Univ. of the Pacific "The Pacifican" op/ed: "Meg Whitman: Increased Spending, Decreased Popularity"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Meg Whitman: Increased Spending, Decreased Popularity

http://www.thepacifican.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2808:meg-whitman-increased-spending-decreased-popularity&catid=561:volume-102-issue-7&Itemid=2

Christiana Oatman

Perspectives Editor



The California gubernatorial election is only a month away and with that means more debates, more commercials and more scandal. The two candidates, Meg Whitman(R) and Jerry Brown (D)have tried to focus their campaigns on everything from overspending to job creation to education. Whitman’s campaign has spent more money than any other non-presidential campaign in U.S. history;over a million dollars a day, according to USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism.It’s ironic how Whitman complains about the state and federal budget deficits and claims she will run the state “like a business” but is ready and able to spend that much. If she’s so willing to spend her wealth, why not use it to help those suffering from the recession’s effects, instead of spending it on telling everyone that once you’re elected you’ll “help” the large percentage of Californians who are struggling to put food on the table? Despite her massive spending campaign,Brown has consistently been ahead of her in the polls—and a recent interview with her former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz-Santillan,

In said interview with Gloria Allred that was posted on TMZ’s website, Diaz-Santillan told Allred that she was an undocumented immigrant and she had worked nine years of long hours with little pay for Whitman. She claimed that Whitman knew she was undocumented and promised that she would help Diaz-Santillan become a documented citizen.

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Whether or not Whitman lied is not really that relevant;it has tarnished her reputation somewhat, as shown by an even larger drop in the polls, but in today’s political media, Whitman’s distraction techniques will almost certainly work and will keep voters from thinking about Diaz-Santillan’s claims that she was overworked and underpaid.

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In her campaign,Whitman continually promises that she will run our state government “like a business.”Businesses are run with one central goal in mind: to make a profit. This often means that many businesses dismiss people and human issues in order to make as much money as possible. In Whitman’s case,not only did she treat the people who worked for her badly, but she didn’t even use her money wisely,like a good business person should,and instead threw a spending spree where she made promises and statements that came back to haunt her in the end. Whitman is a bad fit for California and while the housekeeper scandal isn’t the first or only reason to not elect her, it is still a good example of why business and government shouldn’t mix.

[mike_c]

1. exactly what return does NutMeg expect for her investment...?

Running it like a business, and all? First responsibility to make a profit. What's the payoff, Meg?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

2. Running it like a business and outsource everything might make a profit...

might make a profit for her Foreign(cough)(cough) Investors.