Just watched Carly Fiorina talking up John McCain's economic "plan" on Fox News.  Being a multi-tasker, at the same time as watching Fiorina, I read a piece tucked away on page 14 of the London Evening Standard about erstwhile Republican supporter Joan Collins throwing her endorsement to Democrat Barack Obama.

Writing about the new Mayor of London, she noted, "I couldn't help contrast Boris's spirited and pithy speech with Red Ken's Leftie mumblings, just as I couldn't help contrast Obama's fresh energy with McCain's bumbling.  The second presidential debate was a no-brainer.  The lisping, obdurate McCain, who looks progressively unhealthier, did what I thought impossible: he made George Bush look human".

The juxtaposition of the cheerleading Fiorina and scathing Collins caught my imagination.  For those who don't know Fiorina's resume', she is a self-made woman.  No question she is smart and articulate.  But I don't see much adversity in her background.  Her father was a lawyer and judge, she went to Stanford and other fancy universities on daddy's dime and armed with a half dozen degrees, went to work at AT&T as a secretary, and worked her way up to become the company's Senior Vice President.  During her tenure at the top, AT&T closed its largest works plant and transferred all residential telephone manufacturing overseas to Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

In 1993, they moved their operations to Mexico, and exported all the rest of the jobs there.

By 1997, she was Executive Vice President of Lucent Technologies.  Under her supervision, Lucent's stock price took off.  However, a few months after she left Lucent, the company made the first of a string of announcements that it had missed its quarterly estimates, and it was later found the company had used dubious accounting practices.  The company's shares fell from $84 to 55 cents in the space of two years.  They made swingeing cuts to employee pensions and benefits, which resulted in several lawsuits for malfeasance.  Things were so bad that they had to cut power in their headquarters, as well as their Napierville facility, to save money.

What characterized Fiorina's reign as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Hewlett Packard?  7,000 lay-offs, public clashes with the Board, and massive outsourcing to India and China.  (Fiorina renamed outsourcing "right-shoring").  Company profits were down, shares were down, and Fiorina was fired from HP.  Her golden parachute was a $21 million cash payment.  After her departure, the company quickly prospered, overtaking Dell as the top computer maker in the world.

Since her unceremonious dumping in February 2005, she has written a book and done interviews, where she always praises "right-shoring" and promotes the expansion of the H1B visa program for Indian and Chinese workers.  And campaigned for Mr Bumble.

Compare Fiorina's fairly unimpressive record with that of Alexis Colby - or as she is now known, Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan.  She came from nothing - literally.  She was never a secretary because she doesn't know how to type.  She was such a nobody she wasn't even in the first episode of Dynasty - her character was just a voice and name introduction.  But she rose like a phoenix to take over Colby Oil.  Her husband's corpse wasn't even cold, and she was already fully in charge of the second biggest energy company on national television after Ewing Oil.

She went on to own and seemingly single-handedly operate an art studio, a major newspaper and the elegant Carlton Hotel at the same time as Colby Oil, without batting a false eyelash.  Not only was she captain of her own industries, she was a catalyst for the shoulder pad manufacturers of America, creating thousands of jobs.  She gave sage advice to President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in front of an audience of millions.

We know Alexis is a fighter.  Remember Dominique Devereux?  Who came out on top in that fracas?  And although some disagree, I also think Alexis was the resounding victor in the mud fight with Krystal.

Talk about overcoming adversity, Alexis is Teflon.  She survived assassination attempts by Blake Carrington, Joseph the Butler, Joseph the Butler's son, Joseph the Butler's daughter, her daughter, her sister and Jerry Van Dorn.  She fell 20 stories from a hotel balcony and lived.  She was riddled with bullets in the Moldavian Massacre and walked away.  She drove her car over a bridge and swam out.  She was taken hostage by South American guerillas and talked her way out.  She ran for Governor of Colorado and lost by a whisker, but no matter.  After all, she was Queen of Denver, a much more impressive title in anybody's book.

McCain hints that he might like to appoint Carly Fiorina to a senior cabinet position.  My advice to Barack Obama is to seize the momentum and name Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan as his economic policy guru.