Is Carly Fiorina really the right person to ask about running a large company? Seriously.

If Carly Fiorina was qualified to run HP, then a pet rock is qualified to run HP.

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/cynicism-of-mccains-vp-choice.html

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Cynicism of John McCain and his VP Choice

If you read Jeffrey Goldberg's excellent piece on McCain in the new Atlantic, one fact stands out clearly. McCain's stance on the war is inviolate--it involves what for him are principles of honor that stretch back immediately and directly to his own experiences in the Vietnam war, and to those of his father in World War II. Just one example of many in the first-rate article:

I told Swindle [a cellmate and friend of McCain's] that McCain had argued to me that he doesn’t think about Vietnam overly much when he thinks about the wars of today.

“Bullshit,” Swindle said. “He’ll say Vietnam didn’t affect him, that he doesn’t think about it, that he’s aloof from it. But I see it. It’s there.”

This is the issue on which McCain is inflexible, certain, fully invested, passionate.

It is equally clear that as a result, he views all other issues as malleable, political issues--stances that can be easily taken, and easily changed, tactically-- in order to win a campaign and thus deal with the issue that, to him, matters.

This is utterly clear in his choice of Palin, where his Vietnam-and-since cynicism about political necessities is manifest--one of feeding the bread and circuses desire of the electorate, giving them, so easily fooled, as they were so easily fooled by the media in Vietnam, what they need, in order to be able to deal with the important issue.

The choice of a remarkably unqualified Vice Presidential choice is simply a political necessity. The attitude towards the public, and the media, in this choice, as in many of the public representations and statements of his campaign, is one of an extraordinary, jaded, cynicism: Feed the beast with whatever fantasies and half-truths it takes. We'll take care of it later.

Goldberg:

In my conversations with McCain, however, he never appeared greatly troubled by his shifts and reversals. It’s not difficult to understand why: tax policy, or health care, or even off-shore oil drilling are for him all matters of mere politics, and politics calls for ideological plasticity. It is only in the realm of national defense, and of American honor—two notions that for McCain are thoroughly entwined—that he becomes truly unbending.

This is no doubt rooted in McCain's eternal certainties, drummed in by three generations of such certainty. And there is no doubt strength and decency--as well as these "family values"--that drive this commitment to an ideological core.

The question is this: Do we need another president with such a core of ideological inflexibility, rigidity and unwillingness for self-reflection, linked to a long past conflict--and who is willing to resort to half-truths, deceptions, and distortions in its service?

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/cynicism-of-mccains-vp-choice.html

But is she qualified to run HP into the ground, like Carly?

Typical of Republican narcissism,when she was at HP, Fiorina replaced the portraits in the lobby of Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard with her own portrait.

Funny to hear McCain rail about "golden parachutes" today while having Fiorina do the media rounds for him. She's still hovering in the upper atmosphere with the massive golden parachute she got from HP.

Oh, and I think Fiorina is totally sexist for saying that Palin can't run HP. Way more sexist than Tina Fey!

Well, technically Carly is right. Many of the best politicians couldn't run a company, and vice versa. Bill Clinton couldn't run HP.

But it still sounds funny, so I can savor it.

Carly Fiorina wasn't qualified to run HP either.

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ZUS!!!

Put up the whole answer please.

According to HP, Carly is not qualified to be CEO of HP, either. And what, exactly, ARE her "economic advisor" qualifications?

Show of hands. How many people hating on Carly here, besides me, had the misfortune of owning HP stock when she took over?

This is a fitting "pot calling the kettle black" moment, since HP's board and shareholders found that Carly Fiorina was not qualified to run a Fortune 500 company like HP--except to destroy it.

Remember, these pieces of trash think that CEO is a higher rank than president in our capitalist society. after all, they have had a the entrie government doing their bidding for the past 28 years.

If there is an expert on not having the ability to run a major corporation, CFs the one. She's obviously correct here.

BO: thank you Carly for the gift of giving the media a few days of negative coverage questioning McCain's judgment.

Well, at least Biden is qualified to run Bank of America, so not all is lost.

Oh, yeah: let us take the focus off of the [idiotic and ineffective] campaign adviser and the [hopelessly sub-par] running mate, and switch it to someone else. On the other team.

Just how stupidly transparent can you be? If you cannot find someone to play with, maybe you should simply play with yourself. We would all, including you, be better off…

Maybe Palin IS qualified to help Carly Fiorina dig through reporters' trash?

"HP CEO Carly Fiorina says she doesn't think Sarah Palin or John McCain (or Obama or Biden) could run a major corporation."

What evidence do we have that the crop of CEO's we have at the moment are capable of running a major corporation? Half of them are going belly-up and paying themselves mega-salaries and bonuses on top of that. Sheesh...

Key thought with Carly Fiorina as McCain business / econimic advisor. As pointed out previously, HP did terribly under her stewardship as CEO and lost about 50% of shareholder value befor she left (was ousted). So much for her credibility as someone whose advice we should take. Similar to S. Palin, much of her publicity/excitement revolved around her being the first woman as CEO of a Fortune 500 co. As much outrage as McCain has directed towards the greed of Wall Street, Fiorina left the company in bad shape and received a substantial financial going away present for her efforts. Ask former HP people how they feel about Carly and you won't hear many positives.

I'm not sure, but I think Carly may have gotten a bit bent out of shape, what with all the outrage McCain voiced yesterday about overpaid CEOs and golden parachutes. She's kind of a poster child for the "I-ran-this-company-into-the-ground-and-all-I-got-was-this-lousy-multimillion-dollar-severance-package" bunch.

And tell me, I've read that she was asked about her reaction to the Tina Fey appearance as Sarah Palin on SNL (like there would be anything but indignation at the non-deference)-- but while they were at it, did any of the media who had access to Carly ask her about her abbrevated career at HP and how her case is indicative of the current state of affairs?

Fiorina was not qualified to run HP either - She was fired! It was at that time very, very rare for anyone to get fired at HP, much less the CEO. There was a fierce battle among board members and received a lot of press in Silicon Valley. Only McCain would hire her - His entire campaign is staffed with incompetents and liars. When she left she received a package totalling $42 million: $21 million golden parachute and another $21 million in pension, stock and benefits. Totally disgusting. I cannot stand to look at her (or Palin).

Of course, as long as the President is alive, virtually anyone with a pulse is qualified to be Vice President. Didn't Dan Quayle prove that?

John Adams called it "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

It's only when the President dies that you start having to be qualified.

Typical of Republican narcissism,when she was at HP, Fiorina replaced the portraits in the lobby of Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard with her own portrait.

She also spent millions to purge the names of the of the company's founders from the corporate logo, company letterhead, advertising, manuals, etc. -- effectively changing the company name from "Hewlett-Packard" to "HP".

Charlatan Failurina is pretty much a clone of SP -- self-promoting, incompetent, smug, shrill, vindictive, liar.

...in short, a perfect McLame soulmate,

LK (30-year Hewlett-Packard employee)

Actually, I think Fiorina is probably right. Running a gov't is not the equivalent of running a company and does require a different set of skills. Although it's true that Fiorina ultimately dropped the ball at HP, it also is true that she did a tremendous amount of reorganization and restructuring to make the HP-Compaq union actually work. There are people who simply are better at some aspects of corporate rule than others.

In fact, there is a whole category of CEOs known as "interim CEOs," who sole job is to take over a company for 12-18 months, reorg it, get it running profitably -- and then they're done. The company owners/board then hire a permanent CEO to run the newly remade company.

The notion of POTUS == CEO should be repugnant to all thinking citizens and especially progressives. Gov't is in the business of helping people, not turning profits.

McCain is just a doofus, cut from the same mould as our current POTUS. But Obama, it seems to me, has demonstrated a limited ability to organize and delegate, that would not work well in a corporate environment. We're now seeing really bad results of the candidate's insistence that every aspect of the campaign route through his office.

I don't think he'll be a great President. But I think he'll be a competent one. And that is what we need, right now.

Thanks.

mp

I must admit, Carly knows a thing or two about not being qualified to run a major company. She ran at least two of them (HP, Lucent) right into the ground in record time.