McCain's top economic adviser

[bascule]

...is disgraced Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina... ousted by the board for accusations of mismanagement and the most botched corporate merger since AOL / Time Warner.

 

At a time when we're seeing an unprecedented failure of some of the country's biggest financial institutions, McCain has picked someone to advise him on economics who seems hand picks from the ranks of failure itself.

 

This as the McCain campaign blasts corporations who leave their CEOs with a golden parachute:

 

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/mccain-economic.html

 

WTF?

[Pangloss]

That's one way to look at it. Here's another.

 

She wasn't the left's poster child for failure before she became John McCain's economic adviser. On the contrary, she was the left's poster child for women in business. She was the left's poster child for breaking the glass ceiling. She was the left's poster child for female ingenuity and invention in a man's world. And finally, when it all came crashing down, she was the left's poster child for rich white men using women to take the blame for their mistakes. But sign her up for a job in the Republican Party, and suddenly she's the left's poster child for corporate failure.

 

That having been said, that doesn't make her a good economic adviser, and in fact there's reasonable evidence that she's not qualified, and very little evidence that she is. In fact what I suspect she really is is yet another example of how confrontational motivations drive the current political climate. She was chosen because she's female, because of everything I said in the paragraph above, and because they can lord all that over the left. All of which are bad reasons for selecting an economic adviser. Is McCain really trying to tell me that she was the BEST choice? The MOST qualified person to advise him on the economy? Really?

 

I actually gave Fiorina some thought back when she was axed from HP, and I thought she got the short shrift at the time. So I actually have an opinion on this subject that was formed before she was named McCain's economic adviser. But yeah, even I think it was a bad choice, and it irks me to see that kind of selection process deciding what will likely be a key cabinet position in the next administration if he wins.

 

All I can say is she'd better have a REAL economic adviser working for HER.

 

(So... next can we talk about some of Obama's interesting choices for advisers? My personal fave is policy adviser Greg Craig, the lawyer who represented John Hinckley, the guy who shot Reagan, as well as Elian Gonzales's Cuban father. Gotta love the stickin'-it-to-the-Republicans angles there! But hey, he's definitely qualified.)

Edited September 17, 2008 by Pangloss

[john5746]

Is McCain really trying to tell me that she was the BEST choice? The MOST qualified person to advise him on the economy? Really?

 

Well, the real advisor is Phil Gramm, but he's in the shadows.

[iNow]

Also, he said Palin was the most knowledgable person on energy policy in the entire nation. I think he's having issues finding and identifying real talent.

 

A funny quote from Carly Fiorina:

 

 

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/key_mccain_adviser_admits_pali.php

Milhaven: Does Sarah Palin -- John McCain obviously thinks she has the experience to become president of the United States. Do you think she has the experience to run a major company like Hewlett Packard?

 

Fiorina: No, I don't. But you know what, that's not what she's running for. (Laughs) Running a corporation is a different set of things.

 

 

Exactly, because running HP is FAR harder than running one of the world's last remaining superpowers.

[bombus]

Well, the real advisor is Phil Gramm, but he's in the shadows.

 

Indeed, although he has apparently 'resigned'...

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20802.htm