OT Iacocca on TV

I saw Lee I on TV twice yesterday. One hour on an interview show, where he did 96%of the talking, due to having a great interviewer*, then an hour or so on Book TV, where he worked off a list of high spots from his book. His getting only 5 hours sleep or maybe having no questioner made this not quite so riveting. The book is "Where Have All the Heros Gone?" or something like that. Karl

  • I can't remember his name, but one person in the industry said that only John Humphries of the BBC was better at gettig the info out, with which I'll agree..
Reply to
midlant
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Not familiar with Mr. Humphries. but Ed Bradley & Mike Wallace did a good job, and recent events aside - Imus was good at getting politicos and high rollers to be at ease and then stick 'em with a toughie!

Reply to
zoombot

About the book:

When it comes to politics, former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca is generally not much of a player. When he has dabbled in politics, Iacocca is generally known for being a Republican - he was close with Reagan, he endorsed Bush in

2000, and backed Dick DeVos' gubernatorial campaign in Michigan last year.

But if Iacocca's new book is any indication, the retired businessman seems to be moving in a different direction.

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.

Not bad for a guy a former Bush backer, don't you think?

The book excerpt from Iacocca's upcoming release sounds like an unusually stinging criticism of the president he supported publicly just seven years ago. Asking, "Where have all the leaders gone?" Iacocca talked about what he describes as the "Nine Cs of Leadership."

  • Curiosity - "George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. 'I just scan the headlines,' 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.
  • Creative - "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."
  • Communicate - "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.
  • Character - "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 killed? 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."
  • Courage - "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.. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized."

It goes on from there, blasting Bush's convictions, charisma, competence, common sense, and ability to manage a crisis. It's a shame Iacocca didn't realize this sooner, but I guess it's better late than never, right?

Reply to
John Kunkel

Bush's approval rating is at a record low, so you are not alone, but he's still in the 70% area with Republicans, so they still like his leadership, maybe because he does not read the paper.Some of his base thinks intellectual is as bad a word as liberal.I'm not unhappy with the leading candidates from either party, so there is hope. The question may well be, can the Republicans I like get nominated, or are we do for another candidate that just wins on the guns, God and gays platform.

John Kunkel wrote:

Reply to
John Poulos

Whew! Nice rant! Are what you wrote quotes from Iacocca's book? Or are they John Kunkels's words?

Stock market is at an all time high- (yes I know inflation has to be figured in, but it's weathered some pretty shitty news in the last 7 years) Employment is pretty darn high. The "WOT" is being fought offshore. Our Uber-P.I.T.A. "ally" France has finally figured out enough is enough.

The knee-jerk patriot act served its purpose, and now is being looked at closely (which should have been done in the first f****ng place). Who signed it without reading it? Only both houses of congress!

Lotsa blame to go around.

As far as cleaning up after a hurricane - the below sea-level areas should be filled in, until they ain't. If Joe homeowner wants to hang onto a plot below sea level, then by all means - stay, but don't expect my tax dollars to finance an endless series of rebuilds and repairs.

In the national guard, President Bush flew an F102 Convair Delta Dagger. There is a selection process to elimiates pansies and stupid people from flying those expensive jets. He passed that selection process. Please read this page - it has many rational words expressed very well.

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Is Bush a great president? Prolly not. Time will tell. He's trying to make lemonade with the lemons he was handed........

I damn sure don't think Cindy Sheehan and John Murtha and Nacny Pelosi are.

Priorities:

  1. Seal the G.D. borders!
  2. Quit relying on the Paris Hilton / Anna Nicole "news" outlets for real news.
  3. Elect some kind of common sense person who ain't a hypocrite to run the country (Fred Thompson?).
  4. Get English as an official language - head off the Sharia' school bullshit before it starts.

Mark (fed up) Dunning

Reply to
Mark Dunning

Lido a Republican? Your kidding right? I grew up with him, we went to school and the same college. He got me my job at Ford after, WV closed down its plant in western Pa and I was out of a job. I worked for him for many years.

He was a big 'player,' read contributor, in Pennsylvania Democrat party as was I. We both left the democrat party when Reagan left, what was once a great party, but he was always liberal. Lately at best he is a RINO and the Democrat party is a cruel joke more interested in winning elections than doing what is necessary to protect the county. Just listen to the kooks and this NG for the proof of who the Dims represent today ;)

Reply to
Mike Hunter

The first sentence "About the book:" and last sentence aren't Iacocca's words, everything in between is.

I refuse to gauge the condition of the economy by the stock market, all those numbers mean is that a lot of people are willing to gamble.

Reply to
John Kunkel

I'm with you, I NEVER considered him to be a Republican... he might have cozied up to politicians of both stripes when he wanted government bail-outs, but I don't for one minute think he ever had any personal Republican leanings.

As far as John Kunkel's rant goes, I'm as fed up with his brand of politics as he is with Bush. Bush wasn't my pick for Pres, but he sure was a darn sight better than anyone the dems put up against him. Bush never said anything the dems in power before him didn't say about Iraq. He ACTED in the wake of 9/11 instead of wringing his hands and begging the UN for tea and sympathy and yet another "resolution". Apparently the cut & run democrat plan is to fight the terrorists on the streets of America, because I haven't heard a remotely plausible plan out of any of their mouths... they think if we just ignore the terrorists and elect dems, the terrorists will go away; they won't, terrorism is what jihad terrorists do. At least Bush is trying to DO something to put them on the defensive.

Mike Hunter wrote:

Reply to
WayneC

and I'm sure you stuck by that theory when Bill was in office.

Reply to
WayneC

The Dow isn't the American economy and neither is Nasdaq or the S&P 500. But together, they represent a huge chunk of our (and the world's) economy.

Ignoring them is like ignoring the 800LB gorilla in the living room. WAAAAY too many pension funds and insurance companies invested there.

Oh, BTW, home ownership is doing prety well, also.

And if it's so horrible here, why are so many people coming here legally and illegally?

Refer to my post of last week - it is great to be alive in 2007.

Even better if you are in America and you have worked hard and obeyed the laws and the insurance you have worked to support all your life pays off the way it is supposed to.

My wife is alive, because the doctors and nurses at UPMC in Pittsburgh can do miraculous things. We have a system in place that rewards them for working hard and takling calculated risks.

We do not have it so bad, my friends.

MD

Reply to
Mark Dunning

You mean like your insurance company and your retirement and pension fund managers? If you don't understand how great is the current economy, look at the income to the federal treasury since the tax rates were cut for everybody For the past three quarters and for the first time in over forty years the current income to the treasury is higher than the current expenditures, even in the midst of a war ;)

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

then why we got the national debt?

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

Surely you jest... but in case you aren't kidding: national debt is the accumulation of debt through years past (every year that we spend more than taxes bring in, we add to the national debt... a few billion here and a few billion there, and pretty soon we're talking big money), whereas current income minus current expenditures can increase or decrease the accumulated national debt depending on whether the income exceeds the expenditures. In your personal life, the amount you owe your creditors is your "personal debt", if the amount you pay on debts this year exceeds all the new debts you incur this year and exceeds the interest payments on all your old debts, then you've paid down your "personal debt" and owe less (have a smaller debt) than last year. your "national debt" a little so you now owe a bit less than you did last year.

Reply to
WayneC

prove that statment Mike. And of course, you also fail to mention that Bush has kept almost the entire cost of the war off budget, thus passing the cost on to our kids and grandkids.

Reply to
Alex Magdaleno

I don't think income exceeds expenditures... maybe it would if you don't count the expenses for Iraq and Afghanistan. But when was the last time we fought a war on a balanced budget.

Reply to
WayneC

Never ask a Bushinista for proof of their claims, it's not in their makeup to offer proof.

All of the pie-in-the-sky assessments of the current economy ignore the $8 trillion debt which is increasing at $1.4 billion a day and the soon-to-come entitlement payments as the baby boomers start to retire will increase the deficit even more.

If any American citizen went to a financial counselor and presented a debt/spending history such as the government's they would be advised to file for banckruptcy; like it or not, bankruptcy is what's in store for the government, I'm just glad that at my advanced age I will be gone before the reality of that comes to be.

Reply to
John Kunkel

Reply to
Pat Drnec

Except for the childlike name calling, your assessment is spot on. But it has been a coordinated effort on both sides of the aisle to spend like frikkin' pigs. Anyone that tells me that one side would hold back on the purse strings is either a lying sack-o-s#!t, or a true idiot. It's like a marriage. Both the husband and the wife share in the responsibility to live within the budget. But they have no self control and we (the taxpayer) keep sending them credit cards and deferred payment plans. We (the taxpayer) are the stupid ones that have voted these crooks into office. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We have abdicated our responsibility as citizens long ago, when we figured out how to get money sent back to us. Jeff ( I can grow my own food, so I will last an extra week and a half...) Rice

"John Kunkel" wrote...

Reply to
Jeff Rice

I agree, but as a "tax and Spend" liberal, I don't get the new conservative math of cut taxes and spend more" It seems like cutting payments on your Master Card and charging more, someone will have to pay the bill someday.

Jeff Rice wrote:

Reply to
John Poulos

Interesting read. (I admit, I had to look up Bourse ...) While there is a lot of good info in there, there is also a lot of conjecture and guesstimation based on the author's opinion. That, in itself isn't a bad thing. We tend to look at things from this continent only, and that can bite us in the ass..... Most international oil 'players' do play in all the markets..... Jeff

"Pat Drnec" wrote...

Reply to
Jeff Rice

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