Nice work if you can get it, And if you get it --Won't you tell me how?

Carly Fiorina is the gift that keeps on giving. Sam Stein writes at HuffPost:

Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.

"Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?" asked the host.

"No, I don't," responded Fiorina. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for."

As Howie Mandel used to say,'No, wait!"

Fiorina went on MSNBC to defend her comments and decides to double down, arguing that John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden couldn't run Hewlett Packard either. The Obama campaign, seeking to compound the fallout of her earlier statement, highlights just the portion where she talks about McCain.

"If John McCain's top economic advisor doesn't think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn't understand as well as he should," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Problem is, Fiorina couldn't run HP either. Oliver Willis sets the record straight:

She was brought on board to grow HP, but instead laid off people then pushed the company into a merger with Compaq that turned into a mess and was opposed by Walter Hewlett, son of HP co-founder and tech pioneer Bill Hewlett. A little after that she was effectively fired by the board of directors.

And yet, this is the leading voice on the Republican side for business and economics. She must have some freaky pictures of someone or something, because even the McCain people can’t be this stupid.

Here is a chart of HP’s stock performance during Fiorina’s tenure (July 19, 1999 - February, 10, 2005):

And here is HP’s chart post-Fiorina (July 19, 1999 February, 10, 2005 - present):

So how's this all playing for Carly? Not well:

"Carly will now disappear," this source said. "Senator McCain was furious." Asked to define "disappear," this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while – but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party’s joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign.

Fiorina was booked for several TV interviews over the next few days, including one on CNN. Those interviews have been canceled.

A third source said "it was another bad day for her, and important people are mad because the timing is horrible… But I would not necessarily buy the Siberia storyline."

It's like standing in the rain, while dismissing the idea of gravity. You look stupid, and you get wet.

Here's a great movie version of the title song "Nice Work If You Can Get It" from A Damsel In Distress (1937) featuring some guy named Astaire: