In his new book of political commentary, “Where have all the leaders gone?” Lee Iacocca ponders the factors which have, in his view, negatively impacted our democracy.

Iacocca, a former auto industry CEO and American business icon, begins the book surprisingly with an assault on the current Bush administration’s policies, criticizing character flaws of the President and providing a long list of examples of how failed policy resulted directly from the lack of good leadership.

His no-nonsense commentary might be viewed as either witty and honest or harsh and offensive, depending on your opinion of the current administration. There’s no doubt about Iacocca’s opinion of this “gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff.”

Using his “Nine Cs of Leadership” as a guide, Iacocca points out that creativity, which involves adapting to change, is one of the necessary attributes of a great leadership. As an example, he writes, “Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.”

But just because he starts the performance review with the President and administration, doesn’t mean he lets the Congress off the hook. He has similarly critical sentiments about the Congress’ work ethic and the quality and effectiveness of most new legislation they produce.

His observations on the state of the nation are fun to read, with their pithy criticisms, as well as informative. At 82, Iacocca is pictured on the cover holding a lit cigar, looking like somebody’s warm and jovial grandfather. The warm and jovial part is open to debate, but he does have 7 grandchildren.

Toward the middle of the book, he gets off the leadership crisis and moves into personal lessons he learned by his many years in the auto industry.

He comments on how companies should go about deciding whether or not to merge with
another, and he of course has a chapter on the American automobile industry. Iacocca presents these topics with authority and insight.

But, it wasn’t always exactly clear how Iacocca feels these anecdotes from the Detroit trenches can be extrapolated to the national political scene, or to leadership in general.

He loses a little of his credibility in his chapter on biomedical research. Iacocca expresses his preference for research using adult stem cells and then points out, “Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have never cured a single disease or been used in a single therapy.” Contrary to Iacocca’s assessment, some biochemistry researchers do believe embryonic stem cells may be useful or even superior to the adult variety.

Given that Mr. Iacocca is a practicing Catholic, some questions exist as to whether this position is scientifically-generated or religious in nature.

Near the end, he wraps up in a personal, moving, and motivational dedication to the mentors in his life, including his mother and father, and most notably his wife, who exemplified courage and leadership.

Overall, Iacocca makes some very convincing arguments and criticizes some of the most powerful people in our country, which takes a fair amount of guts, even for someone as high-profile as Lee Iacocca.

Iacocca has met some of the world’s most fascinating leaders and celebrities, and he shares some amazing adventures he’s had in business and world politics. The bottom line is that this book is really fun to read because it is a fascinating story told by a master storyteller.