Posted on 05/28/2015 6:34:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the various candidates made the media rounds this week, there was one interview which jumped out at me. It was Carly Fiorina sitting down with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC and taking one of the tougher questions facing every White House aspirant… if elected, what do you plan to do about ISIS? The answers we frequently get are disappointing at best – if there’s an answer given at all – but this time the reporter almost seemed shocked to have somebody lay out numerous elements of a plan in plain, clear language.
Before we get to the specifics, check out the brief video and the transcript.
Andrea Mitchell: “What would you do now against ISIS?”
Carly Fiorina: “I would do very specific things. First, instead of having a Camp David conference to talk our Arab allies into a bad deal with Iran, I would have had a Camp David conference to talk with our Arab allies about how we can support them to fight ISIS. Let me give you very specific examples. The Kurds have been asking us to arm them for three years – we still have not. The Jordanians have been asking us to provide them with bombs and material. We know King Abdullah of Jordan – I’ve known him for many years – he took the appropriate leadership steps when a Jordanian pilot was burned alive. He was here in this country asking us for bombs and material. We haven’t provided him with any of them. He’s now looking to China for that. The Egyptian president, a very brave and pious Muslim, who has said there is a cancer in the heart of Islam, has asked us to share intelligence. We are not. The Turks have asked us to help them topple Bashar al-Assad. We are not. There are a whole set of things we’ve been asked to do by our allies who know this is their fight, and we’re not doing any of them. So I would hold a Summit and talk with them about that.”
There are two things to touch on relating to this exchange. First there is the obvious matter of what the plan is. Honestly, I had some questions about it myself as I heard Fiorina explaining it. From the 10,000 foot level there’s nothing wrong here. Getting the actors in the affected region more involved on the side of the good guys (or the least bad guys that can be found in this case) is a necessity. Offering requested aide to any marginally trustworthy leaders who are willing to take sides against ISIS is a win for us. But we also can’t afford to be unrealistic in terms of just how active Jordan and Egypt will be. Their plates are rather full of terrorist badness at the moment and they’re just not going to be sending huge ranks of troops into Syria or Iraq no matter who is leading the charge. But they can still provide some help, and if we have the resources they need it’s worth looking at. As for the Turks… well, I’ve given up on them for the time being in terms of helping anyone but themselves. The Kurds, on the other hand, are ready to fight. In fact, they are already fighting, and could probably do a lot more if we supported them more completely. I think Fiorina is on the right track there.
The second element of this interview, though, could serve as the next installment of our series on This Is How You Do It. Too many candidates – particularly Hillary Clinton – fail to answer this question in a concrete fashion. They’re happy to cast blame on those who came before and run down the ideas of their competitors, but they rarely lay out any concrete steps for fear of being criticized or proven wrong later. This doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. Whether you agree with her plan or not, at least Fiorina was willing to answer the question and demonstrate that she’s been considering the crisis and is forming a plan for how to deal with it. And if you disagree with her, well… isn’t that the point of having a primary? We’re supposed to be getting all the plans out there so the voters can decide which ones sound best and toss their support to the candidates they agree with.
I’m still not signing on as a committed supporter of Carly, or any other candidate for that matter. But watching the way she deals with both the media and Hillary Clinton, I do like the cut of her jib. A few more interviews such as this from the rest of the field – or candidates on the debate stage showing the intestinal fortitude to put their specific plans forward for consideration – could make for a more productive political atmosphere. More like this please.
The only reason 30,000 people got laid off is because she f'ed up the merger, and tried making both HP and Compaq something they were not.
Are you on her payroll or something? You seem to completely ignore facts and carry her water.
After they f' up a merger, yeah, they're gonna cut 30,000 jobs and turn a company into something it wasn't intended to be ......
No, this was well after the dot com bubble. She laid off 30,000 people and invented the term "Right Shoring" which transferred 30,000 jobs (and more) to tech centers in India.
That's the part that you and Carly's supporters here on FR miss. She outsourced TO INDIA tens of thousands of US Jobs. GOOD PAYING Jobs.
If you're in favor of American's losing their high tech STEM jobs to cheap India labor, then keep supporting Carly Fiorina. She doesn't give a damn about you or anyone else. She collected her bonus largely through cutting expense (PEOPLE) and moving those jobs offshore.
I posit that CEO of Intel (world’s largest computer chip maker) knows more about the computer industry than any poster here including me.
Here is just a part of what Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel said praising Carly…and I think he knows a bit more than most here, seeing as he has been through several CEO’s of HP.
“Today, HP is a stronger company because of Carly Fiorina’s bold action. Certainly some of this credit goes to current management, who capitalized on the changes Carly made. But it was Carly who shook up the status quo. She engineered the merger. She restructured the combined company. She positioned HP to gain market share, and she deserves credit for standing up to the naysayers and critics to achieve the positive end result.”
Proves nothing. Here's why.
47% of the Country is smitten with Obama. Warren Buffet is smitten with Barack Obama. Jeffrey Immelt (GE) is smitten with Barack Obama.
What's Obama done other than destroy the country?
I rest my case.
You're right about one thing: there's a lot of people here on FR smarter than you. We know she doesn't have an ice cube's chance in hell of winning a single primary, much less become President of the United States.
She is nothing more than a foil to Hillary Clinton. A hired attack dog. She's playing the good wife role to the Republican Party. Big F'n Deal.
You got one thing right, there are a lot of posters on FR smarter than me, but you ain’t one of them.
It's ok, run along now....
Have a good day! I am certain you are a legend in your own mind.
I would like to see Ms. Fiorina run for the Senate again. She has residual name I.D. and money and unlike 2010, it’s possible she could benefit from a divisive ‘Rat primary won by a defective candidate.
I would as well. Ideally we’d have exactly 2 decent Senate candidates in Cali so we might get an R/R runoff. I’d settle for one decent candidate to rally behind. Instead we have a myriad of weak candidates, D/D runoff is very possible if this holds.
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