Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina turned in a forceful performance in a debate of seven Republican presidential hopefuls whose polling numbers weren't high enough for tonight's 10-candidate main event.
She hit billionaire Donald Trump, the undisputed leader in current GOP polls, for reportedly taking a call from Bill Clinton before entering the race and for shifting positions since the days when he was flirting with a 2000 presidential run as a third-party candidate.
Fiorina didn't mention Jeb Bush by name during the debate, but said Republicans need to nominate a candidate who won't "stumble before he even gets into the ring."
Speaking to reporters immediately afterward, Fiorina made it clear she was talking about Bush and his recent remark that “I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.”
Bush’s comment angered many conservatives because it conflated the debate over Planned Parenthood and its use of aborted fetal tissue with the broader question of women’s health and allowed defensive Democrats to go back on offense.
Asked specifically about Bush in a post-debate interview, Fiorina said: “It’s disappointing. I spent all of last year with a lot of other conservatives pushing back effectively against the ‘War on Women’…It’s really disappointing when a front runner gives the Democrats an ad and a talking point before he’s even in the ring.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called out Bush by name during the debate over Bush's remark that a Republican candidate must be willing to "lose the primary to win the general without violating your principles."
Said Jindal: “Jeb Bush says we’ve got to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general. Let me tell you what that means: That’s the establishment telling us to hide our conservative principles to get the left and the media to like us. That never works. We do that again, we will lose again, we will deserve to lose again.”
Source: Post on Politics, George Bennett
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