Iowa Caucus Speech 2016

At this point in the General Election campaign (mid-October 2016) many of us are wishing things had gone differently. In an elegiac spirit, I retrieved the speech I gave at my precinct during the Iowa caucuses last winter:

I am speaking for Carly Fiorina.

We are blessed with some truly talented and admirable candidates, genuinely committed to the change this country so desperately needs. It’s humbling, and maybe it seems presumptuous, to stand here and say that one of them is clearly best…

…maybe especially so when the news media, the pundits, and the pollsters—talking to the 8% of Iowans who are still answering their phones—think they already know how things are going to go tonight…

…but this is our decision, our responsibility…

…to decide

Who has the clarity of vision to see what’s gone so badly wrong with our country and to spell it out in terms that will inspire a winning, governing majority to bring us back from the brink…

Not flailing anger but the laser-like focus of wise and righteous indignation…

Not flinging mud at her fellow Republicans, but keeping our sights fixed on our common enemy: the vast, incompetent, corrupt Federal Government and the arrogant, self-righteous ruling class that has formed around it…

Who has the real-world, outside of Washington, outside of politics, experience of real accountability for a huge, bloated, failing enterprise—the once great Hewlett-Packard—and fundamentally transforming it. Saving the company, saving thousands of jobs, by making hard decisions. Even when it came to standing up for employees and shareholders against a self-interested Board of Directors. Fighting the good fight against the crony capitalism and regulatory insanity that’s suffocating the American economy.

Carly Fiorina means what she says and she will do it. When I first heard her speak I thought: Margaret Thatcher lives!

No political evasion. No excuses. No good-old boy deals. The moral discipline of the free market imposed on government. Honest, zero-based budgeting. Obamacare to the dustbin of history. A simple, rational tax code. Living within our means. Control of education returned to local communities and parents. Protecting personal, religious liberty. Fidelity to the Constitution against an out of control government that thinks it knows best, thinks it should manage everything and everyone, yet cannot do the few things it ought to do: secure the borders, control immigration, be faithful to allies, show resolve to adversaries, and decisively defeat Islamic radicalism.

The defense of innocent life is an issue especially dear to Carly. Ten days ago she was the only candidate at the March for Life, in the snow, in Washington, invited because she has so forcibly challenged Planned Parenthood’s horrific and mercenary disregard for the lives of the unborn. A Carly Fiorina presidency is that evil organization’s nightmare.

Carly Fiorina would be the last person to ask you to vote for her because she is a woman. Her vision for America is the great land of opportunity, where someone can start out as a secretary and become CEO of one of the world’s largest corporations. Where each of us is rewarded in accord with our contribution, not for belonging to whatever demographic the ruling elites accord victim status.

A land where citizens take their country back from a self-anointed political class.

But I do like to envision Carly as our nominee, debating, demolishing an (unindicted?) Hillary Clinton, forcing her to run on her record, not on her gender.

She will make us proud. Proud to be Republicans. Proud to be Americans. I urge you to caucus for Carly tonight.

Postscript: There were over 600 people at our caucus. Carly got six votes. Oh well…

Post Postscript: It turned out that Trump was a great president, so my worries in October 2016 were unfounded. Despite my initial apprehension, I voted for him with trepidation and was eventually more than pleasantly surprised.

Post Post Postscript: In the 2020 election, Fiorina spoke out against Trump. This was extremely disappointing.