Economist Assesses Carly Fiorina's Debate Performance
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Economist Chris Butler assessed the debate performance and viability of Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, and gave her mixed grades, based on the caliber of her opponents.
Butler told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 Fiorina stood out to him among the candidates that were not polling high enough to get on the main stage and were confined to debating themselves earlier in the evening.
"She does not have a particularly strong record when she was heading up Hewlett-Packard, I thought she would be someone that could be soon forgotten in this campaign, but I no longer believe that. She was so far, head and shoulders, above everyone else. It really didn't have that much to do with her necessarily. It was that she was clearly outmatching everyone else and I think that was their problem, not to her credit."
He was surprised that she, and Donald Trump later in the evening, did not focus more attention on their business experience to make the case as why voters should choose them out of the crowded field.
"Maybe it was because they were scared, neither of these two people drew on their experience running large enterprises to make them sound more presidential or more likely to be the person to best run our country.
Butler made the point that, while her tenure at Hewlett-Packard is not a shining success, it is something she should use to promote her campaign.
"I would not say she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground. That, I think, is going a bit too far but she certainly didn't follow through on the promise of turning them around...She has other business experience in her life that she can point to and I think most people that have worked in a business, particularly a big business, understand some of what Carly was up against. If she wants to be a serious candidate, I think she is going to have to address that and she's going to have to find a way to present herself as someone that did the best with what she could."
