Paul Waldman argues that, contrary to current hype, business acumen and political acumen are two very different skill sets:
In last week’s primaries, Republicans nominated two corporate titans — Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, and Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard — as their candidates for governor and senator, respectively, from California. They join Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, who is the GOP nominee for Senate in Connecticut. Their candidacies rest on two things: the copious amounts of cash each are willing to spend (Whitman has already dropped a remarkable $71 million of her own money into her campaign, before the general election has begun), and the claim that business leaders will perform better in political office than “career politicians.” This is a remarkably common assertion, but one that is almost never scrutinized. Give it a few moments of thought, however, and you realize that it’s almost entirely bogus.