Fiorina's ego puts McCain in a stress position

George Bush's invocation of his "CEO Administration" was always laughable, not so much because it didn't apply, but because his business record was so downright awful what with it being so full of failures, sleight of hand, and stock hemaorrages. 

Today, Carly Fiorina stepped into a propeller, pushed forward by her own ego: Are McCain or Palin CEO material? Her answer, formulated based on her own "stellar" experience at HP I suppose, was, of course, "No." Nothing compares to running a company, especially not running a country, she said. Damn. there goes Mitt Romney's talking point. Here, watch...



Now, she's right, although she's no Warren Buffet, but who else is? Running a country, being titular head of it, is more akin to being a hybrid of McGuyver and Moses. One part resourcefulness, one part visionary. And no part CEO--especially because, in political terms, it don't work (from March 2004):

The "CEO" administration is falling back on techniques that highlight the dark side of popular perceptions of the CEO. This is that they are self-interested, vicious, arrogant and intolerant of criticism.

As the narrative unspools--bridges, troopergates, pro-stranger danger ads, pigs and cosmetics--we see that some candidates appear to fit the "regal" yet dark CEO archetype just fine, that their personalities tend to enforcing loyalty and political expedience and impatience with truth. Sarah Palin was for it before she was against it - the bridge to nowhere I mean. That phrase and it's veneer of cheese essentially disqualified Kerry in 04. We'll see about Palin.

As for McCain, well, he now is in the position of calling all his and Phil Gramm's old buddies nasty names - disgusting greedy Wall Street, corrupt self-serving money men, shadowy old boy's network, selfish corporate CEOs and cronies. He's all over the tube doing it as I type this. Yes, something must be done about regulaltion and oversight gone amiss--maybe, umm, a commission? But, when he talks of how "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" he means not M1 or GDP or savings rates or wage curves or the consumer price index; he means us--you and me--we're the fundamentals™, the hardworking backbone of America. Or something like that. Or whatever you need it to mean.

This is what I meant by You got what you wanted, but is it really what you asked for?

John McCain is forced to ask you to vote for a half-assed, fairweather Democrat: Him.

Tomorrow, let's talk about how the current apprentice-Moses needs to find his inner McGuyver.