Meet the new GOP; Same as the Old GOP
by Michael
Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have burst onto the California political scene as representatives of the "new" direction of the Republican Party. But neither of them has presented any ideas that can be considered new.
In fact, Carly has forgone presenting any ideas, much less new ones. Instead, she's decided to sling some mud at Senator Barbara Boxer. Same old GOP tactic. If you can't run on ideas and merit, just muddy the field to confuse the voters. The funny thing is that Carly is putting the cart before the horse.
She is not the senatorial nominee yet. There has to be an election before that happens. So it's interesting that she is running her campaign with the presumption that the nomination is already hers.
Meg Whitman has not made that kind of presumption. But like Carly, she is trying to run on her record as the CEO of a major company. Also like Carly, her success as a CEO is up for debate. There is also some doubt that their abilities to head a large company is even relevant to the offices they are seeking.
As I said before about Whitman, running a state is not like running a company. No matter how much you think you can accomplish by trying to implement sound fiscal policy, your efforts will be thwarted by the fact that government doesn't have a bottom line. There are no profits to be made and distributed. At the same time, if you cut everything to the point that all public services cease to exist, you effectively eliminate the reason for government in the first place. So you are fighting a losing battle if you apply sound business practices to government.
As for Carly, running a business has no bearing on writing and evaluating legislation. Unless Carly can demonstrate real knowledge of formulating public policy and drafting bills, I don't see how she can be a good senator.
One more thing that both women have going against them is their poor or even non-existent voting record. People have a hard time believing in someone who neglects to exercise their right a responsibility to vote in all elections. If you can't be bothered to vote, how do we know you really care about California?
Posted under Political Observations on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 14:31
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