It seemed like a shame when Carly Fiorina missed the main stage at the first GOP
debate—and now, watching her in action in the second debate, we know for a fact
it was a shame.
Because though it's highly
unlikely that she'll be the Republican nominee for president come 2016, her
presence at tonight's second GOP primary debate showed just how archaic some of
her opponents are when it comes to dealing with women. If they don't want to
actually revoke some of their rights,it became fairly apparent that the
remaining one or so on the dais who claim to respect women would prove it by
judging a who's-got-the-best-ass competition.
Practically scolded by the likes of Chris Christie for interrupting, Fiorina seemingly
fielded the fewest questions about Planned Parenthood and a woman's legal right
to get an abortion (for the record, she's for limited right on that) and, though Donald Trump has had companies go bankrupt under
his watch, she was the one grilled about her ouster at Hewlett Packard after
spending six years as the Fortune 500 tech company's first-ever female CEO.
(Also for the record, her tenure there wasn't anything to write home about.
But just as the lone woman at the party stuck out the last
time for sticking it to the guys (it's nuts that we can't yet take such things
for granted these days, but...not yet), Fiorina remained cool and collected
while having to be asked yet again about
Trump dissing her looks. (Though at least this time she had Rand Paul down the line for
solidarity.)
Moderator Jake
Tapper asked her again about Trump's comment to Rolling Stonein which he rhetorically
asked who would vote for "that face," Trump's insistence that he was
referring to Fiorina's "persona" and what she in turn thought of
Trump's "persona."
"It's interesting to me," she said calmly.
"Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly in what Mr. Bush
said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr.
Trump said."
Trump smiled and, while turning increasingly beet red,
offered, "I think she's got a beautiful face and I think she's a beautiful woman."
Well, aside from making Trump actually
face one of his female targets after the fact (he hasn't done that Megyn Kelly
interview yet...), Fiorina also got the biggest round of applause of the
night for the icy burn.
You'd almost think there were a few women
in the audience who would rather that "political correctness" not
fall entirely by the wayside...
"For the first time in this campaign,
Trump is humbled (by Carly) and looked apologetic and not true to what he
believes. Start of the end?" wondered Bill Maher via Twitter. Hmm...probably not,
considering how much his super-rude Rosie
O'Donnell comment troubled nobody who didn't already dislike him after
the first debate.
But while a common question zigzagging
through the twitterverse throughout the debate was "who hates women
more?" (Fiorina certainly wasn't exempt from that conversation, either) it
would seem to be a pretty low-water mark for the whole Republican party if the
oblivious conversation about women's rights that went on on that stage doesn't
shame the entire operation.
Trump, meanwhile, did say in his
throwaway, let's-move-on-to-the-important-stuff manner, "I will take care
of women. I respect women."
And while we suspect even he isn't
entirely sure what he means by that, we feel that he'd be at least way too busy
getting ready of Obamacare and solving ISIS to tangle with women's rights
should he be, gulp,
elected.
Here's a smattering of the tweets reacting
to the women-are-from-Mars-but-men-rule-the-universe vibe in the air during the
GOP debate:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment