Could likely GOP presidential candidate, Carly Fiorina, be the magic bullet for taking down Hillary Clinton?
Fiorina, the hold-no-punches former CEO of venerable tech giant Hewlett-Packard, seems to think so.
Though she’s never held political office, she boasts an enviable professional resume: her tenure at HP, from 1999 to 2005, made her the first female CEO to head a Fortune 20 company–and was, at the time, considered by some to be the most powerful woman in business. She also served as the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Right now, she’s promoting her possible candidacy as a kind of anti-Hillary.
“I come from a world where speeches are not accomplishments,” Fiorina says. “Activity isn’t accomplishment. Title isn’t accomplishment. I come from a world where you have to actually do something; you have to produce results.”
Hillary Clinton has been criticized for her tenure as Secretary of State, amid claims that she used parts of the job description, like “miles flown,” as markers of success, rather than concrete foreign policy accomplishments. She’s also come under fire for her exorbitant speaking fees–charging up to $300,000 per speech–an income source that took her and her husband from allegedly “flat broke” in 2001 to millionaires many times over.
In addition to experience, Fiorina feels that, as a woman, only she would truly be able to land the necessary punches on Hillary–without having the Left cry sexism.
If a male GOP candidate tried to lay into Clinton’s record, Fiorina explains, “no matter what he says, [Hillary] will play the gender card or the War on Women card. She won’t be able to do that with me.”
“I think that if Hillary Clinton were to face a female nominee, there are a whole set of things that she won’t be able to talk about,” Fiorina continued.
“She won’t be able to talk about being the first woman president. She won’t be able to talk about a war on women without being challenged. She won’t be able to play the gender card… So what she will have to run on his her track record, her accomplishments, her candor and trustworthiness and her policies.”
While Fiorina’s campaign has yet to be formally announced, her likely candidacy poses an interesting question: is Hillary Clinton so inevitable if you take away her gender card?