My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | September 23, 2015
Last week’s debate among eleven Republicans is having a long life on both sides of politics
Headlines shriek that Carly Fiorina has blasted ahead. She hasn’t – at least in the polls I read. CNN deliberately, all night, tried to pit one candidate against another.
From the VICE GUIDE TO RIGHT NOW, by Scott Pierce:
"Donald Trump told a Fox morning show on Thursday that he wasn't criticizing Carly Fiorina's physical appearance when he said her "face" made her unelectable as president. He was actually talking about her "persona." That's better, right?
"Rolling Stone published Trump's insult in an article Wednesday, after he joined Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck at an anti-Iran Deal rally on the Capitol's West Lawn."
"Look at that face," he said of Fiorina. "Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"
"He continued: "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" Trump prefaced the insults by admitting she'd previously been "a little nasty" to him.
"Trump promptly backtracked on the comments—kind of, sort of, not really—during an interview with the morning show Fox & Friends:
"Probably I did say something about Carly," Trump admitted. Everybody can chill out, though—he wasn't insinuating anything about her actual face. "I'm talking about persona," he argued. "I'm not talking about look."
“This isn't the first time Trump has publicly criticized a woman's appearance. Who could forget his comment toward Megyn Kelly at the very memorable first Republican presidential debate, when asked if he was part of the war on women?
"You've called women you don't like 'fat pigs,' 'dogs,' 'slobs,' and 'disgusting animals,' Kelly said, before Trump interrupted to clarify: "Only Rosie O'Donnell."
“Afterward, Trump notoriously alluded to Kelly's menstrual cycle. As with the insult against Fiorina, Trump later backtracked, arguing that "only a deviant" would believe that he was talking about periods.
“Despite his increasing string of inane and sexist comments, Trump continues to hold a strong lead in the GOP field, showing 32 percent support among Republicans in a new poll. The negging must be working for him.”
That is the background from which Fiorina assaulted Trump, verbally, in the recent debate. I felt her diatribes were disgusting, but then I am a Trump fan. Despite the fact she got a poll bump Trump is still in the lead.
Sadly, Trump, maybe thinking about the women voters, reversed field and said she was pretty; she is not a pretty woman at all. She was well scripted but as an ex CEO, mostly in sales and marketing, one is supposed to sell ice boxes to Eskimos. She is much like Republicans in Congress and we know how they lie.
Her ex-foe Barbara Boxer said her poll numbers will drop as soon as people read about her debacle at Hewlett Packard and voters realize how mean she is.
I am surprised Trump didn’t answer her tirade by suggesting she look in the mirror to see what others see. Then he should have renewed talk of how he dislikes losers and painted her as a classic example of a loser.
In 1960 I was a recent electrical engineering graduate from the University of Illinois. In 1965, while at Radiation, Inc., the chairman suggested I call HP and ask to meet and chat with HP founders David Packard and William Hewlett. They were both famous for starting their company in a Silicon Valley garage. The chairman felt I would learn some tricks from these two distinguished gentlemen. I wrote them a letter with no expectations. Imagine my surprise when I was invited to come out for a tour.
I spent one whole day and a dinner with Hewlett and Packard and some of their direct reports. The camaraderie and absence of internal politics was obvious. I attended design reviews and planning sessions. Back then Packard was the president and CEO and was succeeded by Hewlett in 1971. Packard became the Secretary of defense under President Nixon and before returning to HP as chairman.
HP was the company to join in Silicon Valley and their hiring standards were very high. Fiorina stomped on their carefully constructed culture and she was deeply resented. It was Hewlett’s son who led the effort to eliminate her; he tried to stop the merger with Compaq, for which some blame the disasters that followed.
Whoops, liberal USA Today implied Fiorina was in first place using this reasoning: “Trump got 14 first place votes, one more than Fiorina’s 13. But he was as low as 10th on some ballots, while she was at least second on nearly every ballot.” The headline of the offending article is, “Fiorina takes top from Trunp.”
The issue was picked up by other media that she was in first place and she is not, at least at this minute.
I am sure you have noticed our first choice in the early stages was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who has dropped out of the race. If he had the stones of Trump he might still be running.
This of course is still the beginning and several months before the primary elections begin next year.
