CARLY FIORINA (CA-SEN). Fiorina’s political career began when she was forced out of Hewlett Packard. When news of her firing departure broke, HP’s stock surged.
Shares of HP (Research) jumped 6.9 percent in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday on the news. But at one point, the stock was up as much as 10.5 percent.
“The stock is up a bit on the fact that nobody liked Carly’s leadership all that much,” said Robert Cihra, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners. “The Street had lost all faith in her and the market’s hope is that anyone will be better.”
Having walked away from HP with $21 million and a lot of time on her hands, Fiorina decided to get into politics. She became a hilariously ineffective surrogate for the McCain campaign, then decided to run for office herself, apparently on the grounds that the hairdo of the current incumbent is not up to snuff.
Fiorina’s place in political history was secured with the astounding, and now legendary, demon sheep ad against her primary opponent.
Did Brown know about all this, think “long and hard,” and then decide to endorse? Or did he not know about any of it? Hard to say which is worse.
DINO ROSSI (WA-SEN). This is the guy who lost the WA Gov’s race by a handful of votes, then refused to concede, instead launching a recount campaign that dragged on for months, only to have his arguments be so thoroughly rejected by a court that he didn’t even appeal. Norm Coleman’s behavior in the Franken/Coleman epic has probably surpassed Rossi in the annals of political sore-loser-dom, but that doesn’t mean that Rossi shouldn’t maintain a place of honor on that list.
MEG WHITMAN (CA-GOV). Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who is spending heart-stopping sums on her campaign, hardly ever voted before she thought she’d like other people to vote for her. Whitman apparently has an anger management problem – in 2007, she shoved one of her employees so hard that she ended up shelling out $200,000 of company money to settle a lawsuit. She’s all over the place on immigration, having been for a path to citizenship before she was against it. Most famously, Whitman is apparently so terrified of the news media that she basically has refused to talk to them. Here’s an amusing video that someone put together of Whitman’s various dodges.
I’ve never heard of the other out-of-state candidates on Brown’s dance card (Steve Chabot (OH-01), Steve Stivers (OH-15), Tim Burns (PA-12), Rob Wittman (VA-01), John Laughlin (RI-01)), other than John McCain, who has recently set a new standard in running away from your previously-expressed positions. But a quick look at some of the better known in-state candidates touting Brown’s support – Jeff Perry and Brad Marston – tells me pretty much everything I need to know about Scott Brown’s “long and hard” endorsement process.
You are not on the payroll?
Surprised?
I saw clips from an interview from her saying MA voters don’t like the kind of candidate she’d prefer. Then again, we’re not “real America”.
getting dissed like that by Sarah Palin is probably the best thing that could have happened to Brown, in terms of his own reelection in 2012.