I agree. The media keeps talking up Fiorina and even many conservative talking heads like Rush Limbaugh are buying the "rising star" nonsense about her, but Martinez would be a far better pick if came down to a female veep choice.
The best you can say about Fiorina is she's not even that big of a RINO by California standards, since she looks good next to Ahnuld, Steve Poizer, Bruce McPherson, Neel Kashkari, etc. etc.
Nationally, her conservative views are nothing to write home about, her political career is non-existent, and she brings nothing to the ticket aside from a XX chromosome combination. The media is really try hard to sell her to GOP voters nationally (whatever happened to Meg Whitman? She ran on the same ballot with the same type of background and lost by about the same margin -- and they've quickly thrown her into the dustbin of history instead of trying to reinvent her as a "rising star"). The fact the media wants so badly to convince Republicans to put Fiorina on the ticket is disturbing to me.
New Mexico is a Dem-leaning state, but its not an ultra-safe RAT state like California. We couldn't win California's electoral votes in 2016 if Ronald Reagan himself was resurrected and nominated for veep. I'd still rate New Mexico as "lean Dem" if Martinez was the veep nominee, but we'd have a slim chance to win it if a popular statewide GOP official was on the ballot. As Impy noted, Martinez would help us nationally and that's even more important, since she could increase the likelihood that Hispanics and Catholics vote for the GOP ticket. Her politics are also well to the right of Fiorina.
The local media in New Mexico despises Martinez for fighting for conservative values, the national media completely ignores her, and gushes over Fiorina. Hmm.
Imagine the media heads exploding with a Hispanic GOP ticket: Cruz/Martinez.
One reason why Fiorina is seen as potentially viable as a GOP VP candidate while Mae Whitman isn’t is that Fiorina is anti-abortion while Whitman is pro-abortion. Whitman is disqualified even before her “meh” credentials can ge mentioned.
I like Susana Martínez, and think that she belongs in the conversation for VP for just about any GOP lresidential nominee, but while it is certainly true that politically she is to the right of Fiorina, it also is equally true that Marco Rubio is to the right of Susana Martínez.
Ref. Post #66: OK, so what do we need to do to PROMOTE Gov. Martinez for the VP spot?