Carly Fiorina’s Face

Right From the Start

So last week, former Secretary of State and now Democrat candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, guffawed at a comment from a supporter that every time he sees Carly Fiorina’s face he wants to choke her. Ms. Clinton dismissed the uproar from Republicans over threats of violence against women as “just a joke.” And how do we know it was a joke? Because Ms. Clinton said it was – good enough for the mainstream press and the professional victims’ choir.

Apparently there are a number of people who have trouble with Ms. Fiorina’s face. Donald Trump, in one of his many famous personal attacks on his rivals, said of Ms. Fiorina:

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”

Mr. Trump was widely criticized by the media, Republicans, Democrats and anybody with an IQ that exceeded his or her waist size. He later tried to slough it off as a reference to her persona and not her physical appearance as if it were just a joke.

Next it was those great liberal icons, the troglodytes of The View. Michelle Collins and Joy Behar used the show to heap scorn on Ms. Fiorina’s face and smile saying that Ms. Fiorina looked “demented” and a “Hollywood mask.” Ms. Behar is a well known cheap shot artist who is noted for mistaking personal attacks as humor and who routinely runs her mouth well ahead of her brain. She justified her personal attack by claiming that she was an “equal opportunity offender.” Whoopi Goldberg was left to dissemble by saying it was “just a joke” and suggesting that Ms. Fiorina shouldn’t be so thin skinned.

But Ms. Fiorina refuses to play the “victim” – not for Mr. Trump, not for the ladies of The View, and most assuredly not for Ms. Clinton who routinely embraces “victimhood” on behalf of everyone – well that is everyone who is not the victim of Ms. Clinton’s vicious and condescending mouth. So crude and malicious is Ms. Clinton that Secret Service agents, White House staff members, and others have written about her treatment of them – see: First Family Detail by Ronald Kessler, Unlimited Access by Gary Aldrich, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Anderson Brower. Just to give you a sampling of Ms. Clinton’s language, there is an excerpt in Mr. Kessler’s book about a greeting from one of the uniformed Secret Service agents to Ms. Clinton:

“’Good morning, ma’am,’ a member of the uniformed Secret Service once greeted Hillary Clinton.

“’F— off,’ she replied”

Your face is a genetic inheritance – good, bad or indifferent. On the other hand lying, being condescending and abusive, believing that personal insults are humorous, and money-grubbing are all traits that you choose and foster as part of your persona.

So, in contrast to Ms. Clinton’s snarl, Ms. Fiorina handled each intended insult with class and in doing distinguished herself from the guttersnipes that said them, or defended them.

To Mr. Trump, Ms. Fiorina responded with a “every woman” ad about the faces of women who make up the majority of voters in America – there was dignity and strength in those women’s faces and Ms. Fiorina concluded by saying these were the faces of leadership – not of a special interest group. And when Mr. Trump tried to backpedal, Ms. Fiorina said, “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

To the women on The View, Ms. Fiorina said.

“If you meant your comment about my face being demented and a Halloween mask as humorous, so be it. I guess you misinterpreted Donald Trump’s comments about my face and thought those were not humorous, you sort of took him to task.”

A bruising comment on The View’s double standard.

And finally, to Ms. Clinton. Rather than bristling at the comment by Ms. Clinton’s supporter, or Ms. Clinton’s response, Ms. Fiorina accepted that it was a bad joke in poor taste and directed her criticism where it belonged – towards the media’s double standard in dealing with such issues. In an interview with FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly, Ms. Fiorina, as reported by Townhall, noted:

“’Newsflash: The media is biased,’ presidential contender Carly Fiorina said during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Wednesday night.

* * *

“’You know, I don’t take umbrage with him or I don’t take umbrage with Mrs. Clinton,’ Fiorina said. ‘I do take umbrage with the clear double standard that exists in the media. If this happened with the conservative candidate the liberal media would be all over and asking to apologize and all the rest of it.’

“You have to admit she has a point. Should the positions have been switched and a man in Fiorina’s audience threatened to, albeit jokingly, ‘strangle’ Clinton, the media would be screaming about sexism and domestic violence, demonizing Fiorina for failing to correct the disgruntled employee.”

And that appears to be one of Ms. Fiorina’s considerable talents. She is not distracted by sideshows but rather focuses like a laser on the specific problem with a specific solution that doesn’t punish the many for the transgression of the few.

In this presidential election, we have two women running. One who is a foul-mouthed, condescending liar without a single accomplishment in more than thirty years of public life that cannot be attributed singularly to the fact that she married President Bill Clinton. The other is a much accomplished person who bootstrapped her way up from secretary to chief executive officer of a Fortune 20 company and can recite more accomplishments in a week than Ms. Clinton can in a lifetime – Carly Fiorina.

So, why not Carly?  Frankly, I’ll take Ms. Fiorina’s face over Ms. Clinton’s persona any day of the week.