Talk:Carl Icahn

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Where did he earn his first bucket of gold? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.173.125.74 (talk • contribs)

This is an ancient comment, but here's a quick response (This article is on my To Do list): He dropped out of med school because he couldn't handle blood, then ran off and joined the army because it was the only way he could get away from his mother. While he was in the army he won several thousand dollars playing poker and invested it in a bull market we had going on. Then he lost it all and went back to playing poker for a while. Chris Croy 07:26, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Contents 1 Recent developments 2 Undue weight 3 Right 4 Carl Icahn on Barack Obama

[edit] Recent developments

Is the sentence "But he was promptly turned down by the majority of the stock holders in the election for Board Directors which was held on May 8th." accurate? The word promptly has a special connotation that isn't supported.Goodpaster (talk) 20:38, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Undue weight

I would say the quote accusing him of being "of the lowest character and no integrity" being in the biography section is undue weight.--Michael White^T·C 21:13, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

It was certainly out of order, coming right after "He was raised" in NYC. The viewpoint has certainly been expressed by people more important than a congressman, so I think something like that is fair game. Go ahead and do what you think is best. Smallbones (talk) 04:52, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Right

So, we should put weasel words on this thing. What Icahn is famous for is for his corporate raiding -- the movie Wallstreet heavily relied on his shortsighted "Fuck em, get money, leave" strategy. I don't know why that isn't the prominant feature, but really, that' s who he is. He made junk bonds and used them to exploit people. It's not an opinion, it's content being expressed.

[edit] Carl Icahn on Barack Obama

Regarding this addition: On May 22, 2008 Carl Icahn spoke out against 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama saying that Obama would be a "terrible president who would wreck the economy." Since when is Carl Icahn in any way a notable voice with respect to American politics? What did he think of John Kerry, by the way? Does anyone care? Switzpaw (talk) 22:19, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

In 2004, he chipped a couple thousand into John Kerry's campaign fund. He also donated thousands more to various republican candidates, although I don't recall him ever publicly speaking out during the 2004 election. In June 2007, CNN quoted him in an article discussing what Big Business(tm) thought of the presidential candidates:

Carl Icahn Billionaire investor and activist "Republicans have to pick the candidate most likely to beat Hillary Clinton. Rudy is the one."

Since then, he's donated almost exclusively to the Democratic party. This particular story of Icahn plinking at Obama was reported not just in a couple blogs, but by major news outlets - Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the AP wire, among many, many others. It's probably the most widely reported thing he's said or done in years. Chris Croy (talk) 10:16, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Disagree with you about this being the most widely reported thing he's said or done in years -- the MS/Yahoo story was big business news. But you're right, this is notable. The Bloomberg article was more informative so I changed the ref to include it instead. Switzpaw (talk) 23:05, 24 May 2008 (UTC)