John McCain is clearly too out of touch with reality to be president. Phil "cut your whining" Gramm is an idiot. Could Jim Inhofe really be just a hoax? Most of the Republicans still left in office are a disgrace to our country. But there is one left that I have to have some grudging admiration for - Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO and chair of the RNC's "Victory 08".
Wired just posted a great interview with Fiorina (actually the interview was done by a sister publication, "Portfolio magazine").
For those who remember, Fiorina spearheaded the acquisition of Compaq computer by HP way back, and was castigated for it and eventually let go by the company's board. But in fact, HP stock did no worse under Fiorina than any other tech company stock of the time, and the merger has proved quite successful. I've long thought the attacks on Fiorina at the time were unjustified, some of the same sort of misogyny we saw with Hillary Clinton's campaign.
In the interview she quite coherently explains some basic economic issues and problems facing the country - so there is at least one Republican out there capable of understanding this stuff. But the best part of the interview is this analysis of the past 7 years:
L.G.: [...] why do you think that is? That under the Democrats, the fiscal policy seems to be more responsible, and under Republicans, particularly these last seven and a half years, it has been sort of crazy.
C.F.: [...] You're also correct that it is a Republican Congress, and a Republican president, George Bush, who saw the greatest increase in government spending since the Great Society.
L.G.: Why is that?
C.F.: Because they made the wrong choices.
L.G.: I don't know how long you've identified yourself as a Republican.
C.F.: Well, I've been a Republican for all of my voting life.
L.G.: When you joined up, did you think this was going to be a party of conservative stewards of the budget?
C.F.: Yes, and I think it's one of the reasons why Republicans are losing congressional seats, because people are angry over the fact that government spending is out of control. I think it's one of the reasons that Bush's popularity is low. Clearly the war is driving as much if not more of that, but yes, I think there are people who are surprised and disappointed that a Republican president and a Republican Congress have in fact driven a huge spending increase.
Refreshing honesty for a change... If anybody's wondering where John McCain's "straight talk" went, I think I found some! So what are the chances McCain could pick her for VP? Less than zero, based on track record I'd say...
Also, some interesting analysis from Fiorina on fundraising issues:
L.G.: If we're talking about fundraising, it looks like the R.N.C. [Republican National Committee] is doing pretty well. In contrast to the D.N.C., particularly.
C.F: That's right, the R.N.C. is doing very well. The R.N.C. is out-raising the D.N.C. eight to one. All that money matters, it counts. Now that Barack Obama has made a decision to forgo public financing, he has to raise more money in each of the subsequent four months than he's ever raised before.
L.G.: Don't you think, as someone who is used to looking forward and looking at numbers and dealing with money, that Obama's decision was entirely rational and understandable?
[...]
C.F.: [...] I know why he changed his mind. He changed his mind because he's raised so much money and he wants to spend a lot of money. My only point is, having made that decision, he has to raise much more money in the next four months than in any of the previous months. It's a tall order. I think there's clearly been a downside to his credibility in terms of how he explained it. I guess I would just say, they must have incredible confidence in their ability to raise money, and from what I've seen over last couple months, I don't know where that confidence comes from.