Fiorina: Palin Doesn't Have Experience To Run A Major Company

View from a booth:

NO SHIT, CARLY

To all those who would call me and like thinkers "sexist" or "undeferential" because I think that Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to lead this country in 2008, I present none other than the former CEO and chairwoman of the board of Hewlett Packard (who was herself dismissed because of poor performance) who says that Sarah Palin is not qualified to run even Hewlett-Packard. Why, you ask? According to Ms. Fiorina, it's because "that's not what she's running for"! NO SHIT, CARLY! She's running for Vice President of the United States of America! Or is this just a clear cut case of the Peter Principle where people rise to the level of their incompetence and Ms. Fiorina didn't quite rise to hers, and Mrs. Palin might?

Isn't it logical and fair to assume that being the CEO of a major American corporation would require at least some real executive decision-making and leadership ability and experience, or am I delusional? If you, Ms. Fiorina, wouldn't trust Palin to run HP, why on earth would the citizens of the United States of America trust her to run the entire country if God forbid John McCain drops dead? Call me apoplectic at this point; it's evident that the Republicans just have no shame and will trot out any one-trick pony gimmick like Sarah Palin so that doddering disconnected John McCain can get to live in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for however long he will be with us. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

Randy Shiner

Fiorina: Palin Doesn't Have Experience To Run A Major Company

September 16, 2008 12:25 PM
Read More: Carly Fiorina, Fiorina Palin, Fiorina Palin Experience, Fiorina Palin Hp, Fiorina Palin Major Company, Palin Experience, Palin Hp, Sarah Palin, Politics News

Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.

"Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?" asked the host.

"No, I don't," responded Fiorina. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for."



Appearing on the McGraw Milhaven Show on St. Louis KTRS Radio, Fiorina went on to stress that the Alaska Republican had more executive experience than anyone else on the ticket, specifically Barack Obama.

"I find it quite stunning actually that the Barack Obama campaign is questioning Sarah Palin's experience," she said. "She has more executive experience than he does and she is the vice presidential nominee and he is the presidential nominee."

But the admission that Palin wasn't prepared to run the very business that Fiorina once headed is a gaffe that could come back to haunt the McCain campaign. Certainly, when critics mainly argue that Palin lacks the gravitas to step in for McCain at a moment's notice, and when the economy is the major topic on the campaign trail, it is easy to see how Fiorina's comment could make its way into an Obama or DNC attack ad.

UPDATE: Fiorina went on MSNBC to defend her comments and decides to double down, arguing that John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden couldn't run Hewlett Packard either. The Obama campaign, seeking to compound the fallout of her earlier statement, highlights just the portion where she talks about McCain.

"If John McCain's top economic advisor doesn't think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn't understand as well as he should," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

LATE UPDATE: Here is the full clip of Fiorina on MSNBC