From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…
The Discreet Charm of Carly Fiorina
The McCain Administration is shedding officials fast, starting with future Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm. But one who’s hanging in there is former Hewlett Packard Chief Carly Fiorina, ubiquitous as a McCain advisor and advocate on cable TV and the campaign trail. Ms. Fiorina, unlike Mr. Gramm, is always, painfully "on message:" "There are many, many people who would be honored to serve in President McCain’s cabinet and, depending on the opportunity, I would be as well," she explained to reporters last week when questioned about her possible selection as veep.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank calls Ms. Fiorina a "risky running mate" but also "potentially, the most rewarding of his options" even though she is "unvetted and untested." Wall Street Journal reporter George Anders, author of 2003’s "Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett-Packard," tells PD that at HP, Ms. Fiorina was "very strong on understanding the big strategic picture, but was considered hazy on details." Some long-time engineers at HP, where precision was a way of life, regarded her as outright sloppy with the facts. But as Mr. Anders quips: "That usually means ‘on message’ in the political world."
Ms. Fiorina, 53, brings certain personal qualities to the veepstakes besides relative youth, gender and technology sector leadership experience. At MIT, where she earned her master’s degree in management, she wrote her dissertation on partnerships between business and education. She also spent a year living in Ghana as a teenager and has maintained an interest in African affairs. Her recent stump speeches have revealed her commitment to Republican orthodoxy, but little about her personal style or convictions. "She could be quite warm among friends, and very focused in the public forums at HP, but could turn imperious if she wasn’t connecting with her audience," says Mr. Anders. He speculates that Ms. Fiorina would do political "’meet-and-greets well’ . . . but at some point the chilly side of her personality could hurt her."
Murmur, both pro and con, has heightened after a couple recent controversies, including her criticism of health insurers for covering Viagra but not birth-control pills. But Nathan Gonzales, political editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, says that anything Mr. McCain can do that shouts he’s not a typical Republican would be a good idea in a year when voters want "change." On the other hand, picking Ms. Fiorina would mean weathering press fury about her severance package after leaving HP, reportedly more than $40 million. The rebuttal: HP has ended up doing well in recent years, attributed partly to decisions made on her watch.