Iowa

Back in my corporate days I sat in a boardroom with one of the most powerful and fearsome CEOs in the country. He had called in the executives that designed his employee benefits program and asked them to propose changes to the corporation's retirement and health programs.  But he scowled and shook his head as they presented one set of options after another.  Finally I asked the question the others were afraid to ask:  What do you want to accomplish by changing your employees' benefits?

"I want to give them less," he said, "and make them think it's more."

The Human Resources executives in the room turned pale.  As brilliant as this CEO was, he didn't know what they had learned from experience:  

When you give people less, they always know it.  

Less is Less

I thought of that meeting when I listened to the President's remarks on Social Security in Iowa.  A woman with lung cancer asked the President to speak about Social Security, and he began by employing a lot of the rhetoric he's been reluctant to use so far, and by making a lot of the arguments he's refused to make since he was elected.  

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Across the right wing blogosphere, conservatives are rubbing their hands with glee. They think the Republican strategy of blocking real health care reform is beginning to pay off. To quote Senator Jim DeMint, "If we are able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. more »

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From the superdelegate process to the farm bill to the recent raid on immigrants in Postville, Iowa, elitism is rearing its nipped-and-tucked head all across America. more »

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