Whitman's Sampler: The Ex-eBay CEO's Moves Mirror the Republican Crisis

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman addressed the Republican National Convention.

Like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's rebuttal to President Barack Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's moves at this past weekend's California Republican Party convention point up the crisis afflicting the Republican Party.

Jindal, in a not quite deer-in-the-headlights debut on the national stage, stuck to the age-old conservative Republican script. Government is the problem, and there's nothing that can't be solved with a tax cut. And getting government out of the way. Including, oddly, dealing with hurricanes and volcanoes.

While Rush LImbaugh -- an early touter of Sarah Palin -- defended the substance of Jindal's message, saying that performance is over-rated, it was all just preaching to the right-wing choir.

Which brings us to Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, touted as a fresh moderate Republican voice on the scene, and her performance in the roll-out of her likely candidacy for governor of California.

Her speech and press conference at the California Republican convention (both of which I filmed), and statements before and after that, left one veteran Republican expert saying "she's joined the Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party."

Meg Whitman and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor criticize President Barack Obama's program.

She is certainly hugging the hard right rail on the race track. Like another super-rich Republican candidate and putative moderate who may actually be the Republican frontrunner, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who made his fortune by coming up with the device that enables the tracking of cell phones.

Whitman appeared with her mentor, former conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and Reagan era education secretary Bill Bennett, at her convention address. For her press conference, she was flanked by Romney and conservative San Diego Congressman Darrell Issa, the controversial car alarm magnate who funded the recall of Governor Gray Davis in 2003.

Whitman ripped into the state budget deal finally arrived at by Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggger, Democratic legislative leaders, and just enough Republican legislators to surmount California's very unusual requirement of a two-thirds vote for passage.

Why? Because it includes temporary tax hikes, along with big program cuts and borrowing against future state lottery earnings.

Rather airily, she declared to the Republican activists that, as a longtime CEO, she could have balanced the budget without any taxes. How? By implementing the recommendations of something called the California Performance Review, something Schwarzenegger initiated in 2004.

In Whitman's account, the state's budget deficit, which was $42 billion deficit over 18 months, could all be made up by new efficiencies contained in the performance review report. But it was shelved by Schwarzenegger, in her telling, under pressure from Democratic special interests. While it's true that various interests were against the project, it fell victim to internal infighting in the Schwarzeneger Administration, with some of Whitman's own folks helping shoot it down.

The performance review was an interesting project, flawed in some ways -- its officials met extensively with corporate executives and lobbyists but not with environmental, labor, or consumer advocates -- yet useful in others. But not even its advocates would claim that it would make up anywhere near that sort of budget gap.

Asked about the state budget deal later at a press conference, Whitman had a different answer. She said that she would have gone after the state workforce across the board, first by doubling the number of furlough days that Schwarzenegger ordered -- which would amount to a 20% pay cut for all state employees -- and then by eliminating 10% of the state workforce.

The reporter who asked that question of Whitman is a fellow named Dan Walters, a veteran conservative columnist first with the defunct right-wing Sacramento Union and now with the Sacramento Bee. An inveterate critic of Democrats such as Jerry Brown and Willie Brown, in the '90s, he touted the idea that Republican Governor Pete Wilson marked the advent of a strong Republican era in the state. It didn't. Notwithstanding his politics, Walters is a realist, and he pointed out to Whitman that those sorts of workforce cuts wouldn't begin to make up the budget gap, asking her again if she knew that most of the state's spending is actually locked down for education and other services that the state workforce does not provide.

Instead of answering Walters' follow-up, she abruptly called on someone else. Which prompted him to say, in a loud voice as she left the room at the end of her press conference: "Ready for eBay, not ready for prime time."

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's rebuttal to Obama bombed, even on Fox News.

Whitman clearly has no interest in crossing the far right ideologues who presently run the state's beleaguered Republican Party, which saw Barack Obama sweep to victory over John McCain in California by a whopping 61% to 37%. Their last gasp priority as a party, as laid out in the banquet address by the California far right's longtime ideological vicar, Congressman Tom McClintock, is opposition to taxes and insistence on a much smaller government. For the state that is the biggest and one of the fastest-growing in the country.

That's why Whitman has been saying for the past few days that she opposes an initiative on the state's May 19th special election ballot to create a state budget spending cap. That is a long-sought goal for many conservatives and moderates in the state.

But Whitman is against it. Why? Because its passage would extend the state's temporary tax hikes for a couple of years. (It's part of a complex calculation to block the state's public employee unions from killing the spending cap, as that would create an immediate revenue crisis and calls for more cuts.)

That's something Schwarzenegger and others came up with to get the deal through.

Again, the no tax hike mantra trumps all else.

When asked, Whitman said she supports the open primary proposal passed by the Legislature as part of the budget deal. That would be in keeping with her touted moderate views.

But actually, she does not support an open primary. When asked at her press conference, she explained that supports an open primary which is not an open primary; namely, the current system which allows independents to choose to vote in a partisan primary.

An open primary, as a knowledgeable politician would know, has all the candidates run together in the primary, with the top two candidates, no matter their party registration, facing off in the general election. As is the case in non-partisan elections for city and county office in California.

Since it turns out that Whitman hasn't voted very often -- because, she says, of her busy job as CEO of eBay -- this may explain her lack of familiarity with how these elections work.

So how then is Whitman a moderate?

Well, she is pro-choice on abortion.

But she came out against California's Proposition 8, the November initiative which knocked out the states new right to gay and lesbian marriage. She says she's against gay marriage because of her religious views.

Which do not extend so far as to cause her to oppose abortion.

Yet she supports the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt a child.

Whitman says she is strong on the environment, and has a green-colored backdrop on her campaign web site.

But she's for offshore oil drilling and is against California's landmark climate change program, backed by Schwarzenegger. Why?

Well, she says that it would hurt business, in particular, the cement business. In her telling, a cement business located on the border between California and Nevada would never expand again in California. It would expand in Nevada.

But she repeatedly mispronounces the name of Nevada, something which infuriates people in Nevada, as people who spend time there know, and as George Stephanopoulos instantaneously learned when he moderated the first Democratic presidential forum in 2007.

As part of her seeking the favor of the right-wing activist base, Whitman apologized for re-registering Republican in 2007. Prior to that, she was a registered independent, decline-to-state in the technical California parlance.

She changed her registration to independent when she joined eBay, she says, because she didn't want to offend the diverse eBay community with her Republicanism.

Which changes her legend completely.

While there are those who say she wasn't a Republican before, the fact is that she was very close to Mitt Romney when she worked for Bain & Company, the management consulting and equity investment firm. That's why Whitman, who was also a supporter of the very conservative former Virginia Senator George Allen, joined Romney's conservative presidential campaign early on as a national finance co-chair.

That's why Romney came to California for her when she asked him to to tout her candidacy at the state Republican convention dominated by right-wing activists who mostly supported him in the California presidential primary he lost last year to John McCain.

McCain was happy to take her on as a national co-chair of his presidential campaign after he clinched the nomination. And she was happy to run a town hall meeting for McCain of Silicon Valley types last spring, at which she laid out a classically conservative view on the economy, complete with a call for corporate tax cuts.

It will be interesting to see how her candidacy fares.

Whitman says she will spend as much as $150 million on her campaign, presumably mostly from her own accounts, though she has lined up a team of big-name Republican fundraisers. She is a billionaire, after all. Or at least she was before the financial crisis.

Far right personality Glenn Beck, calling California "crazy," interviews Meg Whitman.

That would hardly guarantee a win for someone of her views and background in California.

Former Governor Pete Wilson has signed on as her campaign chairman. And she has some veterans of Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign. But the top strategists from both of Schwarzenegger's landslide election wins -- two separate groups, actually -- as governor are not supporting Whitman. In fact, two of the top strategists who helped revive Schwarzenegger after his failed "Year of Reform" in 2005, when he was widely seen as having veered to the right, McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt (who ran Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign) and Adam Mendelsohn (who was Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial communications director), ended their consulting relationship with Whitman last year.

Super-rich candidates, while impressing the press, have generally not done well in California, especially when they start out running for the top spots. I'll write again about why that is.

Suffice to say that Whitman, pushing policies that resonate on the far right of American politics even as some doubt her sincerity, has her work cut out for her in winning the governorship of blue state California.

You can check things out during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com.

Comments

[NeoLiberal]

Arnold won because two things: the climate that was stirred up against Gray Davis (unjustifiably so) and that he was married into the Kennedy clan (via Maria Shriver, aka west coast Kennedys)

[twofish]

Don't forget the other factor -- he's a CELEBRITY! Ooooooooh! He played tough guys in the movies, he's the tough guy to run this state!

Not. But it worked with the suckers.

[BottomLine2008]

Gray Davis poisoned his own well, unfortunately.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

That would be ... no.

[NeoLiberal]

Think about it.

She was CEO of e-bay, a psuedo-mic­ro-virtual economy, without a tax structure.

Sounds like typical republican matra to me.

We all know how laissez-faire economics plays out: the wealthy get wealthier, while the middle class shrinks and the poor get poorer.

Give it up. Your tired old philosophies are irrelevant in the 21st century.

No matter how much perfume you spray on sh*t, it's still sh*t.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Whitman has a good background as marketing executive.

[Terypat]

Oh, my. I live on the East Coast, but I feel for the folks in California. I hope Bill Bradley will step up and run to get CA right again.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Haha. :)

[PrincipiaChamp]

If she looks like a Republican't and quacks like a Republican't she's a Republican't.

I don't want her governor of my state...pew

[BottomLine2008]

Whitman won't win.

[MrSparkle]

Using the experience of a CEO as a qualification for governor/president misses the point of government. Just about any business has a notice stating the right to refuse service to anyone. A representative government, like in the USA, can't function if it only serves those who are arbitrarily deemed as "worthy", while stiffing the rest.

Additionally government must handle fairly a number of non "customer service oriented" functions like judiciary, law enforcement and military, which makes a CEO's experience running a non-critical, profit driven, customer is always right, and discretionary business irrelevant. Add to that, the robot like regurgitation of talking points rather than viable policy and you have someone who is not qualified for public office.
We had 8 years of a CEO as government executive, and look where it got us.
We nned to do better than this.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

George W. Bush used hie 'creds' as a C.E.O. in his 2000 Presidential campaign - look how well THAT worked out for us!

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Well, Whitman has much deeper business credentials than Bush.

But I think my point is that she has serious problems with her substance and her positioning.

[unite4change]

This is how much the republicans care about Americans and how they got us into managed healthcare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DacChr5MRo

[pilotsknob]

There is absolutely no way or no how that I would support Whitman's run to become governor of our golden state....the fact that she supported a McCain/Palin is enough evidence for me that she would be a disaster for California.

[Indie2008]

The recent CPAC convention is further evidence of how far the Republican party has marginalized itself. Instead of taking the opportunity that their election loss provided, to reevaluate their positions and strategy, they decide to push back with an obstinate obstructionist stand against the will of the majority of the American voters.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

That was quite a spectacle there.

[SEQUOIABISON]

The only reason Arnold won the governorship, was because he conspired with Enron to monopolize the Electric Power industry, watched passively as they charged exorbitant rates for energy, while Bush and Cheney refused to impose regulations, blamed the whole mess on Governor Davis, and joined in the chorus to recall the governor, it was a coup that worked and Arnold backed into the office before anyone could figure out who was responsible for gouging consumers and businesses.

[BottomLine2008]

That's bogus. Didn't happen.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

It's interesting you make this claim, because I was the first to reveal the meeting with Ken Lay that Schwarzenegger attended, in the LA Weekly. That's the wellspring of this conspiracy theory.

Your claim is false, incidentally.

The truth is that Schwarzenegger, along with quite a few others, including notable Democrats, attended a meeting arranged by former LA Mayor Dick Riordan. He was the one who was then thinking of running for governor. Which he did. And he lost in the Republican primary.

[darthmaul]

I hope for two things:

1) That Whitman runs.
2) That she self-finances her own campaign.

Arnold winning in California was really an aberration. Arnold was a Hollywood star, and a moderate republican. Whitman is neither and will get hammered if the democrats put up a half decent candidate.

[BottomLine2008]

I bet Whitman isn't even the nominee.

[edtheengineer]

Except for her stance on abortion (which she will deny or switch to claiming it is matter for state rather than federal control), she seems to have all of the talking point positions one would need to make Pat Buchanan, Limbo, and all of the other wingnuts delerious. Look for her to have Mooselini stumping for her in the future.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Apparently all it takes to be a moderate Republican for most of the media these days is to be pro-choice.

[BottomLine2008]

Whitman bought Skype?

That never worked right!

[mlaiuppa]

Meg Whitman is a moderate like I'm a Republican.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

You're not?!

[Openeyes]

Who is touting her as a moderate? She certainly wasn't trying to sound moderate at the state Republican convention, it was all conservative red meat issues.

She's clearly just a neaderthal bumpersticker Republican - "Government bad, tax cuts good! Ugh!" Arnold appears considerably more moderate than she and his win was no cake walk. If she becomes the Republican nominee by running as a hard right candidate, she'll get crushed in a general election.

[BottomLine2008]

Schwarzenegger's wins were no cake walks?

What?

He won by about 20% both times he ran for Governor.

But Whitman ain't no Arnold.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Most of the political press has been presenting Whitman as a moderate.

[ProfessorDuh]

eBay is a an extremely lousy company that was in the right place at the right time.

[Jonahinatickingwhale]

From today's "Business Insider" in the Silicon Alley Insider
__

And then there's eBay. When CEO John Donahoe (Meg Whitman's hand selected successor) took over last year, there was a brief flash of hope that the reign of neglect and boneheaded acquisitions that characterized the last several years of Meg Whitman's era would be undone and that the company would quickly refocus on what it used to do well (commerce).

No such luck.

A year later, eBay's marketplace business is imploding, and John Donahoe still hasn't sold or spun off PayPal or Skype. (Paypal may have some synergistic value, but Skype doesn't. eBay might as well have bought Fedex).

Every minute that John and his team spend thinking about Skype is a minute that could have been focused on the core business--which needs all the minutes it can get.

Is John the right guy to fix eBay? Maybe so. But we're not sure eBay can afford to wait around to find out. So we wish we were seeing more evidence of honest-to-God change.

[doublestandard76]

Whitman was a disaster at the end of her tenure with eBay. The purchase of skype killed the stock. Ebay should have never purchased something that was so different from the company's specialty. I could only imagine her ideas, if she was ever elected.

Any shareholder would like to run her over.

She should stay out of politics and stay home and count her money. Her estimated worth is $1.4 billion.

http://nowindzone.blogspot.com
 

[ProfessorDuh]

I walked away from eBay because of their insistence on forcing PayPal down everyboby's throats. All they've got is the customer base, and once they drive enough people away, they're toast.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

You know, I got Skype.

It never worked right. Frequently, people on the other end couldn't hear me.

Though I could hear them.