Fiorina’s breakthrough: She has earned a look
America got to see all 17 Republican presidential candidates on stage last week, most of them twice. From the combined Monday and Thursday events, there is one obvious conclusion: Carly Fiorina is a formidable candidate.
The first woman to run a Fortune 500 company, Fiorina has never been elected to public office (though she made a good run for U.S. Senate in California in 2010).
The former Hewlett–Packard CEO had little national name recognition going into last week, which placed her in Thursday's preliminary debate per FOX News's ill-considered, poll-based criteria. Her performances on stage last week changed all that.
At the Voters First Presidential Forum at St. Anselm College on Monday and the FOX News debate on Thursday, Fiorina was well-prepared, forceful and commanding. She outperformed every professional politician save the exceptionally gifted Marco Rubio, which is no mean feat. That includes the longest-serving governor of the nation's second-largest state, a former Harvard University debate champion, and the two-term governor of America's third-largest state who is also the eldest son of one of America's most prominent political families.
Fiorina has a surprising grasp of the issues for a non-politician, and her ability to speak with precision, clarity and wit, even under great pressure, is a skill shared by few people in any line of work. Fiorina has earned a seat at the adults' table. How she handles herself there will determine whether voters consider her truly presidential material.
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