Robert J. Elisberg

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Robert J. Elisberg

Robert J. Elisberg
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Los Angeles, California,
Bio
Robert J. Elisberg has been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post since 2006. His writing has appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, and Los Angeles Magazine, and served on the editorial board for the Writers Guild of America. He has contributed political writing to the anthology, "Clued in on Politics," 3rd edition (CQ Press). Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University and received his MFA from UCLA, where he was twice awarded the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. Most recently, he wrote the comedy-adventure screenplay, “The Wild Roses,” for Callahan Filmworks.

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MARCH 9, 2010 10:42AM

Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman: Running on Empty

Rate: 11 Flag

First, there was the ridicule at Carly Fiorina's infamously creepy "wolf in sheep's clothing" ad attacking the credentials of her opponent in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate from California.

Now, Meg Whitman is running silly carnival-like ads attacking the credentials of her opponent in the Republican primary for California governor. 

These ads are running relentlessly in the state.  (It happens when a billionaire candidate has money to burn.)  Blasts at the voting records of their opponents.  Blasts at how these lifelong, elected Republicans are supposedly not really Republicans.  "Cutesy" blasts.  Blasting their voting records over and over and over.

I watch these ads and always have one immediate thought -

Geez, at least these guys they're running against have voting records.

By the way, I don't just mean in elected office.  I include as "voting records" that they simply voted on election day.

Honestly, if you want to making someone's voting record a major campaign issue, fine, but have the decency to vote yourself.

In October, Meg Whitman appeared on FOX Business Channel, and spoke with Neil Cavuto.  "I've been very straight up that my voting record isn't perfect,'' she said.  "I did not consistently vote,'' adding, "Like many Americans, I've missed too many elections.''

This is the razzle dazzle of a master, trying to bamboozle the public.  "I've been truthful telling you how irresponsible I've been."  It's almost Zen-like.  Better though, is the effort to make misbehavior sound patriotic, "Like many Americans..."  Huzzah!  O Huzzah!  "Like many Americans" can apply to almost anything - "Like many Americans, I speed in school zones."  Of course, those many Americans who missed elections generally did so intentionally and because they hate politics.  And they didn't turn hypocritical by running for governor of California.

She's simply like many Americans.  One of the people.  Just like you.  If you were a non-voting billionaire.

In fact, this aw-shucks "Like many Americans" gambit is a crafted and repetitive phrase, used to obscure transgressions.  Appearing in Davis, California, last September, Ms. Whitman also said, "I, like many Americans, was not as engaged as I should have been over the last 20 or 30 years."

So, there you again have…wait, hold on.  For 20 or 30 years??!!  That's longer than "many Americans" who vote have even been alive.  Rip Van Winkle was only asleep for 20. 

But it gets worse, because she continued, "I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career; we moved many, many times, and it is no excuse," offering it clearly as an excuse.   Just like her spokesman, Henry Gomez, later commented, "I know it's no excuse, but for years she was heads-down in her business and her family" - offering that as an excuse, too.

C’mon, if you say you don’t have an excuse, don’t then try to give one.

And none of this even takes into consideration how insulting her non-excuse excuse is to women who were also raising a family, also focused on their husband's career, also moved - and actually figured out how to vote.

As for Carly Fiorina, her own shoddy voting record only escaped notice because Meg Whitman's is worse.  According to the San Jose Mercury News, "Records from the Santa Clara County Registrar's Office show she [Ms. Fiorina] voted in just six of 14 elections since 2000, skipping the presidential primaries of 2000 and 2004 and sitting out all gubernatorial elections, including the 2003 recall election."

Clearly Ms. Fiorina doesn't care about the public election process.  Except for that whole, "but I want to be U.S. Senator" part.

If Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina both really want to get involved in the election process, just voting would be a refreshing start. 

More refreshing than attacking your lifelong-Republican opponents for not being Real Republicans, when you don't have a record of even voting Republican much.  Honestly, there's far more of a burden of proof on you.

There's a certain "You little people owe this to me" attitude here.  Further, being a billionaire success in business, while notable, has nothing to do with an ability to be a governor or senator.  In business, the boss orders others what to do.  Or else.  You fire them.  Politics doesn't work that way.  There's that whole pesky "other party" and "general public" thing.

Neither candidate has explained much, other than the platitudes you'd get from someone running for junior high student council.  "I'm for education.  I'me for a strong economy."  Me, too.  I'm also for more gym class.

Ms. Fiorina points at her main credential to be a U.S. senator that she ran Hewlett-Packard.  It's an impressive position - but it qualifies her to run Radio Shack.  Okay, maybe not, because you see Hewlett-Packard fired Carly Fiorina, after she disastrously bought Compaq and H-P stagnated.  The day she was let go, how did Wall Street react?  Hewlett-Packard stock soared 6.9 percent.  Not 6.9 points - the whole company rose 6.9 percent!  And this is her main credential, that she's so great at business.

And to be governor, Ms. Whitman points at her main credential that she ran eBay.  (She didn't create it, lest you thought, but was brought in later.)  It too is an impressive position - but it qualifies her to run Facebook.  She did do a good job.  But understand:  most companies actually make a product.  eBay makes…well, nothing.  Moreover, its core workers are -- you, the public who bids on its own material.  And this is her main credential to be governor of California:  that she ran a business that makes no product, whose core wok is done by non-employees she doesn't manage.

No wonder that all Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina can think of doing in the Republican primary is trying to ridicule their Republican opponents, Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell.  Who at least have actually done something in politics.  Who actually have a record to judge.

Who actually have voted. 

Like many Americans.

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Amen, Robert. I had begun to think I was the only one bothered by their lack of voting records. I think Californians should have just laughed them right out of the race. It is inconceivable to me that they can even garner any attention. I"m afraid our government isn't the only thing that's broken. Just think, Americans want to "throw the bums out"...for what?
I would love to see the playing field leveled with respect to spending on campaigns. I think it would limit some of this kind of nonsense. I don't want to exclude people who decide to get into the process, but at least some kind of record of their views publically is important to me. Also, I don't want to discourage women from the process, but I would like to think they have voted in elections and have recognized prior to this interest in running that they have a responsibility to vote to keep their "government by the people".
They probably haven't paid all their taxes either.
Meg Whitman is the terror of the Golden State's airwaves.
"Ran eBay"? Right - Almost straight into the ground! EBay bottomed at 13 around the time she left. Slooww-ly been recovering ever since.

Also, her disastrous acquisition of Skype - paid 2.6 B more than it was worth (without even acquiring the core IP!), constant bad internal business decisions and internal squabbles between the companies (trust me - I was there) resulting in a 1B write-off. Smart businesswoman?

And her hatchetman Henry was so widely reviled by Skype employees that they moved his desk to a far corner of the Skype office in London to clue him in.
I think I would like to hear more of what Zorg has to say about Whitman.

What I'm encouraged by in the Whitman/Poizner struggle is that they are really going for each other. Recall what happened with the two Dems who tried for the nomination to oppose Arnie last time around. They ran such vicious attack ads against each other that by the time the primary came around, the public were convinced they were both disgusting people and didn't want to hear from either of them again. I hope Whitman and Poizner convince everyone that neither one of them deserves a vote.
I seem to recall that members of the Hewlett family who sat on the board, came out publicly against Fiorina because they were aghast at what she was doing to THE iconic Silicon Valley company. A public rebellion like that is just not done, founding family or not. If I'm not mistaken, it was they who eventually turned the board against Fiorina. Ironically, the Hewletts are old school Republicans; you know, the kind who have been drummed out of the GOP because they actually have principles.
HP under Carly foundered; the stock lost 50% of its value during her reign. Not only did Meg have nothing to do with founding eBay- she had even less than nothing to do with PayPal, the company's now self-admitted driver of current and future revenue.

Members of the Hewlitt and Packard families have nothing good to say of Carly- draw your own conclusion. Meg's 2nd at eBay described her, under oath in Federal Court, as, "Bad Meg,"

In short, they are both perfect for the jobs they seek!

IMUA
Thanks for keeping us posted on the mean girl scene in CA.
Whitman's role at eBay was largely that of a figurehead. But even as such her tenure was seriously flawed, as other top executives urged, and then begged, her to make moves to make eBay more competitive as Amazon aggressively took the lead in online book, music CD, and DVD sales. Whitman refused, ignored this market, and Amazon took it.
When she was de facto ousted from eBay largely as a result, she blamed the very executives who had urged her to diversify for her failures. She is not actually a successful, savvy, or even competent business executive in any sense- quite the reverse.
It was easy to make a pile of money with a relatively early entree into eBay and its stock options- anybody with a good salary there could have done it and plenty did.
She is shockingly unqualified to hold public office of any kind.
I can't comment on Whitman, her ads are biasing me against her. Other than thinking she can run the state like a CEO, she doesn't seem any worst than most of the clowns who have been governor.

Fiorina, however I do have an opinion of from the time she was on the board of Rockwell/Boeing and making bad business decissions with her her buddy felon Phil Condit. Then she was at Lucent and left just before they got caught cooking the books on her watch. It wasn't the same level as Enron but followed a similar formula. Then at HP she missmanged anther great company that ended up firing her. Why anyone thinks she can do the job is beyond me.

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