Carly Fiorina, 2016

For the conservative grassroots, the next Republican candidate likely to jump into the 2016 presidential race is going to be just as disappointing as the first.

Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, cable news commentator, and failed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in California, is reportedly gearing up for a White House bid.

The majority of reporting on her longshot potential presidential campaign has focused not on her acumen as a c-suite executive or her lack of experience in political offices, but on her gender. If she ran, Fiorina seems likely at this stage to be the only woman running for president under the GOP banner. The only other Republican woman who has expressed any interest in the job, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), started to “test the waters” with high-profile visits to early primary states in the Spring, but the tempo of her nascent presidential bid seems to have slowed.

One Republican operative was recently approached about a position with the Unlocking Potential Project, Fiorina’s super PAC. The operative, who asked not to be named, said that in the course of the interview one of Fiorina’s allies began gauging interest in a separate position “for a certain presidential candidate who is gearing up for a run.”

It’s unclear if any hires have been made, and emails to officials with Fiorina’s PAC were not returned.

Still, people familiar with Fiorina’s camp say the organizational outreach proves that she’s serious about getting a campaign off the ground—and quickly. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is already effectively in the race and consuming other contenders’ oxygen. If Fiorina wants to jump in and make a media splash, she probably can’t afford to wait much longer.

“It appears that they want to move fast, which is smart,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a Republican consultant in California. “Carly getting in as the 10th candidate is not nearly as interesting as Carly getting in as the first or second candidate.”

It frankly does not say much for your candidacy that the most interesting thing about it is the timing of its debut.

Fiorina is bright, accomplished, thoughtful, and a cancer survivor with a compelling biography. She would make a strong political officeholder. She suffers, however, from the same problem Dr. Ben Carson’s struggles with as he also contemplates a presidential campaign: The federal government does not now and cannot ever be run like a business, and those seeking to transition directly from the private sector into the White House are going to be ill-suited to the position.

The presidency, as Republicans have learned well, is not an occupation that lends itself to on-the-job training. But at least Carson enjoys the support of a broad and influential constituency. While the famed pediatric neurosurgeon routinely dominates among conservative activists in early presidential straw polls, Fiorina is unlikely to ignite the same fire on the right.

It would be good for the GOP to have a woman on the debate stage in 2016. The Democrats and their allies in the press will dwell endlessly on the lack of gender diversity on the GOP side if Hillary Clinton runs and becomes her party’s nominee. Fiorina is a capable representative of the Republican Party, but her candidacy is doomed from the start. As it should be; she is simply unqualified. And with perhaps no fewer than 11 Republicans likely gracing the ballot in Iowa in 2016 (perhaps more), what is the point of a Fiorina bid? A publicity stunt? A public relations campaign?

Republicans should have learned after the 2012 primaries that the stakes are too high and the party’s image too fragile for any one candidate to play games with a presidential campaign.