Carly Fiorina’s remarks about Sarah Palin not being able to run the company Fiorina herself was forced out of contradict at least ten years of Republican rhetoric regarding “executive experience.”
George W. Bush, remember, was marketed as “the MBA president”, supporters of Mitt Romney touted his executive experience both as Governor of Massachusetts and as VP of Bain & Company. But being an executive in government and an executive in the private sector are actually very different things, especially in terms of the bottom line. So it’s fair to argue that they require different skills. It just contradicts everything conservatives have been saying for a very long time about how to evaluate someone’s fitness for executive office.
–A. Serwer
