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Carson, Fiorina announce 2016 presidential bids

looks like the GOP is gonna have to replace the clown car with a clown bus
 
I like what Fiorina says. If I were a voter I might vote for her. She goes in third place in my Republican candidate list. But unfortunately, the party will probably offer up Bush as the nominee and the same old status quo grind will continue.

Maybe after she runs the USA into the ground, our GDP will rebound 7% overnight?
Stranger things have happened.......
 
Carson, Fiorina announce 2016 presidential bids | Fox News

It's (finally) official


:roll::roll: Let the games begin.

Of the two, Ms. Fiorina has executive experience albeit all of it in the private sector. Whether she can craft a case that such experience would be applicable in governance (where the responsibilities and interests involved differ from those of running a major corporation) remains to be seen. Elements such as leadership, ability to align support, work within economic constraints, etc., likely are transferable. But governance is highly complex, so she will have real challenges to overcome. That her name recognition is low also increases the magnitude of challenge facing her.

I don't believe she will wind up becoming a first-tier candidate. If she runs a capable campaign, she might increase prospects of a major Cabinet appointment were the GOP to win the Presidency. Such a position would offer her a springboard that would increase her chances of attaining an elected position i.e., in the Senate or as Governor, in the future.

Carson, who has no leadership experience is not likely to be a major factor. His rhetoric might excite part of the primary electorate, but it won't be a substitute for his lack of relevant experience. When a candidate is widely seen as not being ready to govern the nation, there's virtually no chance that such a candidate will make it through the primary process, much less be elected in November. That's Carson's problem.
 
I'm not real shocked that both Carson and Fiorina are running. But I doubt either has much of a chance.
 
Of the two, Ms. Fiorina has executive experience albeit all of it in the private sector. Whether she can craft a case that such experience would be applicable in governance (where the responsibilities and interests involved differ from those of running a major corporation) remains to be seen. Elements such as leadership, ability to align support, work within economic constraints, etc., likely are transferable. But governance is highly complex, so she will have real challenges to overcome. That her name recognition is low also increases the magnitude of challenge facing her.

I don't believe she will wind up becoming a first-tier candidate. If she runs a capable campaign, she might increase prospects of a major Cabinet appointment were the GOP to win the Presidency. Such a position would offer her a springboard that would increase her chances of attaining an elected position i.e., in the Senate or as Governor, in the future.

Carson, who has no leadership experience is not likely to be a major factor. His rhetoric might excite part of the primary electorate, but it won't be a substitute for his lack of relevant experience. When a candidate is widely seen as not being ready to govern the nation, there's virtually no chance that such a candidate will make it through the primary process, much less be elected in November. That's Carson's problem.

You can tell this is an excellent analysis because I was thinking pretty much the same thing. As for the bolded - I think that is what Fiorina is actually running for.
 
Yes! Just what I want is Carly Fiorina to run our country into the ground the way she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground. I hope she also remembers to give herself large pay raises while the rest of the country crashes and burns as she refuses to listen to her advisers! Sounds like an awesome candidate.
 
Maybe after she runs the USA into the ground, our GDP will rebound 7% overnight?
Stranger things have happened.......

You mean MORE into the ground than it already is ?

The only candidate out there that has the capability of doing worse than Obamas done is Bernie Sanders.

Talk about a Clown.
 
You mean MORE into the ground than it already is ?

The only candidate out there that has the capability of doing worse than Obamas done is Bernie Sanders.

Talk about a Clown.


Give me quantified metrics that characterize how the country has been run into the ground under Obama.
 
Carson, Fiorina announce 2016 presidential bids | Fox News

It's (finally) official


:roll::roll: Let the games begin.

The inevitable 180 degree turn on conservatives' feelings regarding Affirmative Action and lack of experience will be interesting. And by "interesting," I do of course mean "sadly predictable."

Ah, I see how they'll address at least one part of that. I read an original article a couple weeks ago where Carson said "A lot of people, including myself, have benefitted from affirmative action." So the recent development? The quote has been scrubbed from Wikipedia and the news article has been taken down. It is, however, still in his book.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Y...ve benefited from affirmative action"&f=false
 
Yes! Just what I want is Carly Fiorina to run our country into the ground the way she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground.

Her record at HP is a legitimate campaign issue. She will almost certainly present a narrative of a leader who made tough decisions aimed at strengthening a company that faced difficult circumstances. Her opponents will almost certainly suggest that her leadership impaired the company’s competitiveness and long-term performance. Whose narrative will prevail remains to be seen.

At the time she took the helm, the PC market, which was a key driver of HP’s own opportunities, had reached maturity, even as the Tablet and Smartphone era had not yet been conceived. The once rapid expansion of PC sales had slowed dramatically. A dominant product design had taken hold, closing the door to much room for differentiation. PC’s were increasingly becoming a commodity and an industry shakeout was beginning to unfold. At the same time, the Internet bubble would burst, destroying many young ventures in its wake (with a number of survivors e.g., Amazon.com, positioned to move ahead as the debris of the bubble cleared).

In that context, a business model that relied on rapid employment growth was not sustainable. The company needed to find efficiencies and reorient its product offerings for the evolving market conditions. She took steps that she believed would make the company more competitive e.g., leveraging globalization. Those measures were highly controversial, as they led to layoffs. The relevant question that she will need to answer is whether they made the company stronger.

Perhaps the most contentious issue was HP’s acquisition of Compaq. Compaq was suffering from declining performance, in part on account of the maturation of its industry and, in part, on account of its own past strategic choices. Ms. Fiorina believed that the acquisition would create synergies that would revitalize both companies. The end result was a dramatic reduction in HP’s market capitalization. Ms. Fiorina is not the first CEO to believe that such diversification would revitalize her firm. Indeed, the empirical literature shows that 70% of acquisitions ultimately destroy shareholder value. The relevant question is whether, given the information that was available at the time, she made what appeared to be a sound decision. That one of HP’s cofounders vigorously opposed the acquisition makes that challenge greater.

My guess is that if she focuses on the overall restructuring she undertook, she will have a stronger argument. How she handles the acquisition-related angle provides perhaps the greatest risk to the narrative she will seek to build. A line of argument that the restructuring essentially salvaged the company’s long-term future and that the company needed to take risks (not all of which worked out very well e.g., the acquisition) to chart a better future might be effective.

In the end, how she deals with leadership challenges associated with HP might present one of the more interesting aspects of her campaign. Such challenges resonate in the contemporary world where competition is often intense, various industries are growing rapidly even as other sectors are declining, and trade/financial/labor flows have led to economic and social issues.
 
Give me quantified metrics that characterize how the country has been run into the ground under Obama.

Wow,

8 Trillion in new debt, unprecedented Monetary Stimulus, 6 years of low interest rates and the best Obama can do is to barely manage 2 percent GDP.

Homeowner-ship rates have fallen every year since 2008 and are currently a 20 year low ( with 6 years of record low interest rates ) median house hold income still haven't reached 2007 levels yet and a LFPR falling to a 30 year low with Foodstamp use up 40 percent and the disability rates doubled.

Corporations are hoarding Trillions in Capital Banks are leaving Trlions in excess reserves sit at the FED rather than risk it in the economy. Investors would rather pile into a Stock market propped up with FED stimulus than invest in Obama's economy.

That last GDP report was pathetic. So, Obama's driven it into the ground and like I said the only one out therr with the potential to do any worse is Sanders.
 
Her record at HP is a legitimate campaign issue. She will almost certainly present a narrative of a leader who made tough decisions aimed at strengthening a company that faced difficult circumstances. Her opponents will almost certainly suggest that her leadership impaired the company’s competitiveness and long-term performance. Whose narrative will prevail remains to be seen.

At the time she took the helm, the PC market, which was a key driver of HP’s own opportunities, had reached maturity, even as the Tablet and Smartphone era had not yet been conceived. The once rapid expansion of PC sales had slowed dramatically. A dominant product design had taken hold, closing the door to much room for differentiation. PC’s were increasingly becoming a commodity and an industry shakeout was beginning to unfold. At the same time, the Internet bubble would burst, destroying many young ventures in its wake (with a number of survivors e.g., Amazon.com, positioned to move ahead as the debris of the bubble cleared).

In that context, a business model that relied on rapid employment growth was not sustainable. The company needed to find efficiencies and reorient its product offerings for the evolving market conditions. She took steps that she believed would make the company more competitive e.g., leveraging globalization. Those measures were highly controversial, as they led to layoffs. The relevant question that she will need to answer is whether they made the company stronger.

Perhaps the most contentious issue was HP’s acquisition of Compaq. Compaq was suffering from declining performance, in part on account of the maturation of its industry and, in part, on account of its own past strategic choices. Ms. Fiorina believed that the acquisition would create synergies that would revitalize both companies. The end result was a dramatic reduction in HP’s market capitalization. Ms. Fiorina is not the first CEO to believe that such diversification would revitalize her firm. Indeed, the empirical literature shows that 70% of acquisitions ultimately destroy shareholder value. The relevant question is whether, given the information that was available at the time, she made what appeared to be a sound decision. That one of HP’s cofounders vigorously opposed the acquisition makes that challenge greater.

My guess is that if she focuses on the overall restructuring she undertook, she will have a stronger argument. How she handles the acquisition-related angle provides perhaps the greatest risk to the narrative she will seek to build. A line of argument that the restructuring essentially salvaged the company’s long-term future and that the company needed to take risks (not all of which worked out very well e.g., the acquisition) to chart a better future might be effective.

In the end, how she deals with leadership challenges associated with HP might present one of the more interesting aspects of her campaign. Such challenges resonate in the contemporary world where competition is often intense, various industries are growing rapidly even as other sectors are declining, and trade/financial/labor flows have led to economic and social issues.

I think in many ways the acquisition of Compaq made a lot of sense at the time. Compaq had a strong presence in the data center and at that time that is where it looked like the real growth would be (it wasn't).
 
Give me quantified metrics that characterize how the country has been run into the ground under Obama.

I got a kick out of Debbie Wasserman's interview a couple of weeks ago with Megyn Kelly. She went on and on about the Obama economy and how great it was. When Kelly turned the conversation to Clinton's scandals, Wasserman started comparing Clinton to the Republicans and said what Americans want is not to talk about the scandals but to elect someone who can turn the economy around
 
As for the bolded - I think that is what Fiorina is actually running for.

I believe you're right. Ms. Fiorina simply didn't decide to run for the Presidency and no other position. She ran for the Senate and, considering the voter registration disadvantage, she waged a respectable campaign against an incumbent Senator. I suspect she feels that she can add value in governance and will run for office again. Another plausible scenario would entail her pursuit of the Senate seat that has opened up from Senator Boxer's announced retirement. If she runs a credible campaign, but departs the race at a sufficiently early time, she would have the heightened profile and campaign organization to quickly move into the 2016 Senate race. The deadline for filing is March 11 (and possibly March 16 as Senator Boxer won't be running). As one approaches March 11, enough states will have voted to have a strong idea of who is a leading candidate for the Republican nomination (2016 Primary Schedule | 2016 Election Central). Polling data will add to that picture.
 
I think in many ways the acquisition of Compaq made a lot of sense at the time. Compaq had a strong presence in the data center and at that time that is where it looked like the real growth would be (it wasn't).

Those are the kind of arguments she will need to make. The biggest problem for her is that the son of HP's cofounder (I incorrectly referred to him as a cofounder) waged a vigorous campaign against the acquisition, which makes it more difficult for her to argue that her critics are viewing the acquisition through a hindsight lens. Her case is far from futile. Indeed, she might even be able to argue that her persuading the Board in favor of the transaction demonstrated her leadership capacity (a skill that could be leveraged in dealing with Congress).
 
Of the two, Ms. Fiorina has executive experience albeit all of it in the private sector. Whether she can craft a case that such experience would be applicable in governance (where the responsibilities and interests involved differ from those of running a major corporation) remains to be seen. Elements such as leadership, ability to align support, work within economic constraints, etc., likely are transferable. But governance is highly complex, so she will have real challenges to overcome. That her name recognition is low also increases the magnitude of challenge facing her
With all due respect, I find it hard to believe you're writing about Ms. Fiorina in terms of, "Elements such as leadership, ability to align support, work within economic constraints, etc., likely are transferable."

Are you familiar with her career to a bit of depth? (I realize the bulk of the general public & electorate obviously are not)

I've spent much of my life working in technology, including for one of her main competitors (with their telecom divisions literally a few miles away) when she was at Lucent Technologies; this is a large market with a very small number of really big players - literally counted on one hand. I've followed her career since she made quite the splash "breaking the glass ceilings" while rising-up through the management ranks of the then male dominated tech-telecom industry in the '80's, coincident with starting my tech career then.

She was there in a leadership role during the late '90's when Lucent crashed, burned, and was subsequently scooped-up from the ashes for a mere pittance by Alcatel at the turn of the millennium. Fleeing to the helm of HP, she took one of the most storied & respected names in technology and literally trashed them! It's hard to believe, but she somehow figured out how to consistently make every decision literally in the worst way - her record there is not even mixed, but is one of (grossly destructive) mistake-after-mistake consistently, until finally she was forced out under duress from a corporation in chaos & shambles, leaving it a mere troubled shadow of the tech giant it had once been.

Her record & leadership were so bad, she was tossed-out of the tech-world for good, and reduced to running her non-profit foundation, but even that ran afoul of tax regulations due to her ineptitude (or perhaps worse).

She is the joke of the tech & corporate worlds, to the point of being unemployable in either (since HP - ca. 2005).

And now she has political aspirations aspiring to the top leadership position in the free world?

TL;DR - Ms. Fiorina has an abysmal corporate leadership record.
 
I believe you're right. Ms. Fiorina simply didn't decide to run for the Presidency and no other position. She ran for the Senate and, considering the voter registration disadvantage, she waged a respectable campaign against an incumbent Senator. I suspect she feels that she can add value in governance and will run for office again. Another plausible scenario would entail her pursuit of the Senate seat that has opened up from Senator Boxer's announced retirement. If she runs a credible campaign, but departs the race at a sufficiently early time, she would have the heightened profile and campaign organization to quickly move into the 2016 Senate race. The deadline for filing is March 11 (and possibly March 16 as Senator Boxer won't be running). As one approaches March 11, enough states will have voted to have a strong idea of who is a leading candidate for the Republican nomination (2016 Primary Schedule | 2016 Election Central). Polling data will add to that picture.

Respectable? Isn't that the campaign where she made an ad about evil sheep that became an international laughing stock?

Also, I believe she has said that she will not run for the Senate in 2016
 
Those are the kind of arguments she will need to make. The biggest problem for her is that the son of HP's cofounder (I incorrectly referred to him as a cofounder) waged a vigorous campaign against the acquisition, which makes it more difficult for her to argue that her critics are viewing the acquisition through a hindsight lens. Her case is far from futile. Indeed, she might even be able to argue that her persuading the Board in favor of the transaction demonstrated her leadership capacity (a skill that could be leveraged in dealing with Congress).

I am assuming she is running to try to get to be the VP nominee.
 
I think in many ways the acquisition of Compaq made a lot of sense at the time. Compaq had a strong presence in the data center and at that time that is where it looked like the real growth would be (it wasn't).

I'm not convinced it made sense at the time... very few people thought it made sense ....

using hindsight, however, the decision turned out to be nearly universally recognized as a good one....her decision has absolutely been vindicted.
the Board of HP... well, that another matter.. .certian bapord members have been shown ot have been wrong in opposing the decision.. and they have been shown to to be extremely unethical ( as evident by the subsequent HP spying scandal)


in any event, I think her style of management can be called into question( sowing internal discord, for example)... but the results of her decisions ( compaq mergr, and even pullign the plug on the Pricewaterhouse merger) relly aren't open to challange... they were proven sucesses.
 
With all due respect, I find it hard to believe you're writing about Ms. Fiorina in terms of, "Elements such as leadership, ability to align support, work within economic constraints, etc., likely are transferable."

Are you familiar with her career to a bit of depth? (I realize the bulk of the general public & electorate obviously are not)

I've spent much of my life working in technology, including for one of her main competitors (with their telecom divisions literally a few miles away) when she was at Lucent Technologies; this is a large market with a very small number of really big players - literally counted on one hand. I've followed her career since she made quite the splash "breaking the glass ceilings" while rising-up through the management ranks of the then male dominated tech-telecom industry in the '80's, coincident with starting my tech career then.

She was there in a leadership role during the late '90's when Lucent crashed, burned, and was subsequently scooped-up from the ashes for a mere pittance by Alcatel at the turn of the millennium. Fleeing to the helm of HP, she took one of the most storied & respected names in technology and literally trashed them! It's hard to believe, but she somehow figured out how to consistently make every decision literally in the worst way - her record there is not even mixed, but is one of (grossly destructive) mistake-after-mistake consistently, until finally she was forced out under duress from a corporation in chaos & shambles, leaving it a mere troubled shadow of the tech giant it had once been.

Her record & leadership were so bad, she was tossed-out of the tech-world for good, and reduced to running her non-profit foundation, but even that ran afoul of tax regulations due to her ineptitude (or perhaps worse).

She is the joke of the tech & corporate worlds, to the point of being unemployable in either (since HP - ca. 2005).

And now she has political aspirations aspiring to the top leadership position in the free world?

TL;DR - Ms. Fiorina has an abysmal corporate leadership record.

Three points:

First, I don’t see her becoming a first-tier candidate with a serious chance of capturing the nomination.

Second, it will be her challenge to suggest that her experience provides elements that are transferable. I gave examples of the kind of elements that would be transferable. Whether she demonstrates she possesses them is a different matter.

Clearly, her tenure at HP was controversial and relatively short-lived, so we’re not dealing with a senior executive who indisputably had a lengthy and successful tenure. But was it all bad?

Her critics will suggest that it was. She will argue otherwise, almost certainly suggesting that her ‘tough choices’ positioned it for longer-term success. Whose narrative will prevail remains to be seen.

Third, at the time she was working in senior management at Lucent, the company had largely become little more than a “go-go firm” seeking growth at virtually any risk. The company’s practices of financing purchases of its products that might otherwise not have taken place (common in manias, as one saw with the degradation of mortgage lending as the housing bubble ballooned) and its acquisitions binge could not have been farther removed from its early history as Bell Labs. It was transformed into a high risk technology company that had little resemblance to its long, successful history within AT&T as Bell Labs.

She was a senior manager, but the CEO almost certainly played a much larger role in setting and pursuing the company’s strategic direction. IMO, given its strengths and opportunities, Lucent should have become an industry leader.

The toxic practices of revenue growth maximization and dizzying acquisitions binge destroyed it, for all intents and purposes. I suspect that Lucent’s acquisitions may well have colored her overall perspective on such deals, though I haven’t read her autobiography, so I’m not fully sure of this. However, the fact remains that Ms. Fiorina was just one of the senior managers involved in running Lucent. She bears some, but not all of the responsibility for its demise. The campaign offers an opportunity for critics to vet that part of her record, as well as for her to provide a defense.

Personally, I look forward to that debate. It might make for one of the more serious campaign discussions in an environment in which campaigns are often mounted on the basis of numerous but shallow soundbites.
 
Respectable? Isn't that the campaign where she made an ad about evil sheep that became an international laughing stock?

Also, I believe she has said that she will not run for the Senate in 2016

By respectable, I mean she wasn't defeated in an overwhelming landslide. Despite starting with very little name recognition and very unfavorable voter registration numbers, she came within 10 points of defeating an incumbent Senator in her very first run for office.
 
I am assuming she is running to try to get to be the VP nominee.

That's a possibility, too. However, I think it's less likely as the GOP's nominee will need someone who can carry a critical state e.g., Ohio. I don't think Ms. Fiorina, even if she were the VP candidate would be able to shift California to the GOP. Her lack of governance experience would also be a decided liability, as one should presume that the VP is capable of immediately stepping into the role of the Presidency, if needed.
 
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