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The Rise of Carly Fiorina

Carly FiorinaIt's been a good few months for Carly Fiorina; the once-embattled former president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard is now an advisor and leading surrogate for the McCain presidential campaign. Fiorina has recently been mentioned as a possible running mate with Senator McCain. Today she appeared in the "B" segment on ABC's This Week. Here she is on McCain and nuclear energy,
There's no question that Senator McCain has said over and over again that we have to incent innovation. So that we are building these new green technologies. We have to incent innovation around things like clean coal. And by the way, we also have to incent innovation around nuclear power. Which is clean. It's abundant. Yes, there are issues. But nuclear power, if we would step up, and adopt nuclear power in this country, that's potentially many millions of jobs.
Note: Transcript is not yet available. Quotation appears at 3:43 in the video clip.

Comments

Anonymous said…
While I appreciate Carly's endorsement of nuclear, I think she's the least desirable choice for a McCain ticket. Carly has to be the poster girl for corporate greed and ruination/sellout over the previous decade or two. There was the Lucent debacle, and then the cratering of H-P under her watch. H-P goes down the tubes and the board offers her a $20 million (or something in that range) buyout as a reward. The "reward failure" paradigm of American business. You know, if I screw up my job I don't get a multi-million dollar "bonus", all I get is the gate. But in la-la CEO land, you get rewarded for running your company into the ground.
Anonymous said…
While I'm well accustomed to Democrats running out the "Broken Window Fallacy," (BWM) I'm extremely disappointed to hear an advisor to a Republican candidate voice such bunk in public.

The BWM asks, if a vandal ran through the streets breaking every window in town, would that create economic wealth because the employment of glaziers and glassmakers would increase? The inference here is that the metric for an energy option should be how many jobs it delivers and not the resultant price of energy for the economy.

BTW, here in Silicon Valley, people still spit on the ground when they mention her name. She is a very poor choice for McCain.
Anonymous said…
Well, maybe the first and second anons have a point, but the fact that residents of the land of fruits and nuts spit on the ground at the mention of Carly's name is hardly earthshattering or indicative of any malfeasance on her part. It's sort of like New Yorkers who spit at the name of adulterous Spitzer. You guys got what you wanted in business and in politics; why complain now that you're reaping what you have sown?

On the other hand, I have never known any politician to understand anything about economics, and sadly, most corporate executives fall into this category, also; hence Carly.

But at least Carly is openly pro-nuclear, though perhaps we could do without friends like that.
Matthew B said…
BTW, here in Silicon Valley, people still spit on the ground when they mention her name. She is a very poor choice for McCain.

When she was canned, employees played clips of "Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead."

I can't imagine why anyone would want to tie themselves to someone so hated by 100,000 plus people.
Anonymous said…
"I can't imagine why anyone would want to tie themselves to someone so hated by 100,000 plus people."

Are a hundred thousand people smarter than one person?

Is one person smarter than a hundred thousand?

I expect that they are equally stupid.

After all, Californians wanted the current ban on new nuke generation. So now they are stuck with wind mills that don't work in the summer, and coal-fired electricity imports. That a hundred thousand in the land of fruits and nuts hate Carly is hardly indicative of malfeasance, as I pointed out before.

BTW, all men (and women) are equal in one thing: the height to which human stupidity can rise (or better yet, the depth to which it can descend). That Carly shows this individually and Californians show this collectively is hardly surprising.
Anonymous said…
A couple of points - I was Anonymous #2.

Carly was not the choice of anyone but a slim majority of the Board of Directors of H-P. She has not, to my knowledge, stood for any elected government position.

Secondly, the people of California voted to reject a ban on new nuclear TWICE when it was on the ballot as an initiative. The ban was an act of the state legislature while controlled by Democratic Party during the Jerry Brown administration. Unfortunately, we citizens are responsible for our elected officials.

I will agree that it is better that the McCain organization have a spokeswoman with a pro-nuclear position than with an anti-nuclear position.

I suspect her real role is fund raiser from corporate types. Her association with the Silicon Valley Manufacturers Group and assorted venture capitalists should be fruitful.
Anonymous said…
I know Carly Fiorina gets a lot of flack, but in the long run her decisions paid off big time for HP. The buyout of Compaq being the main one I'm thinking of.

Whereas IBM selling its computer division as Wallstreet wanted, it lost contact with many in the channel, and couldn't offer the full platform.

--aa2
Anonymous said…
The last anon wrote, "I know Carly Fiorina gets a lot of flack, but in the long run her decisions paid off big time for HP. The buyout of Compaq being the main one I'm thinking of."

It is therefore obvious that the "peepul" don't always know what is best for them.

Now Joseph did point, "...the people of California voted to reject a ban on new nuclear TWICE when it was on the ballot as an initiative. "

But the "peepul" keep on voting for anti-nuclear Democrats in the land of fruits and nuts. So the "peepul" reap what they have sown: summer brownouts and blackouts.

Maybe - just maybe - we need more individuals like Carly Fiorina who aren't afraid of what the "peepul" say or want, and who will do what is right and correct in spite of the wishes of the "peepul" to the contrary.

But then again, as Thomas Jefferson said, the "peepul" deserve the government they get, and perhaps they don't after all merit Carly Fiorina's leadership.

The "peepul" want success without labor, without pain; but they are more than contented to remain in the misery of complacency so long as bread and circuses from the public treasury are provided.
Anonymous said…
All I know is that a lot of very, very fine people, hardworking, capable, educated (Ph.D. in EE types) lost their jobs as a result of Carly's "leadership". First at Lucent, and later at H-P. My B.I.L.'s brother was one. He was 20 years+ in R&D with the H-P instrument and measurements division. Carly outsourced that group's work to Malaysia. Then again, she did post a job for stewardess on one of her private jets. Just the ticket for a laid-off EE Ph-D.
Anonymous said…
"Carly outsourced that group's work to Malaysia."

If people in Malaysia work for less money than people in the States, and thereby save the company money, then how is Carly NOT doing her job?

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