Nobody Does It Like Fiorina

So Carly Fiorina got in some hot water for asserting that Sarah Palin couldn't run Hewlett-Packard. Then when pressed, she said that John McCain couldn't run a corporation either.

Of course, you have to understand the messenger here. Fiorina was forced to resign from Hewlett after failing to turn the company around, laid off thousands of workers during her tenure, admitted to hiding money offshore to avoid paying corporate taxes (what a patriot!), and spied on her own employees during a leak investigation:

Leak Investigation At H-P Began With Fiorina’s Tenure, And Later Erupted Into A Spying Scandal. After details of the board of directors’ intentions to fire Carly Fiorina became public in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Fiorina “demanded a confession” from the directors. Following these demands from Fiorina, an aggressive leak investigation that resulted in a “spying scandal” commenced. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “The spying scandal dates to early 2005, when then-CEO Carly Fiorina and other directors began looking into leaks of board deliberations to journalists. After Fiorina was fired, her successor as chairwoman, Dunn, pursued the investigation, which eventually pointed to director George Keyworth. Another director, Thomas Perkins, a Keyworth ally, left the board in protest over the handling of the probe. Dunn and Keyworth also later left after the scandal became public last year.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/17/07]

“Extraordinary Tactics” Used In Leak Investigation, Prompting Federal Investigation. Co-CEO Mark Hurd admitted in September of 2006 that Hewlett-Packard used “disturbing” tactics in an internal leak investigation into the board of directors. The investigation began after a Wall Street Journal article revealed in January of 2005 presumably only what board members would have known—that the board was unhappy with Carly Fiorina’s performance at the. “[Hurd] offered apologies to H-P board members, journalists and others for violating their privacy, but confirmed only a few details about the tactics employed and when he knew them. The investigation to plug the leaks used a range of extraordinary tactics, including obtaining private phone records using false pretenses and tailing both a director and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Another reporter, for CNET News.com, was sent a doctored email by H-P investigators that could provide the sender information about where it was sent.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/23/06]

H-P Employed Controversial Tactics To Spy On Employees; Employed “Security Outsourcing Inc.” and “Pretexting” Methodology. The Wall Street Journal reported, “The now-controversial tactics have been documented most clearly in 2006 with a new phase of the investigation. Security Outsourcing began gathering private phone records of directors and reporters through false pretenses, called ‘pretexting,’ said Mr. Holston. The pretexting was the subject of a Sept. 6 story in the Journal, after which H-P came under criminal investigation by federal and California authorities.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/23/06]

So when Fiorina claims that John McCain and Sarah Palin couldn't run a corporation like Hewlett-Packard, maybe she was paying them a compliment!

UPDATE: Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor: "If John McCain’s top economic advisor doesn’t think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn’t understand as well as he should."