This is a cyber-blurb that has probably been circulating the Internet for over a year, though I just got it yesterday sent from my Newly-Retired-X-Vietnam-War-Vet-Divorced-Ojibwe-CIA/DEA-Career-Navy-Seal-Uncle. It’s hard for him to be retired after all that but at least we can correspond regularly now. He sent these excerpts from Lee Iacocca’s book, “Where have all the Leaders Gone,” Simon & Schuster, April, 2007. Though the book is a year old, it hits on topics that run through my little noggin jez about every morning during my commute to work.
The 82 year old (then) Iacocca writes:
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.”
Iacocca says:
“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 thing 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, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took 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 coherent 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 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.”
OK, I got it. Nice. I am impressed by anyone who can capture their passion with eloquence and present it in a voice that is not whining and pedantic. Only issue with Iacocca is his bias based on his seat of power in the automotive industry. The mining industry has been fighting a battle way before 911 to maintain a leading role in global economics. We’ve been focused on trying to maintain our country’s competitive edge and the energy crisis long before gasoline hit $4.00 a gallon. In short, all I’m saying is we in the mining industry understand.
However, I have a rather dour personal opinion: I don’t trust or believe people who are political candidates for anything. It doesn’t seem that anyone with a level state of mind would run for a public office. By that, regardless of the patriotic motivation or perhaps personal responsibility to participate in an elected office, I know first hand that the people who hold public positions, even on a county level, become exposed to all kinds of ridiculous accusations, contrived allegations, and personal attacks. This circus-like presentation of our leaders focuses on an absurd element of fascination that people support in our news industry for entertainment. Anyone who even considers running in a presidential campaign nowadays has got to have something unbalanced with their personal values to start.
The Presidency is a job. It shouldn’t be a popularity contest. The job is advertised. It’s a term-position with benefits. Must be willing to relocate. Travel required. All applicants please submit a resume to our Personnel Director. (We need a Personnel Director.) I want the resumes weeded out based on qualifications. Then, I want to know what the credentials are. What jobs have they held? What were the reasons for leaving? Have they ever been fired? Why? What school did they go to? Who paid for it? What classes did they take? Did they ever take a class in economics? World history? Study law? What were their grades? What hobbies or interests do they have? What organizations do they belong to? Who are their references? Any awards? Any higher education? Volunteer work? Ever do civil work before? Social programs? Have any experience with the sick? Elderly? Poor? Study any foreign language? Any arts? Ever been in trouble before? Really bad situation before? Tell me about it. How did you handle it?
Yeah, those are a lot of incredible accomplishments to look for in a candidate but this is for the presidency. Those criteria will likely filter out the younger candidates, but not necessarily. We are looking for the most dynamic, best qualified individual in the whole country.
Start there. Then, I want public interviews. Interactive. We created an electoral college to vote for us when we were a nation of remote populations with no feasible means of organizing such a succinct communication as a direct national vote. So, we elect guys to vote in our best interest. Get rid of that. Let’s all vote directly for whom we want. Let’s extend the vote to 10 days rather than one day so everyone can get access to the Internet or mail a voucehr and believe me – I work remotely and in other countries all over the world and I have been able to arrange to vote remotely no matter where I am. Even Ma and Pa Kettle would be able to get in their old farm pickup and drive to the local library to use the internet and vote in that time frame. Unique user ID, password protected, all that jazz. The obstacles to this idea? Approach them as they come up. I don’t believe in letting hypothetical obstacles stop me from formulating an initial plan. That is what I call “a starting point”. We start there.
Everyone gets to vote for whomever they want to. Yeah that will diffuse the vote, but we have computers to sort that now. If someone has made such a national reputation (or campaigned) to the point that maybe most of the people in the nation voted for them, then hey – the system works. No, I don’t believe the nation is composed of menial idiots. Maybe a lot of us are not as educated as we should be on many topics but there are a lot of people in charge of making the decisions that are totally incompetent as well. No one should be in charge of my vote for president. Let’s all vote.
Here is a list of my terrible political opinions based on personal experience:
- Kennedy probably slept with girls other than his wife while he was president.
- The three Roosevelts (Ted, Franklin, and Eleanor) seem to have been very impressive people.
- George Washington is a suspicious character in my book.
- LBJ inherited a hurricane in Vietnam and didn’t address that very well either.
- Probably every president leading up to and including Nixon flexed a few diabolical muscles to get in office — Nixon got caught.
- Ford was a vice president. Be very careful who we hire for that job, too. (Yeah, I know the Nixon-Agnew-Ford connection was out of our hands, but we still need to take our VPs seriously. Maybe that’s another job for our Personnel Director? Hmmm…..)
- Reagan was a scary guy who actually bluffed the Russians into bankruptcy, which initiated thawing of the cold war. All of those threats are still there and new players have yet to rear their ugly heads.
- Carter was once attacked by a rabbit in his canoe. Does anyone but me remember that????
- Old Man Bush had a war that I entirely missed while I was logging core in Mexico – I didn’t even know we were at war and when I got home everyone was ENTHRALLED with S.C.U.D. missiles.
- Clinton was the only president who could even sustain a sex life since Kennedy and we crucified him over it.
- Little Bush is so typical of guys with his syndrome, it’s a wonder he isn’t an exploration manager for Newmont.
I believe all of these persons were / are a nut in some aspect, based mostly on their desire to be a president in the first place. I also believe that each one of these nuts really and truly made an attempt to be a good president. They each thought they were doing a good job in the realm of making political decisions they thought were for the good of our country. That’s why we need to screen them before they get elected.
SUMMARY: I’m not looking for Iacocca’s Great Leader. I’d be happy to hire the most competent, best qualified person for the job based on their credentials. That person may not be a hero. They might simply be good at their job.
{ 10 } Comments
Michele,
I love the way you write, and I heartily agree with your premise. I’ve often said that anyone who wants to be President should be automatically disqualified. I have my own theory about why the process is so messed up: the skill sets required to conduct a campaign and to govern justly seem to be mutually exclusive.
I must register a few of my own counter-terrible political opinions:
1. I do indeed remember the Carter-rabbit incident. He had the incredibly bad luck of being in office when “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” came out. By the way, this is one of the top five movies of all time, in my opinion.
2. Though many attempts have been made to besmirch the good name of George Washington, none of them have stood up to true historical scrutiny. Unfortunately, people remember the accusations, not the fact that they turned out not to be true. In my book, George Washington was one of the greatest men of his or any era.
3. I have a close friend, whom I would trust with my very life, who served as Military Assistant to the President under Ronald Reagan. This is the guy in uniform whom you always see with the President, the guy who carries the “football.” According to this man, Ronald Reagan was one of the sanest men to ever occupy the White House. A lot of people in politics have [at least] two personas - the one that they think will make everyone like them, and the one they use to get their way once in office. Ronald Reagan had one and only one persona. He was the same
person to everyone. He knew the names of the children and grandchildren of all the Secret Service people, and always asked about their welfare. Remember when he was first elected, and all the “experts” said he would blow up the world? Just for the record, it never happened. By the way, your point about the threats still being there is dead on, but seems to be forgotten by most.
4. Clinton was not crucified because he had a sex drive, but because he was a compulsive liar.
Anyway, I wish your process was already in place, because if it were, I’d probably be voting for YOU come November!
Ahhh, dear Dave:
You couldn’t vote for me becasue I cry when people get mad at me. You want a president who cries when people get mad at them? It would look so ridiculous even the Canadians would start to get testy with us. That and I need a lot of personal time to myself. I don’t even like my dogs to pressure me for a walk.
Mark Stuhmer | July
Michele (and Dave),
“Help, help, I’m being repressed!” Thanks, Dave, for the MP flashback.
Michele, I agree that our method of electing presidents proves frustrating, but I can’t see a better way. I like the corporate analogy of submitting resumes to the personnel director, but we hit the first bump there — who picks the occupant of that position? Ultimately, the act of deciding the criteria of acceptable candidates would be subject to the same influences of persuasion and charisma that we have now — in short, a personality contest. I also believe that the game resets to zero once the person is in office. The job of president is so huge that it significantly shapes even the most massive of egos that hold the position.
All that said, I do agree that we can improve the process by which we select and elect candidates. I’d like to start by having all presidential hopefuls interviewed by you, Michele. Not only would it provide entertainment, but it would ensure that the slate of candidates tends toward a warped sense of humor — and that would do more for the country than any other process improvement.
Being maddeningly evenhanded, I don’t have a list of terrible political opinions for our recent presidents. This disqualifies me as either a politician or pundit. I’m fine with that. I’ll simply remain in the party I’m in, The Cheerful Pessimists.
Michele Murray | July 24, 2008 at 6:40 am | Permalink
Mark:
I appreciate your contribution and respectfully offer this response. If you get hung up on who to hire for Mega-Personnel Director, then you are already giving in to the viscous slime of entropy that keeps our masses at home inert in front of their HD televisions sets.
All it takes to have a good idea is to unplug for a while, say, two hours. Go outside. Watch the sky for weather changes and think about things like alternative energy, Lee Iacocca, taxes, 12B-muckers, China, and little animals. That’s what I do.
The process will reveal itself. Be receptive. Remember your thoughts and go home to make dinner. The next day, act. Do something in a forward motion based on your insight the day before. That momentum is how inspiration becomes doctrine. And that is how we will lead ourselves to a better state of managing our country.
Now, what does “evenhanded” mean? Is that something Cool Hand Luke inspired? Is that like Even-keeled? Because that is very Libra…
Michele,
Oh, I have ideas for a personnel director and I’m certainly not giving in to entropy, despite Newton’s law. But out of the 120 million people who actually bother to vote, there are likely a few conflicting ideas on qualifications for mega personnel director, just as there are for president, congress, mayor, sheriff and dog catcher.
Sure, I would love to see more candidates that inspire me. I would love to see a rational redistricting plan (what is meant by “rational” is also the subject of much debate) for the election of representatives. I’d love to see a thoughtful solution for making voting more accessible and more encouraging to those who don’t vote. I’m disturbed by the amount of money spent on campaigning. I’m not hung up on who to hire for mega personnel director, but I don’t get to choose.
It’s an imperfect process that we have to choose a leader, but it seems to me that the more restrictive the effort to control the selection of who can run for office, the more we invite the prospect of tyranny. I would rather spend my efforts on giving support to candidates I like, to writing congress on issues important to me and on supporting policy organizations that I believe are worthwhile.
Now, “evenhanded” is my way to weasel out of stating my own opinion about our past presidents. Wikipedia has an entry on the historical ranking of presidents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents). It’s mildly interesting reading. Perhaps someone should look at the consensus of the top 10 and bottom 10 presidents, determine how they got elected and make recommendations for changes in our election process to give us a better shot at selecting a top 10 versus a bottom 10. Do you think it would help?
Michele,
I heartily agree with Dave on almost all points. I too love your writing, remember the killer rabbit and the weak president, and I agree that Reagan was a very strong president. When he died I told my three young blessings that his changes to the tax code and free enterprise were responsible for much of the economic worth of our great country and his view of America’s defense and role in the world brought freedom to millions.
As much as I like Iacocca as a business leader I would like him even better if he had not asked for and received a federal bailout for Chrysler. The coming bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can be traced to previous bad ideas such as that. While we are on the Government Sponsored Entities, can’t we all agree to the pending legislation (blocked by Reid and Pelosi) which would prohibit these entities from bribing (I mean lobbying and contributing to) Congress?
Iacocca is right that Bush should have immediately landed in D.C. and I think he should have walked the length of the Washington Mall while the cameras rolled. Regarding his slam on faith, like most of our leaders, Iacocca has no understanding of, or respect for, people of faith which I resent.
I am happy to resolve Mark’s dilemma and volunteer to be the National Director of Personnel. The caliber of the candidates would improve because I would exclude people who started running for president as soon as anyone heard of them, everyone connected with a well known political machine and those with no serious job experience. I would also exclude everyone that does not have a plan for what they want to accomplish. Trust me, that criteria would exclude people on both sides.
I agree with Mark that you should interview each of the acceptable candidates for hours on live TV and that we need rational regular people (which naturally excludes judges and politicians) to redraw all of the election districts so that everyone in a district actually live in the same general area. I would add that we need actual debates. I had more heated and productive debates with classmates in high school than we require for testing the future leader of the free world!
Where are your hard core liberal friends? I don’t see comments from any of them so to get the ball rolling I want to propose that they read “Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works.” by Newt Gingrich. I have not always liked or agreed with Gingrich but I found a great deal of ideas in his book that I agreed with. Anyone with a comparable liberal book with new ideas is welcome to suggest it.
Michele and Mark,
Like Mark, I’m disturbed by the amount of money spent on campaigns. I have a very simple solution for campaign finance reform: ban radio and TV advertising for both candidates and ballot issues. That is where nearly all the millions of dollars go in a campaign. The ads are virtually always deceptive (for various reasons, among which it is nearly impossible to address any significnt issue in 30 seconds), and therefore have no value in assisting voters to choose a candidate.
Dear Roy: My God!
Dear Mark: I wanna see your honest list of past presidents.
Dear Dave: TV and radio is how we manage the masses. The media is a tool as important as the straw and wheel. How you use it for efficiency and result is the Zen.
Ummm, anyone remember mining in here? Huh? The MINING industry?? That’s OK, we are here to provide the forum, the electricity, the infrastructure, the platform and the ambiance whether or not anyone realizes where all the comes from…
Great line about the exploration manager for Newmont - you must have worked for them in Nevada…
Dear Mark G.
I have never worked for Newmont because I am not their “preferred type”. They get a quizzical look on their face when I am in the room talking to them, like “Where are her keepers?” I based my assessment of this highly-generalized and terribly stereo-typed character based on guys I worked with who went over to them and found a happy home there. Those “preferred type” of guys I worked with had nice hair-cuts and didn’t do very much core logging or mapping or drafting sections. They liked to write reports. I am not saying everyone at Newmont is like that, but the guys I knew who went there are like that. And no, they would not like to work with me for reasons known to other people (like my huzbun) who keep that to themselves so I don’t get all hurt and self conscious… I do all right and I stay out of those offices for the most part (unless the office is in a really remote region of the world and I am there to teach some kind of software to guys who have bones in their nose – I am the perfect candidate for that kind of corporate representation….)
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