Whitman seems coolish on Romney

Maybe it's something, maybe nothing, but Meg Whitman, who was mentored by Mitt Romney back in the 1980s, hasn't been shelling out much to the presidential candidate. Neither has eBay, where she had been CEO, or HP, which she currently heads. From California Watch:

Federal Election Commission records show Whitman donated $2,500 to Romney's campaign last year. She gave $5,000 more to his Free and Strong America PAC, through which Romney donates to Republican members of Congress, according to the records. But Whitman, whose net worth when she left eBay was estimated at $1.4 billion, has not contributed to Restore Our Future, the super political action committee that is collecting as much as $1 million per donor to support Romney's presidential bid. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard employees have donated only $3,500 to Romney.

[CUT]

In her 2010 book, Whitman described Romney as a longtime friend and "thoroughly decent human being" who had often given her sound career advice. When he sought the presidency in 2008, it was "for the right reasons," she wrote. "He wanted to bring in some of the rigors of business and financial analysis that we had both learned and seen work at Bain and put them to use in the cause of making government work more efficiently," she wrote of Romney. But Whitman said Romney's campaign foundered because of the "scrutiny and attacks he was subject to" because of his Mormon faith. "They were so intense and became so defining that he could not establish a coherent campaign message," she wrote.

Coherent campaign message? Sounds familiar.