Had enough?

April 13, 2007 5:25 PM

Lee Iacoccahas a few thoughts on President Bush.
posted by EarBucket (54 comments total)

If he worked for Lee he would be collecting unemployment. Unfortunately, he has two years left on a pretty iron clad employment contract.
posted by caddis at 5:28 PM on April 13, 2007

Seems like a pretty standard anti-bush screed. Certainly accurate but he's a couple years late to the party. Ah well, maybe this will be seen by some new people.
posted by delmoi at 5:35 PM on April 13, 2007

LA Festival of Books is coming up. Iacocca will be there.
posted by phaedon at 5:41 PM on April 13, 2007

So which ad hominem attack will the right wingers use against Iacocca? He's senile? He was a bad CEO? He's always been a moonbat? K-cars sucked?
posted by octothorpe at 5:41 PM on April 13, 2007

"'Iacocca' is an Islamic name."
posted by DU at 5:43 PM on April 13, 2007 [5 favorites]

I can't decide which is worse, two more years of Bush or two hundred and eighty-eight pages of Iacocca.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 5:45 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

new word: Fukuyocca.
posted by phaedon at 5:46 PM on April 13, 2007

So which ad hominem attack will the right wingers use against Iacocca? He's senile? He was a bad CEO? He's always been a moonbat? K-cars sucked?

P.J. O'Rourke actually did a masterful takedown of Iacocca years ago. Truly funny. And yes, he mentions the K-Car.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:49 PM on April 13, 2007

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=5mv9s&txtName=iacocca&txtState=(all%20states)&txt2004=Y&Order=N
posted by orthogonality at 5:52 PM on April 13, 2007

Well, that reads just like his books, and K-cars were pretty good tin cans. Unfortunately among cars from the 80's and early 90's, the roads still have 150k+ mileage imports; but domestic cars from that time frame are long gone to the crusher or junkyard.
posted by buzzman at 5:54 PM on April 13, 2007

Oh OK everybody loves a list of W hat To Do , I am no Iacocca bigcockocca , but you can have mine for free, that's a deal !

1. I hate corporate welfare and how free market, perfect competition are good only when it is good for me.

2. I hate it when they get tax cut, move production to China, complain that Chinese are copying, tell me this needs wage reduction, then fire me because I dare think about unions as if they haven't the most powerful lobby-union ever.

3. I hate glorification of idiocy.

4. I hate it when they complain kids don't like math, science and blame them for being naturally ignorant, yet what they really want are socially insecure, highly productive geeks they can pay with crumbs while they steal the pie, maybe by patenting "one click" or by using infinite copyright extension.

5. I hate it when there still is no cure for cancer, but billions are invested in marketing, god forbid you should miss the latest spin in aspirin !

6. I hate lists about what "leadership" really is about, yet your presence in the market as big cat for years didn't teach current leadership anything. Or maybe they learned waaay too much, but are less concerned by appaerences ?

7. I love to hate ! Hey don't blame me, I watch Fox (not really)
posted by elpapacito at 6:16 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

When did Lee Iacocca run for office? When did Lee Iacocca introduce the electric car? With all his privilege and power, when did Lee Iacocca ever step up to the plate?

He's got a lot to say about what makes a great leader. Of course it's based on his own great leadership. Of a company. Which has nothing to do with leading a nation.

He had his chance and cashed in instead. I agree with his assessment of Bush, and wish Bush had stayed where he belonged to: behind a hot dog cart in front of his ball club.
posted by Twang at 6:17 PM on April 13, 2007

"You dadgum kids get offa my lawn!"
posted by acetonic at 6:25 PM on April 13, 2007

Effen traitor
posted by UseyurBrain at 6:43 PM on April 13, 2007

Robert McNamara and Lee Iacocca Green Party ticket 2008?
posted by acro at 6:57 PM on April 13, 2007

"while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs"

You get'em, Lee!
posted by anthill at 6:59 PM on April 13, 2007

I liked how he displayed both ignorance and arrogance in one single sentence about why he isn't leaving this to the young people "I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention."

That's right, no one has noticed that Bush is an utter incompetent, no one has noticed that he's fucking things up, no one has noticed that he's trashing the Constitution. Nope, us kids are too busy listening to our iPods and its up to bold, brave, Iacocca to shake us up.

Don't misundertand, I'm glad that he's on board with the "Bush sucks" program, maybe he'll help spread the message to people who've been ignoring us all these years. I'm just annoyed that he's pretending that he's somehow inventing the concept of criticizing Bush. I'm doubly annoyed that he's pretending that young people don't care when we've been the ones doing most of the work here.
posted by sotonohito at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

A most excellent rant! Thank you Lee for taking the time and thank you EarBucket for posting it.
posted by rmmcclay at 7:34 PM on April 13, 2007

Here's Bush's 9 Cs of leadership.

Christian

ah hell, that's enough.
posted by mazola at 7:43 PM on April 13, 2007 [7 favorites]

I'm mostly interested in this rant because it's hosted by my employer, who tries so damned hard to appear politically neutral. (I guess it doesn't work that well, Borders is known as "The Communist Bookstore" by my former landlords - a bunch of diehard O'Reilly worshipping conservatives.) Where on the Borders website is the other side of the coin, the pro-Bush lovefest?

I always thought it was bizarre that we had people come in and complain that we had the latest Hillary Clinton book, but that they couldn't find the Ann Coulter diatribe they were looking for. This seemed bizarre to me, especially since we also have books on fucking Hitler, but that doesn't make us pro-Hitler as an organization. Anyhow.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:46 PM on April 13, 2007

Also: I see Iococca demands his female leaders have balls. Clearly, he is not up to do date on the feminist implications of "grow a pair." Sheesh. Get with the times.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:49 PM on April 13, 2007

grapefruitmoon:

Borders is known as "The Communist Bookstore" by my former landlords - a bunch of diehard O'Reilly worshipping conservatives.)

Just curious: What does the extreme right wing have against Borders?

I mean, besides the fact that it sells books.
posted by Flunkie at 8:04 PM on April 13, 2007

Just as the Troggs wrote "Wild Thing" and the Romantics gave us "What I Like About You", Iacocca fathered the Mustang. For that alone, to me he is above reproach.
posted by psmealey at 8:05 PM on April 13, 2007

So I guess with Bush in charge, neither "lead", nor "follow", nor "get out of the way" is an appropriate action. I guess George Carlin was right. Sometimes you have to obstruct.
posted by condour75 at 8:05 PM on April 13, 2007

"Here's Bush's 9 Cs of leadership.

Christian

ah hell, that's enough."

You forgot "caucasian".
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:07 PM on April 13, 2007

Let's amend:

Christian, Caucasian, Cahoots, Cover Up, Cheney...

we're almost there!
posted by mazola at 8:13 PM on April 13, 2007

Croney, Cash-grab, Coo-coo, Crazy, Con-man...
posted by Balisong at 8:21 PM on April 13, 2007

That's right, no one has noticed that Bush is an utter incompetent, no one has noticed that he's fucking things up, no one has noticed that he's trashing the Constitution. Nope, us kids are too busy listening to our iPods and its up to bold, brave, Iacocca to shake us up.

Well we kids must be doing something wrong ... because whatever we are doing, it isn't solving any problems.

We live in a careful age. Blair was careful recently when he 'saved' the hostages. People are afraid of authority.

Yes - there's a lot of talk, often outraged talk. But yeah, that's not helping much either.
posted by niccolo at 8:22 PM on April 13, 2007

Just curious: What does the extreme right wing have against Borders?

Like I said, they claim that we only sell liberal books. I guess we don't carry a large enough stock of the complete works of Karl Rove to satisfy them. Basically, they want giant displays of the latest conservative propaganda greeting them at the door or we're all a bunch of no-good hippies.

(Which, uh, is true.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:24 PM on April 13, 2007

What does the extreme right wing have against Borders?

They buy books at Wallmart and similar safe venues where the selection is approved mainstream titles. Same is true for music CDs and DVD videos.

Borders has an air of anti-authoritarianism, liberal values, secular creed and expensive "flavored" coffee. You could go in there and be challenged by far-out wacko ideas, it is not a safe place.
posted by stbalbach at 8:24 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Borders has an air of anti-authoritarianism, liberal values, secular creed and expensive "flavored" coffee.

Actually, we don't brew flavored coffee (much to the chagrin of everyone who comes in asking for a "French vanilla extra extra"). It's against Seattle's Best policy. (Seattle's Best being the café now resident in Borders bookstores.) Other than that though, I'd agree. ;)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:59 PM on April 13, 2007

I feel about this the same way I do when I hear people around me complaining with such enthusiasm about the state of affairs, as if it were all new to them. Not that I do not welcome vehement protest, even if only in private, but simply because I have been bitching for years, and am tired of the sound of my own voice, or anything sounding like it.
posted by bukharin at 9:04 PM on April 13, 2007

The Borders here in Kips Bay (East Side Manhattan, geriatric, Jewish, with some surviving Old Left flavor) generally *does* have stacks of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Larry the Cable Guy by the front door. Go figure.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:46 PM on April 13, 2007

Apple pie and Diet Coke-a, that's why I love... Iacocca!
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:08 PM on April 13, 2007

Say what you will about the K-car, but it was about as good as American small cars got at the time, and I know of one that took a head-on collision and kept right on tickin'.

Plus, it was a surprisingly wide car for the height and length, and with bench seats front and rear, there was lots of room inside. For, you know. Stuff you couldn't do in a Chevrolet Monza.

I was a young teen at the time, after all.
posted by davejay at 10:38 PM on April 13, 2007

Another rich old white guy who got everything he wanted in the way of big tax cuts, estate tax elimination, and war profits. Now at long last, seeing the ruin of our great nation and the collapse of the empire from these selfish policies he dares condem Bush. He should condemn himself.
posted by humanfont at 10:38 PM on April 13, 2007

The Borders here in Kips Bay (East Side Manhattan, geriatric, Jewish, with some surviving Old Left flavor) generally *does* have stacks of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Larry the Cable Guy by the front door. Go figure.

Here in L.A., virtually the only place you can find these books is at a Borders.
posted by scody at 10:50 PM on April 13, 2007

The Borders here in Kips Bay (East Side Manhattan, geriatric, Jewish, with some surviving Old Left flavor) generally *does* have stacks of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Larry the Cable Guy by the front door. Go figure.

We do have all of those, but since you can ALSO buy the new Barack Obama hardcover, the right wing is collectively shitting itself.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:38 PM on April 13, 2007

seeing the ruin of our great nation and the collapse of the empire

? the sadness I feel reviewing the past 6 years is one of opportunity costs, not a prospect of destruction, other than the gaping hole in the NY skyline due to this administration's impressive ability to focus on exactly the wrong things.

Iraq is of course a major catastrophe, but at present is 'only' about as bad (to the same order of magnitude) as our intervention in the Vietnamese civil war.

We've collectively stepped in it, wrt inept international diplomacy, accelerating domestic wealth concentration and concomitant indebtedness , inflationary asset bubble generation, declining industrial and manufacturing competitiveness, etc. but if our nation is truly great we'll get through this, and last I checked our "empire" is doing pretty good.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:57 AM on April 14, 2007

damn commie
posted by matteo at 1:12 AM on April 14, 2007

Hell, when I worked at the Reading PA Borders we did a nice trade in David Duke's My Awakening, The Creature from Jekyll Island, and some very angry book about Hillary Clinton the title of which escapes me at the moment, never mind the more mainstream conservative stuff like Ann Coulter and Left Behind.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:26 AM on April 14, 2007

If you can find a better President... BUY IT!
posted by evilcolonel at 4:53 AM on April 14, 2007

Only an 82 year old former industry captain like Iacocca could give a "back in the good old days we did it better" speech like that. There's a reason I keep my head down and my hands in my pocket. This is the New America, Lee, for better or worse.
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:53 AM on April 14, 2007

Things I have learned from this post:

Holy crap, Lee Iacocca is still alive?

Leaders have to know a lot of words beginning with C. You know, for Leadership.

posted by Eideteker at 7:30 AM on April 14, 2007

"We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff..."

I would have said waterfall, or perhaps, "into a whirlpool", but I suppose if things are so messed up, that our leaders have built some crazy ship with wheels which they are now driving "over a cliff..." then that works as well.
posted by wfrgms at 8:28 AM on April 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

"back in the good old days we did it better" speech

Yeah that's basically what it is, a parent scolding his children. Tough guys like that don't exist much anymore. Lee was born in 1925, just at end period of the "Greatest Generation". His kids, the baby boomers are idealogical, visionary and not very practical, which is manifesting in the Middle East as a crusade of screw ups.
posted by stbalbach at 9:18 AM on April 14, 2007

I always thought it was bizarre that we had people come in and complain that we had the latest Hillary Clinton book, but that they couldn't find the Ann Coulter diatribe they were looking for.

Well, there's always Wal-Mart. It's America's bookstore!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:20 AM on April 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

If the general content of this thread so far is any indication of the kind o mindset that we have to look forward to in this country over the next six years, not to mention decade, I am left still feeling that I made the right decision when I decided to more to England. I mean I wonder how many of those who sound so offended by Iococca's rant have actually done anything to help change the situation? And I don't mean just moaning about it
posted by donfactor at 4:12 PM on April 14, 2007

Iacocca's screed and this thread about it tempt me sorely to blow five bucks on a membership for him here in the blue. It'd be interesting to watch the fireworks around here if he started chiming in on the Bush and IraqFilter threads.
posted by pax digita at 5:21 PM on April 14, 2007

Hooray.
Grandpa Gets It.
Vote, Grandpa, vote!
posted by Dizzy at 7:19 PM on April 14, 2007

It's tangential to the topic at hand, but Iacocca's foundation has raised millions of dollars for diabetes research. The man works for change, on many levels, and puts his money and his work where his mouth is.
posted by Robert Angelo at 7:57 PM on April 14, 2007

Your probably right donfactor. Things are going to get worse before they get better. Although, England is not without its problems too, just less visibly displayed for all the world to see in the typically loud and grating American fashion.
posted by stbalbach at 6:56 AM on April 15, 2007

... "If you're not worried, why not?"
posted by acro at 10:35 AM on April 15, 2007

Hooray.
Grandpa Gets It.

He not only gets it, he's down with it, fo shizzle.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
posted by peeedro at 3:22 PM on April 15, 2007