By most accounts, she ran HP into the ground. There were stories of HP employees holding impromptu parties in their offices when her resignation was announced.

NT

Fiorina’s original comments referred to Palin

It was only later in the day that she expanded the list to include all candidates (Biden, McCain and Obama).

for the McCain campaign’s economic advisor to implode.

This gives McCain a chance to restaff with someone who has a track record of success.

about Fiorina when her name first came up. She was utterly incompetent and a complete failure as CEO of HP. I seriously questioned McCain’s judgment allowing her anywhere near his campaign, let alone as a possible VP pick. Obviously, I was right.

And, while at least three of the four have no business in a corner office of any corporation in the US, I would be willing to give Gov. Palin a hard look.

Her disappearance is a godsend to the McCain campaign. The problem is she’ll probably wind up being a vindictive shrew and cause even more trouble now.

I have to agree with Fiorina. McCain and Palin have had lots of public-sector experience and have been practicing politics for a very long time. Seeking greater responsibilities in a higher public office than they were previously in makes sense.

But it would make utterly no sense for McCain to throw his hat into the ring for the CEO position at HP, or Wal-Mart, or Google, or any other major corporation. We’d laugh at him, because we know he hasn’t the background or the skill set to compete effectively against other CEO’s in whatever market/industry he entered. Same would be true of Obama, Palin, Biden, etc. Palin started her political career running for head of the PTA, the city council, didn’t she? So the equivalent and sensible ladder would be something like team lead, department director, regional manager, etc etc. Not zero to CEO.

The converse is true – a Fiorina suddenly running for V.P. or president would also be laughable. Much as we like to believe in the idea of every day Joe becoming president, or even a Steve Forbes, there’s a serious skill set and background mismatch. We may want policies shaped by people who have real world experience like Forbes and Fiorina (at least to whatever very limited extent government ought to be mucking around in the economy), but I should think we want someone who understands government and who is effective at governance to operate in that context and to have experience in that context proportional to the responsibilities of the position being sought.

McCain trying to be an effective CEO at Microsoft would be a little like Schwarzenegger trying to be an effective governor of Califor… .

I can’t believe there weren’t 1,000 others more qualified, competent, and available.

As they say, don’t let the door hit you on the way out…

Although I have not met either of them personally, none of them seem to have the qualities I personally associate with a sucessful chief executive in private inductry. But then again, I don’t think Fiorina was a good CEO. I never thought she was in Meg Whitman’s class.

At HP, Fiorina was a constant source of “big ideas” but she could never execute them. Moreover, her ideas (like Obama’s) were often amorphous and even contradictory. For example, was she trying to make HP competitive against low-cost providers like Dell or against high-margin companies like IBM. Actually, I think she would say both but therein lies the problem; she never was able to define how HP could be both, let alone manage that type of transition.

And before someone mentions the merger with Compaq, yes, that was a good idea but the integration work was really done by Michael Capellas. He was the manager behind the scenes but I don’t think Fiorina’sego could have put up with that. Thus, Capella left.

But I do think good CEO’s can make good Presidents. Indeed, consider Mitt Romney. He was both an outstanding CEO and a decent Governor of Massachusetts. My problem with Romney was not his competence — indeed, I think I praised his abilities several times here on RedState — it was just I could not trust him. The Presidency was the first thing he ran for as a conservative. Plus, for all his money, I thought he was a weak — energetic but weak — campaigner.

But back on subject, I cannot say I’m sad to see Fiorina go. It was nice for McCain to have a prominent former CEO around and even as a spokesperson for certain issues but, materially, I don’t think she really added much.

was to whine about the SNL skit. Even if her comments (see below) were on target – which they weren’t at all – it would still be a dumb thing to whine about.

I’m no fan of Carly Fiorina, but McCain should have used this flap to pillory the wingnuts, not to fire Carly.

Fox News played the entire clip, and immediately after her comment about McCain she said the same thing about Obama and Biden. That, of course, was edited out.

Maybe she should have known better than to say “McCain couldn’t be CEO of a major corporation,” in the first place, but McCain shouldn’t have said he didn’t know much about economics, either. If we insist that nobody can say anything that can be twisted to mean just the opposite of what is intended, nobody will be able to say anything substantive, or maybe nothing at all.

By letting this “creative” editing cause McCain to change course, he’s encouraging the jerks. The “clip” was just one step short of cutting words out of various speeches and putting them together in a way to discredit anybody.

He should fire back with an ad showing just what liars the Dems are.

it would appear that Meg Whitman will be the new face of the McCain economic intelligensa. As someone who started a buisness from scratch and led it to be one of the leaders in its sectors, she is unique postion to articulate how exactly Obama’s tax policies would kill small buisness. Would Ebay even be around if Obama’s tax plan was the law when the company started?

She was on Fox News all afternoon AFTER the CEO gaffe.

I must admit that I have usually been impressed with her lawyer-like skills in defending McCain and the GOP on Sunday shows and other cable shows, and esp her ability to respond quickly with logical rat-a-tat-tat bullet points to refute liberal premises, but

I disagree wither her CEO skill set dichotomy, esp with respect to Palin and McCain, in that order, but also even with Obama and Biden, in that order.

But I certainly hope that this one gaffe will not cause the campaign to discard a great asset.

I must defend Biden against charges of any hints of personal racism. His slave state comment was meant to convey the fact that he can identify with blacks and their plight because he knows them personally and because he knows the history of his state. The Dunkin’ Donuts remark was actually his way of bragging on Indian Americans for the way they grab hold of the American dream as entrepreneurs.

But I do agree with this statement Mark:

“I cannot be surprised that such a remark coming from a former, successful, CEO, as they’re wired to think that job is one not every politician can do.”

Aren’t we all guilty at times of vanity.

No one announces dawns like Gamecock!

Carly Fiorina, you dunce, why didn’t you borrow Obama’s telemprompter before your interviews?

as well.
Say what you want about the man’s governing record in MA, but you can not dispute that the man knows his economics.
He can have a very frank conversation with the American people wrt how to turn this sh*tstorm around.

I know he said he would not serve on the cabinet, but I’d love to see him as the next Treasury secretary.

Erick, if you know any one in the McCain camp, please give them this bit of advise.

Put Sarah Palin out in front of this sham drilling bill. And let her rip. Let her be Sarah.
And put Romney on every single show they can to tell the American people that the democrats OWN this mess in the market and John McCain and Sarah Palin are coming to clean it up.
Please, quickly get out ahead of this while the polls are still slightly in our column.