After firing 18,000 employees as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina believes Californians "have serious concerns about job creation."

Failed CEO Of Hewlett-Packard

As CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina laid off 18,000 workers. When reflecting on her tenure, she admitted she wished she had "done them all faster."

Fiorina Fired At Least 18,000 HP Employees

Millionaire Fiorina Called the Outsourcing of American Jobs "Right Shoring." The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Labor unions have battled 'offshoring,' which Fiorina calls 'right-shoring,' for decades, he said."  [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04]

Fiorina Defended The Outsourcing Of American Jobs. Investors Business Daily reported, "During their presentation, Barrett and Fiorina had to defend the tech industry for its growing reliance on overseas tech workers. IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and others have moved many jobs offshore, including customer service call center operators and even engineers." [Investors Business Daily, 1/8/04]

Fiorina Laid Off Nearly 18,000 HP Workers During "Restructuring." The Omaha-World Herald reported, "Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, Calif., had a $ 903 million loss on revenue of $ 56.6 billion for its fiscal year that ended last Oct 31. According to a summary by Hoover's Inc., an Austin, Texas, provider of business information, Hewlett-Packard has undergone extensive restructuring under Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina. The company announced earlier this year that it planned to cut 17,900 people by October because of a weak economy and its merger with Compaq." [Omaha-World Herald, 9/29/03]

Fiorina Suggests Her Biggest Mistake Was Not Firing More People More Quickly. Fortune reported, "Fiorina does not agree, naturally, that there's been a brain drain (at HP). In fact, she believes that one lesson she's learned while running HP is that she should have moved more quickly in ejecting certain people. Smartened up now, she says, 'I would have done them all faster. Every person that I've asked to leave, whether it's been clear publicly or not, I would have done faster.'"  [Fortune, 2/7/05]

Fiorina: "There Is No Job That Is America's God-Given Right Anymore." The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Fiorina's statement that 'there is no job that is America's God-given right anymore' triggered particularly strong reaction. The pair spoke in Washington representing the Computer Systems Policy Project, a group of eight chief executives from the nation's top information technology firms." [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04]

Fiorina Comments On Offshoring Enraged Workers Groups. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Comments made in Washington on Tuesday by Carly Fiorina, CEO of Palo Alto information technology giant Hewlett-Packard, and Craig Barrett, chief executive of Santa Clara chipmaker Intel Corp., drew an unusually strong reaction from workers, who suggested the pair forfeit their own highly paid jobs to Chinese or Russian executives working for a quarter of their pay." [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04]

Enraged Workers E-Mailed Chronicle To Complain About Fiorina's Insensitive Comments. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "But with unemployment at 7.2 percent in Santa Clara County in November, the latest figure available, Fiorina's statement hit a sore spot.  'I am curious how Ms. Fiorina would feel about her job being outsourced to China or India,' Sean Ryan of Alameda, where the county unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, wrote in a representative e-mail to The Chronicle. 'I am certain that there are many extremely bright, ambitious and successful executive types in those countries who would be able to do her job just as well if not better than she can at a cost savings to HP shareholders of millions of dollars per year.'" [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04]

Centerpiece Of Fiorina's Tenure Described As "Total Flop" And "Disastrous"

Merger Failed To Produce for Shareholders, Make HP More Competitive. Fortune reported, "First, under the only lens that matters, did the famed merger that Fiorina engineered between HP and Compaq produce value for HP's shareholders? Second, with that merger nearly three years past, is HP in shape to thrive in its brutally competitive world? The answers are no and doubtful...This was a big bet that didn't pay off, that didn't even come close to attaining what Fiorina and HP's board said was in store." [Fortune, 02/07/05]

Even Before Compaq Merger, Fiorina's Tenure At HP A Series Of Disappointments. According to the Economist, "She has had to warn repeatedly of disappointing results. In the nine months to July, HP saw its net profit fall by 82%, to $506m. The company has slashed costs, announced 6,000 job cuts and asked staff to volunteer for a temporary 10% pay cut. Although there had been some speculation that Ms Fiorina would be replaced, the takeover of Compaq shows that she has - at least for the time being - still got the backing of her board." [Economist, 9/4/01]

Centerpiece Of Fiorina's Tenure Described As A "Total Flop."  The London Observer reported, "With hindsight, it's hard to see how Carly Fiorina, America's pre-eminent female executive, who was fired as CEO of Hewlett-Packard last week, could have survived. The centerpiece of her career - a $ 24 billion merger with Compaq - was a flop; HP's board was threatening to strip her of day-to-day responsibilities at the firm; As one of only eight women heading Fortune 500 companies, the HP/Compaq deal was Fiorina's fatal error: not just because the strategy was flawed - two years on it has not achieved its goal of improving cost efficiencies in HP's PC business - but also because she alienated too many people in the process of pursuing that goal." [London Observer, 2/13/05]

HP/Compaq Merger Described As "Disastrous." According to the London Observer, "Since the merger, HP has lost market share and failed to revive its profit margins. It lost the number one position in personal-computer market share last year to Dell. While the share price of Dell has soared over the past 18 months, HP's has floundered. Indeed, the merger was so disastrous that Fiorina fought off three attempts to spin off HP's highly profitable printer business and cut the PC business adrift. After her departure last week, shares in the company rose nearly 10 per cent on that prospect." [London Observer, 2/13/05]

Fiorina's Personality And Management Cited For Failure. According to the International Herald Tribune, "Fiorina's personality and management style ultimately led to her demise. She used hardball tactics to suppress the opposition of Walter Hewlett, the company's largest shareholder and the son of its co-founder William Hewlett, to the 2002 Compaq merger...Last year, when the company's struggling corporate computer division failed to meet its sales growth targets, she abruptly fired three top executives in what many people, both inside and outside the company, saw as a public hanging." [International Herald Tribune, 2/12/05]

Hewlett Alleged Merger Would Result In Even More Job Losses. The Washington Post reported, "HP has said the merger would result in 15,000 layoffs. But Hewlett said in his filing that the company's management knew that it risked losing 24,000 jobs. Hewlett also referred to an internal company memo that notes that profits for the merged operation for 2002 and 2003 may be 'significantly below' the projections company executives have put before the public." [Washington Post, 3/29/02]

Legality Of Merger Challenged As Coercion & Insider Deals Alleged

Dissident Director, Co-Founder Son Walter Hewlett Sued HP Over "Illegal Merger." The Washington Post reported, "Walter Hewlett sued Hewlett Packard Co. yesterday, accusing the company of illegally strong-arming an important investor to vote in favor of its takeover of Compaq Computer Comp. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, focuses on the company's interactions with Deutsche Asset Management, a unit of Deutsche Bank, which is HP's 11th-largest institutional shareholder, with a 1.31 percent stake." [Washington Post, 3/29/02]

Last Minute Switch Gave HP Merger Victory. The Associated Press reported, "In an unusual move against a company by one of its own directors, Hewlett claimed the investment arm of Deutsche Bank originally voted 25 million shares against the deal, but switched 17 million at the last minute after HP threatened to take future business away." And according to the Washington Post, "On March 19, the last day of voting, executives at Deutsche Bank, who had originally opposed the merger, changed their minds and voted in favor. That last-minute reversal was what gave HP the narrow margin it needed to announce victory, according to sources familiar with the preliminary tallies. The difference between the 'yes' and 'no' votes is believed to be between 0.5 percent and 3 percent." [AP, 3/28/02; Washington Post, 3/29/02]

Hewlett Alleged That Management Crossed Line To "Coercion." The Washington Post reported, "Walter Hewlett alleged in the suit that HP officials pressured the company by leading it to believe that its business with HP would be in danger if it voted against the merger. On March 15, HP secured a $ 4 billion line of credit with Deutsche Bank and several other institutions. 'The allegation is that management crossed the line from persuasion to a form of coercion,' said University of Delaware professor Charles Elson, who specializes in corporate governance issues." [Washington Post, 3/29/02]

In Leaked Voicemail, Fiorina Told HP CFO They Would Have To Do "Something Extraordinary" To Win Merger Vote. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "It also underscores a festering problem at HP involving leaks -- a dilemma dramatized this week by the unauthorized release of a controversial voice mail from HP Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina to Bob Wayman, the company's chief financial officer. In the voice mail, Fiorina had told Wayman that they had to do 'something extraordinary' for two major HP investors to win last month's proxy vote on the company's planned merger with Compaq." [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/1/2/02]

Fiorina Referred Specifically To Deutsche Bank In Voicemail. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Fiorina referred to Deutsche Bank and another shareholder, Northern Trust, in the voice mail, telling Wayman: 'We may have to do something extraordinary for those two to bring 'em over the line here.'" [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/12/02]

Deutsche Bank Forced To Pay $750,000 To SEC For Conflict Of Interest Related To Merger. The Washington Post reported, "A Deutsche Bank AG unit agreed today to pay $750,000 to settle charges that it neglected to inform clients about a conflict of interest when it voted their shares in favor of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. Deutsche Bank's asset-management division initially had made up its mind to oppose the merger in 2002, but colleagues at the investment-banking division asked it to reconsider, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought the charges. The asset-management side agreed to meet with HP's chief executive Carly Fiorina and chief financial officer Bob Wayman, and after the conference announced that it had switched sides." [Washington Post, 8/9/03]

Tumultuous Tenure Marked By Backstabbing & Embarrassing Corporate Leaks

Fiorina's Tenure Marked By Leaks, Backstabbing, Embarrassing Revelations. On a trip to Davos, Fiorina learned that she had lost the confidence of the board, that her responsibilities were to be stripped, and that the Wall Street Journal had gained access to private corporate information. "It is hard to convey how violated I felt," Fiorina wrote in Tough Choices, her autobiography. "Until a board makes a decision, its deliberations are con-fi-dential. Whoever had done this had broken a bond of trust with me and every other board member....Trust is a business imperative. No board or management team can operate effectively without it." [The New Yorker, 2/19/07]

Fiorina Demanded A Confession From Board Members. The New Yorker reported: "The next day, Fiorina convened a conference call with all the board members except (Patricia) Dunn (an HP board member), who was on vacation in Indonesia, and demanded a confession from any director who had spoken to (Pui-Wing) Tam (a reporter with the Wall Street Journal) or any other reporter. One board member, Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr., a vice-chairman of Verizon, was so distressed by the leak that he urged Fiorina to ask for the resignation of every director, re-nominating only those she felt could be trusted. Instead, she asked the board's nominating and governance committee to order an investigation by the company's outside counsel, Lawrence Sonsini, to identify the leaker." [The New Yorker, 2/19/07]

HP Board Member Tom Perkins: "Leaks Don't Happen in Stable, Happy Companies." According to The New Yorker, HP board member Tom Perkins said: "'Leaks don't happen in stable, happy companies. They're a steam valve. People talk. They're a symptom of something else.' In this case, they indicated dissatisfaction with Fiorina's leadership. In what Fiorina should have recognized as an alarming turn, the nominating and governance committee also asked Sonsini to poll directors about the effectiveness of the board and Hewlett-Packard's leadership." [The New Yorker, 2/19/07]

Fiorina Admitted To Sheltering HP Profits Overseas

During An Appearance In Milwaukee Wisconsin, Fiorina Admitted Keeping HP Profits Overseas Even Though It Hurt U.S. Economy.  Discussing cash management during her tenure at HP Carly Fiorina said, "We left billions of dollars in cash overseas because of the differences in tax rates. And that inability for us to bring cash back home to this market absolutely impacted our investments in this market." [Fiorina Remarks, Milwaukee, WI]

Hewlett-Packard Held $14 Billion In Profit Overseas To Avoid Paying Taxes. The Washington Post reported, "By the end of its 2003 fiscal year, Hewlett-Packard Co. had 'indefinitely' deferred taxation on $14.4 billion of foreign earnings, according to SEC filings, a move that helped lower its effective tax rate from the statutory corporate income tax rate of 35 percent to 12 percent." [Washington Post, 1/2/04]

As Head Of HP, Fiorina Undercut U.S. Foreign Policy

Forbes: Hewlett-Packard Exported Goods To Dubai To Open Up Markets In Iran.  In the April 12, 2004 issue a Forbes magazine story titled "Trading With The Enemy" reported, "If you want to get around export controls, just sell the product to a front company in Dubai. The middlemen will take it from there... Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft, among many other U.S. companies, keep Dubai offices and are favorites these days among Iranian traders in Dubai. Reason? Strong demand for 'anything high-tech for military or oil services,' says Bolurfrushan of the Iranian Business Council." [Forbes, 4/12/04]

1997: Hewlett-Packard Joined Forces With Redington to Form Redington Gulf To Open Up Markets To Iran. According to Al-Bawaba, "Commencing operations in 1997, with their head office in the UAE, Redington Gulf currently has country offices located at UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt with a team of over 100 professionals managing these offices. The company aims at increasing its market share and expanding its reach in the Middle East through more in country offices. Redington and HP partnership was launched in the Middle East six years ago for one market - Iran, and one product group - IPG. Today it boasts of covering the entire region and across multiple product groups and support services." [Al-Bawaba, 10/7/03]

1999: HP Manager Said "We Are Optimistic... Iran Is A Big Market For Hewlett Packard Printers." While other IT companies were wary to target Iranian markets due to sanctions, Hewlett Packard maintained it's ability to sell products to the country through a joint venture. Albrecht Ferling, HP's Middle East general manager said, "We are optimistic. We have to wait for changes. Iran is a big market for Hewlett Packard printers. Our growth rate there is 50 per cent." [Gulf News, 11/1/99]

2003: Fiorina Touted Success In Middle East In The Face Of Falling Domestic Revenue. In a conference call releasing Hewlett-Packard's earnings for the first quarter of 2003, CEO Carly Fiorina said, "Our revenue shortfalls were largely confined to the U.S. market, as weak commercial spending continued." She added, "In the Americas, revenue declined 7% sequentially because of weakness in the U.S. and Latin America. Canada, on the other hand, reported solid sequential revenue growth. The strongest performance was in Europe, Middle East, and Africa where revenue was up more than 6% from the previous quarter." [Hewlett Packard Q1 2003 Earnings Conference Call, Fair Disclosure Wire, 2/25/03]

2003: Under Carly Fiorina, Redington Gulf Surpassed $100 Million In Annual Sales. In a 2003 press release, Redington Gulf announced that it had crossed the $100 million milestone in shipments from Hewlett-Packard across all product groups. [Al-Bawaba, 10/7/03]

Fiorina Was Fired By Hewlett-Packard After A Tenure Mired By Scandal, Failure & Embarrassment

February 2005: Fiorina Fired By Hewlett-Packard Board. According to the Associated Press, "Carly Fiorina's nearly six-year reign at Hewlett-Packard Co. ended abruptly Wednesday as board members forced her out, disappointed by her inability to transform a plodding technology giant dominated by printer sales into a more nimble innovator. H-P's stock, which has gone nowhere for two years and is down two-thirds from its peak in 2000, rose almost 7 percent after earlier soaring almost 11 percent on the news of her ouster." [Associated Press, 2/9/05]

Fiorina's "Rocky" Tenure At Hewlett-Packard Marked By Scandal. The Washington Post reported, "But until recently, Fiorina's claim to fame was 5 1/2 rocky years at Hewlett-Packard, where she battled the company's founding families to push forward with a $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer in 2002, then failed to create the profitable computer giant she had promised. In February 2005, she was publicly ousted by HP's board, but not before she ordered the first of a series of leak investigations that would spin into a highly publicized scandal." [Washington Post, 4/2/08]

Board: Fiorina Fired for Failing To Achieve Objectives. According to CBS/AP, "Board members said they fired Fiorina, one of corporate America's highest ranking female executives, because she failed to execute a planned strategy of slashing costs and boosting revenue as quickly as directors had hoped. 'She made a lot of changes, including the merger with Compaq, layoffs, and reorganizations. A lot of employees resented her leadership,' said CBSNews.com Technology Analyst Larry Magid.  [CBS/AP 2/9/05]

Out Of Touch, Fiorina Described Her Relations With HP Board as 'Excellent' A Month Before She Was Fired. The International Herald Tribune reported, "Asked to describe her relationship with her board of directors, the embattled Hewlett-Packard chief executive, Carly Fiorina, replied with a single word: "Excellent." Perhaps she was in denial, or just out of the loop, but Fiorina's confrontational tenure as chief executive of the world's second-largest computer company was unraveling." [International Herald Tribune, 2/12/05]

2007: Fiorina Still "Mystified" By Loss of Board Support. According to The New Yorker, "Fiorina professes still to be mystified by her loss of board support. According to Keyworth, the answer is simple: 'Fiorina had a vision, and she did a phenomenal job acquiring Compaq and combining the assets. But we had to make the assets deliver. We had an execution problem. The stock took a big hit. She was a better saleswoman than a manager.'" [The New Yorker, 2/19/07]

2005: Secretive Handling Of Compaq Merger Deal A Factor That Doomed Fiorina. Fortune reported, "Meanwhile, she thinks back on the post-bubble days of 2001, when the Compaq acquisition was booting up, and argues that drastic action at HP was essential. The critical problem was buckets of red ink spilling from computers. And significantly, says Fiorina, 'neither the market nor the organization understood the difficulty HP was truly in.' She wishes now she had found some way to be more 'transparent' then about HP's problems. That would have prepared people for the merger. But candor, she maintains, would have also further damaged the company, hurting employees' confidence, sales efforts, and probably the stock price. So she kept quiet. This backward look, of course, can be viewed as somewhat suspect (or even 'self-serving,' as one institutional investor puts it), in the sense that it argues Fiorina then had to do something dramatic, like a huge merger.'" [Fortune, 2/7/05]

2008: Fiorina Said Capital Markets Need More "Transparency and Accountability." Fiorina said, "Capital markets work best when there is transparency and accountability, and we need more of both. We need to simplify the mortgage application process so people can understand it. Because managers did not fully understand a set of complex financial instruments, initial losses in the market spawned a more serious crisis of confidence." [RNC Victory Chair Fiorina Statement on McCain Housing Industry Remarks, 3/25/08]

Fiorina Offered More Style Than Substance During Tenure As Head Of HP. According to Fortune, "In the midst of all the competitive pressures bearing down on her, and in the struggle of managing the unwieldy company she created, Carly Fiorina sometimes talks as if she sees a vision all her own. She hauls it out in the opening lines of internal speeches, articulating her goal of making HP 'the world's leading technology company.' The ambition is a curiosity rouser because it implies that she has firmly in mind what company right now holds that title. But that turns out not to be true. ...  But then, you wonder, if she doesn't know who the leader is now, how would she know whom HP has to pass and when to claim victory?" [Fortune, 2/7/05]

McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign

Fiorina Tapped To Head The RNC Victory Fund & Advise McCain On The Economy

Fiorina The Public "Face" Of The McCain Economic Team. The Washington Post reported, "Gramm, as a former Senate colleague, has an older, deeper connection to McCain, but Fiorina may soon be more closely identified with him. Since McCain installed her last month at the Republican National Committee, the once-high-flying chief executive has held conference calls, made near-daily television appearances and become the face of McCain's economic team." [Washington Post, 1/2/08]

Fiorina Tapped To Head the RNC Victory Fund, Work Closely With McCain. According to National Journal's CongressDaily, "Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard and Frank Donatelli, a lobbyist and former White House political director under President Reagan, will work closely with the McCain campaign. Fiorina will oversee the RNC Victory fund, the entity that historically has raised money for voter-turnout and party-building efforts to support the party's presidential nominee and other GOP candidates nationwide." [National Journal, 3/7/08]

Fiorina Removed As Public Face Of McCain Campaign For Making Numerous Mistakes

CNN: Fiorina Benched Because Of Repeated Gaffes. According to CNN, "Top McCain-Palin official Carly Fiorina is facing criticism from some within the campaign for a day of what they call 'very Biden-like' comments...Another top campaign adviser was far less diplomatic.  'Carly will not disappear,' this source said.  'Senator McCain was furious.'  Asked to define 'disappear,' this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while - but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party's joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign." [CNN, 9/16/08]

September: Fiorina Said McCain Wasn't Qualified To Run A Major Corporation. According to CNN, Fiorina said, "Well, I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation...It's a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company. So, of course, to run a business, you have to have a lifetime of experience in business, but that's not what Sarah Palin, John McCain, Joe Biden or Barack Obama are doing." [CNN, 9/16/08]

July: Fiorina Put McCain In Touchy Situation With Comments About Coverage For Viagra And Birth Control. During an exchange on the Straight Talk Express, a reporter brought up a comment made by McCain adviser Carly Fiorina. McCain was unable to express an opinion on whether or not it is fair that some insurance companies pay for Viagra but not birth control. The conversation is below:

Reporter: ...earlier this week, Carly was meeting with a bunch of reporters and talked about it being unfair that insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control and...

McCain: I certainly do not wanna discuss that issue.

Reporter: But I think you voted against...against coverage of birth control... forcing health insurance companies to cover birth control in the past...is that still your position?

McCain:  Look at my voting record on it, but I have uh...I don't recall the vote right now but I would be glad to look at it again (inaudible).

Reporter: I guess her statement that it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control.  Do you have an opinion on that?

(long pause)

McCain: I don't know enough about it to give you a informed answer because I don't recall the vote, I cast thousands of votes in the senate but I will respond to you, it's a choice (laughter) it's something that I had not thought much about and I did hear about her response... but I hadn't thought much...and I will get back to you today on it... I don't usually duck an issue but I will try and get back to you on it.

[Washington Independent, 7/9/08; YouTube link]

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong: Fiorina Repeatedly Misleads, Deceives, Or Flubs The Facts

Fiorina Flubs McCain's Record On Choice. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Fiorina made the comments - reported by the Washington Post - during a speech about women and health insurance, in which she argued that 'many health insurance plans cover Viagra but won't cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.' Keenan said a McCain presidency would offer women no such choice. 'Obviously, she doesn't know his record,' she said. 'He really did vote against a proposal that would have required insurance companies' to cover prescription contraception in the same way they pay for Viagra." [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/08]

Fiorina Lied To Women About McCain's Record on Choice. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Fiorina's public reassurance to a group of former Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters in Columbus, Ohio, raised hackles after she said the Arizona senator 'has never signed on to efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade.' But McCain has repeatedly underscored his opposition to abortion and has said on the campaign trail that the landmark law that protects a woman's right to abortion procedures 'should be overturned.'" [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/08]

Scathing Criticism Of Fiorina's Economic Deceptions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Fiorina "was lambasted" for saying "that if the Bush's tax cuts are repealed as Senator Obama has proposed '23 million small businesses will see their taxes raised.' That's because '23 million small businesses file their income tax as individuals. And so, when Barack Obama blithely says only the wealthiest are going to be taxed, he is ignoring the fact that 23 million small businesses file as individuals,' she said." [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/08]

Critics Panned The False Remark. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Swampland writer Jay Newton-Small called the statement 'terribly misleading.' 'In fact, 94.5 percent of all (self-employed) entities ... had receipts under $100,000 in 2007,' he wrote. 'When running HP, did 23 million equal a few hundred thousand? No wonder she got fired.'" [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/08]

McCain: Americans Should Be Offended By Lavish CEO Pay, Golden Parachutes

McCain Said Americans Ought to Offended By CEO Pay and Golden Parachutes. During a speech on the economy, Senator McCain said: "Americans are also right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEO's - in some cases, the very same CEO's who helped to bring on these market troubles - bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders." [McCain Economy Speech, 4/15/08]

Despite Being Forced Out, Fiorina's Severance Package Reportedly More Than $42 Million.  According to CNN Money, "Ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will get a severance package worth about $21.4 million, but stands to reap another $21 million after she was forced out by the computer maker's board last week, a newspaper reported Saturday. The additional amount reflects the estimated value of her Hewlett stock and options as well as her pension, which were not included in her severance package, the New York Times reported." [CNN Money, 2/12/05]

Fiorina Said Iraq Had Nothing To Do With Economic Malaise

Fiorina Suggested Iraq War Had Nothing To Do With Current Economic Crisis. During an appearance on the MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Fiorina suggest the war in Iraq had nothing to do with our current economic crisis. "There's no question that the Iraq War is costing us a lot of money," Fiorina replied. "But it's also the case that the housing crisis has nothing to do with the Iraq War. High fuel prices have nothing to do with the Iraq War, per se. And high food prices, in particular, have nothing to do with the Iraq War. ... It's not fair ... to try and make the Iraq War the cause of our current economic difficulties." [MSNBC, "Morning Joe," 4/7/08]

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz Has Blamed The Iraq War For Sending The United States Into A Recession. According to Mother Jones, "On Wednesday, he told a London think tank that the war caused the credit crunch and the housing crisis that are propelling the current economic downturn. Testifying before the Senate's Joint Economic Committee the following day, he said our involvement in Iraq has long been 'weakening the American economy' and 'a day of reckoning" has finally arrived.'" [Mother Jones, 2/29/08]

9 In 10 Americans Believe The Iraq War Has Contributed To U.S. Economic Problems. In a New York Times/CBS poll, 89 percent of those surveyed said the cost of the war has contributed "a lot" or "some" to U.S. economic problems.[New York Times, 4/4/08]

Fiorina Said McCain Supports Privatizing Social Security

Fiorina Said McCain Supported 'Private Accounts for Reforming Social Security. During an appearance on the Bill Bennett Show, Fiorina said McCain was supportive of Social Security privatization. "Well, I know that he has been very favorably inclined to the report that came out a little bit ago, the Republican party made a number of suggestions which he embraced. He has on other occasions said that he supports private accounts as one of the ways to reform the system. But I think he, and I think he will continue to be supportive of those." [Audio via Think Progress, 4/17/08, emphasis added]