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Like peas and carrots

Dana Milbank calls one vice presidential contender a “risky choice“:

(She) was discussing consumer-driven health insurance at a breakfast with reporters when she proposed “a real, live example which I’ve been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice…”

Silence filled the meeting room at the St. Regis Hotel. “I don’t know where I go after that,” said the moderator, Dave Cook of the Christian Science Monitor.

Oh. I’ve got some ideas.

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25 comments to Like peas and carrots

  • Carly’s pretty hot…

    And smart, too.

  • Nose

    …and a crappy CEO.

  • DoesNotMatter

    These brits really like her http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/08/fiorina_mccain_cabinet/

    That seems right on par with her decisions as HP queen. That is to say, only marginally based on reality.

    I think she got on top for being smart about screaming sexism, not for being business savy.
    Then again, most male managers nowadays get on top for being perfect barometers*.

    *I hope that means “wind gauging mechanism aka Flag in the wind”

  • Marianne Matthews

    Now gentlemen … and some male managers get on top because of who’s on the bottom.

    Or am I being too cynical?

    Marianne

  • Flatlander

    She is perhaps better suited to being a political rally leader than an executive. We went through a phase where rock star CEOs were all the rage. The amazing thing is that people as smart as the HP board actually bought into that.

  • SJBill

    Nose — got that right! Her business record has left many corpses. Look at AT&T and Lucent – proud companies turned to ap-cray. HAve you heard any word from Bell Labs, lately?

    She shudda stayed a secretary.

  • Tom

    I used to work for HP and did a lot of special event photography for them. She’s as attractive in person as that picture. And she’s a really good speaker.

    That’s the good.

    The bad is that her poor skills at running HP is a prime reason I (and so many of my coworkers) ended up being “laid off” from HP.

    I absolutely couldn’t vote for any ticket she was part of.

  • JoeC

    Marianne: Another constant is, when one is climbing the corporate ladder, all those * holes above you look the same. Pink and puckered.

    So I have no clue how Carly got to be in charge of the original good-ole-boys club. All I know she was the wrong woman for the wrong company, and the board went out of its way to prove it. Water under the bridge as the cliche goes. She got her parachute and got out and all the subsequent sniping is just petty. I can lament the millions, but she’s got ‘em….and I ain’t……..

  • Todd

    She’ll not be a VP candidate – not with the mass offshoring of IT jobs to Bangalore at HP, followed by her infamous ‘no American has the God given right to a job’ comment to members of Congress.

    That’s an awfully negative history to overcome, especially in year where it is supposedly all about the economy and jobs…..I can tell you Carly is not very popular amongst IT types like myself. Yeah we know all about offshoring, but you don’t need to rub it in our face.

  • Mark

    Carly has a “take responsibility” problem. Her various comments after her through the canopy ejection from HP are very telling…”they never liked me, were jealous, and ganged up against me/the significant improvement in HP’s performance since I left is due to the groundwork I layed/ …etc.”

    Now that I think about it, she’s a perfect politician (and a cougar). Disregard the above.

  • “…and a crappy CEO”

    The comments are interesting, as an investor she was great. As an IT guy, I know the stories too well, and Tom’s point isn’t just smoke.

    She is certainly more interesting than any among the beltway bunch of alternatives I’ve read about, and if her comments are supposed to turn me off, they failed.

  • Peterk

    “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. ”

    Viagra is used (believe it or not) for treating a medical condition.
    If you want your health insurance to cover birth control pills then the doctor’s reason for prescribing birth control pills should be for a medical condition such as hormonal imbalance or an irregular menstrual cycle. Preventing a pregnancy is not a medical condition but rather personal decision.

  • No thanks,
    If we want a smart good looking woman with executive experience- well, gimme Sara Pallin.

    http://nicedeb.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/palin-in-the-car.jpg

  • bc

    I’m glad I held off on making an early response;, wisely resisting what appeared as bait. You all rose to a lively, informed discourse while my mind was running amok in the fifth-grade gutter.

  • James Taylor

    Women named Carly are bad news.

  • It is way too early for McCain to roll the dice. The Electoral math is in his favor, Obama still has to convince skeptical white men and rabid feminists that he’s the real deal, and nobody talks about Iraq that much anymore in the wake of a lousy stock market and 4 dollar gas prices.

    And frankly-health insurance should be paying for Viagra if you ask me. :-)

    He’s gonna pick Romney. Pissed off conservatives are a bigger threat to McCain than pissed off women.

  • That’s cause this is the wardroom. You shoulda heard the talk in 1st Class PO Berthing!!!

  • JimmyT

    For the record, to those that know I post here: #15 was not me cause I would have kept the Simon girl.

    BT: Jimmy T sends.

  • Mike M.

    Skippy is partly right, but for the wrong reasons.

    McCain has an advantage…Obama has to pick a VP first. Which lets McCain decide whether to go after consolidating the conservative base, target a key state, or go for the disaffected women voters.

    My money is on Palin. Romney is NO conservative, he’s a Taxachussets DamnYankee. A conservative only by the standards of the Manhattan-based National Review crowd.

  • Adeodatus

    I completely agree with Mike M., Sarah Palin is the best choice – young, fresh, Governor who defeated two former governors, takes on Alaskan corruption, would drill in ANWR, and comes across very positively.

  • Idaho Joe

    Ol’ Carly has few friends in Boise, HP’s corporate headquarters. She’ll be Secretary of Commerce.

  • Ted

    REALLY FUNNY (BUT TELLING) FROM JOSHUALAWSON.BLOGSPOT.COM:

    Wednesday, July 9, 2008
    CNN Still Can’t Bring Itself to Say Palin’s Name

    Last night on Election Center with Campbell Brown, a bunch of CNN talking heads discussed potential VP’s for John McCain. They mentioned about 12 names overall, and also threw in a couple nonsensical wildcards just for one. One person they didn’t mention? Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

    It’s becoming embarrassing to the MSM to watch their avoidance of a VP candidate nearly every serious pundit and analyst considers to be one of the frontrunners, but one of the best choices for McCain. Bill Kristol of the New York Times and The Weekly Standard actually came out a short while ago and flat-out predicted that Palin would be McCain’s VP choice. But instead of even mentioning her name, CNN touted Joe Lieberman as the best option for McCain and one of their “experts” even claimed “the right would love it”. They must have been talking to the three Obamacons again (oh those ever elusive Obamacons…). This kind of crap reporting is why CNN is getting clobbered by Fox News.
    Written by Joshua Lawson at 10:07 AM

    2 comments:
    Dave Hilts said…
    How typical. I agree with previous commentors on this topic. It really appears as if the MSM is quite frightened of Gov. Palin. Let’s hope McCain makes the right choice.
    July 9, 2008 10:23 AM

    Anonymous said…
    If you’re a Republican, when in doubt, do the exact opposite of what the mainstream media is telling you to do. works every time.
    July 9, 2008 10:23 AM

  • RonF

    Peterk, I made that argument on a feminist blog and got told that pregnancy is a very risky condition, that people die from it and from giving birth, and that it was a medical problem whose prevention saves lives. Thus justifying birth control as a medication to treat a medical problem.

  • MaxDamage

    RonF, I’m kind of wondering, if avoiding pregnancy saves lifes, just how long do we go without pregnancy until we’ve eliminated the problem?

    I’m thinking the problem could be solved in about one generation, but it might have some other side-effects beyond the health of the mother.

    Maybe it’s not such a problem, but only an inconvenience, whereupon we change the rules.

    – Max

  • Flatlander

    Galrahn, not sure which shareholders were happy. HP stock lost 2/3 of its value during Fiorina’s reign. The stock rose 7% the day they announced she had been fired.

    She was and is a charismatic speaker. But she couldn’t lead that company. Her current role may be a better fit for her skill set.

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