Tuesday, September 16, 2008

 

Fiorina: Palin not qualified to run company

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby

WARREN, Ohio (CNN) – Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned John McCain Victory chair, said Tuesday that Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to run her old company.

Appearing on a KTRS Radio show in St. Louis, Fiorina was asked by the host, “Do you think she has the experience to run a major company like Hewlett Packard?”

“No, I don’t,” Fiorina answered. “But that’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things."

"I would just remind you that it is Barack Obama who is running for president," she continued. "John McCain who is running for president.”

Yes and John McCain's first Presidential decision was that Sarah Palin was, according to his description of the rule for choosing a vice President which is the only one a true patriot would consider, the person best qualified to be President.

Now I don't want to try to read Carly Fiorina's mind (I can't and wouldn't want to succeed) but I can't help wondering if her frankness about Palin is due to

1) well there are some lies that are so obvious that even McCain surrogates are embarrassed to utter them

or

2) Carly Fiorina assumed that the ten times Sarah Palin said she said "thanks but no thanks" to congress on the bridge to nowhere that they were, at worst, normal lies and not totally bizarrely extreme lies, so she confidently claimed that Alaska sent the money offered by congress back. Of course, in effect, Palin said something like "thanks but don't think we are stupid enough to kick in state money for a worthless project, we'll just keep the money and spend it on projects where the state doesn't have to contribute".

Fiorina was seriously humiliated being left speechless on national TV.



via firedoglake

I can't help thinking this is partial pay back.

Oh and KTRS nice scoop. I'd really rather link to you than to CNN writing about your scoop, but, you know, the fact that when I (finally) managed to click fast enough at your neurotic web site to get to "election coverage" I got the ap wire and "News and Information" is all local and stuff gives me no choice.

Don't want to be harsh, but you won the lottery and lost the ticket.

update: Neither can McCain says Fiorina.

As I argued in comments, neither can Fiorina. Stolen from Ian Welsh at firedoglake (with a correction)

Carly Fiorina Couldn’t Run a Major Company Either
By: Ian Welsh Tuesday September 16, 2008 9:15 pm

So yeah, Carly got herself in hot water by saying that John McCain couldn't run a major company, and tried to rescue herself by saying that none of the candidates could.

How would she know though? Because Carly couldn't run a major company either. In six years she laid of almost 18,000 workers, lost half the value of the company, paid herself a 10 million dollar bonus for shoving through a merger with Compaq which didn't work, and was forced out in 2005 for wiretapping her own board members. She then got a nice 42 21.4 million dollar severance package for driving the company into the ground.

Carly Fiorinia: Incompetent, but thinks she's a genius. Yeah, that's change we can believe in. Is there anyone competent on, or advising the McCain ticket.

Anyone?

via www.pollster.com

posted by Robert permalink and comments8:25 PM

Comments:

Is Obama or Biden or McCain qualified to run HP? No. Silly interview question, even sillier blog post.

# posted by  Anonymous : 9:06 PM

 

I have absolutely no doubt that Obama is more than qualified to run HP. I don't see any reason to think otherwise. Notice how he has set up a large organization from nothing (with help but as CEO a very important part of the job is hiring the right people). The Obama campaign is frighteningly efficient (note the constrast with the Clinton campaign). I think that shows outstanding managerial ability in difficult circumstances.

I mean aside from that he is clearly a fucking genius who is outstanding at everything he does.

I think the idea that CEOing is extremely difficult is just something CEOs are told by their many flatterers and which they believe from vanity and to justify to themselves their immense compensation.

In any case, he would almost certainly have done a better job that Fiorina. her main strategic decision -- to merge with compaq caused HP shares to tank and lead to her ouster.

p.s. I'm not saying anyone is competent to be CEO of HP. I certainly am not. Nor am I qualified to be vice President.

# posted by  Robert : 11:24 PM

 

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