On a stage with 10 men, Carly Fiorina stands out as the best choice for the Republican presidential ticket.
Her unique business-centered background, her straightforward and honest character, and her gender make her the strongest candidate to defeat Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
And Fiorina knows it.
“If Hillary Clinton debates me, she can’t talk about being a mother and a grandmother — me too. She can’t talk about being a woman — me too,” Fiorina said in an interview on Fox Business. “What she’s going to have to talk about is her lack of trustworthiness, her lack of a track record of leadership, what her policies will do to this nation, and guess what? On that ground we can win.”
In a YouGov a poll in March, 67 percent of Americans said they were ready for a female president. Clinton has relentlessly played the woman card during her campaign, drawing support from the Women for Hillary group and painting herself as a “lifelong fighter for women’s rights.”
Fiorina has refrained from using this move, although she has a thick stack of playing cards far more relevant than Clinton’s. After battling breast cancer, burying a stepchild plagued by substance abuse, and climbing from secretary to CEO in a male-dominated workplace, Fiorina knows the difficulties of being a woman.
Pitting Fiorina against Clinton would eliminate the gender bias from Americans who support Clinton because “it’s time for a woman president.”
Fiorina is firm in her conservatism. She believes in defunding Planned Parenthood, arming Ukraine to stand up against Russia, and tightening border control. She opposes same-sex marriage and raising the minimum wage. Fiorina is well-educated and certain of her stances.
In another stark contrast to Clinton, Fiorina is trained in business instead of bred in politics. She was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard and the first female to lead a Fortune 500 company.
“You know what happens if someone’s been in the system their whole life: they don’t know how broken the system is,” Fiorina said during the CNN GOP debate Sept. 16.
Fiorina is stepping into the political realm and using her experience as a powerful woman in the business world to re-evaluate how America should be led.
“I think one of the reasons that voters feel so disconnected from the professional political class is because they don’t see anyone held accountable,” Fiorina said during an interview on Fox Business. “They don’t see people produce results, they don’t see people actually challenge the status quo, they don’t see people change the order of things for the better.”
Fiorina’s success is apparent through the results she saw in her years at Hewlett-Packard.
Although faced with the worst technology recession in 25 years, Hewlett-Packard doubled revenues, more than quadrupled its growth rate, and moved from 28th to 11th largest company in the United States while Fiorina was CEO and after a merger with Compaq.
Fiorina’s blunt and striking honesty has also set her apart from her competition in the GOP primary election.
After the second GOP debate, Fiorina rocketed from 3 percent to 15 percent in the polls, according to a CNN/ORC poll. CNN also reported that 52 percent of GOP voters deemed Fiorina the debate winner.
Americans are beginning to see Fiorina as a serious contender for the Republican ticket.
How will Clinton’s debate skills compare?
Let’s put Fiorina and Clinton on the same stage by putting Fiorina on the Republican ticket.
Whether she’s next to 10 men or one woman, Fiorina stands out.
