McCain Defends Fiorina's Golden Parachute

This weekend, John McCain defended unhelpful surrogate Carly Fiorina's generous severance package from Hewlett Packard:

"I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects," McCain told "The Today Show's" Meredith Vieira when she pressed him on the matter in light of McCain's recent accusations of greed on Wall Street.

"I know that she was a very successful businesswoman. Started out as a part-time secretary and made her way to the top of the corporate ladder as one of the biggest CEOs in the United States of America," McCain said after noting that he was unaware of the specifics of her compensation package.

Fiorina received $21 million in severance pay when she was fired as CEO of Hewlett Packard in 2005. She received an additional $21 million when Hewlett Packard's board bought out her company stock options and pension benefits. Her compensation package sparked a lawsuit from shareholders.

McCain admitted, however, that he was not familiar with the details of Fiorina's payout:

McCAIN: I don't think so. ... Because I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects. I don't know the details of her compensation package. But she's one of many advisers that I have.

Q: But she did get a $45 million dollar golden parachute after being fired while 20,000 of her employees were laid off.

McCAIN: I have many of the people, but I do not know the details of what happened.

McCain has vowed to end "multimillion dollar payouts to CEO's who have broken the public trust."

Watch:

Comments

[BarackstarObama]

McDole seems to be unaware that HP's stock was worth 40% less when Carly left, and she still received millions for a job "well done." Is there anyone left that doesn't think McDole is out of touch?

Obama/Biden 08

[eden4barack08]

Read this article from back in January. The neofools are in the habit of keeping incompetent staff and insulting voters' intelligence. Nothing ever changes.

http://blog.noslaves.com/john-mccain-insults-michigan-with-offshore-outsourcing-ousted-ceo-carly-fiorina/

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

McCain: "Heck'uva job, Carly."

[roninracer]

McSame is so out of touch!

This lady is poison.
Myself and 400 other of my coworkers were let go at Lucent because of her mis-management.

All this lady know how to do is strip-mine. She is hired as a shark to go in and fire everybody and outsource those jobs overseas.

McSame lost my vote when he added her as an "Economic Adviser"

I couldn't believe anyone would be so stupid as to hire her for anything after the HP debacle.

[eden4barack08]

I thought people who did a "good job", got to keep their job. Must be in that parallel universe where they fire you for doing a "good job".

[JamesInDenver]

Does McCain know the Details for Anything??? He's got to be even dumber than Bush.

[CurtisEMayle]

It all depends on what "know" means in his game. One could provide him all the details in many forms all day long and if you haven't covered what he means by "know" (which may be an elusive target), he will still not "know" the details.

Of course, the other distinct possibility, as evidenced by his statements on many issues when confronted with previous statements or other pertinent "facts", he might just lie about it regardless.

If one is not honorable, another would be foolish to expect an honor for truth from that person.

[Earl]

If he knew how to use a computer, he'd know that HP laptops suck.

[wagthedog1001]

Good one.

[doogiedude]

Classic

[atila]

I can't believe the free pass that almost all the media is giving to Mccain...I couldn't imagine if Senator Obama were doing the half of the gaffes or lies that mccain is been telling,i'm pretty sure the msm would airing all these gaffes or lies 24/7....ho­w about a pair of c.o.jones?­?...

[bandillero]

It is the job of Obama's campaign to hammer on the gaffes. They haven't done this well except the "..strong fundamentals" comment.

They need to do this more and not wait for MSM to bail them out

[wagthedog1001]

Obama has to be twice as good. He's of mixed lineage you know, my friends.

[marc1antony]

if McCain knew nothing about Fiorina and was taking economic advice from her, it doesn't say too much for his judgment, does it?

[eden4barack08]

You hire someone as an adviser who was fired and cost 20,000 American's jobs, and you don't even bother to know the details? Yet that doesn't stop from defending the details you don't know?

Is this a circus or is McSame seriously running for President?

[mpalm 1]

She did a good job at HP???? Sure, she took one of America's great companies and ran it into the ground. Her best performance came in negotiating a fat buyout when she got fired. How stupid does McCain think we are?

[LemonMeringue]

McCain does not know about anything!!! Is it because he is rich and doesn't have to care?

God save us from ANOTHER president without a clue or an ounce of curiosity.

[scooperss]

I beg to disagree. NOW is the TIME to pay those greedy bustards pay.

[GLT21]

McCain defends Fiorina without knowing any of the facts.

Now thats a Mavrick...­.