Ex-HP Chief a Risky VP Choice

Carly Fiorina sparked stunned silence when talking over breakfast yesterday about the unfairness of health insurance plans that cover Viagra, but not birth control. “These women would like a choice,” she said, despite the fact that her nominee, John McCain, voted against a proposal to mandate coverage. Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post that the moment typifies why she’d be a risky VP choice for McCain—but also “potentially the most rewarding.”

As a business expert, an outsider, and a woman, Mac’s “most prominent adviser” is also “unvetted and untested,” and the candidate will have to decide whether to gamble on her. Lynn Harris is less ambivalent, saying in Salon that McCain can't keep his people on message, and that Fiorina appears to be “secretly working for Obama." (More John McCain stories.)