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"Where have all the leaqders gone?"

LEE IACOCCA FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!

He makes sense to me.

Our political "system" - the WAY we elect our national leaders discourages most of our true "leaders" from ever seeking political office. They know that they can accomplish far more in the Corporate world without all the vicious attacks that they - and their families - would have to endure if they ran.

Sad really.

Ron

And one has to be a millionaire, at leasst, before undertaking such an endeavor. Yes, sad.

Another thing that has GOT to stop is these people cmpaigning for 2 years instead of taking care of their senate seats, or whatever office they hold. What are we paying them for? They get paid whether they are in sessiosn or not.

It was a very good post,Dow.I just read it in the AARP book. If they printed it you know it is a good one.

Lee was a great leader at Chrysler. He brought the company back from the brink, then the dumb assed CEO sold it to Daimler.He got rich. They drained it of all the assets,then sold it to John Snow.

Lee wanted to take it back over,they would not let him.

The word, "accomplish" needs to be clarified a bit more for this statement to have any meaning. Since we are talking private versus public accomplishment it's helpful to know what success means. If what is meant by "accomplish" is to get as much out for oneself, while putting as little in, there is no question that the private sector offers far greater chances for personal financial reward. Hopefully, individuals enter public service for reasons other than simply selfcentered greed. I know that it is difficult for business to swallow, but there are people of talent and integrity that choose public service out of a sense of duty and commitment to higher ideals. I know that this is often referred to as softheaded liberal do-good-ism and that most Republicans reject the motives of such "dogooders" as secretly subversive and wrong headed. The notion that only losers or those without talent volunteer or teach is part of the mindless prattle that is most often used to justify behavior that can only be characterized as the opposite of doing good.

" Hopefully, individuals enter public service for reasons other than simply selfcentered greed. .."

****Iacocca is talking about those at the highest levels of our government. Can you name 8 of the top 10 who are in it truly for anything but self-centered greed?

I cannot,Dow. Everywhere I look I see greedy individuals trying to explain to us there many failures.

Guys like Chuck Schumer, Joe Leiberman,Reid with his 5 sons,lobbyists.

Jesse says he will not run unless God tells him he should before 5PM,the same way Bush said,"God told him to run."

Jesse said,"If you do not hear from me.God has not told me anything!

You've put your finger on the problem. We don't need to up the economic anty and by doing so attract a better class of greed-head. What we need is an understanding that this is the wrong motivation to begin with. We don't value public service in this country. What we admire and value as a society is the accumulation of inordinate quantities of power and wealth. We idolaize and worship it. It's a question of values; ours are materialistic to the bone. That is why we have the type of goverment and society that we have. If we attached a higher status to public service than we do for executives, actors, professional players of ball games or gamblers, etc, etc we would have the best and the brightest lining up to serve. The ancient Greeks understood this. Whenever an individual showed particular promise or talent he was recommended for public service. Pericles was not a rich man. Business has spent a lot of time and energy convincing the larger society that the accumulation of wealth is the measure of the highest level of achievement. We look down our noses at those who opt for public service. We brag that we "defeated" our enemy by bankrupting him. We are a materialist society in spite of our hypocritical claims to the contrary. Our selfcenteredness is so pervasive that we deride those who teach our childern and repeat snide cliche's about them. We have exactly the kind of goverment that we deserve. It's an accurate reflection of what is in our hearts. "...For where your treasure is there will your heart also be"..