Carly Fiorina has been relentlessly taking a hit the past two weeks in a blistering television ad shown above. But, is it fair to criticize Fiorina for a common 21st-Century business practice?

Probably not and this Wall Street Journal piece explains.

It’s campaign season, so “outsourcing” is being used as a four-letter word. The practice of hiring workers overseas to handle certain functions of American corporations is, according to some politicians, a major cause of our ongoing economic woes.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) has slammed her opponent, Carly Fiorina, for outsourcing jobs when she served as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has attacked his Republican opponent, John Kasich, for serving on the board of a company that outsources. And other politicians from Pennsylvania to Oregon have tried to use the issue to stir up voter dissatisfaction with the economy.

The Democratic leadership in the Senate has also used outsourcing as a political football. This week, three days before the projected close of the 111th Congress, Democrats brought a bill to the floor that would penalize companies that outsource. The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act was intended to provide a payroll tax holiday to companies that shift overseas jobs back to the United States. It would also have limited the use of tax deferrals that allow U.S. companies to postpone paying taxes on foreign income until after the funds are transferred to the U.S.

The bill never received an up-or-down vote, as it failed to receive the 60 votes necessary for cloture. But merely by bringing it up, Senate Democrats showed their preference for campaign-season symbolism over serious recognition of why companies choose to outsource.

Companies outsource for two reasons. The first centers on the nature of the global economy. In today’s world, outsourcing can save companies money, reduce the time it takes to deliver products and services to customers, and provide access to skilled employees unavailable in the U.S. Outsourcing also allows companies to capitalize on incentives offered by foreign governments to attract investment. Outsourcing is here to stay for companies hoping to remain internationally competitive.

The second reason U.S. companies outsource is that our own government pursues policies that drive investment and job creation offshore: excessive taxes, needless regulations, lengthy permit processes, a decreasing supply of U.S. citizens with technical and engineering degrees, and a general governmental misunderstanding of how to support private-sector jobs. For example, taxing new U.S. corporate investment at 35%—when the world average is just over 18%—pushes U.S. companies to invest offshore to increase return to shareholders.

While the U.S. government takes this harmful approach, foreign governments comprehend as never before what it takes to attract businesses and allow them to thrive. Many learned invaluable free-market lessons from the U.S. Now those same lessons are being lost on our own leaders.

Had the recently defeated Senate bill become law, job losses would have accelerated. The U.S. government once again would have misunderstood how jobs are created and caused even more companies to relocate jobs overseas.

Politicians may want to prey on the apprehension of voters during these anxious days, but condemning U.S. companies that outsource will come back to haunt them. Politicians’ formulas for recovery are reminiscent of the days of the Great Depression, when erecting trade barriers through the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act appeared the common-sense way to protect American jobs. It wasn’t. After the tariff, GDP fell by half, the jobless rate more than tripled, and the U.S. economy plummeted.

While outsourcing is a modern fact of life—many leading U.S. companies now do over 50% of their business outside the domestic market—it doesn’t have to become the default path just because the U.S. government is pushing American companies into more competitive foreign lands.

Politicians who accuse the business community of being solely responsible for the loss of U.S. jobs are disingenuous at best. They need to look at their own contributions to U.S. joblessness—and recognize the competitive nature of the 21st-century world economy.

Mr. Barrett is the former CEO and chairman of Intel. Mr. Moore is a former U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for trade development.

California voters should remember that as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina’s fiduciary duty was to earn MONEY for the corporation. This is private enterprise. If the American government wants to keep jobs in the United States they have that opportunity by passing pro-growth legislation.

But, Senator Barbara Boxer who has sponsored NO meaningful legislation in her decades in the U.S. Senate is being more than disingenuous in this anti-Fiorina television ad. Like a Boxer Vs. Fiorina debate moderator said yesterday:

Senator, excuse me. Ms. Fiorina is not running for the head of HP right now. She is running for the Senate and there is a big difference between running a company, where you have to make those choices, and running the government.” (Gabriel Lerner, KPCC U.S. Senate Debate, 9/29/10)

This is hilarious and watch the video as the Fiorina protesters are obviously oblivious as to what they are doing. Guess Senator Boxer could not get sufficient number of regular volunteer folks to protest Carly and will just pay anyone off the street to carry her signs.

Some Alinksy “astroturf” Senator Ma’am.

The Daily Caller started the rumors yesterday that the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial committee) was abandoning Carly Fiorina’s campaign against Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer by cancelling an almost $ 2 million television ad buy.

I wrote this yesterday.

This is apparently NOT the case and the NRSC is making itself perfectly clear.

Sen. Barbara Boxer is still in for some $2 million worth of NRSC-funded pain before Election Day, despite multiple reports that the GOP committee is pulling back from the California Senate race. The Daily Caller first reported – and the Huffington Post hyped up – Democratic claims that the NRSC has cut its commitment to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s campaign. But Republicans say that’s simply false, and what really happened is the NRSC switched its $2 million ad buy over to the Fiorina campaign’s buyer for practical reasons. “As painful as it might be for ultra-liberal activists across the country to hear, the reality is that Republicans are more confident than ever that Carly Fiorina will defeat Barbara Boxer in November,” NRSC communications director Brian Walsh told Morning Score. “And while it’s regrettable that otherwise-respectable publications like the Daily Caller and Huffington Post fell for the spin of Democrat Party operatives in Washington, the fact remains that the NRSC has publicly committed more financial resources for Carly Fiorina and Dino Rossi than national Democrats have for Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray. If anything though, this debate highlights the reality that Democrats have effectively cut loose their own candidates in Ohio, New Hampshire, Louisiana, North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, and Arkansas – all states where they have yet to commit a single dollar. Of course if they want to dispute that, we’re all ears.”

And, I have seen a greater frequency of Carly Fiorina ads on Los Angeles television both from her campaign and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It remains to be seen as to how much television Fiorina buys over the next four weeks. But, the latest polls, even after the blistering and unanswered Boxer television blitz of the last two weeks have moved the polls only a few points and Fiorina is within striking distance.

My feeling is that Fred Davis, Fiorina’s media guru, has a few surprises in store for Barbara Boxer – and coming to a California television screen soon.

The answer is probably unless Carly wishes to write a big check to fund more television advertising.

Democratic incumbents Barbara Boxer in California and Patty Murray in Washington have been the brights spots of late for a national party beginning to assume the fetal position. Both have begun to put some distance between themselves and their Republican challengers in the last two weeks, and are about five or six points ahead on average.

Boxer, in particular, has done so well that national Democrats have argued that the NRSC’s withdrawal of a $1.9 million ad buy for the last week before the Nov. 2 election was a sign that the GOP wants to move the money to other races and is giving up on their candidate, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Republicans say they merely wanted to give Fiorina flexibility to spend the money around the state and not just in one city.

But a Democratic ad buyer who has watched the race closely said the GOP’s buy in late July locked in about 1200 points – or a guarantee of roughly 12 ad views per person in the target range – over that last week. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a similar ad buy at the same time over the summer.

However, rates have gone up since then, the Democrat said, and so giving up the buy means that a repurchase by the GOP would cost more for the same amount of air time or would buy fewer points with the same $1.9 million amount.

It’s possible that Republicans have decided their money would be better spent in a race like West Virginia, which has quickly become very close, with the bet being that their chances are better there and that Fiorina can afford to spend some more of her own fortune in California if she deems it a worthy investment. A Fiorina spokeswoman did not respond to an e-mail Tuesday evening.

If there are increasing chances of a national Republican take over of the United States Senate in races with smaller media markets and where campaign cash will go farther, resources will be redirected away from California. Where a week of statewide television ad buys cost about $3 million, it is obvious that the money will go farther in West Virgina, Delaware, Washington and/or Connecticut.

I have been wondering why the Fiorina campaign has left unanswered the current Boxer television ad and why they have not answered with a television blitz of their own. The answer is: Boxer has the campaign money for the television time buys and Fiorina does not.

Of course, the management of resources is also a strategic decision and a television ad blitz may be forthcoming for Carly. But, if we do not see many television ads soon, it will be understood that Fiorina has decided not to write any more big checks and will make do with what she has on the table. We will see by the end of the week.

This is not to say that Fiorina cannot win this race. Carly can still catch a GOP wave but with Boxer dominating California television, it will be just difficult to do so.

This little noticed or broadcast debate between Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer and her challenger Republican Carly Fiorina will happen at 1 PM today.

As they head into what could be their final debate, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger, Carly Fiorina, are appealing to voters on parallel tracks, each chipping away at the other’s character on the airwaves and each trying to persuade voters that she has a superior approach to turning the economy around.

The two candidates are to face off Wednesday at 1 p.m. in an hour-long radio debate on “The Patt Morrison Show” on KPCC-FM (89.3) and on other public radio stations around the state. The candidates will be separated by 3,000 miles: Boxer will join the forum from the studios of National Public Radio in Washington, while Fiorina will participate from the KPCC studios in Pasadena.

Boxer will dodge any further debates since this race is close and she would rather put up paid, partisan ads on California television.

Carly Fiorina is a much better public speaker and more appealing on
television so why give her any opportunity to score political points?

Why would Boxer take any chances, right?

So, today’s debate exercise in which Boxer will not even be present (playing defense from Washington D.C.) will be the last time these two candidates will square off except on paid media.

What a waste of time.