Amid a rise in the polls and the media’s intensifying scrutiny of Carly Fiorina’s record, the presidential candidate’s super PAC has launched a film to put a positive spin on her past.
The super PAC, Carly for America, premiered the 60-minute film at a theater in Arlington, Va., Tuesday evening to a large group of supporters and some media outlets.
The film, narrated by actor James Woods, seeks to preempt attacks on Fiorina’s record before most Americans have a chance to read the flood of hit pieces no doubt being written in the wake of her commanding debate performances. Fiorina is best known as the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The film puts front and center two board members who were part of the group that fired the candidate in 2005: Tom Perkins, who had taken out a full-page ad last month in The New York Times to defend Fiorina and fault the HP board of directors for the company’s problems, and Bob Knowling. Both praised Fiorina’s leadership.
Predictably, Perkins himself became the subject of media investigations after he defended Fiorina and attempted to shift the narrative on her HP tenure.
“I went with the majority,” Perkins said in the film of Fiorina’s firing, ” I’m now somewhat ashamed to say.”
Knowling, who has yet to be attacked in connection with Fiorina, said the removal of Fiorina from the company was “unjustified.”
Aside from a heavy focus on her six years at HP, the film provides counterpoints to a range of other topics already being challenged — including Fiorina’s time at the helm of Lucent Technologies and her failed 2010 senate campaign against incumbent Barbara Boxer.
As to Lucent, Fiorina’s camp points out that under her leadership, the company added thousands of jobs, doubled revenue and launched one of the most successful Initial Public Offering’s in U.S. history. The pushback on her time at Lucent is currently coming from The New York Times, which notes that much of the company’s success was due to giving vendors the money to purchase products, a fraudulent tactic also used by its competitors.
But Fiorina was not responsible for what happened in the years after she left the company for HP, and it was reported that while she was in charge, the practice was “constrained,” according to one former employee. After she left, the company became embroiled in an accounting scandal, which the Times acknowledges was not Fiorina’s doing. Still, the appearance of scandal will probably cause her campaign frustration going forward.
As for Fiorina’s Senate campaign, the film focuses heavily on the personal issues she faced as she was campaigning — her cancer diagnosis and the death of one of her daughters (through marriage) to addiction. Lighthearted side comments are interspersed throughout the film, including one about Fiorina’s husband Frank having to make what seemed like “millions” of grilled cheese sandwiches when it was the only thing she could stomach as she went through cancer treatments.
The film also quickly mentions Fiorina’s post-campaign jobs as chairs of the One Woman Initiative and Good360, both philanthropic organizations. Oddly missing was Fiorina’s Unlocking Potential Project, which she launched last year.
The film’s attempt to explain Fiorina’s record follows a long line of successful moves by her campaign since she announced her candidacy, including addressing complaints about her time at HP head on and memorable quips on late-night television. While other campaigns appear to be playing defense when it comes to their records, this film is a positive and powerful offensive move on the part of Fiorina’s super PAC.
I’ll leave the back-and-forth of fact-checking out of this post. The film is meant to put a positive spin on Fiorina’s career, and that’s what it does. Those not interested in politics could view it as a short biopic of one of the most powerful female CEOs in U.S. history.
