My Colbert Moment

One of the bonuses of writing my book - A Country That Works - was a chance to be a guest on the Colbert Show.

I earned a huge amount of new respect from my 20-year-old son just by being invited, but his reaction, "He is going to kick your a___," was not reassuring.

Sitting in the speaker's room waiting for his arrival and my segment was quite anxiety producing, but when Stephen came in he was decent, pleasant, and yes, human. A trap to let my guard down, maybe, but it is nice to appreciate how, regardless of name, rank and serial number, most of us are just regular people.

They made me up, (at age 55, not an easy task) while I watched Colbert destroy the Republicans involved in the Foley e-mail scandal. And then it was my time.

After accepting his request that he could call me "comrade," the roast began.

Six minutes went incredibly fast. I felt like a fencer awaiting a new thrust from any direction, and I admit I got into it, and had some fun.

I said early on in response to his question - "Tell me why anyone should care about unions?" - that Angenita Tanner and 49,000 child care workers in Illinois had just gotten raises and health insurance for the first time, and New York janitors because of their union could own a home and afford to raise a family. I concluded, not surprisingly, that "unions work."

At 1 a.m. my son called and said, "You did better than I thought" - a backhanded badge of honor.

Watching Colbert skewer our political system, I was again reminded how Washington D.C. is dealing with issues that simply don't align with what working families are concerned with as they grapple with issues around their dining room tables.

I spoke in Washington, D.C. at Olsson's book store for a book signing and talked about how on one hand the economic numbers seems so good, and yet more and more people are feeling squeezed.

A rising economic tide is not raising all boats - just the luxury liners. For the fifth straight year, middle class Americans overall did not get a pay raise. According to Goldman Sachs, the share of national income going to profits is at record HIGH and the share going to wages is at a record LOW.

It's no wonder Americans feel squeezed. The answers to America's problems, as I write in my book, are all around us. But where is the leadership for change?