Well, she did it. Ending months of speculation Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay, has thrown her hat in the proverbial ring and is running for governor of the formerly great state of California. If the current pools are any indication, she will be the Republican candidate to succeed Arnold when he limps out of office.

I will not be voting for Meg. I can’t vote for her in the primary anyway since I am a Democrat, but I would not vote for her to be the official door stop for the Legislature (though she would at least be harmless in that role). Honestly it has nothing to do with the fact she is Republican, it has to do with the fact that she is promising simple solutions to complex problems. Arnold went that route, and he had his ass handed to him by a bunch of “girlie men” (his words, not mine). Meg thinks she is going to succeed where Arnie, who has twice the charisma, failed.

Meg, honey, you might want to look up the word “hubris” before it’s too late.

Meg’s entire platform seems to consist of

1) trashing state workers as over-paid and over-benefitted

2) trashing regulations on business

3) um…

In her kick-off speech, it became quite clear that Meg is making the same mistake her predecessor, and his predecessor and the predecessor before that made, that is  to think that the solution to California’s problems is a simple matter of doing running California like a business. Small problem, CA is not a business, it’s a big unwieldy state with complex, diverse people and complex diverse problems.

Being a governor is very different than being a CEO. As CEO, you have the power, the ultimate authority. The only check and balance on you is the Chairman of the Board and a few large stockholders, otherwise you pretty much do what you want. Being governor, one has to work with, not dictate to, the legislature, various civic groups and the unions, not to mention being answerable to those pesky courts. The government has to protect the weakest members of society, the CEO eats them for lunch and enjoys every bite.

The voters of this state have only themselves to blame, they keep demanding services, but chew up and spit out any politician who suggests that maybe we ought to raise taxes, and you know, actually PAY for those services. That’s the reality of being California governor.

Now Meg Whitless is trying to pass off that old tired shell (all we have to do is lay off 40,000 state workers  and life will be beautiful!) as something new and shiny. I’m not falling for it and I certainly hope the electorate doesn’t fall for it again.