Rumors last week had her being a vice-presidential candidate and last night former HP CEO Carly Fiorina showed why she would have made a good choice for that spot in a speech to the Republican faithful attending the party's national convention in Minneapolis.
Fiorina, who some say has political ambitions of her own, said of Republican presidential candidate John McCain: "His love of country has been tested in ways few among us can imagine. He has demonstrated his maverick spirit time and again, and his appetite for reform is unmatched. He has always reached his hand across the aisle to move our country forward."
Fiorina also said McCain, who will accept his party's nomination tonight, would deliver on accountability by subjecting all government agencies to a top-to-bottom review and post the results on the Internet for all Americans to see.
She also touted McCain's running mate Sarah Palin and at the same time broke out the old political saw of blaming the media for opinions or actions she didn't like.
"The Republican Party will not stand by while Sarah Palin is subjected to sexist attacks," Fiorina said. Specifically she said she objected to the media "trying to portray [Palin] as a show horse, not a work horse."
Meanwhile former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who also has political ambitions, told the crowd: "I am a Republican because our party understands that America's success - the success of her people - comes not from the size of its government, but from the character of its citizens... the strength of its communities... and the nobility and truth of its ideals. We are proudly the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan - and today, we are proudly the party of John McCain."
Whitman was much more in the middle of the road when asked about Palin's treatment in the press. "I actually think it's completely fair for the media to vet Sarah Palin, just as they did Barack Obama, and John McCain and everyone else who's running for office," she said. "I mean you are running for the second highest office in the land."
Both Whitman and Fiorina said McCain is the candidate of change - Barrack Obama's mantra - and said he would lower taxes and reduce our foreign oil dependence.
According to a USA Today report, Whitman was a major fundraiser for Mitt Romney before he ended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in February. She joined the McCain camp a month later and swiftly rose to become a top economic adviser. Fiorina is the first and only woman to head a Fortune 20 company, serving at the helm of computer giant HP until 2005. In the years since, she has written a memoir chronicling her rise in business and launched herself into the top ranks of presidential politics as an economic adviser, fundraiser and surrogate for McCain. She and now Palin have been charged with courting disaffected supporters of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, the report said.
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Carly Fiorina
She would have fit right in with Sarah Palin. All show and no go. She grabbed headlines at HP, but look at the actual performance of the company since she left. The country needs people of action and she and Palin are certainly not members of that group!
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