Republicans have decided that they will campaign for the presidency in 2016 by promoting the notion that the nation is looking to them to “take the country back”.
It takes a whole lot of moxie to construct such an argument, when they have been responsible for taking the nation and the world to the brink of destruction, the last time they held the Executive Branch, and have continued this brand of reckless politics, now on steroids, throughout the tenure of President Barack Obama.
Although I have yet to keenly focus on the presidential race of 2016, I refused to accept the Republican Party as a viable option for anyone, they are anathema to public service. I have noticed members of the GOP appearing on television to argue, disingenuously, that they are the embodiment of competent leadership.
This morning former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to denounce Hillary Clinton as a failure, and, in contrast, extol herself as the epitome of competence and success. For her, it would turn out to be a failure of epic proportions.
Ms. Fiorina immediately began to create the false specter of an effective and competent Republican Party:
Well first, I think our nation really is at a pivotal point. I think we must win in 2016, the Republican Party that is. To reverse a government that is growing out of control and crushing the potential of so many Americans. We wrapped people’s lives in webs of dependence, we are now destroying more businesses than we are creating, our government is out of control in its power, its cost, and its complexity. And I think, honestly, these are times that call for leadership.
In other words, over the past eight years under Democrats, the country has been so "damaged" that Republicans are poised to ride in like the cavalry and strip the nation of stuff like healthcare and reverse the progress of an economy that they pushed into a ditch and ran. Mika Brzezinski asked the former CEO about her past comments on Hillary Clinton:
I’ve been reading your comments about Hillary Clinton. And you say she does not have a track record of accomplishment. Why do you say that?
Fiorina was anxious to describe Hillary Clinton as a failure.
Because she really doesn't. I mean, she’s had a lot of very impressive titles. But a position is just a position. It’s all about what you do in it. And I think her time in the position of Secretary of State is demonstrably one that lacks accomplishment, but also has some real blemishes on it.
It’s a problem when you mislead the American people for a month about what really happened in Benghazi. It’s a problem when you think Vladimir Putin can be thwarted by a red reset button. I've met Vladimir Putin; I’ve sat across the table from him, there’s no way a red reset button is going to work. It’s a problem when our relationship with Israel has deteriorated so dramatically, and it’s a problem when terrorism is on the rise, not on the wane, as she and the president continue to try and convince the American people.
Brzezinski followed up:
So I’ve been reading and listening to your criticisms of her that really are quite searing, again, focusing on her track record of accomplishment. And I’m just wondering, when you talk about blemishes, you have an amazing round of accomplishments in your life, but someone could say it like this:
With that, Mika Brzezinski unloaded a torpedo of brutal facts concerning Fiorina's record of failure that lit up the NBC studio like a pyrotechnic exhibition on the Fourth of July. So satisfyingly dazzling was this that it rendered Ms. Fiorina frozen like a deer in headlights:
You ran for Senate and lost. You worked for John McCain and you were moved off that campaign and he lost. You had a tenure at Hewlett Packard that a lot of people describe as extremely rocky; destroying jobs, and destroying the company’s reputation. Are you really the right person to be criticizing Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments or lack thereof?
Emphasis by diarist.
After an unsettling pause, where Ms. Fiorina managed to relax an awkwardly fixed smile, she responded in the predictable manner of most Republicans, who are forced to confront their own hypocrisy:
Well you clearly have been reading the Democratic talking points. Let’s just start with Hewlett Packard. We accomplished a lot at Hewlett Packard; we doubled the size of the company.
Ms. Fiorina went on to list the improvements she made at the tech giant, but economic analyst and famed Obama “car czar” Steve Rattner was on hand to contribute his ample professional business knowledge as it related to the career of the protesting former CEO:
Ms. Fiorina made the point that you were reading Democratic talking points, which you weren't, but I think the flip side is that, I think Ms. Fiorina might have been reading her own talking points, in the sense that at Hewlett Packard, I believe you were actually excused—fired—may be a less nice word, from that job.
With that, Fiorina jumped in:
Oh I was fired; absolutely I was fired!
She not only admitted she was fired, but did so with a great big smile and exuberance. That's how good Brzezinski and Rattner were. Rattner continued:
Well, there is fired and then there is fired, you were fired after a disastrous merger with Compaq and the stock price collapsed....
It was over for Fiorina, who probably, right then and there, began to devise methods of retribution upon her media handlers for ever convincing her to appear on this usually Republican-friendly media venue.
I have to admit that I have been a frequent critic of Ms. Brzezinski, but, on this day, she showed me that she has the instincts of a good journalist.
Amen....