I like Rachel Maddow. Perhaps because she looks like my sister Meg. But, it is her tenacious stand on infrastructure that draws me. Clearly she gives a dam about infrastructure.
Rachel has a PhD in politics from Oxford. She has realistic take on how difficult a political pivot is for the United States to make on any issue – especially infrastructure – a position as encompassing as “everything” in our built world. Fascinatingly, she likes Ike . I am fan of Dwight Eisenhower too. I wrote a book about his Interstate System called, “The Roads That Built America.” I campaigned with Susan Eisenhower, the former President’s granddaughter to build smarter, better and faster. Susan, when I handed her a copy of my book, explained that her grandfather believed that is greatest domestic accomplishment was building the Interstate System. Powerful was hearing this from Ike’s flesh and blood.
Wikipedia’s entry on Rachel Maddow says, “Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, ‘I’m undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I’m in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform.'”
Perhaps my sister in infrastructure will host Dire States on her TV and radio shows. I’d like to take her for a cruise in Mrs. Martin too. She’d appreciate the messaging I am betting.
Dan McNichol is a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His published books, articles, thought-leadership papers and speaking events focus on mega construction projects in the United States and The Peoples Republic of China.
McNichol recently contributed to a front page story in The New York Times titled, “Trump-Sized Idea for a New President: Build Stuff”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) / Boston Chapter named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding journalists in 2014 and again in 2003. McNichol contributes to worldwide media outlets including: The New York Times, Engineering News Record (ENR), ABC World News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network, China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo, MSNBC and PBS’s The NewsHour, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel. McNichol is a frequent voice on National Public Radio (NPR).
ENR Magazine recently tapped McNichol as the magazine’s national correspondent for a cross country tour. McNichol and Aileen Cho, ENR’s senior transportation editor, drove in a 1949 Hudson Commodore with the tagline, “America’s infrastructure is as old, rusty and energy defunct as our original Detroit lead-sled.” The journalists wrote ENR print and online cover stories about the nation’s ailing infrastructure.
A former White House appointee, McNichol served the President on US policy issues surrounding transportation and infrastructure between 1991-1993. McNichol has worked in official capacities on the nation’s largest infrastructure projects: California High Speed Rail (2017), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Replacement (2013) and The Big Dig, a.k.a. The Central Artery / Third Harbor Tunnel Project (2000).
