Seriously, she's had all the "help" she can take. That said, does this give us some insight into the Bush years? Do some conservatives simply underestimate the task of government? Does this explain the "she's just like me!" thing? Is the idea that running a business is hard, but any fool can run a government? Also she follows this up with another foible about McCain.
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Didn't Carly Fiorina almost run Hewlett-Packard into the ground?
Ta-Nahesi,
Must you always be so blindly liberal? It would be nice to be surprised by your every once in a while.
Your thinking is stereotypical.
They don't underestimate the task, they denigrate its importance. So yes, any old fool can be in the government. Say, in charge of an agency responsible for helping people in case of a natural disaster.
If government doesn't matter, then it doesn't matter who's in the government.
Yeah, Coates, once in a while let's see you come up with strained rationalizations to support inane GOP talking points, so we'll know that you're unbiased.
Johnson,
Did you come here just to chastisize? Why not address either the post or the story?
And besides, I don't understand the logic of asking an admitted liberal to not-be-liberal-for-my-sake.
Unless, of course, your just accusing Ta-Nehisi (does sound like a lich I once raided...) of close-mindedness. Which is daft if you've read this blog
i'm sure Ta-Nehisi could be less liberal if positions held on the right weren't so demonstrably absurd.
Carly Fiorina ran HP into the ground, its stock price dropped 60% during her tenure, and she was investigated for spying on her board. She was forced out and then got a golden parachute severance package of $24 million. And McCain thought it was a good idea to make her an economic adviser? And campaign spokeswoman? Shouldn't Fiorina's lousy record as a CEO be the topic of conversation whenever she gets within ten feet of a video camera? How do the cable talking heads not call her out on her own failed record and the golden parachute she took after destroying HP?
Wow, I'd say Carly blew it there. Big time. I can't believe what a sexist pig she is.
More seriously, that really should be a softball for any campaign surrogate. The easy response would have been to compare how running a state is comparable to being a CEO. This is certainly easier to spin than questions about Palin's foreign policy experience.
I live in Silicon Valley, so I'd like to share my perspective on Carly Fiorina.
No, Carly didn't run HP into the ground. She did exactly what the board hired her to do, doing spinoffs, and acquisitions, and trying to get them to be less stodgy.
Unfortunately, I think the board was wrong about what they wanted. The acquisition of Compaq split the stockholders and board, but Carly pulled it off in a brilliant tactical campaign.
However, she had to resign when it became public that they engaged in spying on board members, trying to find leaks. The spying included gaining information under a "false flag", e.g., pretending to be someone with a right to information. Carly resigned. Not so good. But she accomplished a lot at HP, most of it good, and set up Mark Hurd to be a sort of "white hat" without the baggage of doing what had to be done.
In the end, I would much rather see Carly Fiorina as Vice President than Sarah Palin. She's probably accomplished more in a week than Sarah Palin has in her entire lifetime.
I gave up on the Jack Welch variety "My Way" books ages ago when I realized that these folks are no different than an artist trying to explain why his sculpture really speaks to the human condition. And Carly is just another snake oil salesman. Running a tech company in the middle of a tech boom makes her marginally competent, not an expert on anything.
WRONG!
Fiorina should continue to open her mouth "to help" at every opportunity!
And McBush should continue to tout his superior economic expertise!
Know the only difference between George Bush and Sarah Palin? Lipstick!
Know the only difference between George Bush and John McCain ? Age
Thanks, TNC, for a brilliant insight, I never would have thought of that. These biases do escape in casual utterances ostensibly about something else.
I think the task of government is deemed less important if you've already got enough money to be set for life. You live in the bubble of your gated community, vacation on resorts isolated from the problems of the real world, and let the chaos ensue around you. The doctrine of American exceptionalism long held that our elite was better than this, it's a pretty common theme throughout the world. I believe that it is more a doctrine of immense cynicism than one of "conservatism", as doctrinaire conservatives typically don't agree with much that the GOP stands for.
Instead, I would argue that the GOP's conservative core has been has been forsaken for a cynical elite willing to use whatever means necessary to perpetuate its own power and wealth. This is characterized by a "tomorrow be damned" type of mentality, manifesting itself everywhere from taxes to the gas tax to global warming. As such, to say such people are "underestimating" the task of government is likely giving them too much credit as moral individuals, as the concern is much more one of their own wallets than it is one of what is best for the country.
I'm not saying that liberals and conservatives can't have a dialogue about the issues. I myself am fairly conservative on a wide range of issues (though most of those are the conservative stances abandoned by the GOP). I'm saying that we can't assume that these people have the best interests of the people, the nation, or the world at heart.
Are you mad? First, Fiorina's credit for turning around HP is not the sort you actually want in a financial adviser, so her role as surrogate for McCain already undercuts him. Yesterday, as the DOW dropped 500 points, the campaign decided the economic guru's most visible job should be complaining that Saturday Night Live didn't treat their second candidate with sufficient deference. And now this. Let's get her on tv twice a day!
On a serious note, I do think it underlines the view that anyone can do government if they just have some committed principles and stuff--a steely-eyed glare, a talent for folksy metaphors. While the American people can be dumb, I don't think we presently have a majority who care so little whether the head of, say, FEMA has any qualifications relevant to the job.
This philosophy is Reaganism, pure and simple. Starve your idea of government so that it acts as little more than a protector of private wealth, and no, it probably doesn't really matter too much who you've bribed to do it.
It's no wonder politicians never say anything interesting when people jump all over comments like this.
Of course Palin doesn't have the experience to run HP; neither does Obama, Biden, or McCain. For that matter, neither does Bush (I or II), Clinton, or any other recent president I can think of. Running a for-profit corporation requires different skills and experience than running a country. They also lack the experience to be doctors, firefighters, or piano tuners. So what?
I'm sympathetic to the argument that Palin lacks the experience to be president should something happen to McCain (although, tactically, I can't understand why Democrats want to make such a big deal of it), but this is just idiotic. Fiorina was foolish to answer that question, but that's no excuse for pretending this is important.
Doctor Jay writes: "I would much rather see Carly Fiorina as Vice President than Sarah Palin. She's probably accomplished more in a week than Sarah Palin has in her entire lifetime."
She's also a miserable human being. I don't see why we should settle for Dick Cheney with a vagina.
Well, that's interesting talk from Ms. Fiorina regarding Governor Palin's qualifications.
I'm a systems engineer by trade. In my profession, Fiorina is widely considered to be a bust as CEO of HP. Her major accomplishment there was to push through an ill-conceived merger with Compaq. Since these two companies were pretty much direct competitors (Compaq really didn’t do anything that HP wasn’t already doing), the merger didn’t result in any expedited business integration, and the hoped-for efficiencies of scale (created mainly by outsourcing most of HP’s product support), didn't offset all the costs. The disappointing financial results led to Fiorina’s firing in 2005 (to the tune of a $21 million severance package).
Fiorina was also criticized for trashing the previous HP culture, and alienating the Hewlett family and longstanding HP employees that weren’t loyal to her. In short, she was accused of elevating cronies and punishing critics.
Much of her notoriety seemed to stem from her gender, as she was famously the first female CEO of a “Dow Jones” company, and often appeared in advertisements. If she was male, she’d hardly have attracted much admiration based on her performance.
She's a lot like Governor Palin perhaps...
Actually, being President is a lot like running a company. I follow the federal bureaucracy as part of my job, and I can tell you that most of the problems with our government stem from appointing unqualified exeutives, poorly executed takeovers and expansions, a lack of transparency and oversight and a failure to appease the shareholders.
Hmm....sounds a lot like a large company. So perhaps the same skills are needed to run the government and business- skills that Bush, Palin and Fiorina all seem to lack.
I was telling a friend that if Obama had really wanted to bring Change to DC, there was an obvious pick for Vice President; someone who is universally admired, brilliant, forward-thinking and lives by his values. That person? Warren Buffett. The problem with him of course it that he'd likely have no interest in the job; but wouldn't it be fun to see the Hockey GILF debate the Sage from Omaha?
Johnson, if you're looking for non-partisanship in a blog, you're completely deluded. If you want some conservative partisanship, you have your pick of litter here on the Atlantic.
TNC
Carly "is this tape recorder working?" Fiorina opining on political candidates running a major business? On a related note, Isiah "taking the NY Knicks to the lottery and salary cap hell" Thomas has been quoted as saying McCain, Obama, Palin and Biden can't run an NBA franchise.
I say she should talk and talk. She should help Palin like she helped HP. Of course those running the McCain campaign may ask her to step down - just like the Board at HP did.
Fiorina has been drydocked by McCain's handlers for the rest of the campaign. I hope she pitched a hissy fit of massive proportions when they told her. And I hope it hurt.
I think Fiorina was caught in a moment of pure honesty where she voiced the widespread contempt of and condescension toward government leaders felt by many of the business elite, especially amongst Republicans. The fact she threw her own team under the bus shows how strong those feelings are.
Whoops! Carly has been disappeared by the McCain campaign. She now is, metaphorically, at least, sleeping with Luca Brazzi and the fishes.
SNL needs to bring back Martin Short to play her, I must say. She's a dead ringer.