On running a large company, and the qualifications to do so
The radio host asked, "Do you think she [Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett-Packard"
"No. I don't," Fiorina said. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for [laughs].
"Carly will now disappear," this source said. "Senator McCain was furious." Asked to define "disappear," this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while - but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party's joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign.
Fiorina was booked for several TV interviews over the next few days, including one on CNN. Those interviews have been canceled.
On one hand, what Fiorina said wasn't so unreasonable:
Could Palin do your job? Could McCain? Could either one of them step in and take over your role as a ranch manager in Texas or a systems administrator in Chicago or a trademark specialist or a corporate securities paralegal? Does an honest "no" mean they're not qualified to be in the country's top political position? Hardly.
Fair enough. But then again, there was last night's other news about the AIG takeover, prompting the obvious, reasonable question as the zinger of the day:
Now that the government is running the biggest insurance company in the world, shouldn't we elect a president who is qualified to run a large company?
And it's not just AIG, of course. As NPR noted back when Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac got nationalized, these two companies were, by a very wide margin, the biggest companies ever. You have to go back all the way to the Dutch East India Company to find anything nearly as massive as Fannie & Freddie are/were. So in a real & direct way, the US government is a big business now, and vice versa.
(I really wish NPR put that East India blurb in the writeup of the piece, as it really put in context just how hugely important the current economic situation is. I can't seem to find any other sources at the moment that draw that comparison, but maybe I'll go back later, re-listen to the audio, and transcribe the relevant section for reference.)
