Monday night, Carly Fiorina was Jimmy Fallon's guest on the
Tonight Show. She was personable, which I did not expect. She was entertaining - especially when she sang at the end. If you go to the
Tonight Show website you can see the cherry-picked clips wherein Carly Fiorina actually seems ... what's the word I am looking for?
Likable?
The
clips show far from the whole story though. They are the highlights
and ignore the deep, dark, scary stuff she sandwiched into the middle
while fast-talking like Rosalind Russell in a 1930's movie about a ...
well ... a female CEO.
To see these comments, you have to access
the full episode and
fast forward to Fiorina's segment. It involves sitting through a lot
of commercials. I am sorry. Nothing you can do about those. There is
no "skip ad" option.
She began with language Hillary's people
identify with and agree with. Faith is good. There was something sweet
from her mother about God's gifts to you and your gift to God being
fulfilling the use of your God-given gifts. This stemmed, of course,
from Ben Carson's recent remarks. She absolutely disagrees with Carson,
because, of course, all faith is good. The Pope is also good, but
Democrats are
bad and fail to agree with him on the sanctity of life.
Carly met Vladimir Putin once at APEC. Let's take this one in two parts.
APEC:
apparently Fiorina wants to push this one APEC speech as her official
foreign policy experience. She repeats endlessly her mantra about
Hillary Clinton's tenure at the State department being all about air
miles. If you do a search on this blog for APEC this is where the
search takes you.
Note
that first entry, the most recent. Republicans like to send up
choruses of "Where was Hillary when Benghazi was under attack?" In
fact, she had just flown in from APEC in Vladivostok at the end of an
extensive and exhausting trip and many conferences. It was never
unusual for Secretary Clinton to go straight to C Street from the plane.
She flew in late and was at the office the next morning, just for the
record.
Also
for the record, can Carly Fiorina name other international conferences
where she has addressed and rubbed elbows with world leaders?
Now
for Putin with whom Carly shared a few minutes in the green room before
a speech once. I am picturing him now trying to remember ever
encountering her. She says he can be charming and funny. Hillary knows
that. She also knows he can be stubborn and dismissive of women.
Dealing with that dismissiveness requires knowing that it exists.
On
this particular trip, Hillary was not scheduled to meet with Putin
about the Iran sanctions. Uh - yes, parenthetically. Hillary worked
hard for years to get those sanctions. She had flown in from a St.
Patrick's Day full of meetings with a host of Irish officials, stopped
over at Shannon for refueling and greeted returning troops also there
refueling. As of the 18th, no meeting with Putin was on the agenda.
Then this.
March 18, 2010
... Several advance press releases and schedules made a point of the fact that she would not be meeting with Putin.
Read more >>>>
Then
this. It was not the first time she was not scheduled to meet with him
and managed to wrangle him into a pow-wow. The bonus was that she got
results. Sometimes I think that Hillary does things to be able to say
that she gave it her best effort. Hillary's best efforts get excellent
results. Putin liked to leave Hillary to Lavrov and Medvedev, but she
knew when she needed to sit with him, and she got those meetings and got
results.
Fiorina says she would not speak to him at all. That
would suit him just fine. There is something to be gained from a
one-on-one with him as Hillary Clinton knows.
March 19, 2010
Let
me be clear, this is not about the sanctions themselves with which you
may agree or disagree. It is about Hillary Clinton. Yesterday I said
that I thought Putin would be impervious to her persuasive powers given
that he appears to be very dedicated to the manufacture of nuclear
energy as an export business for Russia. Well, if this report is
accurate, I, one of the die-hard Hillary Hold-Outs (yes, a Hi-Ho) am now
*hanging head in shame* for having doubted that she
could get Putin to concede – even if it is a little. Note to self:
Never again underestimate Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ability to argue a
good case.
Read more >>>>
Well,
here we have the transcript of Secretary Clinton’s remarks with
Putin. Actually, I fail to see where he “bombarded” her (as I saw it
characterized in the press). He called her “Your Excellency.” :) Even
if he had “bombarded” her, she is used to it and knows that it is not
personal. She knows her job.
Remarks With Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Before Their Meeting
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Moscow, Russia
March 19, 2010
Carly
warned that we should not forget that he is a KGB guy. Yes, Hillary
has already made that eminently clear. That was no news to us.
Or, what the heck!
Just go here>>>>>
Then came Carly Fiorina as
Napoleon. Only taller ... and female. This is the part the
Tonight Show web editors figured you did not need to see and
can see only if you painstakingly go through the video and consume all the commercials. Sorry.
Rather than speak to Putin, here is what Mme. President Fiorina would do. I am not sure you will see this elsewhere.
- Immediately start rebuilding the 6th fleet;
- Rebuild the missile defense program in Poland;
- Conduct regular military exercises in the Baltics;
- Put 1000 more troops in Germany;
- Lead in Syria as, she said we should have three years ago and Obama and Clinton have not.
I take
strong exception to that last allegation!
Look here >>>>>
September 4, 2015
I also wonder where those extra 1000 troops will be coming from. Fallon did not ask. His job was to keep things light.
That
is what is between the sweetbread of Carly's Mom's faithful advice in
the beginning of the appearance and the song for Snickers to a 1950s
rock tune at the end. Note to Carly Fiorina: The Cold War is over.
Note to Republicans in general, the 1950s are over.
Other
candidates are making the late night rounds. Bernie Sanders was on with
Colbert, and the night Fiorina was with Fallon, Ted Cruz was with
Colbert. Meh.
All the Republicans are working from the same
talking points memo about Hillary except Fiorina who has her own Hillary
attack system.
We have our own Hillary defense system. Carly
Fiorina may be the Republican female candidate whom they are pitting
against Hillary Clinton. The comparison ends at female. Fiorina likes to tell people she began as a secretary. She lacks Hillary's brand of secretarial experience, however, by thousands of air miles, summits, conferences, treaties, strategic plans, MOUs, and handshakes. In no way does she measure up.
****EDITED TO ADD****
Well
he is up to something, Carly, and I seriously doubt that
not speaking
to him is the wisest foreign policy. Grow up. Stop singing your mom's
Bill Haley and the Comets songs, or whatever that was. Not speak to
him? What is wrong with you? Oh, wait! I know! You shouldn't be running for president. It is that simple. Well you can if you want to but you are #WrongForAmerica.
Bloomberg)
-- President Vladimir Putin, determined to strengthen Russia’s only
military outpost in the Middle East, is preparing to launch unilateral
airstrikes against Islamic State from inside Syria if the U.S. rejects
his proposal to join forces, two people familiar with the matter said.
Putin’s
preferred course of action, though, is for America and its allies to
agree to coordinate their campaign against the terrorist group with
Russia, Iran and the Syrian army, which the Obama administration has so
far resisted, according to a person close to the Kremlin and an adviser
to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.
SNIP
U.S. ‘Receptive’
SNIP
Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday the U.S. has become more
“receptive” to Moscow’s position. The U.S. has tempered two planks of
its Syrian policy -- that Assad must step down immediately and that it
won’t negotiate with his government, according to comments made by
Secretary of State John Kerry on Sept. 17.
The next
day, the U.S. and Russian defense chiefs held direct talks for the
first time since the conflict in Ukraine started. They agreed to
continue dialog to prevent clashes between their forces in Syria.
Barbara Boxer 
Hillary Clinton 
