I’ve been walking by this ad, for Manhattan Mini Storage, for weeks now. And while I don’t think there are a lot of customers for oilfield equipment and services strolling the sidewalks of the Upper West Side, it’s still a nice reminder of the hazards of hiring a politician to run your corporation. Dick Cheney was apparently a mediocre CEO at Halliburton, not a disaster. But his stint as vice president continues to drag the company’s public image through the mud. Halliburton is now completely out of the military contracting business, having spun off subsidiary KBR. Yet it seems that its name will be forever linked to cost overruns, a deeply unpopular political figure, and narrow closets.
