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Keep an Eye on Carly
I have a general rule when it comes to prominent politicians: I don’t want to meet them. In moments of grandiosity, I try to convince myself that this is a professional imperative — don’t want to let personal affinities or biases color my analysis and all that. The real explanation, of course is much simpler: I tend to hate them. Republican or Democrat. Male or female. Young or old. The vast majority of them have precisely the kind of personalities you’d expect from individuals whose entire career is predicated on public approbation: insecure at some level, intellectually dull, and desperate for validation. Combine that with the kind of ego that’s necessary to believe that you’re uniquely fit to rule over your peers and you get a lot of deeply maladjusted individuals. There are, of course, exceptions. It’s way too cynical to believe that all politicians are sociopaths — it’s just a supermajority of them.
Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with one of the outliers: former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who, at the time, was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in California. Now, I wasn’t by any means a part of Carly’s inner circle — I doubt she’d even remember my name — but we did get to talk, one-on-one and at length, on a couple of occasions. She was intellectually sharp and off-the-cuff eloquent. She was tough as hell (a trait underscored by the fact that she was campaigning in the immediate aftermath of completing chemotherapy for breast cancer). She was a genuine, honest-to-god conservative rather than the milquetoast types than normally come out of the C-suite. And she was supremely poised, yet without a whiff of the arrogance that’s native to her trade. I knew she was going to lose to Barbara Boxer — what is California politics if not a boulevard of broken dreams? — but I remember thinking that it would be a real shame if she never became a star within the Republican Party.
Well, that celebrity turn may be on its way. Carly, as you may have heard, is flirting with a presidential bid. And, as Scott Conroy notes at RealClearPolitics, there are some surprising rumblings coming out of New Hampshire:
Recent conversations with plugged-in Republicans across the state reveal a consensus that Carly Fiorina—the former Hewlett-Packard CEO—is positioning herself well as a potential dark horse White House contender capable of making a serious run.
…
It’s not just Fiorina’s gender that’s captured the interest of influential New Hampshire Republicans.
In interviews, several cited her private sector experience, engaging presence on the stump and compelling life story as a woman who rose from a secretarial position to helming one of the nation’s biggest corporations as reasons to believe that she could end up in the mix once rank-and-file primary voters start tuning in.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say how impressed they were and that they went in to see her thinking it’d be the same old, ‘I’m an outsider’ speech, and they were wowed by her depth and insight,” said Concord GOP committee chair Kerry Marsh. ”I’ve heard nothing but good things, and she seems to make herself very available.”
…
While her background as the only business executive in the race figures to endear her to the business-minded Republicans in New Hampshire who typically rally behind a contender with close ties to the GOP establishment, Fiorina has also been impressing activists from the conservative grassroots wing of the party.
Andrew Hemingway, who earned the backing of several New Hampshire-based Tea Party-aligned groups during his unsuccessful bid for the 2014 Republican gubernatorial nomination, called Fiorina “someone to watch,” noting that he had so far found her to be “an articulate, accomplished, and competent executive capable of leading this country.”
“I believe she could be a surprise to a lot of people,” Hemingway said. “Doubling the size of HP while CEO, conducting one of the largest mergers in tech history and with the vision of a tech entrepreneur … these make up a unique and very compelling profile.”
Now, a few caveats. As Conroy notes, there’s plenty of oppo fodder in Fiorina’s HP tenure, which was far from smooth. And, from where I sit, I’d still consider her a decided long-shot in this field. There’s simply too much experience amongst the potential Republican candidates to imagine a former business executive with zero elected experience leapfrogging the pack.
That said, I suspect that Fiorina — who is supremely good behind a podium — is going to get a lot of people’s attention once the debates start. That could well propel her to the top of the vice presidential short list (where — and this is just early, albeit informed, speculation — I expect she’d be keeping company with Susana Martinez and, assuming he doesn’t get the nomination, Marco Rubio). At the very least, I’d be shocked if she doesn’t end up somewhere in the next Republican administration.
Not convinced? How about a sampling of her remarks today at CPAC:
When I was typing in that little company, and indeed throughout my career, I have needed someone to take a chance on me. When I battled cancer, I needed many helping hands. When my husband Frank and I lost our younger daughter Lori to the demons of addiction, we relied on the strength of our family, the solace of our faith, but we also were lifted up by the prayers and kindness of so many strangers who became blessings in our lives.
Everyone needs a helping hand but no one wants to be trapped in the web of dependence that has been woven over decades in our nation. To fulfill their potential, people need an education, tools, training, support—and they need a job.
The President of the Chicago Teacher’s Union once said this: “We cannot be held responsible for the performance of the students in our classrooms because too many of them are poor and come from broken families.” Liberals may be prepared to dismiss and disregard Americans because of their circumstances. Liberals may be prepared to consign some to lives of dependence while others—who think they are smarter and better—take care of them.
We as conservatives are not. We know that no one of us is better than any other one of us. We know that each of us has God-given gifts and can live a life of dignity, purpose and meaning.
Work is a central part of such a life and so we must rebuild Main Street. Elizabeth Warren is right: crony capitalism is alive and well. Government and government programs have grown so big, so powerful, so costly and so complex that only the big and the powerful can prosper. But Elizabeth Warren is dead wrong about how to end crony capitalism. You see, whether it is Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare or net-neutrality, all this government complexity means the big get bigger, the small disappear, and the powerless are trapped.
We are now destroying more businesses than we are creating. Most Americans get their start the way I did – in a small business. The dry-cleaners, tacquerias, coffee shops, hairdressers and real-estate firms of American Main Street create most of our new jobs and employ half our people. So if we want more jobs, we need more small businesses.
But we need leaders not managers. You see, managers are people who do the best they can within existing constraints and conditions, who tinker around the edges of a problem. We need leaders who do not accept what is broken simply because it has always been that way. We need leaders that will change the order of things. Leaders who see and seize possibilities and know the highest calling of leadership is to unlock potential in others.
Not a bad start. What say you?
Published in General
I agree with anonymous’s critique of Fiorina’s tenure at HP. The company jettisoned the people and culture that made it great and doubled down on a commoditizing set of businesses–PCs and printers. That said, I simply love Carly’s rebuttal to Elizabeth Warren, particularly this line: “You see, whether it is Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare or net-neutrality, all this government complexity means the big get bigger, the small disappear, and the powerless are trapped.”
This is exactly the argument our side needs to make.
First, if I was one of the diner patrons in NH as she strolled in, I would ask her about the troubled HP tenure–what was the biggest mistake you made and what is the most important lesson you took from your time there? She is not disqualified simply because she made some bad decision unless she doesn’t admit that any of them were bad.
Her business acumen would not be a selling point for me–I am not interested in electing a turnaround artist or supreme manager–voters turned down that guy in 2012. She deserves some “in the arena” credits for actually being in the private sector, unlike our current President.
I am interested in someone voicing the concerns of normal people against a government run amok, who’s willing to speak out against the Chamber or NAM and say something independent about the Ex-Im bank or immigration, who’s willing to voice some unpopular opinions every once in a while.
I’m willing to see what she can do outside the alternate universe that is California. Let her stay.
She ran as a pro-life candidate for the Senate in California.
I think that is called “bona fides.”
Hey, all the farmers in the Central Valley do is feed half of America. They’re not the California Teachers Association, screwing up the schools and donating $$$$ to the Democrat Party.
Couldn’t agree with you more but the environmentalists are working hard to make it as difficult as possible for CA farmers to compete.
This warms my heart, John. By any small chance, do you also use RPN?
-E
Holy crap that is the best thing I have read this week. Well done sir.
That ad is so hilarious and ridiculous I’m embarrassed someone who has the right instincts on work and the economy like Carly Fiorina would be associated with it.
Almost, John.
I’ve known a few pre-Carly HP-ers: engineers, engineering managers, even some relatively empty-headed fluffies. (Even the fluffies from the old HP tend to be sharp, if lazy and deluded like most of their kind.) The tale I hear is one of hubris and willful stupidity. (Ok, I have to read between the lines when listening to the managers.)
Fiorina destroyed a premier technology company. She might be fit to manage a women’s clothier at the mall, but that’s about the limit of her competence.
I think you’ve been rolled, Troy. Happens to the best of us.
In modern times, it’s been a shame that we didn’t make more use of the talents of a conservative VP who had executive experience. The counter-example is Cheney, of course, who was productive. We desperately need someone without the day to day hassles of the presidency who could focus on shrinking government bureaucracy size by 1% each year, creating a new pattern. I don’t think someone can do that who hasn’t had a prominent part in a large, many-armed company, like HP. It’s up to the president to delegate authority to the VP to make this possible.
I like so much of what I’ve heard about Mrs. Fiorina. BUT…
For her sake, I hope she has a great stock answer for what happened to HP while she was CEO. I’m sure she’ll be hammered about cutting jobs then, while she now complains about not enough people having jobs.
I’m sure it can be explained due to many factors, but she’s got to turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse. That will be an early test of her political skills.
Excellent point. Cheney was the ultimate asset to the Bush administration and the American people.