eBay Founder Omidyar Refuses To Endorse Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman Over Her Anti-Gay Stance

Business Insider ^ | 09/22/2010 | Nicholas Carson

[SeekAndFind]

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar just went on Bloomberg TV to say he will not endorse former eBay CEO Meg Whitmanin her run for California governor.

Why?

Because Whitman is against gay marriage and because she supported a law that Omidyar says took an "extreme" stance against illegal immigrants.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO

[pogo101]

No word yet about his take on Obama, though, right?

[SeekAndFind]

He’s obviously a SOCIAL LIBERAL.

How his views on fiscal policies are, we don’t know.

[pissant]

That can only help Whitman.

[Siena Dreaming]

This is the first positive thing I’ve heard about Whitman.

[library user]

Notice how in the video he begins to say “I worked FOR Meg” but then quickly changes his words to “I worked WITH Meg.” That tells you who was really in charge there.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: This is the first positive thing I’ve heard about Whitman.

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What are you referring to, Omidyar’s refusal to endorese her, or her social stance?

[SnakeDoctor]

I’m sure we were all waiting with baited breath for this endorsement/announcement.

SnakeDoc

[a fool in paradise]

As if he endorsements have ever carried any weight in the past.

What’s his position on the flat tax?
What’s his position on the internet tax?
What’s his position on mandated prohibition on incandescent light bulbs?
What’s his position on Biden’s 3-state solution toward “winning the war in Iraq”?
What’s his position on the price of tea in China?

[sheik yerbouty]

Omidyar is a Muslim who in his younger days paraded around in Talibanesque beard and garb

[Siena Dreaming]

Both!

[DJ MacWoW]

An article was posted earlier about Whitman.

Same sex marriage organization to air anti-Meg Whitman, Steve Cooley commercials

This is a quote from the article: Whitman has said that while she personally opposes same sex marriage (and voted for Prop 8), she supports civil unions.

"Regardless of where you are on this issue, the Attorney General and the governor of the state of California actually have a legal obligation to give that ruling standing to go through the court process," Whitman said.

This is what has their knickers in a knot.

[Eldon Tyrell]

WTF kind of title is that?

Her position is not “anti gay”. It is “pro 10,000 years of social development.”

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Her position is not “anti gay”.

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You can say that again. She is not proposing or supporting legislation discriminating against gays in the workplace.

She isn’t even against gays shacking up with each other or making their partners the heirs to their property.

She is simply against REDEFINING MARRIAGE.

How did that become anti-gay?

[Nick Danger]

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar just went on Bloomberg TV

Stop right there. Nobody just "goes on" Bloomberg TV. You can't walk into Bloomberg's offices and say, "I want to be on TV" and get anything but the boot.

No, what happened here is that some liberal stooge who works for Bloomberg (or is Bloomberg himself), wanted to find some way to smear a Republican in an election and went off to find someone that Whitman had once worked with who would bad-mouth her in front of the cameras. They found this guy, and here he is.

I doubt that anyone who wasn't already going to vote for Moonbeam gives a hoot about this. "Liberal opposes Republican candidate: film at 11".

[SeekAndFind]

One of Omidyar’s beef against Whitman is her stance on illegal immigration. He aclled it “extreme”.

I looked at her official stance here :

http://www.megwhitman.com/platform_topic.php?type=immigration&page=1

Let’s see:

* She’s against any form of amnesty

* She’s for a strong eVerification system that ensures employers follow the law.

* She wants the Feds to complete the construction of a high tech border fence.

* Conduct workplace inspections of businesses

* Prohibit driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants

* Eliminate Sanctuary Cities

* Ban the Admission of Undocumented students from UC, CSU and Community Colleges

* Deploy the resources of the California National Guard on the borders.

* Enforce English Immersion (no bilingual education)

* Sue the Feds to recoup Prison costs for Illegals who are criminals.

Is it just me, or do I find the above, NOT EXTREME, but in fact, reasonable??

[WallStreetCapitalist]

It’s not quite that simple - Pierre was really in charge by every metric that counted. He created eBay in his house, then after it started to become successful, recruited and hired Whitman because he knew she could grow the business better than he ever could (he understood computer code, not commerce).

He didn’t want to work as much so he turned over the reigns to her, they raised capital, and he got to go do what he wanted with his life as she grew it from a tiny small business to a worldwide powerhouse.

That is why Meg is worth $1.5 billion and Omidyar just shy of $5 billion. She was the employee and got a lot of stock but Omidyar was the small business owner who owned far more shares, started it in his house and had the idea.

Other than their difference on social policies (Whitman is a moderate and Pierre is a flaming liberal), they reportedly got along really well. CNBC has run some specials where they went back and talked about the early days of the company together and how they’d have to go down to Office Depot to get their own desk and put it together by hand.