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Of course, a no-holds-barred guy, notwithstanding his appeal as a celebrated citizen, would quickly get into trouble as a candidate, suddenly judged by more fastidious standards. Iacocca is occasionally intemperate and does not always read his audiences correctly. In Washington, at a recent dinner in his honor, he rose in response to a toast. The assembled Georgetown elite probably expected a brief, understated thank-you. Instead they got fun-loving, full-of- himself, jabbery Iacocca for much too long. He does not take criticism well; a campaign entails incessant criticism. And he frets about physical danger. Some years back, when he bumped his head getting into a car, he thought he had been shot. Two years ago, when he was to appear with Reagan at a Chrysler factory in St. Louis, a White House limousine met Iacocca at the airport. Arriving at the plant, he discovered the door could not be opened from the inside, and it shook him a bit. "What if the car caught on fire?" he asked the Secret Service agent who let him out. For days afterward, he talked about that scary sealed presidential limo.
Moreover, Iacocca likes getting his way in the world quickly and unambiguously. He is a bossy boss. Heads of corporations can fold whole departments, hire anybody they choose and, in Iacocca's phrase, shuck the losers. Presidents, on the other hand, are hemmed in, constrained by the Executive bureaucracy, checked and balanced by Congress. In the give and take of governing, Iacocca's virtues--frankness, boldness--might not serve him so well. "He's a man who wants his hands on all the levers," says White House Aide Craig Fuller, the Administration official friendliest with Iacocca. Could a President Iacocca quietly compromise with opponents? Says Fraser: "His frustration level is too low."
Indeed, most of his comrades do not expect him to pursue a candidacy. "No way," says New York Businessman William Fugazy, an old friend. "I'll bet my life on it." Califano seems somewhat more hopeful. "He says privately what he says in public--that he doesn't want it. But once he made the commitment," he says, "Lee would be phenomenal as a candidate. He knows how to lead. He knows how to communicate." A few who know Iacocca say they think that he could be nudged into it.
Iacocca relishes all the public talk and letters from strangers, even as he forswears--most of the time--any interest in being President. "I've thought about it," he said one recent sunny day in New York. "Sometimes I say, 'Maybe I should give it a shot. It's only four years. It'd be fun, an honor.' People tell me I should run, and I wonder if I should listen." Then he brought himself up short. "A woman wrote me a letter and says, 'You'd probably get killed in office, but you owe it to the country.' I'd probably get killed? What the hell do you mean, I 'owe it to the country'? It would destroy me. I couldn't survive. I would shoot myself first. I don't want to be President. I'm not going to run. I couldn't take four years of (ABC White House Correspondent) Sam Donaldson. I just don't have the desire. I don't want to climb another mountain." Maybe not. But when Lia Iacocca, 20, is asked for a single word to describe her father, she does not first suggest "easygoing" or "content." Her word: "ambitious."