A CEO Stumps for McCain, Slights Romney

Mitt Romney can ride around Michigan boasting about his credentials as a successful businessman. He is the former CEO of Bain Capital, a private equity firm.

John McCain, who has spent more than two decades in Congress, cannot. But in his bid to defeat Romney here in Michigan, he is trying out the next best option: having another CEO publicly endorse him and speak against his opponent.

Carly Fiorina, the chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, introduced McCain today at a lunchtime meeting of the Washtenaw Economic Club near Ann Arbor.

Fiorina cited a recent Wall Stree t Journal article that surveyed several top economists and asked their preference for the next president. "They looked at some of his opponents, you know, the one with CEO in his title," she said, noting that McCain had been their top pick.

She went on to praise McCain's progrowth record in Congress, citing his opposition to taxes on new technologies, such as cellphones and the Internet.

"His record is far better than the record of the governor of Massachusetts," she said.

—Kent Garber