Calbuzz Rant: eMeg Mutters More Malarkey
Calbuzz watched eMeg Whitman — who’s been ducking serious questions from California political writers for months — being “interviewed” on Fox by Neil Cavuto a few hours ago. We waited to post in hopes we’d cool down, but we’re still fuming.
eMeg’s solution to California’s massive budget and spending crisis? Run government more like a business, create jobs and streamline government. Ah, c’mon. Like nobody’s ever peddled that pablum before.
“I’ve run large organizations,” Meg said. “I understand how to lead large organizations. I’ve balanced budgets. I’ve created jobs. As you know, 1.3 million people make their living selling on eBay,” she said. [Note eBay sellers: Meg claims she created your job.] She failed to note, however, as Saul Hansell did in the New York Times the other day, that “John Donahoe, her successor, has pretty much disassembled all of her major strategic moves.”
“We have to streamline government,” eMeg blathered. “Californians can no longer afford the government they have; we have got to give them the government they deserve and works for the people.” Poor Ted Sorenson must be gasping for breath.
This wasn’t an interview – it was a warm-up for an interview, where tepid, mushy platitudes slid by as “answers.” While eMeg was happy to cavort with Cavuto, she’s apparently terrified of the Bakersfield Californian – whose reporter she stiffed at the California Republican Assembly confab over the weekend. Since stumbling through a sit-down with Michael Finnegan of the L.A. Times the day after she announced back in February, she’s avoided every other serious news outlet in California. She’s ducking the Sacramento Press Club’s May 18 debate on the propositions. And Calbuzz is still waiting for our tete-a-tete with her Megness.
eMeg says it’s a “false choice” to have to pose cutting services versus raising taxes. Instead, she said, “We have to make government more efficient.” Aaaaarrgggggh. [Cut to Calbuzz tearing out what’s left of our hair.]
NEWS ALERT HERE: eMeg did announce her support for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. “I would support Mitt,” she said, noting that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “did an admirable job with the job she was dropped into.”
As for how she’ll try to sell herself to the right-wing movementeers in the California Republican Party who think she’s a squishy liberal, eMeg argued for a return to “core principles” of the GOP.
“We can’t lead with the social issues. We’ve got to lead with our power-alley issues – which are not divisive, which everyone can buy into, and let’s lead with what we know most people want and it’s the tried and true formula for creating a strong economy, which allows you to do many other things.”
WTF was the answer? Is she speaking in eCode?
We’re just sayin.’
PS: Note to the City Sunnyvale – eMeg slandered the hell out of you: She said, when making her point about the need to streamline government, that when building a new building for PayPal it took 2 ½ years “to break ground” and required “three consultants to navigate the labyrinth of California regulations.” Could any of that be true? We await your reply.
OMG. Just for record: WHO was “The Bakersfield Californian” reporter stiffed at the convention? Did she likewise stiff local or state electronic news-gathering field reporters from TeeVee?
I’m not a supporter of Whitman, but this editorial smacks of insanity by proclaiming that running the state like a busioness is somehow “pablum.” Look, we have two choices–run the state like a business or run it like an asylum. So far we’ve chosen the latter and it hasn’t worked so well now has it? I had hopes for CalBuzz bt they seem to be heading down the same tired path as the newspapers…
This is funny. Reporters or ex-reporters throwing a hissy-fit because they got stiffed, as if they are entitled to interviews at all.
Her statement that we need to “make government more efficient” shows she has no idea what she is getting into… Making the DMV work better won’t save us money, it will likely cost money.
CA state services [sic.] are absolutely without parallel nationally in their dysfunctional daily operation! NO ONE IS EITHER ACCOUNTABLE, nor seemingly GIVES A DAMN! Perhaps it is under-statement to say the CA State laws & regulations encourage "government by sado-masochism"! That's the way it feels – as a former resident who recently left. At least asylums have some order and discipline – they have scheduled meals! Not CA!
Umm…to Anon at 7:09 – you’re absolutely right. All the consultants agree that the best way for a billionaire to be elected governor of CA is to NOT talk to the press. Stiff ’em. Only speak to Faux News. Wave your bank book at the electorate. And, oh yes, use that original line that you will run the state like a business. Jeez!
Exactly how many wealthy candidates for the governorship have claimed they would run the state more like a business? (all of them!)
And won? (zip!)
If you think calbuzz reads like your local newspaper – I’d like to know what paper you take so I can subscribe.
Presumably, running the State “like a business” may mean paying your top execs huge salaries, hiding expenditures from shareholders (taxpayers, that is), stripping your employees’ retirement program to the bone, spending on luxuries while fighting back employees’ unions and, ultimately, declaring bankrupty and asking the taxpayers to bail you out. It’s funny, but this whole notion of “running gubmint lahk a BIZness!” doesn’t evoke the romance it once did.
eMeg is a construct, a robot if you will. Give her a break. They havent finished programming her yet, software glitches everywhere.
Once they upload the “conservative pander” program, they will set her loose onto the California press.
eMeg is like a PC, blue screens of death every 10 minutes.
Ought to make her a Mac. She isnt really a republican anyway, that program is failing to load apparently.
Two things. 1) She didn’t slander sunnyvale. That is par for the course. Political reporters should go talk to their reporters on the real estate desk to understand the nightmare that is development regulations in this state. Frankly 2 years is probably not bad. Double that if it had been in the coastal zone. 2) Non of the political “consultants” that are involved in the GOP in this state “get” that so much of this state is on fiscal autopilot – whcih is determined by state AND federal law and case load. At least 60% of the state general fund is actually just passed along to school districts for K-12 and counties for health and human services. 15% more to corrections which is largely a function of the mandatory sentancing guidelines and federal courts that say you can’t put 4+ prisoners in a 6×10 cell. At the danger of stretching the analogy – the best corporate job for running california could be leading GM – a company which has such high fixed legacy costs that it seriously contrains ones options. Meg COULD be good but only if she decides to get off the horse and STUDY this stuff and intellectually grapple with challenges of our Golden State.
Another name I heard for her is:
Meg Alomaniac
Rent-a-horse for Fortune photo shoot.
Ask Meg Alomaniac video clips are atrocious
MEG a Woman group looks like the Junior League.
Garry South had it right yesterday.
She will spend a lot of money and still lose in the primary.
Tom Campbell is looking better all the time.
To Anonymous @ 8:22: You hit it right on the head. Government is not a business; if it was there would be potable water only in big cities since the cost analysis would show that providing it to anybody else is not profitable.
Let her spend her money on the campaign. The economy needs the help.
eMeg (cute) is a fully programmed creature of the institutional republican bureaucrats that have plagued statewide politics for about 30 years. These clowns started with “Duke” and have held on to the pay-to-play and governor’s office jurisdictions for some time now. Once they were banished from Arnold’s inner circle, they found another host, just like all good parasites.
Compare the rhetoric people. It’s almost verbatim Recall Arnold from 2003. eMeg is nothing more than Schwarzenegger in drag.
“run the state like a business” — great idea. That means that whenever we need more revenue taxes would automatically be increased (like gas prices). No more 2/3 vote, no more vote by the Legislature on taxes, they would be decided by one person — the Guv. So after emeg gets the voters to undue the part of the state constitution that requires silly things like votes on taxes, and let’s the governor automatically adjust all taxes (state and local), then we’ll be much more like a business. I can’t wait for the “bonuses” going to all of the state workers. Businesses have so many great benefits state workers don’t get, private cars, planes, expense accounts, stay at the finest resorts — cool. Run like a business, run emeg, run.
Thanks for calling these loser candidates out on their BS. As an independent who will vote for the best candidate & platform no matter what party it's VITAL that we now get honest answers and viable solutions to our problems. No matter who gets elected they better be for real and not afraid and capable of making change and hurting ALOT of people's feelings.
Oh, yeah, Meg’ll run California like a business. But her board of directors will be Jon Coupal and the right-wing, anti-tax zealots, with maybe a couple of gay-haters thrown in. If she thinks she can get anything accomplished with people like that tying the state in knots, good luck!
Not sure why the Buzzers are so fried over the FOX interview. Interviews are meant to inform us about candidates’ qualifications and intentions. This was one session in what will become a portfolio of information about Meg Whitman. As the campaign unfolds, she’ll either submit to more rigorous questioning, or she won’t. If she continues to bob and weave, she’ll be left with the kind of portrait that emerged from the Cavuto interview: shallow, clueless and woefully unprepared for the task ahead. In this particular era, there are no simple answers to the challenges that face California, and a year-long campaign eventually will expose the empty-headed pretenders.