Her Golden Parachute Fine With McCain

John McCain and Sarah Palin made a point yesterday of blasting CEOs who left their companies with multimillion-dollar golden parachutes while workers and shareholders suffered. But McCain’s top economic adviser deployed just such a shiny parachute when Hewlett-Packard ousted her, ABC News reports. Carly Fiorina pocketed $45 million, even as the company laid off 20,000 and its shares fell 50%.

Asked if McCain meant CEOs like Fiorina, a spokesman said McCain was “talking about the issues that are before us today,” citing the CEOs of Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns and Countrywide. “I don’t think there’s any analogy there.” Asked how McCain would control the pay packages of private-sector executives, he said McCain would “make sure that shareholders can vote on CEO compensation.” (More golden parachutes stories.)