Mama Grizzles

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Daniel Larison

One thing that does unite Fiorina and Palin together is that they are both women who held significant executive positions and didn�t do their jobs very well.
Fiorina was fired by the board of HP thanks to a record of
mismanagement and presiding over the collapse of HP�s stock price, and
Palin quit halfway through her term after having done little aside from
antagonize energy interests with a massive tax increase. In other
words, the things that are supposed to make them credible candidates
show us why they are not credible, and so there has to be a diversion
into biography politics to give them something to say.

One could say that the �mama grizzly� slogan is designed to distract
attention from the glaring problem that at least some of said
�grizzlies� are pursuing political positions for which they are not very
well qualified. Palin cannot run on her record, and Fiorina shouldn�t
be able to, either, since their records would prove that they shouldn�t
be entrusted with important executive
positions, and so some other way to make them appealing has to be
found. The solution is even sillier than the usual politician�s claim
that he is doing this or that �for the children.� As it turns out,
Palin�s solution is simply to say that her preferred candidates love their own children and want to protect them, as if that were meritorious instead of instinctive.

Commenter StevenH at Larison;s place makes a good point"

�She joined AT&T in 1980 as a management trainee and rose to become a senior vice president overseeing the company�s hardware and systems division. In 1995, Fiorina led corporate operations for the spinoff from AT&T of Lucent, reporting to Lucent chief executive Henry B. Schacht; she played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of stock and company launch strategy. Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent�s consumer products business, reporting to Rich McGinn, president and chief operating officer. In 1997, she was appointed chairman of Lucent�s consumer communications joint venture with Philips consumer communications. Later that year, she was named group president for the global service provider business at Lucent, overseeing marketing and sales for the company�s largest customer segment.

In 1998, Fortune magazine named her the �most powerful woman in business� in its inaugural listing, and she was included in the Time 100 in 2004 and remained in the Fortune listing throughout her tenure at HP. Fiorina was #10 on the Forbes Magazine�s List of The World�s 100 Most Powerful Women for 2004. She became regarded by many as being the first woman to head up a Fortune 20 company, and to have overcome the proverbial �glass ceiling�.

HP may have not worked for Carly, but she had to do a lot of things right in a brutal P&L environment to even get the shot.

Comparing Fiorina to Sarah Palin is indeed unfair.  When Ms Fiorina broke thorough the glass ceiling at HP she ran into the Peter Principal ceiling.  Ms Palin on the other hand ran into the Peter Principal ceiling on the Wassila School Board but continued rising anyway.  Carly is a very bright and talented lady but wasn't bright or talented enough to be the CEO of HP.  Palin on the other hand was not bright or talented enough to be the mayor of Wassila much less the governor of Alaska or the president of the United States.  That said I find it hard to believe that when unemployment is a big issue in California that fact the Fioriina sent 30 thousand HP jobs to China is not more of an issue.