Sep 17, 2008 5:00 am US/Pacific
Adviser: McCain, Palin Not Ready To Run Company
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Carly Fiorina and Sen. John McCain. (File)
Getty Images/AP
An economic adviser to John McCain says neither the presidential candidate nor his running mate is qualified to lead a large corporation.
Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, was asked by KTRS radio in St. Louis on Tuesday whether she thought vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin had the experience to run a big company.
"No, I don't," Fiorina replied. "But that's not what she's running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things."
Later on MSNBC, said she said the same of the presidential nominee. "I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation."
Fiorina said the Democratic candidates also don't have the business background for such a task.
Flamboyant and divisive, Fiorina served as president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 until 2005, when she was fired. She pushed through a $24 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. in a deal that caused job losses and cut her company's value, although it rebounded to overtake Dell as the No. 1 seller of PCs.
Fiorina left with a severance package of $21 million, the type of "golden parachute" McCain has recently criticized.
She asserted Tuesday that Palin, who was mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, before being elected governor in 2006, had more executive experience than Democrat Barack Obama.
Her remarks came as McCain and Obama tangle over which candidate is best suited to bring stability to the economy and reeling financial markets.
Predictably, the Obama campaign pounced. "If John McCain's top economic adviser 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?" spokesman Tommy Vietor asked.
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