Carly Fiorina Wows Crowd at Reagan Library
Rick Perry now wooing Fiorina for VP spot?
Donald Trump’s grenade-like candidacy has sucked a lot of media oxygen from other Republican presidential hopefuls, but Carly Fiorina recently launched into an impressive foreign policy speech at the Reagan Library that should really be an attention-getter.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO targeted Iran, China and the current administration…and her proposals were very well received by an enthusiastic audience.
… She repeatedly assailed the “political class” for their incompetence and pusillanimity — and called out the spinelessness of the current administration for bargaining with our enemies and alienating our friends. She also offered warnings for America and optimism.
…On her first day as president: “On my first day in the Oval Office I will make two phone calls. The first will be to my friend Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him that the United States of America will always stand with the state of Israel. My second phone call will be to the Supreme Leader of Iran. Realistically, he might not take my phone call. He will get the message. And the message is this: [No] deal. Unless and until you are prepared to open every military facility and every nuclear facility to full and unfettered ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections, we will make it as difficult as possible for you to move money around the global financial system.”
California citizen activist Karen Siegemund, head of Rage Against the Media, attended the talk and was extremely impressed.
She radiates leadership in a way that few people do, and that not many, if any, of our candidates do. This woman is formidable, far more so than the rest of the field, it seems to me. If she were to walk into a room to meet Vladimir Putin, he would soon realize he’s met his match. She is not someone who can be fooled, tricked, or sweet-talked. This is no Chamberlain. Her intelligence and depth of knowledge are very apparent. And key to all this is her understanding that conservatism is the answer to core foreign policy issues.
She was very specific in her criticism of Obama’s foreign policy actions, every one of them, mocked the idea of the “reset button gimmick” and “bring back our girls,” tying Hillary to that criticism. She was eloquent – quoted Reagan and Thatcher, and seems to have conservatism and love of country in her veins.”
Siegemund indicates that Fiornia’s presentation was worthy of a true “statesman,” and I would assert that this demeanor contrasts remarkably with that presented by Trump when he discusses global politics.
Fioria is still struggling to climb up in the polls, and perhaps it is because Trump has been selected as the “Washington outsider” by the elite press that relishes the dynamic fodder the business mogul provides. I sure hope she garners enough numbers to be in the August 6th Fox News debates, as she adds some much needed gravitas.
Hers is the only candidacy that I have followed closely, as it is the only one I find personally inspiring. Fiorina’s attacks have not been on fellow Republicans, which is refreshing. Fiorina has set her sights on the proper targets: Hillary Clinton and the Democratic machine.
Fiorina is firm and direct with the mainstream media, and knows how to handle a hostile press environment. I would love to see a debate encounter between Fiorna and Candy Crowley on the subject of Hillary Clinton and Benghazi. It would be glorious! Mitt Romney should endorse Fiorina for the potential of that match-up alone.
Another presidential hopeful already appreciates Fiorina’s potential:
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested Thursday that he could put Carly Fiorina on his 2016 ticket if he were he to win his party’s presidential nomination.
“I’ll tell you from my perspective one of the people who I’ve dealt with over the course of the years that possibly may be on that stage with me, Carly Fiorina,” Perry said on Fox Business Network of the former tech executive and current presidential competitor.
“That’s the type of really savvy individual that I think makes a lot of sense to have around you whether it’s in a cabinet or as a running mate,” he added. “She is a very, very capable, smart, savvy business woman … and by the way she was born in Texas, so that’s another plus for her.”
Should Perry snag Fiorina for the second spot, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s poached from California, either.
2016 is shaping up to be an election unlike any other.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Very nice speech, but Rick, the governor of and for the illegal alien, won’t get the opportunity to offer Carly a chance to play second fiddle. In fact, his statement showed genuine disrespect to Fiorina. I expect the MSM will call him on it.
” Rick, the governor of and for the illegal alien”
Nice to see a Democrat running scared.
Valerie,
You poor, deluded Cuckservative. Rick is busy helping his progressive masters throw your eggs out of your nest to make room so you can devote your life and treasure to the raising of non-citizens who find their way into your nest illegally. He has given illegals educational subsidies and argued for them getting a path to citizenship. Pray tell how these policies benefit you and me, sweetheart.
That was an excellent speech by a very smart lady who understands what she’s talking about.
You GO, girl…!!!
Plus, she can and does handle the press, just like Ted Cruz.
Perry better be careful or it’ll be Fiorina picking him for the VP spot, lol. The lady is sharp.
She’s quite smart, so WON’T pick Perry.
I wonder if Carly Fiorina thinks Rick Perry would make a good VP?
Carly is presidential material. Help her get her message out. Koch Bros. need to support her. She needs money now!
“She repeatedly assailed the “political class” for their incompetence and pusillanimity — and called out the spinelessness of the current administration for bargaining with our enemies and alienating our friends. She also offered warnings for America and optimism.”
This is a response to this item and the earlier item asking why Fiorina is polling so poorly.
Don’t ask about her getting fired, instead ask WHY she got fired.
She rammed through the dreadful Compaq acquisition for H-P. This has to be one of the most bonehead mistakes that a major CEO made in the last 15 years. And this is not Monday morning quarterbacking – there was heavy shareholder (both insiders and outsiders) opposition to this with concrete reasons why it was a bad idea. The critics were right, Fiorina was wrong. And, as far as ‘principle’ goes, she got caught up in a minor scandal having to do with the ‘recommendation’ of the advisor firm supporting the deal.
I may despise regular politicians with very few exceptions. But why on earth would I want to support a reject business exec that can’t and won’t see the rational objections to their plans? Is this what we really want? Another George W?
It was on Carly Fiorina’s watch that I bought a truly excellent printer, at a good price, with design details that were wonderful.
It ran, day in and day out. It was fast. Its paper trays each held a ream of paper.
And after she left, the company decided not to support it.
I learned not to include the HP software updates when offered, because every other time I updated their software, I lost the ability to print.
I finally had to junk a perfectly working, useful machine, because I had to update my OS, and when that happened, the included HP software did not work at all.
This problem was a firmware problem that was HP’s responsibility for a number of printer lines.
Whoever threw out Carly Fiorina made a serious, serious mistake, and lost the ability to ever get any money from me, again.
Oh God! Do you talk, you would think that Carly designed that printer, built that printer by hand, developed the software. That the guy coming in decided to throw away all her hard work.
Let me give a couple of clues, though I am probably casting pearls before swine. The one person who is most responsible for you having to junk your printer is Carly.
There are several corporate cultures available to tech firms. Fewer for old style tech companies that mainly make hardware. Two of these are the “Ma Bell” way and the HP way.
THe “Ma Bell” way started at “Ma Bell” and continued on to the Baby Bells, the new AT&T and later Lucent when various breakups happened. That way is excellently described in the comic strip Dilbert. A comic strip written by Scott Adams an ex-engineer at a baby bell. It is that management dictates to the engineers. the engineers do their best to prevent the managers from totally screwing up the products.
Then there is or rather was the HP way. It’s simple enough. Engineering is producing the great products we sell. Management’s job is threefold: help the engineer’s do their stuff, once in a while tweak what the engineers are doing and finally once the engineers are done make and sell the stuff. An example of this is if an engineer designing a new prototype needs 50 widgets, the managers goes through the procurement procedure instead of requiring the engineer to do it. So the engineer can spend his time doing what he does best. Engineering.
So now in comes Carly do? She replaces the HP way with the AT&T way. She then fires all the old engineers and replaces them with el-cheapo H1-Bs. In the short term it saves the company tons of money.
So now the time comes. New versions of operating systems come out. To work with them new versions of the software, particularly drivers come out. Dirty little secret. 95% of the old code doesn’t have to be rewritten, but who rewrites the 5%. Well the H1-Bs look at it and say “this more complicated then stuff I’ve written before”. On top of which they are new to the code. Even excellent engineers will need to get up to speed before rewriting it.
So the new CEO looks at the situation. It is going to get very expensive. To justify the cost he is going to have to charge for the software upgrade, twice as much as the software originally cost . Now at Lucent they will get people to cough up because the switches are not only expensive , but expensive to put in and tear out. So the switch owners pay large maintenance contracts. But for a printer? Forget it. So it was policy that FCarly put into place that caused HP to eventually stop mainaining that printer.
BTW what printer was it. I had an HP Laserjet II that worked all the way to Vista. I gave it up when it’s power supply broke, but the software still worked.hard to see any HP printer not working with new operating systemsd because of driver problems.
You act as if she’s the only business leader, in the history of business, that made some mistakes.
That long tirade sounds great, but when juxtaposed against the current administration bringing in hundreds of thousands of illegals, the “horror” of the H1-Bs fades away pretty fast.
So why did they hire her in the first place? They got her out of the ATT way, so it seems maybe the board wanted that, and deserve equal blame? She executed what they hired her for.
She obviously had some talent, but perhaps she rose to “her level of incompetence” (Peter Principle) at HP, or was just a terrible fit, since the board was (apparently) wrong on changing the HP Way. Fleckenstein thought she was terrible, but that she was pretty thorough at cutting costs, which was probably unpopular.
The stock had turned back up before she left, and kept going to 55, (on current chart, which may be adjusted for splits), later went down to 12 or so. So did someone else screw that up, or is it just a tough sector with the cloud and other new toys? Some of both, and other factors I guess. Acquiring is expensive, but acquire or die seemed like the trend for a while.
You know those details better than I do, but she sounds strong NOW, in the speech and on questions. And she has been making the rounds in enemy camps (like The View) and scoring points against Hillary. I haven’t checked into her other ventures post HP, but don’t see the point in demonizing her for failures at HP a decade ago. She broke that ceiling … so has some chops I think.
I do think the push for breaking that glass ceiling (for which she was perhaps most famous) may have advanced her too quickly, and also put more pressure on her. But we’re past that now, and she is performing an invaluable task in the identity politics war. But we get it, you hated her at HP.
It’s interesting you want to blame her for everything that went wrong on her shift but deny her credit for the things that went well. You act like her experience as CEO at HP was unique – it was not. There is an old business adage that you will piss off 10% of the people every year. After 7 years you’ve pissed off 70% and it’s time to move on.
Don’t ask about her getting fired, instead ask WHY she got fired.
She rammed through the dreadful Compaq acquisition for H-P. This has to be one of the most bonehead mistakes that a major CEO made in the last 15 years. And this is not Monday morning quarterbacking – there was heavy shareholder (both insiders and outsiders) opposition to this with concrete reasons why it was a bad idea.
There is something in what what you say, but she didn’t get fired for the merger. Instead she kept her job because of the merger.
There was a stockholder revolt brewing. The stockholders didn’t like what she was doing to HP. They were about to oust herm but she announced the merger. No CEO is ever fired in the middle of a merger, so she saddled HP with a horrid merger to keep her job for a few more years.
“she saddled HP with a horrid merger to keep her job for a few more years.”
That sounds like pure speculation. Can a CEO do a major acquisition without board approval?
After they fired Carly, they said they would maintain the same direction. Maybe the board is most to blame.
I haven’t read Carly’s side of the firing and the boardroom brawls … someone posted a couple links recently but I can’t find them now.
In the wake of Fiorina’s reign at HP, HP still exists. I’m not so sure we’ll be able to say the same about the US in the wake of Obama’s reign.
Scott Walker, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio…if you’re reading this. Give Carly a call now. You have your VP.
It may be a good thing that she didn’t make the first debate. Someone has to take on Trump, better it be from the other 9. The 9 know they will get not “oxygen” if Trump skates thru without serious wounds. Of course Trump will retaliate and some may be forced to quit. But that way Carly remains unscathed.
“Fiorina’s attacks have not been on fellow Republicans, which is refreshing. Fiorina has set her sights on the proper targets: Hillary Clinton and the Democratic machine.”
Carly is playing the long game, which I think is awesome, but it may cost her overall if she doesn’t also win the short game.
Her long game won’t matter one bit if she doesn’t survive the primaries.
And can we please stop referring to Trump as the “grenade” that “sucks media oxygen”? That makes no sense at all. His attacks are incendiary, suck oxygen, stick to his targets, and burn like Hell. “Napalm” would be a much better description than “grenade”. 😉
Professor Jacobson was the first to make that comparison. As this is his blog, that is the analogy I plan to use! But, I do see your point.
Carly is the only one I’ve heard say those that came illegally will have no path to citizenship. (I think that was in this speech, or the Q&A) I strongly agree, that even if we can’t deport 25 million illegals, we CAN identify them so that they do not get the citizenship award for jumping the line and living of US for a decade.
Democrats only want the votes, but I think illegals and sympathizers only care that they don’t get drug out of their homes. Trump is now wavering, and wants to make legal immigration easy, it seems. I’d say give a two year visa to those that have jobs, and if they don’t sign up for that they will face more penalties, or ultimately deportation.
And I’m betting that after the China scam of charging pregnant mothers $50K to bring them to the US for child birth anchor babies, running on changing the “jackpot baby” law is also a political winner. Of course the loudest mouth small minority La Raza types will scream, but so what, scream back. We Won.
She has been impressive all her life from what I’ve read.
I’ve waffling between Walker, Cruz and Fiorina for a couple months, but time will eventually narrow the choices down.
I’d love to see her in the debate, she’s sharp and unflappable. I’d have no problem voting for her if she’s the choice.
Fiorina, the CEO, got fired once. Let’s not act like that’s anything unusual or that it proves ineptitude in the business world. CEOs get fired as often as baseball managers or NFL coaches.
I have noticed how CF has an eloquent way with words to present her ideas and thoughts on the problems of this country. And, just as importantly, uses that same style to express her well reasoned solutions to those issues we face. She is a direct opposite of Hillary Clinton and her potential replacement Joe Biden. Both of which would have difficulty reading a weather report on the evening news shows. I look forward to seeing her in debates that would give us more of a chance to see her abilities against her GOP rivals. Head to head with HC, CF would clean her clock in a debate regardless of who the moderator would be or what questions were cherry picked for HC. The only question in doubt would be how big or small the pieces of HC and her campaign would remain after the head to head face off. But my prediction is that it remains to be seen if HC makes it to 2016 as an intact Democrat candidate.