Carly has always been in the race for VP, not President. She is the GOPe choice for Jeb’s running mate.
In the original plan Jeb would walk to the nomination riding his big pile of wealthy donor money. Carly would be chosen as his running mate to insulate the ticket from another “war on women” Democrat campaign. Plus, as a female Carly could attack Hillary while Jeb played nice. Since beginning her campaign Carly has been the only GOPe candidate who has aggressively attacked Hillary by name. Essentially she has been using the primary season to test the effectiveness of anti-Hillary attack themes.
Trump spoiled the plan for an easy road to the nomination for Jeb. Now Carly is being repurposed as the Trump attack dog with the for now collaborative media encouraging Trump to counterattack so they can condemn him for being anti women. After the events of the last few days Trump now understands the game, hence him calling her a “beautiful woman” in the debate. However, true to form on the post debate campaign trail Trump will not stand for direct attacks so is hitting Carly back hard where she is most vulnerable — her business record.
The GOPe, allied with the mainstream media, is going to try to kill Trump over the next few weeks with thousands of knife wounds. Every candidate, journalist, commentator, and political operative is attacking Trump for real or imagined flaws. Last week it was his remarks about Carly’s face, today it is his “failure” to condemn a citizen who suggested Obama is a Muslim. The press will use every opportunity to wound Trump with the moderate voter and the GOPe pundits will pile on.
Under the new plan, once Trump is gone the GOPe will rally behind Jeb or Kasich. When one of the two wins the nomination, Carly will get the VP nod, particularly if Hillary is the Democrat nominee. If Biden gets the Democrat nod, and Kasich is the nominee, because the party leaders give up on Jeb, Rubio will likely get the VP nod instead of Carly. Rubio cannot run with Jeb because Constitution prohibits the a sitting president and VP from the same state (Florida in this case). .
Carly may start believing her own press and believe she can emerge on top of the establishment ticket. While the press is suggesting she is for real, there is no sign of the big money moving in her direction. Without the big money behind her, she will not emerge at the top of the ticket. For now the big money remains with Jeb, although Kasich is waiting in the wings if Jeb continues to falter. Carly and Rubio remain the VP slot contenders. As far as the elites are concerned, the rest of the candidates are merely entertainment for the masses.
That makes a lot of sense to me.
Carly would then have a pay off.