Over the past ten years, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s CEO, Meg Whitman, has had a love / hate relationship with eBay users. No matter what your personal thoughts are regarding Whitman, you have to give it to her; she did take eBay to levels no one would have dreamed possible just ten years ago. Well, her tenure at eBay is coming to an end, and her next move is into politics, working high up in Senator John McCain's Presidential campaign.
Back in January, Whitman announced that she would be stepping down from eBay to pursue philanthropy and politics, and her first big step is going to be serving as co-chair of Senator McCain's national presidential campaign.
While we still have not reached the point of McCain being announced the official Republican candidate for the upcoming election, it is all but a forgone conclusion that McCain is going to be the Republican's choice for November's pivotal election in America. After a rocky eight years with George Bush running the show, the Republicans are definitely going to have their hands full with this year's election, and Whitman is coming on board to have a leading role in the campaign's financing and policy development.
Whitman is not the first female from Silicon Valley that McCain has recruited to join his presidential hunt. Earlier this month he announced that former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: ) CEO(from 2000 to 2005) Carly Fiorina was coming on board to lead the campaign's fund raising.
Things are definitely going to heat up soon enough. While McCain is all but a shoo-in for the Republicans, the Democrats are still in the midst of tight battle to see who will lead their charge against the Republican Senator. While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to duke it out on the Democratic side, look for Whitman and her fellow Silicon Valley veteran Fiorina to be working overtime to get ready for their party's fight later this year.
It is shaping up to be a good one.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2008 @ 7:35AM
Michael Schneider said...
It is an interesting campaign. Polls reported yesterday showed John McCain ahead of Hillary and Barack Obama which was something of a surprise and though polls don't matter that much now they do show John McCain may have a chance. Hillary Clinton just changed her position on Iraq-- perhaps because she is behind in delegates--playing the Iraq card in a new way against Barack Obama-- saying she will pull troops out immediately no matter what . Eliot Spitzer was a huge loss to the Dems and probably increases the chance of Mitt Romney being a VP choice.
3-18-2008 @ 3:00PM
Mozelle said...
Meg Whittman took eBay down. She ruins everything she touches.
3-19-2008 @ 2:55PM
greta said...
I am very disappointed with Senator McCain’s association with Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman. What in the world is he thinking? Hasn’t anyone told him?
For those who may not remember or know, Fiorina was the C.E.O. of Hewlett Packard until 2005 when she was fired. Her most famous quote; No American has a God given right to a Job just because they were American. She fired tens of thousands of employees to then outsource jobs overseas. She managed to skip out of Lucent right before the Feds arrived and started the HP Boardroom investigation which connected to the scandal and the hostile culture she created at HP.
Whitman is currently embroiled in a boycott from the buyers and sellers who made eBay (a.k.a. greebay, feepay) successful. Seems like they want to have a cleansing of their members. The boycott calls for no buying or selling and the evacuating from eBay by May 1, 2008. The most recent faux pax is the conflicting story given for what many called ‘mystery auction listings’ mysteriously from the Shopping dot com site (sdc). Explanations started as a glitch in the system, changed to limited test that ran its course, changed to accident and back to a test. The SEC should love this investigation. Keep in mind, eBay’s stocks have been steadily sagging and Wall Street measures eBay based on listings. Can’t forget the current Paypal lawsuit; eBay has tied PayPal to be the only means one can buy/sell on eBay which violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Fiorina and Whitman’s involvement with the Senator will surely guarantee a Democratic victory but then again both want to be the Governor of California so their motives are, usual for them, self serving.
3-24-2008 @ 10:51PM
woodykid said...
Anyone know who that hottie is in the picture - background, to the right of McCain?