Former CEO of HP and McCain adviser Carly Fiorina types a commentary for CNN. She argues against the government placing a $500,000 cap on executive salaries. Why? Because she is cut from the same cloth as those Wall Street crooks. In February of 1999 HP was trading at $25.93. Ms. Fiorina took the helm in 1999. When she was booted from the company at the of 2004, the stock was trading at $19. So during one of the greatest stock market rallies in history, HP was moving backward. Yet she got $41 million as she was kicked out of the door. Sounds like a Wall Street CEO to me.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. When you are sinking in the polls like a brick in the Atlantic Ocean, you have to do something.
One of Senator John McCain’s top campaign advisors, Rick Davis, is under fire for his lobbying efforts on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One of his chief political advisors, Carly Fiorina is under fire for her $42 million “golden parachute.” This is McCain at his best, using this financial crisis as a political opportunity.
McCain is pretending to be putting his country first when, in fact, he’s being self-serving. He would like to postpone the debates and suspend his campaign. He asked Barack Obama to do the same. If he is able to suspend his campaign, then he is able to stop the hemorrhaging. He’s able to freeze his numbers in the polls while he figures out what to do.
There is no doubt that this is a historic crisis, but McCain has not put together any proposals to fix this crisis. Therefore, how could his input on Capitol Hill would be helpful? Can’t he still attend meetings on Capitol Hill and prepare for a debate? This is another Hail Mary pass, just like choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate.
I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.
At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.
By ecthompsonmd|2008-09-24T16:01:19-04:00September 24th, 2008|Economy, Election 2008|Comments Off on Update: McCain Suspends Campaign
Former CEO of HP and McCain adviser Carly Fiorina types a commentary for CNN. She argues against the government placing a $500,000 cap on executive salaries. Why? Because she is cut from the same cloth as those Wall Street crooks. In February of 1999 HP was trading at $25.93. Ms. Fiorina took the helm in 1999. When she was booted from the company at the of 2004, the stock was trading at $19. So during one of the greatest stock market rallies in history, HP was moving backward. Yet she got $41 million as she was kicked out of the door. Sounds like a Wall Street CEO to me.