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Carly for the Win
Here’s the thing about politicians who try to be funny: It’s generally better not to do it at all than to do it badly. The one thing that’s worse than a stiff is a guy awkwardly fumbling his way towards an underwhelming punchline. Now, there are occasional exceptions. Ted Cruz’s recent attempts at Simpsons impersonations for BuzzFeed were dad-after-four-beers bad, but they at least proved that Cruz, who’s burdened by the male equivalent of a syndrome that can’t be described under Ricochet’s Code of Conduct, is capable of lightening up. But Senator Cruz ought to be taking lessons from Carly Fiorina. Check out her effort at BuzzFeed:
Am I the only one who finds Carly harder to resist every day?
Published in Culture, Humor, Politics
I find it offensive. As someone who self-identifies as gener-specifically male, I don’t like the micro-agressive condescension.
Um, no.
Terribly hackish.
Besides, these people shouldn’t be doing this.
That was remarkably funny.
I can’t let this stand! There were no jokes!
Thank you. I haven’t been able to put into words why he is a bit off putting. That’s exactly the problem.
RE: “Am I the only one who finds Carly harder to resist every day?”
No, there’s two of us. You and I. But I’m reasonably sure that that’s about it among the Ricochetois.
As far as I can tell, Carly is the only candidate out on the trail actively attacking HRC on specific policy points AND the glaring failures in office. For that alone, she deserves our support.
Should we support her just because she’s a woman? No. But let’s not kid ourselves: after the coronation, the mainstream media will rally around Clinton as though she were the Second Coming of…well, Obama. As long as Carly can present even the potential of being able to meet Hillary on even ground, we ought to support her as a viable alternative.
Do I think running HP is the best preparation for POTUS? No. But I’ll take it over a half-term in the Illinois State Senate and 1/3 of a term in the US Senate. And dare anyone to argue otherwise with me.
On to the criticisms.
1) No self-respecting person links to anything from Buzzfeed.
2) I actually don’t think it is all that funny.
I didn’t think it was all that funny, but that was the writing, not Carly. So far, I love Carly.
No. Make that three of us. I like Fiorina because of how she presents herself, and what she says. She is smart and professional; she just happens to be a woman. I’ve liked her since I saw her interview with the Yahoo “news” Madam who used to be on TV in the mornings, and whose name I have happily forgotten
Troy,
I like Carly very much. I think her direct attacks on HRC have been both effective and show her own potential talent as a candidate. As she has little national recognition those were great ways to be introduced to the American people.
However, I don’t believe in the stereotype reprocessing social engineering myth that drags us deeper and deeper into balkanized individuals who have no identity whatsoever. The response to all of the above presumed slights by men against women in the workplace is simple. Male subordinates have always been subjected to far worse slights by Male superiors. Most of those slights couldn’t be classed as unintentional as much of what is shown here is. It is always useful to know in advance things to avoid saying that give offense. A man watching the video could easily pick up a few pointers. However, that really wasn’t the point of the video. The video continues to portray women as victims of terrible injustices. It would be interesting to see what a young women who masqueraded as a man at an entry level job would report about her treatment as “low man on the totem pole”. This might be a fair test. Assuming social scientists are still interested in fair tests and not just confirmation of their ideological biases.
Regards
Jim
The more I see of Carly Fiorina, the more disgusted I am with the voters of California.
Really, Barbara Boxer was the better choice?
It is easier to seem worthy of positions one does not have than of those one does. –La Rochefoucauld, Maxim 164
Carly Fiorina reminds me of several people I’ve known who dazzle in the interviews but fizzle on the job. Another such person was Barack Obama.
Billy,
Truly the definition of insanity. Governor Moonbeam, Barbara Boxer, and no water to farm or drink. Out of their minds.
Regards,
Jim
I would say I think Frank has the better of this disagreement, but I would never live it down in the PIT, so I won’t.
I will say that after that endorsement by the tall-necked wonder, I was expecting funny and was massively underwhelmed. It was really just OK. The only one I thought was funny was the first one (“How do you walk in those shoes”).
I thought it was amusing. I too have been impressed with Carly even though I took a dim view of her candidacy before I heard her on the Ricochet podcast.
As far as the identity politics aspect of her candidacy, I would support a black lesbian female midget(little person?) if she was conservative and could beat Hillary (no transgender, though – too creepy).
Some conservatives refuse to play identity politics on “principle” while our principles are getting shredded every day by a socialist ninny and who’s horrible policies would be enthusiastically continued by Hillary.
Just win, baby!
It struck me as pandering, quite honestly. It wasn’t funny because it’s been done to death.
Nothing but a series of cheap punchlines to an implied (always a bad sign) set up that men are dopes who say dumb jerky things to women all day at work.
You are wrong by 33% (or is it 50%) because I too would love to see Carly get the nod.
Sorry, but this is not only unfunny, it’s unconservative! The whole thing is based on the concept of microaggressions and the implied belief that treating men and women differently in any way at all is a form of discrimination. No self respecting conservative should participate in something like this.
It’s cute, not laugh inducing, but in 2015 it’s necessary. She is smart to do this stuff.
However Ricochetti should remember we are not her audience for this; it’s millennials and the low info voters.
It informs the yutes there is more than one XX chromosome running, who they probably didn’t know about.
In addition to presenting her Conservative bona fides to the base, she is smart to focus on those voters who would simply vote for a woman just for history, but don’t like Hillary.
I’ve worked in offices where it wouldn’t seem at all absurd for those sorts of comments to be directed at men.
What Carly Fiorina has, besides her brains, which are considerable, are poise, perfect articulation, and an impeccable sense of timing.
I don’t think any of these things is uncommon among women in the business world, especially among those who are successful in their field. It’s an old saw, but if they aren’t married to the boss, or the former boss, they have to be
betterat least as good as the men with and for whom they work, in order that they can move up.Eventually, she’ll make a mistake, and the jackals will pounce, as they never would for a President who, say, made a comment about visiting all 57 states . . .
What I like most about her is that she does it with a smile (I bet she fired people while wearing that smile, too), and she’s not shrill. I will leave out the obvious invidious comparison here.
Women in business take to heart the lessons that come from the way they present themselves to others. Women who wish to rise in politics should do the same.
Even Maggie the Handbag needed a makeover or two before she made it big.
Not everyone can hire Larry Olivier as a voice coach (well, especially now, since he’s dead), but I can think of a number of Republican woman politicians who would clean up very well for the long haul. And a bunch of guys who could use a little help in that department too, truth be told.
It wouldn’t have hurt the writers to go to thegreatcourses.com/lawtalk to order How Conversation Works for the low, low price of $9.95 and then listen to the last 10 minutes of lecture 5.
Of course, now it would hurt because it would show exactly why this wasn’t funny at all.
Mis,
If this is just taken as some kind of Saturday Night live sketch for laughs then Carly gets points for being a sport. However, this is just a can of worms that could make her look petty if taken seriously. She has been doing great without this stuff. She should stay with her original approach and attack HRC on other substantive issues. She could develop a conservative thinking women’s appeal that makes HRC look like the robotic DC Dragon that she is.
Regards,
Jim
The other interesting tidbit about her that might be relevant in the “gender war” is that her extremely successful husband quit his job to raise their children when she was promoted to CEO of HP.
This strikes me as both true and unfortunate.
I think those things are terribly uncommon period.
I like Carly, but the ad–meh.
I voted for Carly!
In the general population I think you’re right. Maybe I should have said among successful women in the business world.
What flabbergasts me is how scarce those resources (any of them) seem to be among the political class of either sex. And how men and women of laughable ability who wouldn’t last five minutes in the corporate world become senators and congressmen-for-life once they are elected the first time. And no one seems to mind.