Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Lee Iaccoca asks a question

Iaccoca has a new book coming out that rips the Bush administration up one side and down the other and asks a question many of us have been echoing for years now: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

What makes this so interesting is the fact that Iaccoca is a Republican who was friends with Reagan, endorsed Bush in 2000, and even endorsed Dick DeVos in his failed gubernatorial campaign last year. Here's an excerpt:
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 course? 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?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged…. Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them — or at least some of us did. But I’ll tell you what we didn’t do. We didn’t agree to suspend the Constitution. 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.
Iaccoca goes on to say he's never been Commander in Chief, but he's been a CEO and he understands a few things about leadership. In fact, he's calls the qualities necessary his "Nine Cs of Leadership." Check the list for yourself and see how he blasts Bush on every single criteria.

So why is Iaccoca speaking out now? In his own words:
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 oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don'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.
Why did you wait till the Titanic almost sunk to speak up, Lee? Better late than never I guess, but your silence was akin to "standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action" in my opinion.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus, Lee Iacocca sounding like Howard Beale. There's hope for this country yet. ;-)

The only C that Bush possesses is conviction - he's got plenty of that. But without the other Cs, that kind of stubborn conviction is dangerous.

Anonymous said...

What a incredible load of tripe! "Where's the outrage", Lee?. Everywhere, you miserable crank! But what do you expect us to do? March right up to the White House with our guns and duck walk George back to Texas?

Sheesh!

Kathy said...

Abi, it took me a minute to remember who Howard Beale was (old age!). There is an uncanny similarity between the two, isn't there?

Kvatch, I agree. Lee hasn't been paying attention to the storm of outrage around him. Of course, it's possible that he just decided to capitalize on the public's mood and make some money by preaching to the crowd. He is a capitalist after all!

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the ancient allusion. You're right, Network was a l-o-n-g time ago - 30 years. But it's probably my favorite movie. In fact, it's the only video I own (well, that and... never mind).

Anonymous said...

pointless outrage ... Pelosi and Reid are running DC, and yes they are incompetent bozos, but Lee I. is merely playing to the electorate that bounced the GOP in 2006 over questions about Bush.

Well, what do we do *NOW*?
The Dems are ready to increase taxes, have a plan to lose in Iraq, want to curtail free speech, passed unconstitutional gerrymandering of Congressional representation (DC) ...
and they wont do anything to fix social security or medicare for the future.

What's Lee's solution to that?

michael said...

Ask Lee Iacocca about his own bumblings like the Ford Pinto where he knew about the manufacturing design flaws related to the gas tank on the Ford Pinto making it a death trap and a fire trap. Where was the outrage when they statistically calculated if the company could withstand the lawsuits associated with the Pinto related deaths? Talk about outrage. Lee Iacocca and George Bush were cut from the same cloth: Lie about everything and sell it on the cheap to America - despite the fact there are known engineering flaws in the structure, design, and manufacturing of the product. Iacocca left out a few C's: 1)Coward, don't be one. 2)Covetousness: gimme, gimme, gimme or I'll take that from you. 3) Conundrum: A dishonest sales person need not run a country nor an automobile company, because with dishonesty the Lemon Law doesn't cover the trillion dollar deficit, or the loss of lives. Please read about the Lee Iacocca Ford Pinto reality when you get a chance.

michael said...

More people died in Lee Iacocca's Ford Pinto than American soldiers in Iraq. Here's an excerpt: "During that time, nearly 9,000 people burned to death in flaming wrecks. Tens of thousands more were badly burned and scarred for life. And the four-year delay meant that well over 10 million new unsafe vehicles went on the road, vehicles that will be crashing, leaking fuel and incinerating people well into the 1980s."

Read the whole story about Lee Iacocca.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1977/09/dowie.html