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

by Ed Rendell

Overview

Governor Ed Rendell explains why America's 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 Rendell's 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, a current MSNBC Senior Political Analyst, and a Partner at Ballard Spahr LLP

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118279052
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/05/2012
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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

Editorial Reviews

Former Pennsylvania governor Rendell promises big critiques and robust prescriptions in this scattered leadership manifesto and political memoir, but fails to deliver. As Rendell argues, “f we circle the wagons and seek to just protect what we have, then we will lose the spirit that has made America the greatest country in the world.” In addition, over-regulation and an absence of bold governing is making us “a nation of wusses.” Though these claims are sound, overall, his thinking and writing veer toward the reductive. He cites John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage and its portrayals of decisive political leadership, but the situations where he decries its absence smack of score settling, such as his defense of Hillary Clinton’s treatment of her campaign staff in the 2008 contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. His attacks on Republican legislative obstructionism follow the centrist Democratic Party line, but are undone by sloppiness. Later in the book, Rendell reasonably claims that “there is no greater example of the wussification of America than the growing neglect of our nation’s infrastructure,” but this scattershot collection of anecdotes, political autobiography, and fealty to the Clinton administration isn’t the best way to make a case for improving the government’s track record. Agent: Mel Berger, WME. (June)

Publishers Weekly