“She doesn’t really have too much else to do right now,” mused one senior Republican operative. “It’s a way to stay out there and stay relevant.”
“Carly Fiorina is not the type of person who is going to sit on the couch eating Doritos watching football on the weekends,” another operative, who has signed on with a competing Republican campaign, said. “She always has to be doing something and she has to be doing it effectively at a high level at all times.”
But being dismissed before a race is run is also familiar political territory for Fiorina. In 2010, California Republicans picked Fiorina to take on Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was the heavy favorite to win in deep blue California.
What people tend to remember about the contest is Fiorina’s sound defeat by Boxer, 52 percent to 42 percent, along with Fiorina’s quirky “Demon Sheep” ad during the Republican primary.
What is often forgotten is that Fiorina was able to win 42 percent of the vote with a strikingly conservative platform relative to the California norm, a strategy that she now says will inform her approach should she run for president.
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