Who do you think Carly Fiorina is?

When comparing Carly Fiorina articles on Politico (liberal) and Fox News (conservative) I found that the Politico article focused more on the fact that she has never held a political position in any major forms of government. Although, they did give her the benefit of the doubt and pull examples from actions shown throughout her 2010 California campaign against Barbara Boxer. Politico also focused on the “tumultuous tenure” at the company, Hewlett-Packard. The big-ticket issue within this statement was the fact that Carly was politically fighting for more creation of jobs but during her time at HP fired over 30,000 employees. Throughout the remainder of this article Carly was portrayed economically and politically irresponsible. Issues praised were Carly’s fight for the “war on women” and her ability to empathize with people due to her past cancer diagnoses. 

 

Based on the research I have done on Carly Fiorina, I believe both article are extreme representations of certain aspects of Carly’s experiences and potential. I believe that parts of the Politico article could accurately be used to represent Carly’s potential, because of her lack of experience in office. Although Politico uses this idea as their main argument against Carly, she has provided positive examples of leadership throughout her years leading up to this campaign. On the other hand, I believe that the Fox News article over glorifies Carly’s time at HP. As I do agree with Carly’s great potential for 2016, I think that Politico’s example of Carly’s mass employment reduction brings up important contradiction in her campaign. 

The fact that Fox News praises her so adamantly about her time at HP fails to recognize the other important aspects of her campaign and message. As in the many social issues Carly has focused on bettering throughout her candidacy, if elected. These issues such as women’s rights, gay rights and the overall economy, are never discussed throughout the article. I do understand that certain article talk about certain issues but given the title of the article, “Carly Fiorina: Why ex-CEO could give Hillary Clinton a real run for her money”, I expect the article to touch on multiple facets of the campaign. This link to Carly’s website illustrates the multiple issues and ideas Carly is trying to promote throughout her campaign that were not touched on in either articles: Carly's Mission

When viewing these articles, uninformed voters would have strewn ideas of Carly Fiorina’s campaign. I believe the Fox News article would paint an overzealous picture for her issue stances and potential. I believe the Politico article would also paint an inaccurate picture of Carly’s potential in the 2016 presidential race.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/carly-fiorina-in-2016-114354.html

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/04/09/carly-fiorina-why-ex-ceo-could-give-hillary-clinton-run-for-her-money/

The many masks of Carly Fiorina

When browsing different satirical representations of Carly, unfortunately other than her extreme disgust with SNL’s skit of Sarah Palin, Carly was not featured in any Comedy Central episodes. Mainly, I found a lot of political cartoons bashing Carly; this one particularly featured in this blog was my favorite. Although I agree with most of Carly’s issue stances, the comical approach to the creation of this cartoon left me doing more and more research not only on Carly but California Senator Pete Wilson. Keep in mind Carly’s campaign happened in 2010 against Barbara Boxer, so most of the material I found was over four years old.

 

In this political cartoon Carly is shown trying to regain the attention of the Latino community, but they seem to be running away from her. The comedy comes into play once the next frame is presented and Carly is shown wearing a Pete Wilson mask that she was using as a Mexican wrestling mask. Also featured in this frame is Carly’s bold choice of pins, the “AZ Bill 1070” which at the time was the strictest anti-illegal immigration law in effect. Also, the pin “CA Prop 187” which in the 90s was put into effect in order for individual state to govern people’s citizenship, preventing illegal immigrants to be excluded from receiving health care, public education, etc. This all means that the Latino community anticipated the same type of governing as Pete Wilson was going to be done.

            Although this cartoon is an opinion piece, it still has a lot to say about Carly Fiorina’s political image. Being from the Republican Party, Carly tends to have stronger, conservative views and opinions. Although Carly expresses the desire to address many communities in her campaign, she stays true to the laws adopted early in our constitution in regards to conservative opinions. Carly is also a firm believer in maximizing America’s full potential when it comes to creating jobs. Without passing, what some refer to as “harsh,” propositions and bills, America would not be able to reach its employment goal with illegal immigrants taking them.

 

              The only detriment I find in this political cartoon would be the diminution of attraction in the Latino community to vote for Carly. Following close in Pete Wilson’s footsteps regarding issue stance, Carly may not add up to be the most popular candidate among immigrants. This begins to take away from the image Carly and her team originally tried to put forth in the media, which was, to be able to reach women and people not technologically inclined. Although a lot of social groups have both women and the technologically challenged, Carly is losing votes from the immigrant population. This cartoon would not be something projected by Carly’s campaign team, but by one of her opponents, such as Barbara Boxer. This is not the type of image Carly would want to project of herself or her campaign. I believe this cartoon would be the fall of Carly’s campaign purely from living in California for 11 years and observing the large amount of immigrants both legal and illegal. Carly’s votes would need to be in favor of the immigrants in order to see a positive outcome.

Demon Politicians

     Demon Sheep & Demon Blimp. The way Carly Fiorina had decided to depict her primary rivals, Tom Campbell and Barbara Boxer. In 2010 when Carly Fiorina decided to run for US Senate from California, her campaign team put out attack ads on Tom Campbell and multiple on Barbara Boxer addressing, national security, fiscal irresponsibility, and ineffectiveness in office.

     For the issue of fiscal irresponsibility, Tom Campbell’s ongoing spending and borrowing that ruined the states budget in 2005 was Carly’s attacking point. Tom supported the budget for a $16 billion new tax increase for California and Carly was trying to expose him for it. Tax on gas was already so high, she began to highlight that Tom was the only candidate who failed to sign the “no tax increase” pledge, intending on watching gas prices increase. Carly then described her opponent as FCINO (fiscal conservative in name only) being a “wolf in sheep’s’ clothing.” 

     During her attack ads on Barbara Boxer, Carly point out the many inefficiencies in Barbara’s past political experiences. She believe that Barbara’s cocky self image made her word no longer credible. She again touched on the issue of raising taxes and increasing gas prices, both which Barbara said she would prevent and in turn raised them.

     These ad’s produced by Carly’s campaign team provide comic relief to seriously issues that were happening in California at the time. These ads have no evidence of gender strategies but flourishes on the challenger strategy. These ads were clearly made to defer votes from Boxer and Campbell to Carly. The media had a field day with these attack ad’s saying that it was “a straight-up game-changing shock-and-awe slice of pure mountain grown BONKERS” (Huffington Post). Since Carly had not put out anything like this before the public was very surprised by the level of “awe” these ad's created.

Where is Carly working those polls (haha)?

            When researching Carly Fiorina’s involvement in the, potential presidential candidates for 2016, polls Carly isn’t front and center. When looking up polls for Carly, most of the things that I found were from her 2010 loss to Barbara Boxer in the race in California. The most recent poll I found Carly in was the 2015 straw poll, which is an unofficial ballot of potential candidates based on opinion. This is where Carly stacked up in her cyberpoll: (the numbers are viewed as a percentage)

25.7            Sen. Rand Paul

21.4            Gov. Scott Walker

11.5            Sen. Ted Cruz

11.4            Dr. Ben Carson

8.3             Former Gov. Jeb Bush

4.3             Former Sen. Rick Santorum

3.7             Sen. Marco Rubio

3.5             Donald Trump

3.0             Carly Fiorina

2.8             Gov. Chris Christie

1.1             Former Gov. Rick Perry

0.9             Gov. Bobby Jindal

0.8             Former Gov. Sarah Palin

0.3             Former Gov. Mike Huckabee

0.3             Former Ambassador John Bolton

0.1             Sen. Lindsey Graham

0.1             Former Gov. George Pataki

The parameters of this poll included:

·      3,007 votes casted

·      Over February 25-27

·      Conducted during the Conservative Political Action Conference

·      Conducted by the Polling Company Inc.

It’s important to look at the demographic of voters and which company conducted the research to have a better understanding of where the information is originating.

I believe that Carly still has a ways to go in order to continue branding herself and getting her name familiarized to the general public. Although Carly gained some light from her race in California in 2010 but since then, her success as a CEO has continued to generate her likeability. Since Carly has not officially declared her participation in the 2016 elections, she is not mentioned in a majority of republican polls. In December 2014 Fox News presented a poll with a list of 14 potential republican candidates and Carly’s name ended up in the 1% category labeled “other.” 

I feel one way Carly could increase her branding and name recognition in this race by implementing more exit polling in her social media and link it to larger polling databases. This could increase the number of younger participants viewing her website or social media. 

Language of Carly Fiorina

https://up-project.org/mission.php

This link provides a direct route to Carly Fiorina's Up Project website. On this website Carly provides a Mission Statement, and most mission statements are written as a declaration of a candidate's view points and core purpose. Throughout Carly's mission statement she uses multiple examples of American's unlocking their full potential, although this idea has been a focal point of my past blog postings, this theme has been a major aspect of Carly's campaign.  

Through the use of Carly’s political jargon we are able to appropriate our stance on different issues to the way Carly views her solutions. Carly begins “Stacking the Deck” in her mission statement by providing the views solely in favor of her beliefs and ideals. This is proved through her idea of targeting women voters and maximizing their full potential by using technology, through the use of the Up Project.

I believe Carly’s Up Project campaign will prove to be successful not only because of the publicity the project has been receiving via social media, but because of the new ideas that Carly stands for. Many candidates claim to have an interest in women’s rights and the betterment of women as a whole, but little publicly state their devotion to the issue. Carly has stated her stance on the issue, which is bridging the gap between women and technology, and has vowed to do everything she can within her campaign to accomplish it.

CARLY ONLINE

WEBSITE

After simply typing “Carly Fiorina” into Google, a plethora of Wikipedia-like sites appear, mostly opinion blogs and newspaper articles. With further in-depth research I was able to find Carly’s main website https://www.up-project.org/ observing: 

o   Mission Statement

o   Ways Carly has portrayed leadership in her past and will in her future

o   Informational & demonstrative videos

o   Ways to strategize her future campaigns and projects

o   Latest activity in the political world

o   And lastly, of course, a way to donate to her cause

Twitter

On her website Carly provides a link to her project Twitter, https://twitter.com/CarlyFiorina/lists/up-project I observed:

o   This twitter is Carly’s main hub for her Up Project promotions

o   A way to connect women voters and technology

o   Upcoming “Up Project” conferences

o   Pictures of Carly in action at these conferences

o   Tweets mainly directed to women and republicans

o   This twitter has only 450 followers

Carly also has a “personal” Twitter handle, which is more popular and frequently updated, https://twitter.com/CarlyFiorina I observed:

o   A higher following rate of 344K

o   Recent activity

o   A more personalized bio and tweets instead of strictly politically informative

o   Pictures and media are of Carly in action

o   A way for voters to follow Carly’s promotional events

Facebook

Although Carly does not have a personal Facebook page, she has created a public figure page for herself and has gained 25,047 “likes.” https://www.facebook.com/CarlyFiorina?fref=nf on this Facebook page I observed:

o   Promotional information similar to both Twitter pages

o   The ongoing theme of her Up Project

o   A less personalized presentation of Carly outside politics 

Plans for 2016

            In order for Carly to become better known on social media, I believe that with a stronger youth involvement online would create higher buzz within my generation. Although Carly’s personal Twitter has a high volume of followers, the demographic of her followers consisted mostly of older republicans. I understand most people don’t like to follow politicians they don’t agree with but if Carly began to present ideas or the recognition of the left side’s ideas, she would generate more buzz online.

            My last idea is possibly creating an online campaign for women to create awareness for Carly’s overall message and mission for her next project.

 Blog 1
 

Carly is one successful, hardworking, fierce woman. Carly was born in Texas but has associated herself with the Republican Party in California. Throughout Carly’s past she has provided many examples leadership, starting out as an entry-level sales woman for AT&T to eventually becoming the chief executor. From that position she became the first woman to ever become a CEO of a fortune 50 business, Hewlett-Packard. During her time at Hewlett-Packard, the company rose to be the world’s largest computer manufacturer (1). She also advised Senator John McCain during his presidential campaign and was nominated for the US Senate from California in 2010, as well (2). This is not the extent of her strength and resume, Carly has battled breast cancer at the same time she suffered the loss of her younger daughter. These major, non-political events help proves not only her strength but also her ability to maintain her composure during heavy times. Her political experience began in 2010 after she lost the US Senate to Barbara Boxer (3). Carly incorporates “worthy goals, common purpose and leadership” into her main mission while still connecting conservative views to the lives of the general public (5). This is helping broaden her voting demographic.

Besides the fact the Carly Fiorina meets the age and citizenship/residency requirement, Carly has adopted tactics in which to acquire different voting demographics, such as switching the “metrics from voter contacts to voter conversions,” also women voters. By switch contacts to conversions she is able to gain a more intimate relationship with her voters instead of just simply sending out a television advertisement. Her efforts to win over swing states such as “Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia” also shows her eagerness to obtain as many voters as possible while honestly persuading them to change their viewpoint while also creating a voter return. This proves that she conscious of the people she needs to target and that she cares about the opinion of the voters, making her an important possible candidate in the 2016 election(4).

Carly continues to stress the importance of starting from the ground up with communication with voters and potential voters. This philosophy keeps her true to her values and ideals while also providing the public with a valid conservative view. This also gives a genuine effort of communication on her part, making uninformed voters more comfortable and oriented with her philosophy  Carly prides herself in her “honest” campaign philosophy and being able to gain the trust of voters (4). Gender differences is a large selling point within Carly’s political philosophy and ending the Democrat’s war on women. Carly describes her beliefs and plan to counteract the gender war in this video provided on her website: http://youtu.be/ne6XruIxcmU. 

One project developed by Carly and her team is the “Unlocking Potential Project,” which engages women and emphasizes the personal interaction between women. Through the use of this project Carly hope to diminish or eventually terminate the gender and technology gap. Focusing mainly developing and shaping messages directed towards women. Another major point is developing long-term relationships with voters, creating a reason for them to keep their vote over time. Lastly, Carly will use “21^st century technology to target, persuade and turnout voters (5).”

This chart helps explain Carly’s concern for the gender and technology gap within the Republican Party, which makes her desire to specifically target different voting demographics even greater.


Sources: 

1.     (http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/231601009/the-hp-compaq-merger-partners-reflect-10-years-later.htm)

2.     http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/us/politics/03calif.html?_r=0

3.     https://up-project.org/leadership.php

4.     https://up-project.org/strategy.php

5.     https://up-project.org/mission.php