Wednesday, July 23, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN

McCain-Fiorina?

A plugged-in Republican recently explained to me why he thinks former Hewlett-Packard CEO and current McCain campaign adviser Carly Fiorina will be among the finalists to be John McCain's running mate.

1. She’s emerged as one of his most prominent surrogates. At the end of 2006, she made her first murmurs about going into politics and public service; now she’s McCain’s top economic adviser, most visible and often-booked speaker on many issues, and the campaign’s most prominent figure reaching out to women voters. Perhaps only Romney is a less expected enthusiastic McCain surrogate.

2. She brings unique experience to the table. Since McCain effectively won the nomination, the possibility of Mitt Romney as veep has generated buzz for several reasons, but most prominent is his familiarity with economic issues and the business world. Fiorina’s experience is at least comparable to Romney’s, and would have the unique ability to tout women’s entrepreneurship.

3. She’s already effectively been vetted, as she's been one of the most prominent figures in American business over the past decade and a half. If she had any horrific scandals in her past, it would have already been on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

4. She's an outsider, with no ties to any of the GOP's past problems. Intriguingly, she’s never even donated to another candidate before; her presence plays into McCain’s vision that he wants to inspire talented Americans from non-political fields to help their government solve problems.

5. Hillary voters. Some critics will point to the board of HP forcing her out, but this only endears her more to the voters in the disgruntled Hillary-supporting Democrat demographic, with the counterargument – “she made the tough choices, and was punished for it; male CEOs make blunders and rarely get held accountable,” etc.

Will Fiorina be the pick? The drawbacks are obvious, most notably that she’s never been elected to office before. (Note that Obama, a guy who won exactly one statewide general election in his life — matched up against Alan Keyes! — can’t be the guy making that argument.) She has no real history in politics, much less the GOP. She is reliably conservative on social issues, but hasn’t emphasized that. Her foreign policy experience is limited to international business and trade issues.* Were she to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, would she be ready to be a commander-in-chief at a moment’s notice?

(On the Viagra vs. birth control pills brouhaha, Fiorina later pointed out that the point of the anecdote was to demonstrate the importance of choice in health care plans, as opposed to the Democrats’ preferred vision of one-size-fits-all state-run health care plans.)

This plugged-in Republican is not touting this idea, nor is he opposed; like many of McCain’s options, Fiorina combines some strong upsides with some vulnerabilities.

* UPDATE: A reader points out:

In this age of globalization, I think the American people would be well served by someone who has actually created jobs and created wealth. Capital ignores borders and politicians in all countries on both sides of the spectrum don't have a broad enough understanding of what that means...

Anyone who has negotiated cross-border deals has arguably better experience than a back seat quarterback Senator or community organizer.

A valid argument; my point was that her experience wasn't in national security/military/intelligence/traditional diplomatic areas...

ANOTHER UPDATE: If you want to see Carly Fiorina on the stump, Bill Hobbs points to her recent address to the Tennessee GOP. 

07/23 10:10 AMShare