Keep Your Eyes on the Race: Carly Fiorina's Prepared to Fight

By Debra Saunders - September 20, 2015

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina speaks during the second official Republican presidential candidates debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley (Thomson/Reuters)

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Who is this Carly Fiorina? In the press filing center at the CNN Republican debate, journalists from around the country were asking reporter Carla Marinucci and me because we covered the former Hewlett-Packard CEO for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2010 when she ran for the U.S. Senate against California Democrat Barbara Boxer -- and failed spectacularly by 1 million votes. Yet here she is, winning the first two GOP primary debates and burning past veteran politicians who have won brutal elections in big states. Can she actually win? And what's her special sauce?

Fiorina rose "from secretary to CEO," as she likes to put it, because she never stopped pushing herself. When she became the first woman to head a Fortune 20 company in 1999, she wrote in her memoirs, "Tough Choices," she wanted to push what she saw as a moribund corporate entity into a company with a "hardnosed focus on merit, excellence and performance." She was controversial. She pushed for a merger with Compaq, which led to the elimination of many jobs. She laid off 30,000 workers and outsourced jobs.

Fiorina was famously fired in 2004. After a contentious "boardroom brawl," she walked away with a golden parachute of $19 million in cash and $21 million in stock and pension benefits.

She turned her eyes toward politics. When Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ran for president in 2008, Fiorina stumped furiously for him -- which led to conjecture that she would be McCain's choice as running mate. That honor went to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. After the GOP bloodbath, Fiorina decided to run for Boxer's seat.

Fiorina was a natural candidate. As observers saw Wednesday night, she has a true gift with language. She should; she reads Greek and Latin. But she doesn't talk like a university professor or a Beltway wonk: "I'll tell you why people are supporting outsiders. ... If someone's been in the system their whole life, they don't know how broken the system is."

She dispatched Donald Trump when she said: "I also think that one of the benefits of a presidential campaign is the character and capability, judgment and temperament of every single one of us is revealed, over time and under pressure. All of us will be revealed over time and under pressure."

Fiorina hit President Barack Obama for not getting a big immigration bill through in his first two years in office, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. "The Democrats don't want this issue solved." She knows how to use simple language to make her point.

When asked about Trump's claim that he was not criticizing her looks in a recent Rolling Stone interview, she replied, "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said."

In 2010, Fiorina was a terrific candidate, far better than former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who ran for governor of California -- also as a Republican and also as a first-time candidate. Whitman lost big to the famously frugal Jerry Brown. The GOP candidate famously poured millions -- including $140 million of her own money -- into her campaign in an orgy of advertising and self-promotion, while she gave precious little access to the media. It was never clear why Whitman wanted to be governor.

Fiorina came off better in contrast with Whitman. She spent a fraction of Whitman's campaign chest -- $22 million, which was less than Boxer spent. She readily talked to the media. She came across as a game candidate with nothing to hide.

I thought Fiorina would fare far better than Whitman in the general election. But though the former HP CEO garnered more votes than the former eBay chief, it was a difference of fewer than 100,000 votes. For political scientists, there's an important lesson. A great campaign with a strong candidate can make a difference of maybe 2 percent. But party trumps all. It's nearly impossible to get a Republican -- at least a Republican who opposes abortion rights -- elected to statewide office in California.

Fiorina shares a vulnerability with 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Democrats were able to pummel Romney for layoffs that often followed his Bain Capital's decision to invest in a corporation. Romney didn't help himself when he talked up "creative destruction" and told an audience, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." Democrats were able to paint Romney as the symbol for ruthless cost-cutting capitalism. If she is the nominee or running mate, a small army of disgruntled former HP workers would be happy to tell their bitter tales. So why would the GOP want to put a distaff Romney on the 2016 ticket?

The difference, some Republican fans tell me, is Fiorina's skill at biting back. When CNN debate moderator Jake Tapper asked Fiorina about Trump's assertion that Fiorina "ran HP into the ground," she did not flinch. She described what the economy was like when she took the helm. She did not regret her "tough choices," because tough cookies (my phrase) make enemies. Then Fiorina pulled out a card few can draw. When HP fired her, she said, Steve Jobs called to say, "Hey, been there, done that twice."

The golden parachute? Hey, why can't a woman bring home an obscene parting haul the way so many men have?

In December, I found Fiorina less available than in 2010. I noted that Fiorina had failed to pay off $500,000 in debt from her 2010 senatorial campaign. Who wants to vote for a deadbeat candidate? I wondered. What made the story especially ugly is that the day before the election, Fiorina paid back to herself $1 million of the $6.8 million she personally had lent to the campaign. If she had not paid herself, there would have been no debt for people who toiled rather furiously trying to get her elected. Among her creditors was the widow of political consultant Joe Shumate, who was owed $30,000.

In January, Fiorina paid off her 2010 campaign debts. She told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt: "It's all been paid off, and as you know, campaign debt is nothing particularly new. Hillary Clinton had $25 million worth of it when she finished her last presidential run and, I don't know, took four years or something to pay it off. But we have no debt."

Note to Fiorina: It's rarely a plus to put yourself in the same basket as Hillary Clinton. This little episode -- rich woman stiffs staff -- reveals something words cannot make look good.

Democrats already have a playbook for going after GOP candidates who hail from today's cutthroat corporate culture. That's OK; Fiorina doesn't shrink from a fight. As she said at the Simi Valley debate, "if you want to stump a Democrat, ask them to name an accomplishment of Mrs. Clinton's." This could be a fascinating election to watch. 

dsaunders@sfchronicle.com

The Card Carly Doesn’t Play

Most political women pander to gender, but Fiorina wants to make it on the merits.

By 

KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

http://www.wsj.com/

September 17, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina takes part in the presidential debates at the Reagan Library on Sept. 16, 2015 in Simi Valley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Asked during Wednesday’s GOP debate which woman he’d put on the $10 bill, Jeb Bush named Margaret Thatcher. As Mr. Bush then joked that it would probably be illegal to put a British prime minister on American currency, eyes flicked to the woman standing to his left. Quite so.

Carly Fiorina isn’t Margaret Thatcher, just as her Republican rivals aren’t Ronald Reagan. Yet Ms. Fiorina has a bit of Thatcher about her—and in one way in particular. She isn’t a woman running for president. She’s a presidential contender who happens to be a woman.

That’s new for the GOP. Women have made remarkable inroads everywhere, but there still may be no tougher realm than Republican politics. This isn’t, as the press suggests, because conservative voters are old fogies who’d chain their wives to sinks full of dirty dishes. It’s because conservative voters demand more from their candidates.

Women Democrats pander on gender issues—abortion, birth control, the myth of unequal pay. They promise female voters special handouts. They pitch their womanhood as a qualification for office. And their base loves it.

Women Republicans don’t get to engage in such vote-buying. They are expected to be principled, knowledgeable, serious. They are expected to propose policies—sometimes unpopular ones—designed to help all Americans. And, because the general public (both right and left) is still new to the idea of a woman president, they are expected to do all this twice as well as men.

This was Elizabeth Dole’s problem in her fleeting 2000 presidential bid. Ms. Dole ran on her gender, arguing America ought to elect its first female president—which was no argument at all. It was a problem in 2012 for Michele Bachmann, who loved to claim special insight as “a mother of five” and a “homemaker.” It was a problem for Sarah Palin,whose occasional flubs allowed late-night comics to undermine her seriousness as a vice-presidential candidate.

The Iron Lady didn’t do identity politics, and Ms. Fiorina doesn’t either. At the debate she offered unadulterated substance. She was informed, focused, specific. Want to know what Carly thinks of Putin? Here. Need Carly to explain how hard it is to alter the 14th amendment? Right at ya. Curious if Carly is familiar with Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force, and where he’s traveled lately? Boom, boom, boom.

Ms. Fiorina had the opportunity to play the gender card, but she didn’t. Asked aboutDonald Trump’s comments on her appearance, she might have derided the billionaire as a misogynist. She didn’t. When Chris Christie essentially told her to shut up, she might have looked wounded and wilted. She didn’t.

It isn’t that Ms. Fiorina doesn’t talk about women, or ignores that she is one. It’s simply that she acknowledges it matter of factly, and in the context of opportunity for all. As the men on stage fumbled to think of a lady heroine to grace the $10 bill, Ms. Fiorina demurred. “I wouldn’t change the $10 bill or the $20 bill. I think, honestly, it’s a gesture,” she said. “We ought to recognize that women are not a special interest group.”

She also seems to have mastered the difference between being emotional and being relatable. Every politician seeks to make a connection with voters, but it’s a tougher balancing act for women. Witness the endless fretting in Hillary Clinton’s camp about how to make her more likable, more human, while still projecting toughness and fearlessness.

Ms. Fiorina doesn’t try to do warm or fuzzy or cutesy or folksy. She rarely deviates from her no-nonsense tone. Instead of show, Ms. Fiorina tells. Her story about how she and her husband “buried a child to drug addiction” was a notable moment in the debate. It made her real, a person that many Americans could relate to. As did her obvious revulsion at the practices of Planned Parenthood.

None of this is to say that Ms. Fiorina is unaware of the special challenge of being a female candidate. Her debate performance proved she’s in fact highly aware of it, and that certain additional things are therefore required of her.

One of these is to offer proof that she can be an effective commander in chief. Guys don’t have to do that; girls do. It’s no accident that Ms. Fiorina was the only candidate to propose rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, to suggest restarting a missile defense program in Poland, and to run through how many Army brigades and Marine battalions are necessary for an effective U.S. military.

This gets to the other thing Ms. Fiorina knows she has to do: her homework. Republican female presidential candidates are rare; the base is still getting comfortable with it. She knows she can’t slip up. Her Wednesday performance—from her mastery of facts, to her fluid delivery, to her zingers—was clearly the work of hours upon hours of study and debate prep.

It was Thatcher who famously said, “In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” Ms. Fiorina has a long way to go to the presidency. But win or lose, she’s running far better than any Republican woman before her.

Write to kim@wsj.com.

Carly Fiorina, on the rise

By Marc A. Thiessen
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/
September 7, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina speaks during a FOX News Channel pre-debate (AP)

When Carly Fiorina was asked about Donald Trump in the first GOP debate, she had a cutting answer ready: “I didn’t get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race,” she said dryly. “Maybe it’s because I hadn’t given money to the foundation or donated to his wife’s Senate campaign. . . . Since he has changed his mind on amnesty, on health care and on abortion, I would just ask, what are the principles by which he will govern?”

Trump wasn’t there to respond, because Fiorina had been relegated to the undercard debate. But her jab didn’t escape Trump’s notice. “Carly was a little nasty to me,” Trump said after the debate. “Be careful, Carly. Be careful.”

Thanks to her breakout debate performance, and subsequent rise in the polls, Fiorina has now earned a chance to tangle with Trump and the other top-tier candidates on the main stage.

A new Monmouth University poll finds that 67 percent of Republican voters say we need “a president from outside government who can bring a new approach to Washington,” while just 26 percent want “someone with government experience who knows how to get things done.” Little wonder that in Iowa, Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are tied with 23 percent of the vote each, while Fiorina is in third with 10 percent — meaning a 56 percent majority is backing candidates who have never held elective office.

“It’s a surprise apparently to many in the media that voters are tired of the professional political class, but it’s not a surprise to me,” Fiorina says in an interview. “When I launched my candidacy, I was asked over and over again, ‘Well, how can you run for the presidency? You’re not a politician.’ And I said ‘It’s my greatest asset.’ Maybe the media didn’t understand that then, but I did. People are sick of politics as usual and they’re tired of politicians.”

Fiorina is the least well known of the outsiders leading the polls — 43 percent of the GOP electorate still does not know enough about her to give an opinion of her — which means she is well positioned for a breakout performance.

“Going into [the last] debate, less than 40 percent of Republicans had ever heard my name,” she says. “So first, it was an opportunity to introduce myself. But I think second, what people saw was, ‘You know what, this lady could be president.’ ”

Fiorina has one credential the other outsiders in the race can’t match: foreign policy experience. She has a top level security clearance and served as a member and then chair of the CIA’s External Advisory Board from 2007 to 2009 — an eventful period during which the United States launched the surge in Iraq, Russia invaded Georgia and Israel launched a secret airstrike destroying Syria’s nuclear program.

Fiorina’s grasp of national security issues was on display when she and Trump were both quizzed on foreign policy by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week. Trump could not explain the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah and had no clue what Iran’s notorious Quds Force, was — confusing it with the Kurds. Fiorina, by contrast, aced the test.

Trump likes to boast of how smart he is, but Fiorina can boast of a Stanford University degree in medieval history and philosophy. “I was so into it that I did all my research for my honors thesis in the original Greek and Latin,” she says. “I like a challenge.” After graduating, she says, she was unemployable. She found a job as a secretary — and rose to become chief executive of one of the biggest technology firms in the country.

Now she’s challenging the political status quo — and she believes she can overtake the outsiders ahead of her. She’s not intimidated by Trump’s commanding lead. “If you look at the polling data at this same time last cycle, Perry was at like 28 percent and Romney was far below him,” she says. “What I know is that having started out with the lowest name ID in the field, the more people see me, the more people hear me, the more people listen to me, the more people support me.”

Americans will have a chance to see her, hear her and listen to her next week.

Read more from Marc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

Read more about this topic:

Kathleen Parker: Carly Fiorina’s stunning debut

Ruth Marcus: The sexism that propels Carly Fiorina’s candidacy

The Post’s View: Enter the un-politicians for 2016

Keep Hillary-Slayer Carly in this Thing

by Roger L Simon

http://pjmedia.com/

June 2, 2015

I had been hearing for weeks that Carly Fiorina was the hottest speaker on the nascent Republican campaign circuit - except perhaps for Marco Rubio, but the senator’s formidable communications skills have been known for years .  Even the New York Times was trumpeting Fiorina’s appeal in a column describing the long lines to hear the former Hewlett-Packard CEO speak under the typically equivocal NYT headline “Carly Talks, Iowa Swoons and the Polls Shrug,” just to make sure nobody gets ahead of themselves.  

Well, maybe they won’t shrug at some point, but whatever the case, it was with some interest that I accepted an invitation to attend a luncheon at which Fiorina was speaking.  And I’m here to affirm what others have been saying.  This lady can communicate.  In fact, she’s exceptionally good at it.  Even more, she actually has something to say. And can answer questions.  Intelligently and without evading the subject even once.

But before I go further, I have to acknowledge what many of you may already suspect.  When Fiorina speaks there is another woman in the room.  A ghost.  And her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton.  You can’t get the former secretary of state out of your mind as Carly is talking, because two versions of a modern woman are automatically being presented to you — one genuinely progressive in the true English-language sense of that simple word and one a metaphorical “progressive” in the Orwellian Democratic Party usage with which we are continually assaulted.  One answers questions about practically everything while the other avoids answering anything and on those rare occasions when she does, lies. 

Now I am aware the rap against Carly is that she lost to Barbara Boxer in the California Senate race. (She jokes about this, referring to how her husband of 30 years always says to her “I can’t believe you lost to Barbara Boxer!”) And I’m also aware she was fired from her job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.  Having been a CEO of a tiny company (this one) for seven years, I’m not altogether sure what we learn from that and I might point out the most famous CEO of our era, Steve Jobs, was also fired from his post at that obscure company he started.  Whatever.

But I will say this, being a CEO of a company the size of HP is a damn sight harder and more complex job than being the governor of a state or a senator — and I say that with all due respect to governors and senators. There’s a reason CEOs make the skadillion dollars they do — sometimes anyway. They’re responsible to their stock holders and the board on a daily basis, not just every four or six years at election time when voters may or may not remember who they are or what they did.

Listening to Fiorina, I suspect she did a lot, since her overall knowledge of global situations was high. She had quite a balanced view of China, not regarding them as an enemy, but an “adversary” to be watched. She had personally been toe-to-toe with Putin, but offered him no reset button.  Instead, she would like to arm the Ukrainians. When it comes to the Middle East, I would call her a measured hawk.  He first phone call, she said,  after inauguration would be to Benjamin Netanyahu, reaffirming (or I should say reconstructing) our alliance with Israel.  All of our supposed allies would be listening in on that one, she noted, because how you deal with one of your closest allies would be replicated with all.  I think , by now, we all know how right she is about that.

On the domestic front, she had numerous practical proposals for drawing down the debt, including one not to hire new government employees for the positions of retiring baby boomers. Just let them expire.  She’d also like to have weekly televised sessions with the public to try to bypass the media and put pressure on legislators by having Americans vote for things on their cellphones, the way they do for The Voice.  For example, she said, is it okay to pay government employees for watching porn on their computers all day while others actually do their work?  Press one if… well, you get the idea.

But most important, I think, is that Carly stay in this thing, not be cut out by some arbitrary debate limit.  She is the anti-Hillary and by far the best positioned to put paid to the Witch of Chappaqua.  And not just because she is a woman, but because she is, as she says, “fearless.”

ONE MORE THING:  Speaking of Rubio, how about a Rubio-Fiorina ticket — or the other way around?  An Hispanic and a woman.  That would shake up the preconceptions of the liberal bourgeoisie.  And in my fantasy, if they won, they could make a joint inaugural address explaining to America that this was the end of  ”identity politics.” It’s reactionary, anti-democratic and against everything this country should stand for.  We’re all just Americans.  No more hyphens.

Read more: http://pjmedia.com/diaryofamadvoter/2015/06/02/keep-hillary-slayer-carly-in-this-thing/#ixzz3bzsKdIhn