McCain Claims Surrogate Meg Whitman 'Founded' eBay; Actual Founder Is Obama Supporter Pierre Omidyar

McCain Claims Surrogate Meg Whitman 'Founded' eBay; Actual Founder Is Obama Supporter Pierre Omidyar

John McCain continued his string of gaffes this morning by claiming that Meg Whitman, a national co-chair for his campaign and potential pick for Treasury Secretary, had "founded" eBay with five employees.

In fact, Whitman joined eBay as CEO in 1998, three years after it was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a Barack Obama supporter.

Omidyar endorsed Obama on his blog in May:

"Barack Obama is showing a mirror to America, and despite the bad stuff we see in our reflection, we see that we are fundamentally good and strong and proud, and we can overcome our challenges by working together, across all sorts of lines, be they partisan, racial, cultural, religious, or whatever.

That's something unique about Barack Obama's America -- our America -- and that's the America I want to live in. "

Whitman has been lauded for turning the then-30 employee eBay into a multi-billion dollar auction site during her ten years as CEO. She now sits on its board. Recently eBay took drastic measures to spur growth by firing ten percent of its workforce. Days later, McCain suggested Whitman as a potential pick for Treasury Secretary.

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