While time drags slowly towards the official start of the Obama presidency, the problems are not taking a holiday. Daily there are new chapters surfacing of the perilous waters flawed ideologies and failed policies have placed us in. As the curtain is pulled back even further, we’re gaining an inside look at the horrific price we’re faced with when incompetence rules and blind trust is the course de jour.
The recent appearance before Congress from the three C.E.O.’s of our automobile giants was a dazzling display of rank ignorance. There they sat, side by side, asking for immediate financial help from our already over-extended government. For decades their industry fought against, usually successfully, mileage standards and safety standards that would have made them more competitive in today’s market. Now they need our immediate money to just have a change at survival.
While these three top executives were in the driver’s seat when their respective companies raced into the ditch, they only followed the path of those that came before them. Their failure was in not recognizing the direction of the market and becoming advocates for change. That’s big, and the blame rests at their feet, but it didn’t happen overnight.
Having made that point, what should be crystal clear is the incompetence they publicly displayed, as their company’s top executives, during their passionate plea for our money. They had no plan. They just had a dire scenario to unveil of what would happen if we didn’t give them our money. They presented no short-term, or long-term plan of what they would do with our money to save their companies, they just came to beg. That’s not just incompetence, it’s dazzling stupidity. It defies belief that they were so naïve they wouldn’t have recognized in advance that they need to present a detailed plan, but they didn’t. They were unprepared for the meeting and were sent home empty handed.
There’s little doubt we’ll have to suck it up and come up with a plan to give their companies a chance to survive, but unlike all the other Bush-Paulson handouts, this time there must be conditions, terms, and a short leash attached. There’s little doubt these three companies need a change in leadership. This sounds trite, but it’s factual… common sense isn’t really all that common. These executives lack that attribute. It helped bring their companies to this point, and it’s essential that their replacements bring an inordinate level of it to their new assignment.
In a sense, the automobile top executives are a mirror of what the top executive of our government has displayed over his two terms. That hasn’t worked out so swell either. January 20th sure seems like a long way off.
The recent appearance before Congress from the three C.E.O.’s of our automobile giants was a dazzling display of rank ignorance. There they sat, side by side, asking for immediate financial help from our already over-extended government. For decades their industry fought against, usually successfully, mileage standards and safety standards that would have made them more competitive in today’s market. Now they need our immediate money to just have a change at survival.
While these three top executives were in the driver’s seat when their respective companies raced into the ditch, they only followed the path of those that came before them. Their failure was in not recognizing the direction of the market and becoming advocates for change. That’s big, and the blame rests at their feet, but it didn’t happen overnight.
Having made that point, what should be crystal clear is the incompetence they publicly displayed, as their company’s top executives, during their passionate plea for our money. They had no plan. They just had a dire scenario to unveil of what would happen if we didn’t give them our money. They presented no short-term, or long-term plan of what they would do with our money to save their companies, they just came to beg. That’s not just incompetence, it’s dazzling stupidity. It defies belief that they were so naïve they wouldn’t have recognized in advance that they need to present a detailed plan, but they didn’t. They were unprepared for the meeting and were sent home empty handed.
There’s little doubt we’ll have to suck it up and come up with a plan to give their companies a chance to survive, but unlike all the other Bush-Paulson handouts, this time there must be conditions, terms, and a short leash attached. There’s little doubt these three companies need a change in leadership. This sounds trite, but it’s factual… common sense isn’t really all that common. These executives lack that attribute. It helped bring their companies to this point, and it’s essential that their replacements bring an inordinate level of it to their new assignment.
In a sense, the automobile top executives are a mirror of what the top executive of our government has displayed over his two terms. That hasn’t worked out so swell either. January 20th sure seems like a long way off.
