Web 2.0: Carly Fiorina talks potential Senate run, breast cancer battle, and government tech policy

“I have seen the best and the worst of our healthcare system,” she said, with her voice shaking slightly with the emotional moment that focused on her own health. But she told the audience at the dinner that she was healthy. She was there to talk about her possible bid as a Republican candidate to take on Democrat Barbara Boxer. Fiorina didn’t outright declare her candidacy, but she said she was exploring the idea.

Fiorina got polite applause, but some of her boldest comments met with silence. Perhaps that is because she was a Republican in San Francisco, a land of Democratic party dominance. But it also goes back to how she was a controversial figure when she was running what has become the world’s biggest technology company. As always, she was well spoken and her comments sometimes bordered on eloquence. That got her applause.

Fiorina wasn’t afraid to express some views. She feels that Congress doesn’t realize what it’s like to run a small business in the U.S. and how to foster innovation. She noted that she opposed the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler — two big businesses — at the same time GM was shutting down 3,600 dealerships across the country that were run by small business people, resulting in a loss of 156,000 jobs that outnumbered the job losses at the car companies themselves. She also said that it was odd that biotech got no stimulus money, but the construction industry received a lot of it — a sign that the nation’s priorities weren’t right.

She said she is a Republican in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln in that she believes “people, left to themselves, make better decisions about their lives than the government does.” She also said that current politicians have done nothing to curb the $1 trillion deficit and that there is no one in charge of cutting costs in Washington.

She mentioned that politicians should be held accountable just the way that business managers and board members are, and that the U.S. government cannot continue to spend money without dealing with entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Fiorina criticized Boxer for successfully sponsoring only three relatively insignificant bills in her 18 years in the Senate.

Asked what she thought about regulation of the web, she said it was inevitable that there would be more regulation of it. Why, for instance, is there no protection of women and children on the Internet, when there is plenty in real life. She said this duality — where anything goes on the wild wild west of the Internet — would have to end.

Asked about political power, she noted that the worst expression of power is when someone says you have to do something ”because I say so.” She said that influencing people to do the right thing is underrated in that respect. As for the war in Afghanistan, she said that she didn’t agree with convervative commentators who believed the war effort should be separated from the idea of “nation building.” She agreed with the Obama administration approach, she said, of trying to win over the population through efforts to restore civilian security, accountability, infrastructure and education.

Fiorina didn’t outright declare her candidacy, but she said she was exploring the idea.

Word is she'll announce in about two weeks once she finds a venue to roll out her declaration.

She supported the Wall Street bailout and parts of the Stimulus.

She said she is a Republican in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln in that she believes “people, left to themselves, make better decisions about their lives than the government does.”

Yeah, and Arnold claims he's an advocate of Milton Freidman policies. I'm not convinced.

She also said that current politicians have done nothing to curb the $1 trillion deficit and that there is no one in charge of cutting costs in Washington... Fiorina criticized Boxer for successfully sponsoring only three relatively insignificant bills in her 18 years in the Senate.

Yeah, how about your voting record Carly? What did you do to stop wreckless spending? Hmmmm?

Asked what she thought about regulation of the web, she said it was inevitable that there would be more regulation of it. Why, for instance, is there no protection of women and children on the Internet, when there is plenty in real life. She said this duality — where anything goes on the wild wild west of the Internet — would have to end.

Hmmmmmmm...

She agreed with the Obama administration approach, she said, of trying to win over the population through efforts to restore civilian security, accountability, infrastructure and education.

Hmmmm, I thought that was the Bush strategy (that's a criticism of the writer if he's making that conclusion instead of Carly; if not, then it's a criticism of Carly)

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