Carly Fiorina Is No Hillary Clinton

The big news out of the most recent Republican debate was the performance of Carly Fiorina. From the back of the pack only a few short weeks ago, Carly has vaulted to second place behind Donald Trump in the Republican race for the nomination according to a recent poll released by CNN.

While Carly is no Hillary Clinton, they both have shown an increasing willingness to stand up to the histrionics of Donald Trump. Carly is unlikely to stay the course but for the short term it is interesting to speculate on the prospect of having two women heading the ticket in 2016.

Fiorina has no prior experience in elective office. Her claim to fame lies in her tenure as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard a few years back. Carly made a run for the California Senate seat held by Barbra Boxer in 2014, but after a good start faded away as Boxer’s campaign unveiled ads attacking her performance at HP. The New York Times reported last week that Fiorina’s Super Pac has been commissioning ads defending her record as CEO. However, her efforts were tarnished by the news last week that HP was cutting another 30,000 jobs as part of the restructuring plan that is part of Fiorina’s legacy as CEO.

This lack of experience is in sharp contrast to extensive experience that Hillary Rodham Clinton brings to the table with her tenure in the U.S. Senate and as Secretary of State under President Obama.

In last week’s Republican debate, Fiorina aimed her attack directly at Hillary when she said mocked Clinton by saying: “If you want to stump a Democrat, ask them about Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments as secretary of state.”

According The Guardian Hillary quickly responded to Carly’s attempt to pick a fight by responding:

If anyone is interested, there is a long list of what I’ve done and I’m very proud of it. Orchestrating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and putting together the coalition that led to international sanctions against Iran.

Carly has been warming up her attack dog routine against Hillary for the past nine months. The Los Angeles Times ran a story in January 2015 quoting Fiorina as saying: “Like Hillary Clinton, I too have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe. But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something.”  The L.A. Times noted:

Leaving aside the issue of what Clinton accomplished as secretary of state in the first Obama term, the problem for Fiorina, should she become a serious candidate, or even a high-profile surrogate, is the business record she accumulated while visiting all those countries. Her six-year tenure at Hewlett-Packard was marred by extensive domestic layoffs. She insisted that sending jobs to other countries was not offshoring but what she dubbed “right-shoring.” (“There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore,” she once told a congressional committee.)

Carly’s path to winning the GOP nomination will most certainly be a long and arduous journey. Her gender is a plus for her as the GOP struggles to find an identity beyond Trump, but being a woman is not likely to be enough to put her on a path to face Hillary next fall. However, should lightning strike for Fiorina it’s hard to imagine a more unqualified opponent for Hillary to face.