Can A Monkey Run The State of California?

The Wall Street journal is reporting that Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, is mulling a run for governor of the state of California. They are drawing this conclusion after Ms. Whitman withdrew from the boards of eBay, P&G, and Dreamworks.

Hopefully, not many eBay sellers reside in California else her chances will be severely diminished. But seriously, her opponents will likely look to her leadership of eBay to form assessments about her potential to lead the state. Surely, Meg (as she is referred to in the Internet community) led eBay to one of the most influential new economy companies. However, she then failed to foresee the difficulties the company currently faces and did not implement strategies that would have saved the company from its structural problems. How much opponents will point to her lack of vision is yet to be seen, if indeed she does run. I wish her well if she runs but I can already foresee the level of discontent from the eBay seller community. Safe to say that she likely won't get their votes. Next up is Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, and his political aspirations (see my previous write-up on that here).

P.S. - The title referred to a comment Meg made, "A Monkey Can Run This Train", when eBay's auction business was experiencing significant growth.

From The Wall Street Journal:
Meg Whitman stepped down from the boards of Procter & Gamble Co., eBay Inc. and Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc. effective Dec. 31, her spokesman said.

The move is another signal that Whitman is seriously considering a run for governor of California, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that an announcement could come in the next four to six weeks.

Whitman’s spokesman, Henry Gomez, declined to comment on her political ambitions, saying she stepped down “for personal reasons.”

A P&G spokesman said, “We deeply valued the contribution Meg made to our board over the last five years.” EBay and Dreamworks couldn’t be reached for comment. .