Fiorina Goes Palin

I don't envy Carly Fiorina.  Set aside the fact that she was a mediocre CEO and that she has no natural feel for politics; still, she's far more informed about the hard facts of economic life than the Palins or O'Donnells; the degree of self-loathing she suffers as she postures before the multitude must not be fun.  Still, I think she went over the edge this morning while evading Chris Wallace's questions about what she would cut out of the Federal budget.  Forget about the evasion itself; we can't fault her for that because no candidate can identify any particular spending cuts unless s/he is looking for a quick trip to oblivion.  But then there's this:

FIORINA: …We don’t know how taxpayer money is spent in Washington...

Link.  File this one under "oh, for pity sakes."  First of all, we do know how taxpayer money is spent in Washington; as an ordinary taxpayer, Fiorna has more information available about Federal spending than she did about spending at HP when she was CEO.

But simple wrongness is not the worst of it.  The infuriating part is that this plays to directly into the weaknesses and prejudices of the worst part of her base.  I'm talking about the people who truly don't know anything about how the Federal government spends its money and really don't have a clue as to what it would take to get Federal spending back into line.  This ignorance is shameful on the voter's part, but Carly makes it respectable: You are right not to know; I, the former CEO do not know; by not knowing, you are just as well informed as I.  Your ignorance is not the product of laziness and incuriosity.  You are the victim of forces you cannot control

The press reports are saying she she's been running away from Palin on the campaign trail.  I can see why; wirth demagoguery like this, she really doesn't need her.