This is the ad that could kill Carly Fiorina’s campaign

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This is the ad that could kill Carly Fiorina’s campaign

The Fix

By Chris Cillizza September 17 at 1:52 PM 

Carly Fiorina is the new "it" candidate in the Republican presidential field, following a second straight sterling debate performance at the Ronald Reagan presidential library Wednesday night.

But there was a moment in the debate that previewed a major potential weakness for Fiorina. It came when moderator Jake Tapper noted that Donald Trump had said Fiorina "ran HP into the ground" during her time as CEO. Fiorina responded, "I led Hewlett Packard through a very difficult time, the worst technology recession in 25 years," adding: "We had to make tough choices, and in doing so, we saved 80,000 jobs, went on to grow to 160,000 jobs."

Trump -- and Tapper -- largely let the issue drop. But Fiorina's past political history suggests that her struggles at HP could be a campaign killer.

In 2010, Fiorina was running surprisingly close to California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D), who was struggling in a strong election cycle for Republicans nationally. Then, Boxer ran this ad focused on Fiorina's time at the helm of HP.

[Submariner]

1. Agree that could be kind of devastating to her campaign

Now if we can just get rid of Manson's psycho brother.

[B Calm]

14. OMG, that is too funny!

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I don't understand why she is running

[MisterP]

4. new book deal

[Hortensis]

36. For sure self promotion was it. THEN the GOP, Fox and CNN pushed her up the

ratings so she could slur slings at the other female candidate and break up the long line of men on the stage.

She's boringly competent, though. It's usually such a hoot when someone who signs up for self-promotion suddenly temporarily catches fire and is supposed to come up with an economic plan or know where Saudi Arabia is.

A personal favorite is when Herman Cain was asked what he thought of Nancy Pelosi. Long pause followed by deciding that he wouldn't be interested in her as a woman. (My words completely as I don't remember his.) She was 70 at the time, but he and Trump have a lot in common that way.

[LiberalArkie]

5. Maybe she has already burned through all that money.

[Johonny]

7. Why did W run? Ego-history-me, me, me

The one thing every GOP candidate has in common is a huge me first ego.

[daleanime]

9. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[HenryWallace]

17. Clinton derangement syndrome!

She has been encouraged to run...... She can attack unapologetically liberal women's positions as a VP candidate!

[napkinz]

3. K&R

[uponit7771]

6. Conservatives are fact adverse, she could say she will outsource the whole country when she becomes

... president conservatives will still cheer for her.

There's something wrong with those people

[lib87]

8. She's Against Equal Pay for Women

That's enough for me to know she is on the republican crazy train. This ad just further convinces me she is no good.

[0rganism]

10. sure, what's the problem right? she's doing just fine

BTW, "drive HP into the ground" is exactly the words we use when we talk about the HP of 5-10 years ago at work (tech industry)

[lib87]

12. So fine! She'll do Great in the General Election

I hope to hear even more from you tech folk about her HP claims. I have a feeling the truth will keep coming out against her.

[4lbs]

23. That could also be a position that could cause her some problems.

"Ms. Fiorina, do you support equal pay for women?"

"No."

"So, you would have accepted less pay as a CEO than your male counterparts? You would have accepted a smaller 'golden parachute' than your male counterparts?"

.
.
.

..... CRICKETS .....

[passiveporcupine]

11. Could any ad be as bad as the one she ran...it got her a lot of laughs and

jeering. People laughing at her, not with her.

[nxylas]

13. That will actually endear her to the Randroid wing of the GOP

Throwing a bunch of "useless eaters" out of work while buying yourself a yacht is the sort of sociopathic behaviour they admire.

[itsrobert]

15. Boxer2016

n/t

[Generic Other]

16. Left all those workers lying there with hearts still beating?

Left them to die? Who could ever forget that sight?

Stupid GOP shill.

[rladdi]

18. And the funny issue is she put down B. Boxer for her hair. But she was repulsed when Donald

made a comment about her face. IS Fiorina for real. She got 100 million from HP when she was fired. Thats a lot of money for being a failed CEO.

[avaistheone1]

20. Fiorina is such a narcissist I am sure she doesn't get that at all.

[Angry Dragon]

22. I believe it was $25 or $26 million

[customerserviceguy]

29. Let's not forget

what she made while taking HP into the nosedive. All of it was unearned income, not just the golden parachute that made HP stockholders feel like they were getting the golden shower.

HP made quality printers that were the workhorses of the offices I was employed in during the last half of the 70's, and the 80's and 90's. Then, Carly shows up, outsources as much as she can to China, uses the same el-cheapo mentality on Compaq computers (my first two computers were Compaqs, before they became shit) and destroys an iconic American company while living like a queen.

I'm surprised that Trump didn't double down on all of this during the debate, but maybe he's saving something for later, after the under five-percenters have dropped out of the race, and he has more time to eviscerate her.

[hedgehog]

19. I heard a charge that she fired HP workers and replaced them with contract workers

here on H1-B visas. Does anyone have any idea if this is so?

[maindawg]

21. She is bi polar

I watched her on CBS this morning nd she was reciting her shpeal on planned parenthood. The lie she is running with about theres a baby on the table and they are talking about saving it so they could sell its brain. That is actually what she said. And meanwhile she is shaking and almost violent in her state. So here she is, pushing this lie, and getting very emotional about it.
She is crazy. And she will now become the queen of mean and say crazy things because she knows that is what the base want. they want red meat. She has learned from Donald and she is free to be as evil as she pleases she answers to no one.

[PatSeg]

31. I noticed she acted very odd

when defending her statements about the video. Not sure what interview it was, but she repeated, "Rest assured...." three times and she seemed very nervous. In most of her appearances, she is very stiff and controlled, almost robotic, but push an emotional button and her behavior is quite weird. I sure wouldn't want to piss her off.

[KamaAina]

24. She ran Lucent (Bell Labs) into the ground as well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucent#History

Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent's consumer products sector, reporting to president and chief operating officer Rich McGinn. In 1997, she was named group president for Lucent's US$19 billion global service-provider business, overseeing marketing and sales for the company's largest customer segment. That year, Fiorina chaired a US$2.5 billion joint venture between Lucent's consumer communications and Royal Philips Electronics, under the name Philips Consumer Communications (PCC). Focus of the venture was to bring both companies to the top three in technology, distribution, and brand recognition.

Ultimately, the project struggled and dissolved a year later after it garnered only 2% market share in mobile phones. Losses were at $500 million on sales of $2.5 billion. As a result of the failed joint venture, Philips announced the closure of one-quarter of the company's 230 factories worldwide, and Lucent closed down its wireless handset portion of the venture. Analysts suggested that the joint venture's failure was be a combination technology and management problems. Upon the end of the join venture, PCC sent 5,000 employees back to Philips, many of which were laid off, and 8,400 employees back to Lucent.

On the surface, Fiorina seemed to add 22,000 jobs & revenues grew from US$19 billion to US$38 billion. However, the real cause of Lucent spurring sales under Fiorina was by lending money to their own customers. According to Fortune magazine, "In a neat bit of accounting magic, money from the loans began to appear on Lucent’s income statement as new revenue while the dicey debt got stashed on its balance sheet as an allegedly solid asset". Lucent's stock price grew 10-fold.

At the start of 2000, Lucent's "private bubble burst", while other competitors like Nortel Networks and Alcatel were still going strong as it would be many months before the rest of the telecom industry bubble collapsed. Previously Lucent had 14 straight quarters where it exceeded analysts' expectations, leading to high expectations for the 15th quarter, ending Dec. 31, 1999. On January 6, 2000, Lucent made the first of a string of announcements that it had missed its quarterly estimates, as CEO Rich McGinn grimly announced that Lucent had run into special problems during that quarter—including disruptions in its optical networking business—and reported flat revenues and a big drop in profits. That caused the stock to plunge by 28%, shaving $64 billion off of the company's market capitalization. When it was later revealed that it had used dubious accounting and sales practices to generate some of its earlier quarterly numbers, Lucent fell from grace. It was said that "Rich McGinn that couldn't accept Lucent's fall from its early triumphs." He described himself once as imposing "audacious" goals on his managers, believing the stretch for performance would produce dream results. Henry Schacht defended the corporate culture that McGinn created and also noted that McGinn did not sell any Lucent shares while serving as CEO. In November 2000, it also disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had a $125 million accounting error for the third quarter of 2000, and by December 2000 it reported it had overstated its revenues for its latest quarter by nearly $700 million. Although no wrongdoing was found on his part, McGinn was forced to resign as CEO and he was replaced by Schacht on an interim basis. Subsequently, its CFO, Deborah Hopkins, left the company in May 2001 with Lucent's stock at $9.06 whereas at the time she was hired it was at $46.82.

[Rex]

28. Always wondered what happen to Lucent Technologies.

Sad, they were a promising company.

[customerserviceguy]

30. They got Carly'ed

The only time I applauded that happening was when she was working on the McCain campaign.

[PatSeg]

32. That sounds criminal

Though in America, it appears to be business as usual these days.

Smells a bit Enron-ish.

[IHateTheGOP]

25. Dear DNC, run this ad. Over and over and over and over....

[jeff47]

26. No, not yet.

We don't want to torpedo her too early.

[PatSeg]

33. I agree

Let her get overly confident. It will make her eventual fall that much more satisfying. One of the downfalls of people like her, is they start to believe their own hype and become very careless. Christie is a good example of a politician's hubris clouding reality.

[Dems to Win]

27. Proud to say I helped pay for that ad

I Barbara Boxer

[PatSeg]

34. I love Barbara Boxer as well

I was always proud to vote for her. A truly authentic public servant.

[lunatica]

38. Barbara Boxer is my Senator.

And Barbara Lee is my Congresswoman. I love them both.

[Dems to Win]

39. Barbara Lee is my favorite DC politician, bar none

The ONLY one to keep her head in the days after 9/11, voting No on the Patriot Act and No on the endless Afghanistan/drone war, and No on the Iraq War.

Jut between me and you and the chickens, I wish it was Barbara Lee running for president as the incorruptible truthteller, instead of Bernie. She's my top choice. But Bernie is the one who stepped up and is doing a great job, and I'm behind him 100%.

[treestar]

35. Effective ad

that's going to sink her. Even republicans aren't for outsourcing jobs.

[napkinz]

37. kick

[mackerel]

40. I don't remember Fiorina polling anywhere near Boxer? I was in the Bay Area at the time

so maybe our Bay Area disdain for Fiorina was so strong I didn't notice. I'm pretty sure she never came close to beating Boxer.