Hello, I Must Be Going #2: Meg Whitman Calls Press Conference, Then Boots Press

Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO and leading contender in California’s GOP gubernatorial primary, has a history of ducking questions from the news media. But, yesterday, she elevated evasiveness to an art form when she invited Bay Area print and broadcast outlets to cover her photo-op tour of the Union Pacific Railway Yard in Oakland, then confined them to a “holding pen” while she strolled the facility with company officials, and subsequently had them ejected from a sit-down “press conference” after reciting a brief prepared statement praising UP’s hump-yard and the health of California’s heavy rolling freight infrastructure.

Later, Whitman contacted a number of reporters to apologize for her vast wealth, which has mistakenly led her to believe that anyone she doesn’t recognize is either the wedding photographer or a member of the catering staff.

The Washington Post has more detail and snarky press reactions here.

Posted by StrangeAppar8us on 03/10/10 at 06:44 PM • Permalink

Categories: Knee Slappers • Politics • Election '10 •

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I guess the lesson the Republicans took from the 2008 Dem primaries was “run more women,” not “run women who are actually decent candidates.” Poor California is blessed with both Meg “Museum Piece” Whitman *and* Carly “HP’s Bane” Fiorina.

Comment by sean on 03/10/10 at 07:15 PM

That look on her face is simply awesome.

“Oh my God. They’re asking me questions! Why are they asking me questions? Who told them they could ask me questions? And where did I leave my neck?”

Would have been nice to see the same response from the 4th Estate when penning the press and refusing to take their questions was SOP from Bush and his Merrie Miscreants.

Comment by Hunger Tallest Palin on 03/10/10 at 08:17 PM

The odd thing about this is she is not a stupid or a vapid woman by any stretch of the imagination. She’s no Palin for gawd’s sake.

I stood 10 feet from her while she held a two hour fundraising event last summer to kick off her campaign and she is friendly, engaging and while she mostly spoke in platitudes she was able to respond to some pointed, if friendly questions with ease.

Now sitting in front of a group of journalists is not akin to speaking in front of a fawning crowd, but she spoke about her ideas for government (think Perry in Texas, she used him as an example several times) and how it should be drowned in a bath tub and how hard work can make one successful.

What her handlers are fucking up royally is that she is now in the big leagues and she needs to be prepared with data, facts and understandable talking points. Then again, she’s running as a fucking Romney Republican which means data, facts and understandable talking points are a no-go.

Comment by HumboldtBlue on 03/10/10 at 08:31 PM

So assuming your candidate has a lock on the nomination and can majestically roll into office without the press is a bad idea?

The “How do you want to handle this, Sarah?” aide trying to bury this story is press secretary Sarah Pompei, who cheerfully told reporters thumping lie #1—that there wasn’t enough time for a Q&A with them, and that UP didn’t want one—thumping lie #2.
There was enough time for a half-hour interview with the SF Chronicle’s Republican op-ed columnist. (all via Strange’s link up there) Which didn’t actually work out too well for her.

And now, via the California lying SP’s Twitterfeed, for no good reason, a charmingly captioned Twitpic. Sarah Pompei is simply on fire! Or perhaps it’s Whitman—I don’t know, but there’s certainly a lot of smoke!