http://www.nationalreview.com/node/421677/print Carly the Communicator
‘I get why she’s hot out there.’
By Jay Nordlinger — July 27, 2015
Manchester, N.H. — According to the longstanding cliché, presidential candidates campaign in “the snows of New Hampshire.” But they also campaign the summer before, and even the spring before. Carly Fiorina is logging some serious New Hampshire time here in early July.
She has never held office before, but has run before: She won the Republican Senate nomination in California in 2010. She had been CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the technology giant. And a surrogate for John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010, she lost her general election to the longtime senator Barbara Boxer. Evidently, Fiorina was just too conservative for today’s California. She is pro-life, for example. Before Election Day, one Democratic political pro said, “The issue of abortion alone is sufficient to sink Fiorina.” Being against abortion in California, he said, is like being against oil in Texas.
Now 60, Fiorina is running for a bigger office: president. This run seems quixotic to some, understandably, but Fiorina is making waves on the trail. She is drawing crowds and creating chatter. She is developing a particular reputation as an articulator of conservative ideas. Recently, she appeared on The View, mixing it up with Whoopi Goldberg and other non-Republicans. As video clips were passed around the Internet, many conservatives said, “That’s the way it should be done.”
On a Wednesday in New Hampshire, there are three events on her calendar: an early-morning coffee with small-business owners in Concord; a noontime meeting with the Chamber of Commerce in Salem; and an evening gathering in Hampstead. This last event is a townhall-style affair held at the Old Meeting House, built in 1745. The place could serve as the set of a Disney movie about New England democracy.
The candidate is dressed in a smart short jacket and a skirt, two different shades of beige (as far as I can tell). Seeing a crowd, or even a few people milling around, she wades right in, eager and assured. She looks at people intently and gives them a firm handshake. When they say their name, she says it back to them: “Good to meet you, Ed”; “Thanks for coming, Marjorie.” Women seem to identify with her. Men seem to dig her.
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