GOP Clown Car Part 11: Carly Fiorina

  Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has had a very interesting ride so far this campaign season. After languishing in the bottom of the polls early on, she parlayed a strong performance at the kid's table in the first Republican debate into an even stronger performance on the main stage at the second debate at the Reagan Museum. After that the second debate she faulted up into the top three, but since then has dropped back into the middle of the pack. As we are getting closer and closer to actual voting, you look at Fiorina's campaign and wonder if the Reagan Debate was high water mark or just a prelude to bigger things.

  One of the things we learned from Ronald Reagan is to never let a good story get in the way of the facts. Nobody seems to embody that more in the 2016 presidential cycle more than Carly Fiorina. Since her time at HP is one of the main points emphasis for her, what happened in those years should be examined. If you believe the Fiorina narrative she was a plucky secretary that worked way up the corporate ladder to run HP, but was then was forced out by the board who did not like her style. The Fiorina story reminds me of the Melanie Griffith character in the movie Working Girl, just without the Hollywood ending. It is true that she has been a secretary, but it is not like she had been toiling for years as a secretary and some manager gave her a shot because they liked her moxie. At the most her time as a secretary was a job and not a career path. She went back to school and got to two masters degrees in management and marketing, before she entered the management program with Lucent, a spin off of AT&T, that lead to the HP CEO job. In addition to fudging the secretary part of the story, the HP years and firing aspects are a little fuzzy as well. Her description of her time HP, conflicts with the more accepted narrative. Even if she is right about what the board did to her, she was paid forty million dollars to go away, which is a pretty awesome way to get fired.

  Having a woman running for the Republicans in 2016 means that woman can attack Hillary Clinton without as much negative press. Carly Fiorina is staunchly pro-life and takes a dim view feminism. She thinks that liberals don't like her, and in a interview with Megyn Kelly of Fox News said, "We know that most of the media is very liberal, and we know that liberal have trouble accepting that there are many, many women who won't agree with them," The quote is from a Amanda Marcotte in  a Salon article about Fiorina. She traces the right's use of women to say anti-women things back to the 1800s and talked about the patron saint of anti-feminism, Phyllis Schafly. Fiorina is perfect for the role. She was able to attack Clinton with great gusto in interviews and the debate. She also played her pro-life chops when she talked about notorious Planned Parent videos, and in another curious approach to campaigning, talked about seeing a video that no one else has seen. Other candidates seem to see the advantage of this, and may be the reason that Ted Cruz's Super Pac has given Carly Fiorina's Super Pac $500,000. If you not that afraid of losing to her, why not keep her around to attack Hillary Clinton some more. 

  At the end of the day does Carly Fiorina have shot to be the next president? The press would certainly eat up a Hillary vs Carly showdown, which by the way, has a much better shot of happening than that dopey Hillary vs Condi Rice idea that Dick Morris was throwing around in the lead up to the 2008 race. My guess would be that Fiorina had her day in the sun around the time of the Reagan Library debate. She was on point, maybe a little shaky on the facts, but she sounded good. She was the first one to take on Trump and win. Maybe it's the idea that the debate format plays to Fiorina's strengths as a candidate. She is smart, well prepared, and can think fast on her feet. It certainly helps that she was on stage with a bunch of guys who did not looked prepared for the night. Fiorina had a really good couple of weeks based on that performance, but now I think she will continue to hover in the middle of pack and when voting starts she will be one of the ones that will  be forced to drop out fairly early on, maybe after New Hampshire. The Republican nominee would certainly use Fiorina to take on Hillary if she is the Democratic nominee. If a Republican does win the White House, I could see Fiorina at least being considered for some kind of cabinet post.  Seeing how much right wing media loves conservatives women who attack liberal women we will see Fiorina on Fox News quite a bit.