A Nation of Wusses How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great

by Rendell, Ed

• ISBN13: 9781118279052
• ISBN10: 1118279050
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-05
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Governor Ed Rendell explains why Americas leaders rarely call for sacrifice for the greater good-to avoid making any sacrifices themselves! Rendell has seen job security become the primary consideration of any person with power in America-their own job security! Most politicians and bureaucrats can see no further ahead than the next election, sometimes no further than the next press conference. Americans are rarely afraid of sacrifice and hard work when they mean building a better future, but when was the last time you heard of a leader of anything making a sacrifice for the greater good? The people can only win when they make it clear to the powers that be that making the right choices, even the hard ones, is the key to winning the next election. Explains in rollicking stories ranging from the profane to the profound that most hard choices are only "hard" because the polls conflict with your principles Ed Rendell rose to the top of Philadelphia, then Pennsylvania, then national politics, by doing what he thought was right, and there were plenty of times that looked like it would be his downfall as well This book revisits the high points of Ed Rendells career and current landscape to define the political fights his peers seem just as afraid of winning as losing Rendell is a former head of the Democratic National Committee, and a current MSNBC Senior Political Analyst

Author Biography

ED RENDELL served two terms as Governor of Pennsylvania (2002–2010) and headed the Democratic National Committee in 2000. Now a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP, and a senior political analyst for MSNBC, he also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and is a regular on SportsNet's post-game live show for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Wussification of America 5

2 “We’re Mad as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore!” 11

3 “I Wear Blue, Take Me Too!” 21

4 Only a Smart Jewish Lawyer Can Turn This City Around 29

5 The Truth about Waste, Fraud, and Abuse 35

6 “Fast Eddie, We Are Ready!” 47

7 What’s a Nice Jewish Boy Doing Holding Hands with Louis Farrakhan? 57

8 “We Don’t Cover Plane Landings!” 63

9 “Harper Valley PTA” 69

10 Animals I Have Known 83

11 How to Get Uninvited to a Christmas Party You Were Never Invited To 91

12 How My Love Affair with Philadelphia Made Me Governor 99

13 Lobbyists’ Rule: No Money for School 105

14 “Behold the Turtle” 111

15 How Two Young Non-Wuss Pittsburgh Women Stared Down the Haitian and US Governments 117

16 Sports and Politics 127

17 “Like a Sturgeon” 137

18 “Hillary, Hillary . . .” 143

19 Change We Can Believe In: How the Best Communicator in Campaign History

Has Been Badly Outcommunicated as President 151

20 “Know When to Fold ’Em” 159

21 Please, Please Don’t Honor Me 167

22 Build, Baby, Build: “Infrastructure,” the Least Sexy Word in the English Language 173

23 Stand and Defend: There Are Some Things Worth Losing For 183

24 “The Charge of the Wuss Brigade!” 193

25 Does Government Create Jobs? 197

26 Is Honesty the Best Policy? 203

27 The Top Ten Reasons Why Most American Politicians Are Wusses 209

28 How to Get Our Democracy Back on Track—Electoral Reform 217

Conclusion 225

Acknowledgments 231

Index 233