The Ricochet Podcast - Live From CPAC #11: Carly Fiorina

Episode Date: February 28, 2015

Jay Nordlinger interviews former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on her childhood, her life in corporate America, and her past and future aspirations in politics. Source

Well, it's Jay Nordlinger at CPAC for National Review and Ricochet, sitting with Carly Fiorina, once of Hewlett-Packard, now of California and America and the world. Good to see you. It's great to see you as well. Well, you are a businesswoman and a whiz, and you seem to have a political bug. A lot of us have the political bug. Is it relatively recent? Have you always had it?

Did you think about this when you were a girl? Is it a post-corporate notion? When did you get the political bug? Well, you know, I think I realized when I was in corporate America how big an impact government and politicians and policies have on all our lives. I have to say I grew up in a very political family. I would sit and watch the news. Well, we moved around a lot, but my dad would watch the news every night, and I would watch it with him, and he would yell at the TV, and then in the morning he'd read the New York Times and yell at the newspaper.

And so I grew up saying, Daddy, why do you read this if it makes you so upset? So I kind of had that conservative... Was he conservative? Oh, very, very. But it was really when I got to be fairly senior in business that I realized what an impact politics had. And then I got really started in a presidential campaign during the 2008 presidential. I was a surrogate and a chair for John McCain. Yes, I recall.

Did you like it? I did. And I learned that I loved a campaign. I love the challenge of boiling down very complicated things into language that will land in people's lives. And then, of course, I ran my own Senate race and have helped elect many others in 2012 and 2014. Friends of mine in California were shocked that you ran as a conservative. I am a conservative. I remember your campaign manager or someone high in your team saying, what can I do? She is a conservative.

You're even pro-life. Yes, sir, I am. How did that happen? Just our? Well, there were a series of things that happened. First, I was raised that way, but I remember accompanying my best friend at the time when I was in my early 20s. She wanted to have an abortion, and I remember watching what that did to her and concluding that she had done it not because she wanted to, but because she felt as though she didn't have a choice and no choices were presented to her. Then when I met my husband, I came to learn that his mother had been told to abort him.

She chose not to. She was a very brave woman. She spent a year in the hospital after he was born. But of course, her son was the joy of her life. He's the rock of mine. And after 30 years of marriage, I think, wow, how different my life would have been if she had made a different choice. And I think, honestly, the reason so many young people now are pro-life, the majority of young people are becoming pro-life is because of science and technology. You know, we now know scientifically that the DNA of a zygote is exactly the same as the DNA the day you die. So where is that line? And we know we can perform surgery successfully in utero at four months. Sounds like a life

to me. Yes, indeed. When you ran for office, you were attacked as a richie rich. I remember talk of planes and yachts and this lifestyle. It's really hard for a rich person to run as a conservative. You can run as a liberal, an FDR or a JFK. Or Hillary and Bill Clinton, who seem to have amassed $100 million in the last few years. But it's very hard to run as a conservative and capitalist.

You deal with the politics of envy. What do you think? Well, I think it's important to remind people that I started out as a secretary. I started out typing in a nine-person real estate firm. And I have had many blessings and much success in my life because people were willing to take a chance on me, because people gave me a helping hand. That American dream that I've lived, from secretary to CEO. It's only possible in this country, but it is what this country is about. And so I think the danger we now face in this country

is not that people don't have the opportunity that I did. It's that too few people have the opportunity that I did. We are disregarding too many people's potential. And frankly, it is liberals who disregard it because they are willing to trap people forever in a web of dependence instead of being willing to say, you know what? Everybody has potential. Everybody has God-given gifts. Everyone wants to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. And what we need to do as conservatives is make sure that everyone has that chance, which is why we have to get people out of this web of dependence. Give them the helping hand when they need it. Take a chance on them. Make sure they have the opportunity to work. Let me tell you when I sort of gave up on

California, when I lost heart, and I realize that forever is a long time, but I gave up in 2010 because we, meaning the Republican Party, I'm a Republican, we had two, in my opinion, very attractive, very appealing candidates, you and Whitman. Fresh, well-funded or well-enough funded, new, articulate, a little bit jazzy, all that stuff. The other side had two sort of early 1970s retreads, Jerry Brown and Barbara Box. I mean, these people are McGovernites. And they beat us pretty soundly. In 2010, by the way, it was a big, bonanza Republican year. And I thought, if not this year, not with those candidates, when?

Am I wrong? Is that just unduly cynical? Well, I think you have every reason to be concerned about California. By the way, my husband and I moved back home to Virginia, which is where our family is. But look, if you look at California today, what's the result of all these liberal policies? Why do I say with such confidence it's liberals who are prepared to disregard people? Because in California, what do we have? 111 billionaires, good for them, and the highest poverty rates in the nation. We have the exodus of the middle class, the exodus of young families. We're spending more money per pupil on education than 49 out of 50 states, and our outcomes are 49 out of 50. I mean, this is a state that is the

proof point of what happens when liberal policies are in place for too long. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and everyone else leaves. That's what's happening in California, and businesses are leaving in droves. I think what we need to remember about California is ground games matter. And the Democrats have a fantastic ground game in California. We thought, for example, that they wouldn't get their vote out in 2010 at the same levels they got it out in 2008, a presidential year. They did better than that.

So we as Republicans need to think very carefully about the ground game. However, the one optimistic note I would say out of California, I ran as a conservative, as you point out. I lost the general election, as you point out. But despite that loss, I won more Republican votes, more Democratic votes, and more Independent votes than virtually anyone else running anywhere in the country that year. It's because California is so big.

Why is that a note of optimism? Because a conservative can unify the party and can reach beyond the party to win Democratic and independent votes, even in California. A lot of people want you to run for president. A lot of people want Ben Carson to run for president. Would you feel comfortable running for that office, not having held political office? Absolutely. I think we somehow have come to a point in our nation where we think only politicians can hold public office.

It hasn't served us particularly well, actually. I think what's required to run for president is relevant experience. And what's that relevant experience? You've got to know how the economy works. You've got to know how the world works. You've got to know how the economy works. You've got to know how the world works. You've got to know the people in the world. You need to know how bureaucracies work, because the federal government is one big, huge bureaucracy. You need to know how technology works, because technology is a tool that can transform government and government programs.

You need to know how to make executive decisions, tough decisions in high-pressure environments with less than complete information and a lot of ambiguity for which you will be held accountable. That's the most relevant experience of all. And many politicians don't have any of the things that I just said. You know, the left plays a pretty bruising game. They call us racist primarily and a thousand other things. Can you deal with that? Can you give it back? Well, anyone who heard my speech yesterday I think knows I can give it back. And I think we have to give it back.

We have to call out liberals for their hypocrisy, for their disregard of people's potential and respect. And let me just say, I've been through a lot in my life. I mean, you know, I was a... You're not a violet? I was a highly visible and somewhat controversial CEO. I battled cancer. I've lost a child. Politics doesn't scare me.

And what people say about me doesn't scare me. What scares me is that we are drifting as a nation to a bad place. We're drifting as a nation to a place where too many people don't have the chance to live lives of dignity and purpose. We're drifting to a place where our government is so large, so powerful, so corrupt, so complex that it's crushing small businesses, which we're now destroying more than we're creating for the first time in our history. And we're drifting to a place in the world where, frankly, our enemies are winning and we are retreating. That's what scares me. I have two more questions, I think. First, are conservatives in general wrong about anything?

Are you a dissenter from the conservative line on anything? Do you know what I mean by that? We all have little departures. Let me just start by saying that I think our tone and our language is sometimes our biggest problem. I think conservatives sometimes can come across as very judgmental. Let me give you an example. I am pro-life, but a woman who faces a difficult choice should never receive our condemnation or our judgment.

She should receive our empathy and our support. I think we use language that is disrespectful sometimes. So we can put forward our principles and our values in a tone and in a language that is empathetic, that is respectful of other people, and I think we need to. You know, one of the things that we saw happen in 2012 is our nominee, Mitt Romney, if you looked at the exit polls, he won on every substantive issue. And he lost by 62 points on the question, care about someone like me? And I remember my mother saying to me, nobody cares what you know until they know that you care.

That's true. It's human nature. And so we have to show by our actions, by our words, by our tone, by our empathy, that we care about every person. And honestly, that's why I'm a conservative, because I know our principles work better to lift people up. This last question is a bit unfair. You're not supposed to say that you want to be president. It's immodest. It's too bald. A lot of people want to be president.

I want to be president. I'm just a humble journalist who couldn't get elected dog catcher, I'm sure. Do you want to be president? If I decide to run, and I haven't made that decision yet, I will make a decision in the affirmative because I think I can be president, because I think the presidency needs someone with my experience, and so yes, all that means that I want to be president. Final, final question, as they say.

This is just a little nothing. Are you related to the famous political scientist Morris Fearing? You know, Morris and I have met somehow. Fearing is my married name, by the way, so somewhere my husband and Mo must be related. But Morris Fearing and I have laughed about that. In fact, I think on his office door he has a little cartoon of me. No relation.

But we had never met until somebody pointed out that we had the same last name. So now we've met, and I don't know, but probably. It's a beautiful name. It is a beautiful name. Relates to flowering. Little Flower. Little Flower, exactly. And it's an unusual Italian name, actually.

A winner. Well, this is Jane Nordlinger at CPAC for NR and Ricochet with the formidable Carly Fiorina. Thanks a ton. Thank you so much, Van. Ricochet. Join the conversation.