Meg, As In Megabucks

In her blog post about the cover, Fortune’s editor tells us that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is vying for governor of California in “Ronald Reagan-style.”

So that’s what they were going for … because the touting of Whitman’s CEO status against the much larger background of the Wall Street meltdown and the political rioting over AIG, not to mention just the association with prodigious “fortune” — as seen through the fine duds, Brandy there on the left, and the flaunting of exclusive California beach front — seems particular flat-footed.

Brandy, we’re also told, isn’t Whitman’s, but the former McCain advisor does ride in Telluride where she has a vacation home. What the intro also gives away is that this Half Moon Bay shoot wasn’t so easy. Writes Fortune’s Patricia Sellers: “Brandy was so spirited that the candidate had to show off her riding chops to keep the horse from throwing her or running away.”

But you could tell that already by the (decidedly un-Reagan-like) all-too-tight grip on the lead.

(image: Ben Baker. Half Moon Bay, CA. March 7, 2009)