Meg Whitman Week -- Monday: Meg Actually Gives an Interview

First I wondered why Meg Whitman announced that she was running for Governor of California two years before the election. Then I wondered why she wasn't giving any interviews. But now it all makes sense: She wants us to have plenty of time to not get to know her.

It's not just journalists she's ducking. She won't even talk to other Republicans. The other two GOP hopefuls, Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner, offered to debate next week's ballot propositions, but Whitman declined.

(Maybe a debate is asking too much. Maybe it's enough that she's voting this year. She doesn't always do that.)

But not giving interviews seems... weird.

As Poizner's campaign points out:

"Meg's refusal to debate Campbell and Poizner is part of a pattern. Meg Whitman is doing her best to avoid the press and questions from the public. She is only attending private events or ones which are carefully scripted and, if questions are even allowed, they are written and pre-screened in advance."

She's sort of the political equivalent of Angelyne, the weird old blonde lady who circles LA in the pink Corvette and no one knows why she's famous or what she wants. The difference between Meg Whitman and Angelyne is it's kind of fun when you see Angelyne.

Whitman gave two disastrous interviews back in February, to the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and then went so silent you didn't know if she was running for governor or having John Edwards' lovechild.

But now she's back in the ring. This time, though, they're bringing her up slow, and she's only fighting bums and tomato cans. On Wednesday, Fox's Neil "Smart Like Prosciutto" Cavuto. On Friday, talk radio's Hugh "Which One Are Hugh Again" Hewitt.

These are not tough interviews for a Republican.

Meg Whitman has spent her life in fairly high profile business positions. There's evidence that she's spoken to groups. So why is she only engaging in interviews that are the journalistic version of pity sex?

The answer, I think, has a lot to do with Caroline Kennedy and her botched New York Times interview, the one where she said "you know" too much, and the Times didn't clean it up.

The answer is that Meg Whitman can't stop saying "actually."

In her sit-down with Cavuto, Whitman told him things in California where "far worse, actually, even than nationally." She said there was "actually some small rationale" for closing tax shelters and that she could reach minority voters because, "I actually think through talking about jobs and the economy."

Which wasn't so bad. But on Hugh Hewitt she explained that her hometown was actually Cold Spring Harbor, her parents actually met as children in Boston, (Their families were friends actually) and her uncle was actually killed in the Philippines. She actually went to Princeton for women's sports. She sat beside a guy at Harvard Business who actually fought in the Vietnam War. Her husband was actually a friend of her older sister's, who was actually a PhD.

One of the first products she launched at Procter and Gamble was actually Ivory Shampoo. Then she got the chance to work for Bain & Co. and actually moved to L.A. for four years where she decided to actually join the Presbyterian Church.

Mitt Romney was actually her first boss at Bain.

Then she actually started Hyperion Press for Disney and reorganized FTD florists, which was very challenging, because member-owned associations actually exist for different reasons than for profit companies. She learned a lot because it was the first time she was actually a CEO. It also got her interested in the Internet because she actually experimented with FTD.com.

Then she went back east, and that's how she ended up actually at Stride Rite. Luckily, her husband was actually loving being back in Boston.

And all this business experience is applicable to governing because actually you have to focus and actually ask: "What is the most important thing?"

Does Meg Whitman actually have nails in her head?

Fowler says using the word "actually" all the time is "a phenomenon perhaps more suitable for the psychologist than for the philologist." He puts "actually" in the same category of useless words as "you know" and adds, trying to remain calm, that "any meaning they had ever had was soon rubbed off them, and they had become noises automatically produced."

I think "actually" is even more politically off-putting than "you know" because "you know" can sound vaguely apologetic but "actually" sounds like you're talking to either an imbecile who doesn't get distinctions at all, or a hayseed who might be amazed by practically anything.

It makes you dislike her, actually.

The interviews also reminded me of a certain out-of-her-depth Alaskan Governor. And how precarious it got whenever a question didn't directly prompt a sound bite from a list she'd studied. Here's my favorite exchange from the Hewitt interview and you can go listen to it yourself, if you think I'm making it up:

HH: Are you a newspaper reader?

MW: I am a newspaper reader, actually.

Comments

[Patricia013]

I sold on Ebay for 10 years while Whitman was there. Actually, I can say that she showed absolutely NO mercy for small sellers. Actually beating them with higher fees year after year while she threw that money into silliness like Skype or threw it at China - giving chinese sellers FREE listings! Then when she tired of the game she actually handed the reins to a groomed cohort so he could finish destroying the site sellers built for them! Actually, John Donahoe was Meg Whitman's very worst idea after a long list of many bad ideas! Now she actually wants to run for governor of California? Its not goofy enough out here with the terminator running rampant!....NOW we have to have Whitman running the show? We might as well all leave because if she's elected...­.actually, we haven't seen anything yet compared to what life would be under her rule!

[tomasedison]

Meg will be a joke as a politician - Bring her on let's hear the nonsense she spews to get herself elected.Business "leaders" seldom translate to great political leaders.

[RobynHerself]

Meg Whitman's policies on eBay demonstrated that she would always promote BIG BUSINESS at the expense of individuals or small business and stop at nothing to intimidate and discriminate against anyone with whom she disagreed.

Under her leadership, "the world's largest yard sale," became a place where only mega-sellers bringing in tons of cheap imports could succeed, pornography flourished, free speech was abolished, and freedom educational choice was censored. People had their accounts closed after receiving harsh emails and phone calls from eBay representatives (for something as innocent as selling a 1965 Dick and Jane's teacher's manual). The "little guy" selling last year's children's clothing or school books to help buy new ones could barely break even, much less profit.

I'm sure people from other interest groups could tell their own horror stories. What I share represents only those things I personally experienced and witnessed.

While evaluating the candidates during the 2008 presidential campaign I discovered Meg Whitman was on John McCain's "most respected and admired list. " I knew then I could not vote for him, no matter his stand on other issues. That Meg was reported to be on his "short list" for a VP terrified me. I knew anyone who admired Meg was either totally uninformed, stupid, or didn't give a flip about the American public's well being.

I fervently PRAY Meg Whitman will NEVER have any high office in our country.

[whsmith]

If she were to run Califorina the same way she's run ebay, be afraid, be very afraid.

[kburlz]

The secret to Whitman's business success? Outsource jobs and gouge fees. What a genius.

[skatscan]

and going from job to job to job, they used to call that being a drifter.

[LeeCalif]

Announcing her candidacy and then being cloistered.

How Palinesque.

[mlaiuppa]

SP: I am a newspaper ready, also. You betcha.

[JeffreyGold]

Meg Whitman left eBay under mysterious circumstan­ces---righ­t before they posted huge losses. eBay is a questionable enterprise, given the amount of fraud facilitated by eBay. I had two bad experiences with fraudulent sellers on eBay (my only two purchases), and both were handled poorly by eBay and PayPal (a company puchased and ruined by eBay). In one event, the send date of the purchase, according to eBay's own internal documents, was December 12, 1968. For me to purchase a video card for an Apple flat panel display within months of my birth, and expect it to arrive at the close of 1968, surely reveals some amazing prognosticating ability (which should be tested again, but not at eBay). The weight of the sent item, according to their internal information, was 0.0 ounces. Was this enough for eBay to validate that this was fraud? I collected about 113 pages of emails and other documentation of communications between the reticent, fraudulent seller in North Dakota, eBay, and PayPal, and faxed it to their legal departments a few times a day after I got the typical eBay-to-Pa­yPal-to-eB­ay runaround. The only way to resolve this issue was to go to their building and threatened a small claims action. Within seconds the problem was resolved. According to former managers' accounts, eBay would have to close its doors if it had to refund all fraudulent transactions.

[whsmith]

I've bought and sold a lot of stuff on eBay, and I can tell you - sellers aren't happy either. eBay has exploited all parties to the fullest extent possible. eBay is the worst, most abusive and incompetent monopoly to emerge and survive from the first dot-com boom. Craigslist certainly offers an alternative for some transactions - but not completely. It's past time someone came along and knocked eBay off it's perch in the auction and used goods market, because they are begging to fail right now.

[Redeemer777]

Chris do a piece on Meg in an F-22

Stuff your nightmares are made of, actually.

[tomasedison]

Governor Meg - golly gee that's cute

[Bush-Rolled]

Actually, I thinks she's being coached either by Thurston Howell III or Newt Gingrich. Newt is as fond of the word actually as Meg is. And bluebloods like the rich guy on Gilligan's Island are commonly lampooned as affecting the use of actually. Which I believe they do, actually.

On the whole "don't talk to the press or to actual gatherings of real people," that's been GOP SOP ever since Nixon, actually.

[Beki345]

I can't believe you actually failed to mention Ebay in this story about Meg's leadership history!

[GreatNews27]

Wake up, Chris, she's a Republican. Those are the only types of interviews they do.

[EmInNorcal]

FYI... She did give a brief interview on KGO Radio (SF) this morning:

http://kgoradio.com/Article.asp?id=1317052&spid=15884

[BottomLine2008]

Nooo, don't let her tank before Jerry Brown takes her milkshake!