McCain Claims Surrogate Meg Whitman 'Founded' eBay; Actual Founder Is Obama Supporter Pierre Omidyar

John McCain continued his string of gaffes this morning by claiming that Meg Whitman, a national co-chair for his campaign and potential pick for Treasury Secretary, had "founded" eBay with five employees.

In fact, Whitman joined eBay as CEO in 1998, three years after it was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a Barack Obama supporter.

Omidyar endorsed Obama on his blog in May:

"Barack Obama is showing a mirror to America, and despite the bad stuff we see in our reflection, we see that we are fundamentally good and strong and proud, and we can overcome our challenges by working together, across all sorts of lines, be they partisan, racial, cultural, religious, or whatever.

That's something unique about Barack Obama's America -- our America -- and that's the America I want to live in. "

Whitman has been lauded for turning the then-30 employee eBay into a multi-billion dollar auction site during her ten years as CEO. She now sits on its board. Recently eBay took drastic measures to spur growth by firing ten percent of its workforce. Days later, McCain suggested Whitman as a potential pick for Treasury Secretary.

Comments

[keepemhonest]

Why has Meg NEVER corrected McCain?

Does she think she founded Ebay?

[melvina1]

she gotta swel led head on sa ra's fa ce

[KO4Pres]

what an embarrassing little factoid. do your homework..........!

[bpai]

Other than 1 or 2 lines he can recite as part of his stump speech, McCain has no real idea of what eBay is, does or represents. Remember, this guy has never used a PC or Email. Talk about living in the past.

[aaronsanders]

see, this is why people just need to start learning more - the truth about both the candidates and the issues.

http://www.votesmarter2008.com

[pokemon]

I invented bubblegum, the steam engine, wind powered flight, and Sumatra Coffee from Starbucks.

[notb observer]

If you like Sumatra, and probably Sulawesi, you should try Komodo Dragon. I went through these before settling on Komodo :)

[reliant1]

He's been calling her the founder of Ebay for weeks and weeks now...no one in the press has called him on it and Ms Whitman apparently has not disabused him of this notion either.

Forget Ebay - it's YouTube that holds the power!! No one in the media takes anything seriously until it has been found and reported on by others and then viewed by at least one million on YouTube.

Makes their lives soooo much easier.

[peacegurl48]

McCain/Palin motto: Don't confuse me with the facts!

McCain does hang with CEOs and favor the economic elite. All the Joe Plumber/Joe Sixpack rhetoric in the world won't change that. He still wants Americans to embrace Trickle Down as something that benefits regular people.

[mamala4]

Must be another senior moment...they are becoming more and more frequent...and he is scarier by the minute...

[JLJL]

McCain is only saying what has been fed to him.....he doesn't know these corporate folks personally. He should make two people check each other for facts before he spews them out in front of glaring camera lights. Lately his campaign have engaged in a lot of half truths and occaisonally lies precisely for this reason. Does it even matter at this stage of the game? Unless he has a game changing rabbit up his sleeve he might as well just watch the events unfold on televiosion like the rest of us.

[myoungholt]

I'm so afraid the only game-changing rabbit at this point could be those da**ed no-paper-trail voting machines made by Repubs that stole Ohio 4 years ago!

[MisterSlippery]

McCain understands absolutely nothing about the Tech Sector, it's products or it's culture.
It's the 21st century folks, Luddites like McCain are lost and dangerous in our world.

[suntzu]

What got me is he said Meg Whitman is a name familiar to most Americans. I would say that if one half of 1 percent of Americans recognize the name Meg Whitman, it would be a huge surprise to me. Yes, they have heard of eBay, but Meg Whitman no. People who eat at McDonald's every day, how many of them know who the CEO of McDonald's is?
McCain is so full of it.

[suntzu]

What is more, he said there were millions of people making their living off eBay. This is a total distortion. Yes, millions of people sell, or try to sell stuff on eBay, but the number of people who actually make their living on eBay is insignificant. Most people just try to get rid of stuff they don't want, or make some side money. There are some people who make their living off eBay but they are professional retailers who use eBay as a "store front."
There is nothing wrong with selling or trading on eBay but to put forth the fiction that millions of people are making their living on eBay, in effect having "jobs" is a Republican lie, and Meg Whitman herself if guilty of it is she does not correct it.
On the contrary, I can make the argument that the worse economic conditions get, the more people will turn to eBay to try to turn a dollar.
It is a sad spectacle that McCain is running on eBay as his best economic argument. Sad, sad, sad.

[reliant1]

It's just "blah blah" stuff he has to say. He doesn't care if it's accurate. He makes sounds, just to take up the space and not leave a complete black hole.

[FCBarca]

For McCain to admit much less know that an Iranian founded ebay, you know from 'Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran', would be a revelation

[jorge4u]

You a fan of Barcelona Football Club?

[PatCroft]

If I worked for eBay i would give the job back. The McCain camp certainly has a lot of people I would refuse to work for where death would be better. These unprincipled people think their empire is more important than the basic decency of civilization.

[notb observer]

"Vetting processes" that are not actually "Vetting processes",
"Qualified VP nominees" that are not actually "Qualified VP nominees",
"No thanks for that bridge" that is not actually "No thanks for that bridge",
"Gotcha journalism" that is not actually "Gotcha journalism",
"Did not abuse power" that is not actually "Did not abuse of power".
"Support for troops and veterans" that is not actually "Support for troops and veterans",
"Strong economic fundamentals" that are not actually "Strong economic fundamentals",
"Campaign suspensions" that are not actually "Campaign suspensions",
"Appearances on Letterman" that are actually not "Appearances on Letterman",
"Different than Bush" that is not actually "Different than Bush",
"Plumbers" that are not actually "Plumbers",
"Assaulted supporters" that are not actually "Assaulted supporters,
"Company founders" that are not actually "Company founders",
"Country first" that is not actually "Country first",
"Straight talk" that is not actually "Straight talk",
"Mav'ricks" that are not actually "Mav'ricks",

Add it all up and you'll conclude that:

"We're going to win this election" is actually not "We're going to win this election".

[myoungholt]

This is great! Now let's not get complacent. Let's get our mail-in ballots mailed in and/or dropped off. Let's vote early. Let's make sure on Nov 4 that we have actually voted the way we feel!!!

[Marie9]

If she is standing next to him, why didn't she correct him rather than keeping that stupid grin?

Oh, I guess only Joe Lieberman can whisper in his ears.

[drsmc41]

exactly.