Not sure how being head of a company that acts as a middleman between garage sale buyers and sellers qualifies her as a serious gubernatorial candidate. Fraud is rampant on eBay and many people stopped using it as a result. If she couldn't prevent customers from being ripped off, how can she tackle some real problems?

No matter who you support, we need more, not fewer, successful people willing to run for elected office. Building up an innovative online commerce company is valid experience to run a complex and large state. Certainly no worse than running for election and politicking in Sacramento or City Hall.

Considering that the current governor's credentials include starring in action movies and extensive experience with steroid abuse, I'd say that California has a pretty low bar when it comes to gubernatorial qualifications.

I will be very disappointed if the Republicans do not nominate the eminently qualified Tom Campbell.

So-far, Meg Whitman is the only candidate of either party who advocates seriously cutting state spending. Tom Campbell, the highly educated but very much a "politition", says a tax increase is "probably necessary" (rather than any cuts in spending) and the glib, grasping, self-promoting Poizner will tell voters whatever he thinks they want to hear. We need to listen to the one among them who truly has a business sense and may be the only one who can lead California out of this fiscal mess that was clearly caused by over-spending. Listen up!

So nice to see a business exec run rather than a career politico. Someone who actually has expertise running a big company (who cares what the product was? and remember she has other pre-ebay experience) and managing people and a budget and all that other boring but somehow essential stuff.

Californians don't seem to be swayed by pragmatic considerations and seem to prefer movie star looks over gubernatorial talent, so I don't expect her to be elected, but I am vastly encouraged by the fact that she is taking this step.

What is this idea that since a person has lots of money, they must be automatically qualified to do whatever they please? Some people made their money by being in the right place at the right time and I would count Whitman as one of those. Her proposal to cut 40000 state jobs was pretty much met with a collective wtf? since 2/3 of the 100000 jobs that the Governor has control over are related to state prisons.

Think of this: she has less government experience than Sarah Palin had before she became Governor of Alaska. Now that's scary!

If you're going to compare Meg Whitman's experience to Sarah Palin, remember that Palin has more government experience than Obama.

Really Charles? I MUST watch more Fox News, apparently. Here I thought Obama was a 3-term Illinois state senator and a US senator before he was elected President. His government experience surely pales in comparison to Sarah Palin's experience as city council and mayor of Wasilla (pop. 10200) and Whitman's zero experience. I am so misinformed.

Yes,"Good Luck With That", you are definitely misinformed! Three-term Illinois senator? Ha-ha! More qualified than Governor Palin? In your dreams! Try co-conspirator of Ayers, Wright and Balogavich (sp) and all the other Chicago machine-bred crooks. Not to mention non-citizen! You're out of your league!

And, by the way, how come you, a liberal intruder into a civilized Republican discussion about our upcoming gubernatorial candidate, is first out of the box with invalid, boiler-plate Democrat-playbook criticisms? We can all see where you're coming from. Madam, we don't need your canned innaccuracies!

"good luck with that": since when does having lots of government experience mean that a person will do well in elected office? From my point of view, we need leaders who have private sector experience, having run companies where money just couldn't be printed to fill the gap between revenues and spending. Palin doesn't fit that bill, I agree, but Whitman does (not Obama).

How can you support a "citizen" who has been of voting age since 1974 but, according to the following article, never registered to vote until 2002. And even though registered in 2002 she has rarely bothered to take the time to vote. Her veracity is also in question as she says she was registered to vote when she lived n SF but SF has no record that she ever registered there. How much can she care about the state and the citizens if she doesn't even bother to vote. A very poor example of citizenship. Just another wealthy one with no job and lots of time and money on their hands, trying to buy themselves into the headlines.

Sacramento Bee Sep. 24, 2009
excerpt from Web Link

Whitman, now 53, turned 18 and voting age in Suffolk County, N.Y., in 1974. Officials say they have no record of her registering or voting there.

She lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1979 to 1981 after completing a master's degree in business administration at Harvard.

Neither Ohio state elections officials nor Hamilton County Board of Elections officials found a record of Whitman registering or voting there.

For much of the 1980s, she lived in San Francisco as a management consultant at an investment firm, Bain & Co.

The San Francisco County elections office no longer retains records prior to 1992, but said that had she been registered and voting, her registration information would have been transferred to the current system. They have no record of her registration.

Similarly, Los Angeles County has no record that she registered or voted between 1989 and 1992, when she worked for Walt Disney Corp. as a senior executive.

Whitman and her husband, Griffith Harsh, a neurologist, lived in Brookline, Mass., a suburb just outside Boston, for several years in the 1990s. She worked for Stride-Rite, FTD and Hasbro until 1997.

"We had her as a resident for a while, and she was captured by the census, but she was never registered and she never voted," said Patrick Ard, town clerk in Brookline.

Whitman returned to the Bay Area in 1998, when she was hired to be eBay's first chief executive officer and take the company public.

She told delegates at the convention that she had "been a registered 'decline-to-state' voter since 1998." The Bee was unable to find any public record of that registration.

The first registration record The Bee found, in San Mateo County, was dated Sept. 12, 2002.

At that time, she told San Mateo elections officials that she had been registered in San Francisco County, a county official said, after reviewing electronic records.

Yet San Francisco County officials, whose database records active registrations as far back as 1992, said they had no record of voter registration for Whitman at either of her two San Francisco addresses during the period.

Techy Type - Switch away from Glenn Beck and get real. Non-citizen? Are you still beating that dead horse? Grow up.

I find her failure to vote even more appalling than her ridiculous campaign promise of cutting 40,000 state jobs. That's what California needs -- more unemployment! Our infrastructure is already crumbling, why not dismantle it entirely?
But someone who can't even be bothered to vote? Inexcusable.

EVEN YOU MISGUIDED REPUBLICANS SHOULD SEE THE ABSURDITY OF VOTING FOR A NON-VOTER "CITIZEN."

I think you should take a very close, honest look at Steve Poizner and see what he has done his entire life. He bleeds financial responsibility. If he is a "self-promoter" who cares? He'll cut costs, or figure out a way to cut costs. He WILL, and has, fixed financial concerns. His current position of Insurance Commissioner, for the state, is running under budget. He has built 2 or 3 tech companies. He is very bright, and is a fiscal conservative. If you want more of the same, go ahead and drive the state into a larger hole. If any of the other candidates can prove fiscal responsibility, they should be seriously considered too. This election is not a popularity contest, it's not about electing a woman, it's not about making sure gays are able to marry, abortion, drilling off shore, crime, the wars etc., it's about getting our house in order, fiscally. Enough with all the other garbage, which quite frankly does not matter at the moment! We can tackle these other problems later, please don't allow the fringe elements of both parties to grab hold of this particular election!!

Wow! A "No on Meg" campaign . . . . since when is there a "No On" committee about a person?? But this one is so enlightening: it tells us that here we have a non-political, highly experienced business person in a nation-wide climate of anti-encumbant and anti- big government. Amidst all the Democrats reading and commenting on Republican business here, I've actually spotted what looks like the best candidate for a non-partisan voter to pursue. Thank you "No on Meg" for successfully convincing us that she will not be in anybody's pocket and can prove it. Furthermore, she clearly won't be influenced by payola since she has plenty of that already in the bank. Many of us can well understand not voting when one considers that all too often the choices are "the least of the evils" rather than "the best candidate".

I say "out with them all" and let's start over with good, savvy citizens going to Sacramento, or Washington, for a stint of duty and then coming home to their real job. Never again should we vote for any politician who's held public office before. No more "revolving door". Those are the guys who play along to get along. That's what led to the terrible fiscal mess we're in. We seriously need a new broom!

Meg Whitman: I focused on family instead of voting

Read more: Web Link

Yeah Meg, out of the millions of American women raising families and working you were just too damn busy to read up on he candidates and get your behind down to the polling place to show your respect for democracy. Perhaps you didn't know you can vote by mail.

And you think you can be our governor?

Meg's big lie.
A great comment from SFGate article comments about the following paragraph from the article.

SFChron - "Whitman also told delegates at the Republican convention last February that she had been registered as a decline-to-state voter since 1998. Whitman said Tuesday that while she doesn't remember saying it, "that was a mistake."

The comment -
NO, if you said it and it never happened, then it was a LIE, not a mistake.

Business experience does not prepare you for a position as governor. The budgeting process in business bears no resemblance to the budgeting process in California government. To be intellectually qualified for governor one should study economics and political science. That makes Tom Campbell intellectually qualified. To get elected, however, requires different qualifications in terms of personal magnetism which Tom does not have. Arnold has the latter but not the former. Which, if either, does Meg Whitman have? She has lots of money, which is the third requirement, but that can't help you if you lack both of the first two.

Kelly Fergusson for Governor. I have never met a more selfless, even keeled, resident focused, fiscally prudent, unambitious council member in my life. She is so modest that she shuns the spotlight and would rather give others credit for her monumental accomplishments. We are so fortunate to have such a stellar council member. Gail Slocum and Paul Collacchi pale by comparison.

I am continually surprised to read election predictions based on surveys of “likely voters.” With so many people not voting, and this election featuring a serial non-voter (Meg Whitman), I would expect to see at least some polling results for “likely non-voters.”

I think most non-voters would support Ms. Whitman because her candidacy epitomizes one of the many reasons people don’t vote: Only billionaires have political power because billionaires can buy an election.

On the other hand, it has been shown repeatedly that a large voter turnout generally favors Democrats. This result implies that most non-voters would vote against Meg – if they were to bother to vote – and that by not voting, they are in fact helping her get elected.

Maybe that explains the bumper sticker I saw the other day: “Another Non-Voter for Meg Whitman.”

Web Link

Another Non-Voter for Meg Whitman

funny

maybe it was Carlys car?

ha ha