From today's NY Times:

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March 19, 2002

In Hewlett Deal, Corporate Life Imitates Politics

By STEVE LOHR

The Hewlett-Packard (news/quote) proxy fight, it often seemed, was a case of
corporate life imitating politics.

The campaign was tough, fast and personal. Charges and countercharges flew
back and forth repeatedly in a single day, and pains were taken that no news
cycle was missed. Spin was thick in the air. Attack ads filled newspapers.

Even the protagonists -- Carleton S. Fiorina, the chief executive of
Hewlett-Packard, and Walter B. Hewlett, the leading opponent of the company's
planned purchase of Compaq Computer (news/quote) -- seemed to have borrowed
their themes from the political arena, said Dan Schnur, a longtime Republican
consultant.

"Carly Fiorina is trying to build a bridge to the 22nd century," Mr. Schnur
said, playing on the grand metaphor of Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign, building
a bridge to the 21st century.

Ms. Fiorina, Mr. Schnur said, is a youthful, dynamic executive, espousing a
bold bet to carry Hewlett-Packard into a position of leadership in the
computer industry. In her company's ads and in her speeches, she has
presented her stance, in contrast to Mr. Hewlett's opposition, as a choice
between the future and the past, said Mr. Schnur, who lives in San Francisco
and lectures at the University of California at Berkeley.

In his drive to scuttle the Compaq merger and show Ms. Fiorina the door, Mr.
Hewlett appears to have taken a page from the campaign strategy of President
Bush, Mr. Schnur added.

A distinct element of Mr. Hewlett's campaign, he said, has been to portray
Ms. Fiorina as greedy and self-aggrandizing, with the Compaq deal seen as
evidence of her going too far.

"Walter Hewlett is playing George W.'s card," Mr. Schnur said. "He wants to
restore decency and honor to the corner office."

Mr. Schnur worked in the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984, served as press
spokesman for five years for Gov. Pete Wilson of California and was director
of communications for Senator John McCain's push in 2000 for the Republican
presidential nomination. A longtime campaign strategist, he recognizes the
tactics as well as the themes in the Hewlett-Packard proxy fight.

"Both Carly and Walter mostly left the mudslinging to surrogates -- a classic
political tactic," he said. "And both sides fairly early grasped one of the
first rules of politics -- that comparison and contrast always work better
than a purely positive message."

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Wirt Atmar

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