RUTHFULLY YOURS

You may remember that she was the upcoming candidate a month ago. Her performance in that Fox News debate propelled her to the first team in the CNN debate. Everything was about Carly and how Carly would be facing Hillary sometime soon.

I will confess that I was always skeptical, in large part because presidential campaigns are not for people who’ve never run for any kind of office or won an election. Dwight Eisenhower was the exception but the landscape was very unique in 1952 for such a candidacy. Also, General Eisenhower had just won World War II and millions of Americans were connected to him because of that experience.

Again, the polls are not working for Mrs Fiorina. The latest RCP average of polls has Mrs Fiorina at 5.6%.  The very latest CNN poll has her at 4%.

So what happened? I think that Mrs Fiorina ran into a couple of realities:

1) I don’t believe that many GOP voters believe that she’s a good candidate. After all, she has never won an election and her experience is solely in the business world. My friend Bill Katz, editor of Urgent Agenda, wrote this recently:

The drop in Carly’s standing is baffling.  She’s a dazzler, although some people tell me she comes off as cold, a kind of mechanical candidate.

I don’t think she is, but she clearly has to do well in next week’s GOP debate and connect better on the campaign trail.

2) Her success in the B-movie of the first FOX debate was also a reflection of her opposition. She was on a stage with people who are probably going to be dropping out for lack of money very soon. She was good, but no quite so good, in the second debate when better candidates were on the stage.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that she’s dead in the water or couldn’t comeback at some point. However, her window is closing and probably closing a lot faster than she realizes.