Posted on 07/13/2009 4:56:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
If you are not from California, you may be in shock at what you are hearing of its financial travails. However, that is nothing compared to what Californians are thinking about their situation.
Remember that Arnold was elected to replace the recalled Gray Davis to resolve the financial mess. Six years later conditions have deteriorated even further; despite double-digit revenue increases for multiple years. The tax base is still too tied to a relatively small group of individuals together with the once-booming housing market and one-time revenue streams. Additionally, nothing has been done to remedy the stranglehold public employee unions have on the legislature and thus the state’s budget. The public employees are paid better than their private sector “employers,” not including the estimated and not-yet-funded liability of $200 billion for pensions.
So if the Terminator wasn’t able to cure the disease that has infected Sacramento, the question is who is going to disinfect the place? More importantly, why would anyone try? Enter Meg Whitman of eBay fame. Ms. Whitman started as the head of eBay when there were 30 employees and $4 million of revenue. When she left, there were 15,000 employees, $8 billion in revenue and universal recognition. Ms. Whitman whetted her appetite for politics during the 2008 campaign, returning to her home base of California to deal with the crushing debacle existing there.
So why would Meg want to tackle such a daunting task? She says in a very believable manner that she cannot stand by and let her adopted home state fail. Having spent twenty years of her career in California, she has seen the decline of the business environment from the best-rated state to the bottom of the list. She has seen leading businesses she knows well, such as Intel, decide to spend billions of dollars to move operations to the neighboring states of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Ms. Whitman feels she offers the right skill set to confront the challenges that others may not be able to do.
Though Meg has become a superstar in the business world and is offering herself up to lead our largest and most important state, there is no pretension in her manner. She comes across as a self-assured individual facing the next mountain to climb, knowing she has skills and temperament to conquer the uphill challenge. And while she is a superstar in business, she does not have a posse building up a false mystique.
She came to this struggle with a Republican breeding from birth. Her instincts are that of a total fiscal conservative. Finances are the most pressing issue and almost the only issue right now. In speaking to her it soon becomes quite clear she gets it. After all, there is no one in history that has a better understanding of the aspects of business than Meg. She built a huge operation that was based on creating a business platform for more individual entrepreneurs than McDonald’s, Seven-11, Subway or any others who came before. While the legislature is deaf to the needs of the businesses that provide tax revenues for the state, their concerns are imbedded in Meg’s very being. Without answering the needs of small and large businesses alike, the revenue base in California will continue to dwindle after the recovery finally begins. Someone has to convince the legislature that the immense costs and regulations that have stifled businesses will soon kill the golden goose that feeds their pet projects. Arnold has failed. Meg brings experience that gives her a chance.
Meg understands, however, that there are other issues that leave the long-term viability of California in doubt. Water has become a leading issue as other states have demanded their share of the Colorado River and a drought has engulfed the state. She has a complete grasp of the issue and sees it more as a failure of state leadership to properly meet the needs of the residents than a water shortage. Local leadership is beginning to build desalination plants despite no help from Sacramento and hand-to-hand combat with environmentalists. As people’s lawns turn brown, the leadership’s inability to resolve this issue will play into her hands as she presents long-term solutions that meet both agricultural and municipal needs.
One of Arnold’s big mistakes is the people he has chosen to navigate his course. The Governor keeps backing a left-wing Democrat, Susan Kennedy, as his chief of staff. We are told she is politically aligned with Arnold, but that is hard to buy. The problem is his administration is riddled with Susan Kennedy types and worse. Meg understands that the people she brings with her to manage and tame the huge California bureaucracies are the keys to her success. That is something Arnold has never grasped and has harmed his own potential success.
Meg’s candidacy has sparked great interest throughout California and the nation. She has garnered significant endorsements including many that have switched from her main opponent after her entry into the race. She has attracted a very talented staff functioning in all aspects of a campaign. These endorsements and organization have been fruitful for her fundraising. Despite being perceived as a self-funding candidate she has raised $6.5 million, outdistancing all of her competition. This was done with help of some of the biggest names on the money side of California politics who have jumped on to her team.
Meg faces a tough primary against Steve Poizner, the incumbent Insurance Commissioner, who has some of the same credentials. She would then have to tackle Jerry Brown, the probable Democratic nominee, making another run 28 years after he last left the Governor’s office. But if the economy remains in the doldrums, Meg’s chances look particularly good. If the zoo that Sacramento has become continues on the downward spiral that currently exists, California residents will be looking for someone to accomplish what Arnold could not. Meg looks like the one.
Surgery is used to remove that which may kill the patient. If SanFreakcisco, Berserkley, and most of LA LA Land would break off and slide into the sea, California could be saved!
As a long-time seller on eBay, I have to say that I was not impressed by the way Meg ran that company.
Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian-American, founded eBay in 1995 at the age of 28. He brought Meg over from Hasbro to be eBay’s CEO. Her decision to move from Massachusetts to California netted her over $1 billion in stock and pay during her tenure at eBay.
Many long time eBay sellers who were annoyed with her called her “the toy lady.”
Meg had a habit of pissing off the sellers and doing so often. She had eBay purchase the Internet phone service Skype, which turned out to be a disaster; eBay had to write off $900 million because eBay over paid when they purchased Skype.
They wasted $100 million purchasing Billpoint, eventually closing it down after eBay purchased PayPal.
When “item specifics” were introduced, the book categories vanished as did the art categories and the categories for a number of other categories, making in next to impossible for potential buyers to browse and causing the business of sellers of these items to plunge like a stone. eBay eventually rectified this decision, but there are many bone-headed blunders over the years that caused many sellers to just give up in disgust.....Meg was at the forefront of most of these errors in judgement.
The prices realized on eBay are only a fraction of what they were eight or nine years ago. Part of the fault is the endless changes (for the worse) over the years, and part of the problem is the ongoing Obama depression.
California needs a conservative governor, an unlikely event in light of the liberal electorate. Should Meg somehow get elected, she will be another RINO.
She’s a globalist socialist.
Californians should run screaming from her and never elect her to the governorhip.
Government is NOT business, the new governor better be willing and able to listen to the citizens. No more trips to China to get marching order, like Arnold does.
“Dream on - you are already behind the eight-ball?”
Excuse me, where do you live?
The article just smells like a PR puff piece to me.
If she’s so great, she doesn’t need to be sold so hard.
She is also anti-gun. The early days of ebay saw great deals on gun parts, magazines, scopes, etc.....
As soon as Meg came on board, NOTHING to do with firearms parts kits, magazines, etc.
She can go to hell IMHO with the rest of the anti-gun, socialist globalists.
As is clear from my member profile, I live in Florida but so what? I have lived in California and I pay attention to the news! Examples of the use of environmental effects to stop projects abound in the news. Solar power in the Mojave, Topaz Solar Farm and Off-shore Drilling in California. I can find others but have I made my point?
Yea, well I don’t know where you were when American history was taught but America was built on “dreams” and if you “think” FL is much better off than CA; you have another thought coming.
While you ran off to FL, we have remained here to fight.
And I just made my “point” LMAO
Yep. I wouldn’t vote for her based on the 2A issue alone. No more compromises with these slimy RINOs.
“As is clear from my member profile, I live in Florida”
Please tell us all where in your profile it states that you “live in Florida?” LOL
“I’m a semi-moderate Conservative with a libertarian streak but I refuse to be pigeon-holed. I was the sole WASP student who helped found the Black Studies course at Beaufort HS in SC. [It was ‘taught’ by pre-famous writer, Pat Conroy]. I have a strong science interest and proudly say that I like reading good Science Fiction like Heinlein, Bruce Sterling, David Weber and many others.
I am a computer programmer doing Java consulting and I am a strong amateur historian. I am perhaps proudest of being a 57+ gallon Blood Donor [11/13/01] (thanks to pheresis donations). Now 62+ gals (09/13/02), 73g (07/30/05), 76+g (02/04/06), 80+ (12/30/06).[Blood Bank recalculated and put me at 106+gals in 2007] As of 2009, I have been denied pheresis donations as my arms can no longer stand the strain so now the count will only grow by standard whole blood donations (113+gallons).
As an Army brat, I was raised in several countries and came to see ‘Zone Interior’ as a special country. There are several things that I love; “High Flight”-Magee, Robert A Heinlein, Rudyard Kipling, “Oh Captain, My Captain”-Whitman, Babylon 5, Shelby Foote and the Freeper “Word For The Day”.
OK, color me chagrined - My Profile page when I edited it showed "Florida" selected as my state BUT it apparently 'never took' so the USofA Flag still proudly waved. Now fixed but embarrassed for the prior statement! Thanks for the point-out!
Good luck Cali, an emerging third world country, with first world debts being filtered thru a second world financial system.
If CA folks came up with widespread desalinization & filtration systems, pumped their oil and mined their mountains for metals & minerals......
Never mind.
We just need some “law & order” and conservative LEADERSHIP in Sacramento instead of the RINO’s & ‘Rats’ liberalism which has tarnished out state!
Used to live there. It sure is pretty. The people can be truly nuts though.
In my youth, I always wanted to live around Big Sur. Didn’t really think I would. Of course, I might have ended up rather crispy. Especially recently.
A convertible, Hwy 1, sun and moon like nobody’s business, lots of bottled water and jerky. Man, what a ride.
That socialist bitch can go straight to hell!
Keep your sorry ass in Florida!
Never fear. They’ll take her down, just like Palin.
Yes get rid of the flotsam in the Legislature - but what about all the cushy, unnecessary public union jobs - how can anyone fight the unions? They control just about everything including the politicians.
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