Climbing to the Super Bowl

Say this – The Saints are wildly entertaining when they win.

Turning over their roster like pancakes, the Saints have passed their way back into a faint whiff of contention. And when I say passed of course I’m talking about Drew Brees who just continues his shock and awe campaign. I doubt that Drew will win the NFL MVP, but it will be a shame, because he’s got the Saints on his shoulders, wishing on a star.

A couple of other things – I’ll admit I was wrong about Jason David, if you’ll admit I was right about Pierre Thomas. And here’s the blasphemy – the Saints are better with Pierre carrying the ball 15 times a game than with Reggie doing it. Now Reggie’s always a threat, and he should be our punt returner – but he’s as big a threat to lose 7 yards as he is to gain 7. All Pierre does is hit the holes, break tackles, and move the pile. He’s a standard issue running back on his way to maybe not greatness, but awful goodness. Think Brian Westbrook.

While we’re on the subject of free agents, Lance Moore may be on his way to the Pro Bowl. With Marques Colston and Lance Moore and Jeremy Shockey, the potential for this offense is as exciting as their performance Monday night would indicate.

Now, the depleted defense is another story. They played well enough to win by applying a little pressure to a quarterback not named Brett Favre and not playing like him. I don’t even think Jason David’s play was fluke. I actually think he’s improving, but let’s not get too cocky – chasing NFL wide receivers around that rectangle is like me chasing my dog around the backyard. She knows where she’s going, and I can only guess. So, he will get burned again, but maybe will balance the burns with the big plays.

Now, it’s on to Tampa Bay, and the long climb back into contention, best achieved by a 7 game winning streak. Who wins the Super Bowl? The team that gets hot in January. Maybe the Saints are warming up.

So Far Outside the Box

Question: How do we save the American Auto Industry?
Answer: Make Americans buy American Cars

I’ll get to the how later.

And let me acknowledge that I worked for Ford Credit for 20 years so there is full disclosure.

The great thing about having a laptop is that you can work in front of the TV, so I sat there watching the hearings on the proposed GM/Ford/Chrysler bailout. Our esteemed Senators, and the press, have chastised the Big 3 for, among other things: Executive compensation, use of corporate jets, not making cars people want, not having a business plan, etc, etc. These are all smokescreens and have nothing to do with whether or not these companies will survive.

What matters is on the delivery end. The fact that Detroit cars are now mostly comparable to foreign cars is irrelevant to the public. They lost the public’s trust and their products, no matter how many ads they run during American Idol, are not perceived as 1) reliable or 2) cool. The Big 3 could do all the things the Senators want them to do, and it still wouldn’t matter. The only thing that will help the Big 3 is if they sell more cars, and there is no evidence that grounding a corporate jet or presenting a flowery plan to Congress will do that.

The American consumer, and only the American consumer will decide whether or not these companies survive.

The typical Joe the plumber isn’t going to understand executive compensation but here’s the way I look at it: It’s an investment in talent, just like Derek Jeter is. If you owned a huge company that just made a million dollar profit in one year, and there was a potential CEO out there who could increase that profit from a million to a billion, would you pay that guy $25 million? Of course you would. And by the way, if you have to lure the high priced talent by promising him the use of a corporate jet, you do that too. It’s all relative. Exxon made how many billions last quarter? What would you pay that CEO? The problem shouldn’t really be with the public, it should be with the worker – who used to see the leader of his company make 25 times what he makes, but that now has risen to 500 times what the lowest paid worker makes. Now he/she should be pissed!

The dilemma is in the failing. The CEO's still get paid when they fail (see wall street) and that really bugs us, just like when our high priced free agent suddenly gains weight and can’t find the end zone.

So, how do we hold on to the Big 3? The bailout is just corporations doing what people do when there’s a handout – stand in line. If there’s money being given out, we’re “all in” – it’s who we are.

So, no bailout. My plan would be much more effective (and probably way more costly to our government.) Give the American Public an incentive to try American Cars one more time. Remember the typical Gen X er doesn’t even have these cars on their radar – they’re on their fourth Toyota.

So, here it is: I propose the American Investment Act of 2009. Starting on January 1, anyone who leases an American car will be entitled to deduct their lease payment 100%.
The act will go 5 years. The Big 3 must set accurate residual values – no unfair competition – your cars aren’t good lease deals for a reason and you can’t artificially pump them up and take a loss later.
This would mean that anyone who wants to take advantage of the lease savings would probably lease 2 cars during the term of the act – and would either fall in love with the product or not. If the cars are what you say they are, you would have recaptured America. If not, pull the plug and turn out the lights. After 2 cycles, you will have had every chance to hold on to the customer. If you fail, you will go out of business and no one will say you didn’t get a shot.

The argument against this is that it’s not free market. I’ll concede that, but other nations take nationalistic action all the time. I actually think it would help foreign manufacturers as well by goosing the economy. In fact, if you want to take it further, provide a sales tax break on all “made in America” products. The recession would be over by March.

At the same time, we have to keep perspective. This week I took 3 hours to read Newsweek’s election edition cover to cover. It was a fascinating recap of the campaign. I highly recommend it. But the thing that blew me away was a statistic that I’m going to link to my previous “lucky sperm club” comment.

Here are the top 3 world populations:
1 China 1,347,563,498
2 India 1,184,090,490
3 United States 309,162,581

According to Newsweek in India there are 400 million people (that’s 100 million more than our entire population) that don’t have electricity.
400 million!
I’m flabbergasted.
So, let’s keep perspective and be thankful that we’re going to microwave a pizza tonight.
It will be terrible, but there are 400 million people in one country that wouldn’t know a microwave from a TV and would be thrilled to stick a frozen pizza in either – if they could freeze anything.

They should be so lucky as to have to choose between an Audi and a Buick.

Bailing out on that Super Bowl Trip

The US government is considering bailing out Detroit.

No, Not the Lions.
Because if they were going to bail out a football team, who rivals the 40 years of mediocrity established by our New Orleans Saints?
Consider that FEMA repair of the Superdome just a down payment.
Bail us out of our misery. Buy out our season tickets. Their value is dropping faster than the housing market.

Sean Payton may be an aerial genius. He’s constructed a wonderful passing attack with an outstanding quarterback and a bevy of excellent receivers. But Mike Martz can’t get a head coaching job because aerial circuses don’t translate to wins. Maybe our coach will learn to construct a defense and a balanced offensive attack at some point, but it’s not looking good.

Watching the Saints disintegrate into an injury-riddled, bickering group has not been pleasant. And, don’t try to tell me they’re not good on the road. Where they’re playing has little to do with their inadequacies.

So, it’s off to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come. Having a tough year Herm? We’re sending a little care package your way. Wasn’t it just last year that Kansas City had that great draft that was going to turn their franchise around? Well, just ask Cleveland. Just ask New Orleans. One draft doesn’t get you drunk and it doesn’t make your team. It takes several good drafts in a row to turn a team around. The clinker we had between Bush and Ellis/Porter is killing us. Not knocking Robert Meachum, but he wasn't what we needed. Was there a starting safety somewhere in that draft? Let’s hope we aren’t in our wishful Mel Kiper mode too soon.

It’s going to take an incredible win streak to salvage this season. If Drew Brees breaks Dan Marino’s record it will be because of too many 400 yard losing efforts. If he doesn’t, there’s hope. I guess we can draw inspiration from the fact that stranger things have happened.

Like trillion dollar bailouts.

An Election Commentary

What just happened?
As I watched the riveting election coverage Tuesday night I was fascinated with the joy displayed by the enthusiastic crowds not only here but world-wide. That an everchanging America had turned to a bi-racial man, born in Hawaii, educated in Indonesia, raised by a single parent, with family spread all over the world to lead a nation in economic crisis while fighting two wars was of such significance that even the most cynical had to marvel at the moment. After an endless endurance-contest of a campaign, an impressed nation turned to Barack Obama to pull us out of the quicksand.
How could we get to this incredible historical marker?

I’m reminded of the mid 90’s when I experienced a diversity initiative at Ford. Ford made a conscious effort to promote and call in a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was good for business.

I often say that there’s a group of people that won the sperm lottery – they were born white in America, thus endowed with a huge head start on the billions who aren’t. That means Little League rather than picking fruit. It means fishing as a hobby rather than a necessity. It means hearing about kids starving in Africa instead of actually starving in Africa. It means an incredibly gifted existence of easy weekends, soccer practices, family picnics, beach trips, second homes, country clubs, season tickets, HBO, and being treated to an almost daily introduction of some new technology. It means running on a treadmill rather than some Kenyan dirt road. It means wondering about who to vote for on American Idol tonight instead of wondering if the village will be raided tonight. It means watching Dancing with the Stars, instead of sleeping under the stars. For many our life’s work is learning and preserving a family business. I usually rant from my couch, with my big-screen, high def TV in front of me. It’s the fourth couch of my adult life. I’m so lucky. Many people in this world will never own a couch, much less get to see Jessica Alba in High Definition. I didn’t invent capitalism or democracy, but I sure was born into a great club. Keeping perspective should be a higher priority. Our club works hard, but we work to prosper, not to survive.

So, back to what just happened.
First it must be said that George W. Bush happened. His approval ratings sank at home as his policies made the world see the United States as an aggressor rather than a peacemaker. The great empathy that 9/11 had generated worldwide turned to anger as we invaded a country looking for something we never found. To make matters worse, we declared “mission accomplished” and then muddled around for 7 more years trying to accomplish it, with the 9/11 perpetuator still at large. We topped this off by borrowing all the money to fight the war, and as the debt mounted to unprecedented levels, the economic foundation began to shake and shudder. The once robust American economy began to nosedive, dragging the rest of the world behind. Suddenly, instead of needing a skilled warrior, it began to look like we needed a skilled peacemaker.

So Bush beat McCain for the second time. Beat him in the primaries in 2000 with his Rove bag of dirty tricks (in retrospect wouldn’t we have been better off with McCain then) and then beat him again this year by leaving the pool table with no good shot.

The campaign predictably morphed into the longest blame game this side of Bill Buckner.
The Democrat was accused of being Unqualified, Un-American, Anti-American, anti-war, anti-Semitic, tax-raising, not-lapel-pin-wearing, Muslim, wealth-spreading, terrorist-associating, communist, fascist, socialist.

The Republican was accused of being a too-old, impulsive, combative, nasty, hawkish, self serving, pandering, dubious judgment, shadow of his former Maverick self, flip-flopping, out of touch military man who had stood up to Bush years ago, but stooped to mimeographing the Bush policy playbook this time.

As Cyberbull flowed it was so impressive that a steady Obama refused to get swift-boated like John Kerry, or chadded like Al Gore and went on the offensive just enough to dispel the lies without unleashing similar attacks on McCain. Never once did Obama mention McCain’s Keating Five scandal which couldn’t have been more relevant with the Wall Street crisis. America picked the man who had run the better campaign as the man who would do better at pulling together the almost impossible-to-run U.S. Government. He never wavered from his message of hope and change. The hardest thing to fathom is why anybody would want the job, especially now.

Meanwhile, a bailout package and stimulus packages didn’t seem to improve the economy, suggesting that a world-wide economy was a little more complicated than trickle down economics. Trickle down hasn’t trickled in a long time. The “cut taxes” message which has always so impressed the electorate rang hollow, as if we finally realized that cutting taxes is not a perpetual activity. The money for roads, bridges, schools, and wars has to come from somewhere. We don’t like taxes, but I guess we like dirt roads less, not to mention un-cared for veterans who’ve been deployed over and over.

It was amazing to me that Obama actually proposes rebuilding the infrastructure, including the power grid, and making energy reinvention a center piece of a new economy, creating jobs and a return to prosperity. This is impressive, visionary stuff. I’ll be even more amazed if he pulls it off. If our economy gets moving again maybe we’ll do as good a job rebuilding New Orleans as we will at rebuilding Bagdad (and Iraq has money – Louisiana doesn’t. I guess war entitles a country to the ultimate corporate welfare.)

Meanwhile the business world is scared to death of Universal Healthcare, when it is the union-demanded health care costs that, built into our products, has made us uncompetitive and is just another thing that cost us jobs. A dilution of Health Care costs may just work. Some call it socialism. But most of us wonder if we can’t take care of our sick how good a nation are we?

My sincere hope is that the new President can rally the troops – the ones who sit in chairs in the Capital. He needs to build a consensus and attack problems with a united front. The democrats gave Bush everything he wanted over the last 8 years lest they be seen as unpatriotic and unsupportive of the troops. That Bush’s ill-conceived or poorly executed policies imploded just set the table for the Democrats. It seems that 8-year Presidents can’t avoid going out on the downslide.

Don’t expect the Republicans to be as accommodating. They still have a very clear ideological base - their numbers and support are just shrinking. Or, more accurately it could be said that the Democrats are out-recruiting and out-registering them. Don’t be fooled. Remember Ken Starr? This is a new day, with new weapons. Every square inch of media, turf, and air space is an ideological battle ground. People still fall for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity’s angry dribble that assumes or wishes for a frozen culture. The windbags of America always have the answer – even when there is no answer.

The President-elect may well be overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the presidency of this incredibly complicated and ever-changing country. The question may well be not “why would anyone want this job,” but “who could possibly do this job?”

With decimated markets and failed policies in abundance, where does he start the rebuilding process? Is there any low-hanging fruit that he can pick right away? The lucky sperm club that is the most worried, actually has the least to worry about. Relax, sit back, and watch your 401K. We’ve never understood the underclass that just overran the election. They wanted change, they needed change, and they got change. Will it help them? In 4 years we’ll be better off – will they?

I hope we all will. In one night we recaptured the world’s imagination as the most amazing country that’s ever been. We chose Diversity. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it was good for business.