into hiding for the day -- and he told Vice
President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in
front of our TVs, sscared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell
us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It too k Bush
a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at
Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did
he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq --
a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But
Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides
himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the
crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A HELL OF A MESS
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for
winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the
history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while
our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas
prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a cohe rent energy policy.
Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class
is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for
leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders
gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people
of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be
a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get
the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making
us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent
billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how
to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in
the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers
crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms
happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the
next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese
car companies? How did this happen -- and more important, what are we
going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the
debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.
The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at
our country and milking the middle class dry .
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your
asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being
hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is
everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a
name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
HAD ENOUGH?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to
light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America.
In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's
greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises -- the
Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination,
the Vietnam War, the 1970s ooil crisis, and the struggles of recent years
culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You do n't
get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to
take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better
future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge
I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me,
believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So
let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had
enough.
Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca & Associates, Inc., a California
Corporation
