Why Did Meg Whitman Suddenly Become Interested In Politics?

[JDPriestly]

Why did she decide to spend maybe as much as $140,000,000 on her campaign?

My theory. (I have no inside knowledge. This is based on my connecting dots in the public domain.)

She is a Wall Street (Goldman Sachs anyone?) front.

Wall Street owes a lot of money to California's pension funds. If Meg Whitman is elected, her first priority will be to relieve Wall Street of its liability to California's employee pension funds.

Mark my words. You saw it here first -- JDPriestly

I posted this as a response somewhere else, but want to make sure people see it and discuss it if they wish.

[Wickerman]

1. Happily, we'll never know

as I am certain Brown will wipe the floor with her.

[gateley]

3. Oh please oh please oh please. nt

[JuniperLea]

6. From your keyboard to Goddess's eyes!

Please! Please!!

[Scurrilous]

28. LOL

:thumbsup:

[HopeHoops]

2. OOOOH - I know that one - wait, was it because she heard they had free doughnuts?

[lunatica]

4. You make an excellent point

Which means they have probably agreed to reimburse her the millions she's spent on the campaign. Once we're officially a Fascist State they don't have to bother with little things like laws anymore. Especially campaign laws.

[JuniperLea]

10. That makes a lot of sense...

I wonder what her net worth is?

I wonder if any foreign monies are involved?

It's just plain freaky that a greedy person like that would lay out all that cash on a bet.

[Unvanguard]

5. Because she's a billionaire who wants to be governor?

Why does this need explanation? :shrug:

[dana_b]

7. I couldn't agree with you more

make the unions and people like me the bad guys when she's protecting her own.

I work for the UC system and am fortunate enough to possibly receive a pension if/when i retire. I'm public enemy #2 (behind the immigrants)!

edit - or maybe public enemy #3 - I don't want to discount the GLBT community.

[lunatica]

24. If Meg Whitman wins she becomes a Regent of UC

[dana_b]

27. blech is right!! n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. It's a powerful position...

I suspect it was irresistible.

[leftstreet]

9. Interesting theory!

It's also a little weird the way the M$M keep saying she's spending x amount "of her own money" - always, always "of her own money." They don't do that with every pol running.

[rocktivity]

11. for the same reasons why Bloomberg, Perot and Paladino did

Too much time (and WAY too much money) on her hands.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[Hannah Bell]

18. yea, it couldn't have anything to do with control of the political process.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. She wants to be the decider.

[Caliman73]

13. Been saying that for a while

Not the Goldman thing. That is yours, but she is not going to "invest" in getting elected without some major return on investment. This is some kind of money making situation for her and her cronies.

[AC_Mem]

14. Interesting perspective

It will be interesting indeed to see if she is reimbursed for that much money, or if she receives huge donations that offset her personal expense in the race....

[Cleita]

15. What you say makes really good sense.

I also wondered why anyone would spend that kind of money on a campaign unless they expected to get it back and quickly.

[moondust]

16. Fear of failure.

Also contributing.

Once she toyed with the idea long enough and finally decided to do it, fear of failure keeps pushing the big money button.

[Hannah Bell]

17. good guess i think.

[closeupready]

19. That's actually such a brilliant insight, I'm actually laughing.

You are a genius. I think that's at least a big part of why she's running.

[huskerlaw]

20. I suspect

that if you're not correct, you're close. She has to be in it for some sort of return on investment. I was thinking more along the lines of "why buy a lobbyist when you can buy the office"...but really, the theory is the same. You can bet she intends to benefit herself and her corporate buddies. Thankfully, she will never have the chance.

[glitch]

21. If big money can mount a recall campaign against Gray Davis and install Arnold Schwarzeneggar

to keep from paying 9 billion in a lawsuit, Meg Whitman can be stooging for them. Her political positions and debate responses certainly argue for it.

I bet if she loses they don't reimburse her. :P

[Raine]

22. Interesting and most likely

the reason ... Jerry Brown had better win!

[librechik]

23. Just recall how Enron shepherded Arnold's career against Davis

and you will see the model for Meg.

[mulsh]

25. She's so repellant she's unemployable.

she's burned too many bridges and is too toxic for most companies to touch. I can't find any corp boards she's currently sitting on except the family ponzi scheme, um I mean philanthropic fund.

Not having participated in any public political process she must have figured it would be as easy as the corp world. the right suit+the right resume- big bucks. turns out there's a reason two very different words describe business and Government.

I wouldn't be surprised if she has some deal with Goldman to screw the state of CA if elected. fortunately nearly every one I know recognises her as a cookie cutter upper echelon corp drone, most of us have worked with people exactly like her.

[4lbs]

26. It does have a plausible logic to it.

I'm sure that the Wall Street firms that owe lots of money to CA pension funds, on the order of billions, wouldn't bat an eye at collectively "giving" her $150 million in 'reward' somehow if she happened to do just that.