A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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March 12, 2008Why not Carly Fiorina?McCain has got some serious problems when it comes to picking a Vice President. If he goes with someone young, they'll bring up the fact that he is old. If he goes conservative, they'll bring up the fact that he has problems with the base of his party. If he goes southern, they'll point out that he lost some of those states to Huckabee in the primary. Why not go outside of the box? Notice that former Hewlett Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, was appointed to be McCain's campaign chairman yesterday. Why not Vice President Fiorina? The former HP CEO is, among other things, the only woman to ever hold that position in a Fortune 500 company. She is widely celebrated in the private sector, tough, talented, articulate, and can address the questions about how to create jobs in the current economy. In other words, she can fill the gap McCain has on economic matters. Take a look at Fiorina on some issues. On the Democrats moving further away from free-trade: "It concerns me tremendously." She explains, "What is lost in the talk about free trade are the facts of free trade. The facts of free trade are that it creates jobs and opportunity. The facts of free trade are that in addition to creating our opportunities it also creates opportunities for our allies." She notes that in the case of countries like Columbia who we wish to cooperate with us diplomatically and fight the drug war we "need to give them the incentive of market opportunities with the U.S." Likewise, she notes that in Africa "we can't expect to lift their economies out of poverty" without access to American markets. On economic growth: Fiorina agrees with McCain's approach: "Make the R&D tax credit permanent. Incent innovation. Don't tax technologies that drive innovation." She further explains, "The corporate tax rate makes a difference. Our corporate tax rate is higher than anyone's but Japan." She also urges that we "need to invest in industries with innovation like space, green technologies." She notes that she has just returned from Abu Dubai where they are investing $150B in a "green island" and that China invests billions in space. The lesson she says is "innovation is how you grow" technology and the economy at large. Health-care reform: She says, "John believes in free markets. Mandating health care is not the way to go." She explains that McCain's approach is the correct one: make healthcare "affordable and accessible." She notes that his plan to "provide tax credits to families, support walk-in health clinics and improve health care for veterans" are all moves in the right direction. (As for veterans, she says that the current system is absurd where veterans to be force"to stand in line to stand in line to make an appointment.") She says that other policies which will bring down costs include allowing consumers to purchase insurance across state lines and allowing drug importation. By encouraging health care providers to "focus on outcomes" and directing resources to the top five diseases we can also increase quality and reduce cost, she explains. Well done. Sounds very, well, Vice Presidential. Posted by Starbucks Republican at March 12, 2008 04:11 PMComments
Silicon Valley Republicans are probably an unhappy lot at this news. There's a reason she's a former CEO - she turned one of the greatest really big high-tech companies in the world into a mediocrity. It was really quite remarkable in its thoroughness. I won't buy any kind of HP product anytime soon, because it's likely to be expensive, troublesome, and effectively unsupported. They also used to have one of the few research labs that really worked for the company. No more. Both her treatment of her people and many of her casual statements were decidedly reminiscent of Marie Antoinette. My heart goes out to McCain's campaign personnel. SOMETIMES people learn from mistakes - I'm inclined to think Hillary learned something from HillaryCare. Not always, though. Sorry.... Interesting points Jon, and informative. I don't know much about this woman, and I do know that she was canned after a merger that the Board at Hewlett Packard disagreed with. I don't think getting fired means much in this day and age... it happens to most leaders who make controversial decisions, eventually. In fact, in my line of work, when I see an executive that has been in one place for so long, I often ask what they have done that has actually had an impact, or have they played safe for the purpose of sticking around. My understanding is that the HP board was highly politicized and that many of the decisions she supposedly was fired for turned out to be good ones that she was given credit for. Some have said that current impressive HP stock prices were because of leadership that was shown by Fiorina. I am not saying any of this is true, I am just telling you what I know about the situation. In regards to the Mary Antionnette comment... that makes some sense. She has specifically named board members, who were appointed under her tenure, that she clearly feels betrayed her. I don't know if that is how I would handle the situation, but I do get sometimes that the manager gets the blame when the end result is not their fault, and sometimes that person is forced to defend themselves. The good news is that if she is hell on wheels, the Campaign Chairman is mostly a spokesperson and not a people manager. Posted by: Starbucks Republican at March 12, 2008 07:57 PMI am in no way a Fiorina fan. McCain would lose my support in an instant if he put her on as VP. I actually fear her as campaign manager is a bad move. As a former IT person, I was appalled at what happened to HP under her watch. Then again, I never thought she deserved the CEO job in the first place based on the poor performance of Lucent when she was there. She was everything that embodied the current day bad CEO. She took a fantastic company and made it mediocre. I may buy an HP printer, only because the others are no better. Not like a decade ago when I could buy an HP printer that never died, though. However, I no longer buy any HP/Compaq server/PC/laptops. She killed any quality and service the company had. Makes the books look good; but turned the product to garbage. Posted by: Jim M at March 12, 2008 11:33 PMI worked at Compaq then HP until 2005 (after Fiorina was gone). She actually did a lot of good things that positioned HP for success. She is tough, that's for sure. She fought tooth and nail for the merger. However, I think her pride got in the way and she wouldn't hire a Chief Operating Officer. If she would have hired a good one she would still be employed there. I wouldn't push her for VP, though. Posted by: Neil at March 13, 2008 12:26 AMPlease post a comment
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