Fans of batshit insane campaign commercials rejoice! This morning, ousted Hewlett-Packard head Carly Fiorina, whose abortive 2010 run for Senate featured some seriously insane commercials, announced this morning that she will be running for President. Of the United States.
This had been rumored for a while, with Fiorina telling the WSJ over a month ago that “I am running for [president] because I can win it and because I can do it." But today she made it official(er), announcing her candidacy live on hard-hitting news show Good Morning America.
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Fiorina previously ran for a Senate seat in 2010, when it was revealed that she'd rarely bothered to vote. She managed to garner 42% of the vote, losing to incumbent Barbara Boxer. But not before a primary season during which her campaign released this infamous "demon sheep" ad attacking Republican rival Tom Campbell:
"I have a lot of admiration for Hillary Clinton, but she clearly is not trustworthy," Fiorina said this morning on GMA.
"I understand executive decision-making, which is making the tough call in the tough time with high stakes for which you're prepared to be held accountable."
In fact, Fiorina is so familiar with being "held accountable" that she was fired by HP after 5 plus years as CEO after "efforts to fix the $80 billion computing colossus stalled," Businessweek reported in 2005. So why does she think she can do any better with the 4+ trillion colossus that is the US? Her lack of experience, apparently.
“We know the only way to reimagine our government is to reimagine who is leading it," she says in her (sadly, unembeddable) announcement video on her new campaign website. (You can still find her old, slightly janky even for 2009 Senate campaign site here.)
Fiorina is the only woman (so far) vying for the GOP nomination for president. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas are all in the running, and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is expected to announce his run on Tuesday.
So, what's Fiorina's platform? Speaking with the WSJ last month, she said that she "would aim to roll back federal regulations that she said have placed an undue burden on mom-and-pop small businesses. Her would-be presidential platform includes reductions in federal tax rates and elimination of an array of regulations."
And, it goes without saying, no more demon sheep.