This blog was originally published on Forbes as Carly Fiorina Proves Again That Presentation Counts on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
42nd Street, the venerable Hollywood film and Broadway musical, tells the classic story of the understudy who becomes a star. The underdog theme has many analogs in sports, business, and, of course, politics; the most famous of all being when challenger John F. Kennedy upset incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon by besting him in a televised debate in 1960.
An echo of that Cinderella theme came in yesterday’s announcement by CNN that they are “amending the criteria”—read “revising the rules”—for their upcoming prime time Republican presidential debate and inviting Carly Fiorina to participate. In my previous Forbes post you read how, when she was relegated to a previous pre-prime time debate (also known as the undercard) on August 6, she exhibited such strong presentation skills, she moved the needle in the public opinion polls. Since then, the needle has continued to move for her because, as the Washington Post observed “she is the only one who has demonstrated anything that rivals the thrust-and-parry skills of front-runner Donald Trump.”
She thrusted at Mr. Trump in the August 6 debate when she said, “Since he has changed his mind on amnesty, on health care and on abortion, I would just ask, what are the principles by which he will govern?” He parried by tweeting, “I just realized that if you listen to Carly Fiorina for more than ten minutes straight, you develop a massive headache. She has zero chance!”
Clearly, the next debate (on September 16) should produce much more thrusting and parrying and—as history has demonstrated—presentation counts.
This blog was originally published on Forbes as Carly Fiorina Proves Again That Presentation Counts on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.