Will California Respond to the eBay Treatment?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this item on AppScout, a ZDNet site for applications that are useful to many.

Meg Whitman, it seems, is looking to jump from one sinking ship to another. The former eBay CEO, who left the company at the end of 2008, is throwing her (most likely second-hand) hat into the political arena in hopes of replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor of California.

After much speculation about the possibility of Whitman’s entrance into the political scene–according friendly nudges from both Obama and McCain during their respective campaigns–the businesswoman has made official her intentions to run the state, which has been teetering on the brink of financial ruin.

“California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history–a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit,” said Whitman in a statement today. “California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail.”

According to her Web site, Whitman has already enlisted a number of high-profile California political vets in her fight, including the state’s former governor Pete Wilson, who has taken the helm as her campaign chairman. Whitman has largely avoided making major political statements thus far, but she is generally regarded as a fiscal conservative and social moderate. She joined McCain’s political campaign and addressed last year’s Republican National Convention.

What I’m wondering, as a Californian, is how deserting the sinking eBay ship qualifies anyone to be the governor. Yes, I know that many will say that we have had two governors whose credentials never came closer than the cineplex. Newsflash - I was way too young to vote for the first, and I didn’t vote for the last.

Though I feel that Arnold has not been too destructive, it is because he is a moderate that this is true. Pete Wilson, on the other hand, ravaged the state, cut services like someone planning to leave the state forever, and passed out the grift to all his cronies on the way out.

Nonetheless, she will probably become the candidate of the Republican Party, and will carry Orange County by a landslide - thank heavens that isn’t where the majority of the state’s population lies. No doubt the campaign song will be Madonna’s 4 minutes.

And I still am wondering why it came up on AppScout.

-