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Funny Business
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She's run one of the most successful e-commerce companies.
She's advised a couple of presidential candidates.
Now, former eBay [EBAY
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] CEO Meg Whitman has decided she wants to serve her country, or at least her state. Whitman, a Republican, is going on the road to give campaign speeches as she launches her run for California Governor. The public is seeing a new side of this veteran businesswoman. I've seen her speak before big crowds before, including eBay World in Las Vegas a few years back, so she knows how to handle herself. But hearing her talk more like a politician is different, and interesting.
Whitman's basic philosophy is classic conservatism: less government, lower taxes, fewer barriers to building successful enterprises. She says we need to spend less, but spend smarter. Education is "a national security priority". She supports investments in alternative energy because they could generate jobs, yet, "We can't impede progress in the name of environmental action that yields little for the environment and even less for our people."
Whitman identifies $32 billion in government savings she finds achievable over five years, including selling empty buildings and "non-strategic land" the state owns, and consolidating government offices to negotiate better prices with vendors.
In other words, she suggests you run the state like you run a business.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same idea, but it didn't work out so well for him. Negotiating with an intractable state legislature, dominated by Democrats, will be a lot harder than keeping buyers and sellers happy on eBay.
She also faces other challenges. Whitman is well known in the Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, but her anti-gay marriage stand may hurt her there. She is not well known in other parts of the state, where her more conservative views would play better. She has about a year to change all that.
Watch a part of a speech Whitman gave this week in Orange County. Watch and see a different Meg Whitman than Wall Street has been used to.
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