Career politicians have infected our political system to the absolute disgust of American citizens. We, the people, are longing for modern day patriots to run for public office… Those who don’t think or act like the career politicians that have betrayed the public trust for far too long now.

In closing, I know very little of Meg Whitman, but I do know that she is not a career politician, and for that fact alone, she is worth taking a closer look at as a perspective representative of the people.

I am particularly aghast at Ms. Whitman’s claims for all the reasons you cited. Also, I read a piece in my local paper that she intends to save those billions from the budget by “…eliminating redundant and underperforming agencies and commissions…” This is a promise that Arnold also made, and he may have made some headway in that regard. But it begs the question, which agencies? How do you determine which are underperforming? What is the criteria that you use to determine underperforming? Can we cut the DMV? Some of us think that agency is underperforming. The Coastal Commission, the Parks and Recs Commission?

Thank you Clint, for fighting for us all.

Good luck,
Carole N

Meg Whitman didn’t start nor found Ebay. She came on board when they were a “small” company of 30 employees with huge potential. The founder of eBay was/is Pierre M. Omidyar, who is an Obama supporter. My cousin-in-law, who left Boeing for an eBay position data warehousing position, is a Hillary supporter! Mrs. Whitman really put him to work, so he left for Netflix…lol.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_49/b3911015_mz072.htm

But in all due fairness, Mrs. Whitman’s managerial prowess more specifically, her moves to acquire PayPal was pivotal. That, along with the cultivation of the feedback system and awesome systems automation, and a lengthy moratorium on taxation of internet-based transactions, enabled eBay (and other online resellers/retailers) to grow into an multi-national, global behemoth of a “flea market”. One that is open 24/7/365.

Just wanted to clarify who the founder of eBay was and where Meg Whitman jumped on board of the gravy locomotive. She was hired by Pierre Omidyar to take his business model to new heights and for that she gets a major shoutout. She made some nifty and agile moves.

But as far as the Gubernatorial is concerned, that’s a big stretch as the author has clearly and logically argued.

You said “Great leaders don’t wear green eye shades.” But given the budget that Arnold imposed on California this year (that took more than $1.4 billion from the U.C.s and C.S.U.s; that shifted $1.7 billion formerly paid by the State of California away from K-12 schools-putting these costs on cities and counties that can ill afford them; that took $ 1.2 billion away from state employees-furloughing over 200,000 three days a month who can’t afford this steep a pay cut; that took $361 million away from Health and Human Services (money for the blind, the disabled and the elderly poor); that reduced by $59 million the funding for AIDS prevention, testing, housing, counseling and home-based care; that eliminated $35 million for community clinics-rural, Indian and migrant workers’ health clinics and eliminated $3.9 million for the Black Infant Health Program), I think this state needs more leaders with green eye shades closely monitoring and questioning bogus state budgets.

You mentioned that change depends on a leader’s ability to inspire, cajole and intimidate. We’ve had enough intimidation. Voters and the fourth estate need to pay better attention to what’s happening in Sacramento. Some will say we need more laws. We have laws that aren’t being enforced. California has a constitutional requirement that the governor’s and legislature’s budget must be balanced. Despite these laws, California has run a structural deficit the last 6 years, which resulted in the train wreck we have this year, where the governor tried to eliminate the entire structural deficit in one (particularly bad) year, without increasing taxes.

Cutting money spent on public education will hurt the State of California this year and into the future. This is an especially bad time to do this, when so many are out of work. Friends who are teachers have told me that public elementary schools (that are not getting adequate funding right now) have extra students, because parents can’t afford to send their children to private schools. So there are children who don’t have desks, who have to sit on the floor. Even though it’s early in the school year, classes in Marin County have already run out of supplies (paper, etc.). At the U.C.s, professors (already underpaid by national standards) are having their pay cut. At the CSUs, parents who’d already paid their children’s tuition received a second bill (because the governor’s late cuts caused tuition to be increased after the start of the school year), while numerous CSU classes were being cancelled-as costs increased. At Community Colleges, courses are being cut, teachers are being laid off, while there is a huge increase in the number of students attending Community Colleges.

In conclusion, it seems obvious what results when there aren’t enough people with green eye shades to require that laws and accounting principles be followed instead of the usual annual Sacramento budget shenanigans. Close scrutiny will be especially important during the governor’s lame duck year, when he may engage in penny-dreadful dramas. Watch for this on January 10th, 2010, when he’s supposed to submit a balanced budget, and from June 1st until a budget is passed, when dramatic macho-posturing, aggressive poor-mouthing and mammoth 24-hour legislative sessions may be the rule.

It would be great if you were to report and comment on this as it happens in 2010, since you have political experience and wisdom and aren’t afraid of
the governor.

Sincerely,

Dorothy T