Corporate arrogance: Carly Fiorina's Narcissus moment

Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, and McCain economic policy adviser/fund raiser extraordinaire has canceled a string of interviews following her remarks that none of the candidates for president or vice-president could run a company like HP.

The controversy began when Fiorina was asked if she thought Palin had the experience to run a company like HP. MSNBC reported Fiorina replied, "No, I don't, but you know what? That's not what she's running for." Later, in an attempt to defend her remarks in an MSNBC interview she said she did not believe John McCain, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden could run HP either, but added Palin has more executive experience than all of them.

Carly Fiorina's comments come across as incredible arrogance, and are relevant not only because of the election, but because of the crisis unfolding on Wall Street. In the past two weeks, the Fed took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; let Lehman Brothers collapse; approved the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, already a banking behemoth; and is in the process of structuring a bailout for AIG. Such internal collapse has not occurred since the Depression. It could be argued this happened, in part, because executives were not doing their job. I have heard pundits ask repeatedly, "Who was asleep at the switch?", implying someone , or many someones, were distracted and not doing their real jobs. Fiorina, who is a chief economic adviser to the McCain campaign was also distracted and let that distraction get in the way of her job: her ego got in the way of her politics.

Fiorina refused to backtrack on her initial comment, and when asked to clarify her comment by Andrea Mitchell, said "[Running] a major corporation is not like being the president or the vice-president of the United States. It's a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company."

So Carly Fiorina doesn't feel any of the candidates could be the Chief Executive Officer of a corporation like HP; but thinks being the Chief Executive of the United States of America is not anything like being the Chief Executive of a company. Hmmmm.....

The McCain campaign's entire response to charges Sarah Palin is unqualified consists of variations on the theme, "But she's the only one with executive experience!" They have made executive experience central to their argument a McCain-Palin ticket is more qualified to run the country. Fiorina said, "Of course, to run a business you have to have a lifetime of experience in business, but that's not what Sarah Palin, John McCain, Joe Biden or Barack Obama are doing."

The president of the United States is the Chief of the Executive branch; the Chief Executive, if you will. Fiorina said none of the candidates could be CEO of HP; after all, one needs a lifetime of experience to run a business!

Fiorina's comment does not speak to how well prepared any of the candidates is to run the country; but it does speak to the arrogance of a major CEO. In 2005, Carly Fiorina was forced out of her position at Hewlett-Packard by the board. Fiorina's push to merge with Compaq in 2002 was controversial, and never delivered the profits Fiorina predicted. Nonetheless, she was sent packing with a $21 million severance package. That is how the cookie crumbles when you're found to be an incompetent CEO; they send you home with millions of placating dollars. How many people laid off in the past few months of economic downslide have received severance packages at all, much less severance packages worth many millions of dollars?

The irony of Carly Fiorina suggesting that none of the candidates has what it takes to run a company like HP is that her board didn't feel she was competent either! And yet, John McCain decided she was qualified to be a chief economic adviser to his campaign. Could it be that her extraordinary fundraising talents overshadowed the real quality of her policy expertise?

What is happening on Wall Street right now is the result of too much power in the hands of too few egomaniacs: egomaniacs like Carly Fiorina, who can't see far enough beyond their beautiful, glorious, deserving selves to focus on sound, responsible policy. Fiorina got caught in a simple trap; she lost sight of the bigger question, and let her ego do the talking. But she was right about one thing: John McCain is clearly not ready to be CEO of a for-profit company like HP, or Chief Executive of the United States of America.

The job of Chief Executive is given to the person the electorate most trusts to staff the upper echelons of government: the Cabinet, offices and agencies of the Executive branch, and, most importantly, the Supreme Court. John McCain has now proven, with two of his first selections, he is unfit to be staffing corporations or our country. He chose Carly Fiorina to advise him on economic policy---a deposed CEO incapable of focusing on policy when her ego is involved; and Sarah Palin, a charismatic, conservative extremist, with an interesting life story, who said herself about being mayor of Wasilla: "It's not brain surgery, it's six million dollars and 53 employees."

Thank you, Carly Fiorina, for driving home the point that John McCain is incompetent at one of the president's primary tasks: choosing advisers and staffing his Cabinet.