F
ormer eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman
and one-time HP (HPQ) head Carly Fiorina
are all-but-certain to win Republican nominations for governor and the
Senate in California today. Both are well-known in high tech, both have
poured millions of their own dollars into their races ($70
million in Whitman’s case, and that’s just so far), and both have
run largely on their business records running high tech corporations.
But in both cases, that very business record is mixed at best and
disastrous at worst.
Even undisputed corporate stars aren’t automatically fit for office. Let’s see some hands out there: Who thinks secretive control freak Steve Jobs would make a good governor of California? (And who would vote for BP CEO Tony Hayward as dog catcher, even if he weren’t a Brit?)
Business executives often assume that running a large corporation qualifies them for high office without previously serving in lower elected positions. That’s true only in one specific, if somewhat trivial, way, since one big qualification is that a candidate has been a heavy donor to his or her party and is capable of raising the money necessary to run for major office.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina: Why Ex-Tech CEOs Make Dangerous Politicians | BNET Technology Blog | BNET
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