WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Carly Fiorina was a lousy corporate executive, and she’d make a lousy president. Why? Because she has no idea how difficult it is to actually be president and get things done.
The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard HPQ, -3.16% wowed the Republican base last night at the candidates’ second debate with her strong conviction that all you need is a steely gaze and a will of iron to turn this country around and solve all its problems, foreign and domestic.
In defense of her failed leadership at H-P, which concluded with her forced ouster, Fiorina said last night that “when you challenge the status quo, you make enemies.”
Other than the thousands of employees she fired, Fiorina’s biggest enemies at H-P were in the board of directors, which like all corporate boards, is made up of uninformed people who nevertheless think of themselves as geniuses, busy people who have their own companies and interests to worry about and don’t have time for your petty problems.
“I was a terrific CEO, the board was dysfunctional,” Fiorina said.
Well, I have a surprise for you, Carly: If you think a corporate board is dysfunctional, wait until you see Congress.
And if you think challenging the status quo in Washington or on the world stage will be a cakewalk, you’ll fail as president just as you failed as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
The biggest lie our politicians tell us is that it’s easy to fix our nation’s problems. All you need is the will, and you can accomplish anything. But none of them — with the possible exceptions of former First Lady Hillary Clinton and long-time congressional leader John Kasich — understands how impotent our political leaders really are.
Our government is a messy mix of oligarchy, democracy, republicanism and federalism that guarantees that almost nothing can get done. At least, not without a huge struggle.
That is not a bug of our political system; it’s a feature. It’s the way our founding fathers planned it. They didn’t want a king, or a queen, not even a steely-eyed former CEO.
Barack Obama was elected in 2008 primarily because he persuaded us that fixing our problems would be easy. All we needed was hope and audacity, and we can do it. Yes we can!
But when Obama got into office, he was quickly schooled.
Even though the Democratic Party had huge majorities in both houses of Congress and Obama personally had an immense mandate from the people to “change the way Washington works,” he was forced to compromise from Day One. Even a Congress led by allies won’t be dictated to.
His stimulus package didn’t fully please anyone, his health-care reform bill didn’t fully please anyone, his rewrite of financial regulations didn’t fully please anyone. His foreign policy — from Afghanistan and Iraq to China and Ukraine — didn’t fully please anyone.
Being president means never pleasing anyone completely, especially yourself. It takes a rare leader serving at the perfect time to overcome our system’s programmed hostility to efficiency.
It would be nice if the candidates running for president would admit that, but if they did, they’d all sound like John Kasich, and none of them want to be the reasonable one on the stage.
Being realistic is such a turnoff! It’s much better to pound your chest and fire up the base and pretend that the president of the United States can accomplish anything. Build a wall! Put Putin in his place! Grow the economy at 4%!
It’s easy; all you need is a steely gaze and will of iron.
The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard HPQ, -3.16% wowed the Republican base last night at the candidates’ second debate with her strong conviction that all you need is a steely gaze and a will of iron to turn this country around and solve all its problems, foreign and domestic.
In defense of her failed leadership at H-P, which concluded with her forced ouster, Fiorina said last night that “when you challenge the status quo, you make enemies.”
Other than the thousands of employees she fired, Fiorina’s biggest enemies at H-P were in the board of directors, which like all corporate boards, is made up of uninformed people who nevertheless think of themselves as geniuses, busy people who have their own companies and interests to worry about and don’t have time for your petty problems.
“I was a terrific CEO, the board was dysfunctional,” Fiorina said.
Well, I have a surprise for you, Carly: If you think a corporate board is dysfunctional, wait until you see Congress.
And if you think challenging the status quo in Washington or on the world stage will be a cakewalk, you’ll fail as president just as you failed as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
The biggest lie our politicians tell us is that it’s easy to fix our nation’s problems. All you need is the will, and you can accomplish anything. But none of them — with the possible exceptions of former First Lady Hillary Clinton and long-time congressional leader John Kasich — understands how impotent our political leaders really are.
 |
| Carly Fiorina |
Our government is a messy mix of oligarchy, democracy, republicanism and federalism that guarantees that almost nothing can get done. At least, not without a huge struggle.
That is not a bug of our political system; it’s a feature. It’s the way our founding fathers planned it. They didn’t want a king, or a queen, not even a steely-eyed former CEO.
Barack Obama was elected in 2008 primarily because he persuaded us that fixing our problems would be easy. All we needed was hope and audacity, and we can do it. Yes we can!
But when Obama got into office, he was quickly schooled.
Even though the Democratic Party had huge majorities in both houses of Congress and Obama personally had an immense mandate from the people to “change the way Washington works,” he was forced to compromise from Day One. Even a Congress led by allies won’t be dictated to.
His stimulus package didn’t fully please anyone, his health-care reform bill didn’t fully please anyone, his rewrite of financial regulations didn’t fully please anyone. His foreign policy — from Afghanistan and Iraq to China and Ukraine — didn’t fully please anyone.
Being president means never pleasing anyone completely, especially yourself. It takes a rare leader serving at the perfect time to overcome our system’s programmed hostility to efficiency.
It would be nice if the candidates running for president would admit that, but if they did, they’d all sound like John Kasich, and none of them want to be the reasonable one on the stage.
Being realistic is such a turnoff! It’s much better to pound your chest and fire up the base and pretend that the president of the United States can accomplish anything. Build a wall! Put Putin in his place! Grow the economy at 4%!
It’s easy; all you need is a steely gaze and will of iron.
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