Meg Whitman Is the Anti-Palin

She's known for her business smarts, not her personality
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 9, 2010 12:30 PM CST
Meg Whitman Is the Anti-Palin
Meg Whitman in May 2009.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Meg Whitman is in some ways the political polar opposite of Sarah Palin, writes Sara Libby. As she fights for the GOP nomination in the California governor's race, Whitman is relying on her smarts and her no-nonsense business acumen. The self-described "frumpy" dresser is "no 40-something pinup," and she "even behaves more like an insular CEO than like a politician," Libby writes for Slate. "Unlike Palin, she seems mortified by her own celebrity."

One thing they have in common: Whitman also has family trouble, in her case two college-age sons with a knack for getting kicked out of school. And like other women in politics, she doesn't seem to get a lot of "sisterly support" from female voters. Given California's fiscal mess, however, "maybe being a woman won't matter." She is, after all, the person who turned eBay from a little-known site hawking Beanie Babies into a "multimillion-dollar juggernaut."
(More Meg Whitman stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X