Fiorina Rises, So WashPost Asks If She Has a 'Mitt Romney Problem...Too Aloof'

September 30th, 2015 7:41 AM

Washington Post reporter Ben Terris has a funny way of noting Carly Fiorina has broken out of the also-ran sector of  the Republican presidential race. She’s now hot enough on the trail to being suggesting she has a “Mitt Romney problem,” or a Hillary Clinton problem. Too robotic. Not warm enough. Even....didn’t cry enough?

This was the essence of the Terris story on Tuesday:

When Fiorina suddenly took off a couple of weeks ago, commentators started wondering whether she had a Mitt Romney problem. It was not just in the sense of the baggage from her corporate career (the 30,000 people she laid off at Hewlett-Packard, her swift dismissal as CEO, her $21 million severance package), but in the sense of: Will voters find her as aloof as they found him?

There are cottage industries and schools of thought devoted to helping stiff, brainy politicians ingratiate themselves with an emo electorate. For years we’ve watched the closely chronicled efforts of media gurus trying to make Al Gore seem looser, and then make Hillary Clinton seem warmer. (“Hillary Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart, Aides Say,” the New York Times promised this month.)

Is it really fair from watching both women on the stump to suggest Fiorina is competing in the Stiffness category with Hillary? (Let's grant a point or two for admitting Hillary has a problem.)

Terris brought in an expert to make the point that Fiorina has to be fierce to compete with the male Republicans. But Terris thinks she’s bombing before audiences by being too fierce as she demonstrates her grasp of policy arcana:

It was as if she had a teleprompter in her brain.

“Are you reading the cards over my shoulder?” asked the clearly impressed moderator, a think tanker named Arthur Herman. “I do not want to play poker with you.”

It was a little joke, of course, and a well-timed one — finally, a comic breather from a discussion that could have been titled “Our Tragic and Dangerous World” — and the audience began to chuckle. Until Fiorina chimed back in.

“You know, honestly, Christians are being driven from the Middle East,” she said leaning forward, looking grimly around the room. “And this administration is silent.”

So was the crowd.

Terris ended the story by turning to a millennial voter who wonders if Fiorina broke down in tears over Donald Trump suggesting she has an ugly face. It's not hard to imagine that Fiorina, like most people, would consider the insult-a-minute source and discount it immediately. One wonders if hardened feminists find this line of inquiry sexist and insulting, even considering Fiorina doesn't share the entire feminist ideology:

Kate Stevens, a 21-year old senior, had one question on her mind.

“I kind of can’t stop wondering whether she cried when Donald Trump called her ugly,” she said. “That’s so mean! And she’s so strong. I just really wanted to know if she cried.”

Stevens decided against asking. She reasoned that women are held to a tough standard on these things. And something told her that Fiorina wouldn’t answer the question.

“I felt she was as real as she could be, but I guess you just can’t really be candid as a political candidate,” Stevens said. “You have to be scripted.” What struck her was how much seeing Fiorina in person was like seeing her on TV.

“Every hair is in place, her makeup is perfect, and she makes flawless eye contact that will stick with me for the rest of my life,” she said. “Every gesture was perfectly timed, even her leans forward when talking to us.”

Still, she wished she could have seen something just a little more... human.

“I should have asked if she cried,” she said.