Carly Fiorina is positioning herself as the GOP’s alternative to Hillary Clinton, criticizing the former secretary of state at every turn and vowing to stop her from using the “woman card” in 2016.
“Her time in the position of secretary of state is demonstrably one that lacks accomplishment, but also has some real blemishes on it," the former Hewlett Packard Company CEO said on Monday during an interview for "Morning Joe."
Despite her sharp criticisms, even Fiorina couldn’t deny the upside of Clinton’s so-called woman card: “Of course Hillary Clinton has opened doors for women and of course she is a highly intelligent, hardworking woman who has dedicated her life to public service,” Fiorina said. “She has been an example and an inspiration for many woman and just the fact that she’s running for president is an inspiration to many women.”
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Fiorina is expected to announce a presidential campaign later this month or early next month. She has never held elected office — her only previous experience in politics was a failed Senate bid in California five years ago — but she’s aiming to transform her glass-ceiling breaking career as a woman in technology into a winning candidacy.
Predictably, there was a caveat to Fiorina’s kind remarks: “But if we’re going to have a real conversation about tapping the potential of men and women, then we also have to be able to talk about track record, accomplishment, and policy, and that’s the ground upon which this debate needs to be had.”
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