What About Tomorrow ?

It sounds stupid when I say it but it is what it is. Some of the best analysis of the current administration you’ll ever see was on Comedy Central last night. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has done it again. But before I give you the link, let me say a few things.

First, Jon Stewart is a comedian. A good one. I was watching the video of his interview with Richard Clarke again this morning --trying to select some quotes -- when I noticed most of the insight (and quotes) were coming from Jon Stewart.

Second, Richard Clarke, (like most of Jon’s guests) is trying to sell books. His latest book is Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters.

(Time out for a personal message: Honey, if you still can’t find my wish list this will do for Father’s Day.)

Where were we ? Oh yeah, selling books. Richard Clarke is trying to sell books. So what ? Is that supposed to negate what he is saying ? It might make you skeptical. I hope it does. Because I want you to listen very, very closely to what he is saying. I listened to the video three times this morning and picked up something new each time.

“So many people have written these books saying the same thing...”

That’s true. The first one I read was The Price of Loyalty by Paul O’Neill back in 2004. As you may remember, Paul O’Neill was Secretary of the Treasury. Even Mr. Clarke wrote one previously -- Against All Enemies. I read that one too. Both were good, solid books.

“They want to be the government so the government doesn’t do anything.”

That is a slight variation of a theme I’ve expressed before and I like it better. Instead of government being the problem that needs to be abolished or whittled down, just make sure it doesn’t accomplish anything that government is supposed to accomplish. While still spending the tax revenues on their pet projects of course. It fits better with the Bush Administration’s actions.

As Mr. Clarke points out, his new book is about where we go from here.

”...how do you get the government to work again.”

I won’t spoil Jon Stewart’s punch line for you but Mr. Clarke is right. Think about what it will take to turn around the FAA. If it takes 3-5 years to train a controller, think about how long it takes to make a supervisor. Or a Facility Manager. When word comes down from on high (hopefully) to turn the fleet around, you will still have the same crew and same captain on the individual ships. And right now -- for the most part -- they hate each other. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’ll turn the ship around. But that won’t make them a better captain. And in case it hasn’t hit you, the FAA has already replaced the crew once before and they’re about to do it again. This is going to be really hard and really painful.

Watch the video.

Don Brown
May 30, 2008