Is Carly Fiorina doing the heavy lifting for the GOP?

Editor Note: The views and opinions expressed by Rob in op-eds and commentaries are his own and not neccessarily those of Righting on the Wall Blog.
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By Rob Janicki

Much to the consternation of Trump followers, Carly Fiorina crushed The Donald in the 

last debate.  Okay, Carly had help in that task from none other than The Donald, who
 looked, sounded and acted like he was out of touch with the real world of the GOP 
presidential campaign politics.

We know that Trump stumbled badly in the CNN debate, as just about every political 
pundit agreed to that conclusion.  Has Trump, the shoot from the hip with the sarcastic lip,
 seen his  best campaign days behind him?  I'm beginning to think so, if for no other reason
 than Carly  managed to make him look so bad in comparison.

Trump has managed to diminish his own chances when he stumbled into an unforced error

 in a rally in Rochester, New Hampshire.  Almost uncharacteristically, Trump tripped
 himself  up when he blindly walked into a questioner in the audience that claimed that 
President Obama is a Muslim.  Rather than cutting the questioner to the knee caps as he 
so characteristically does, Trump mumbled his way through the comment, while doing 

nothing to disquiet the notion that Obama is a Muslim.

Now to be fair to Trump, I don't know how anyone can look into Obama's psyche and 

determine what, if any, religious beliefs he may hold.  Trump had the chance to cut off this 

meaningless statement by saying it was simply inappropriate to any discussion in the 2016

 presidential campaign and then move on.

Was this faux pax by Trump the turning point in campaign fortunes?  Probably not, since 

seldom does one single mistake turn into a campaign disaster.  If it did, Hillary Clinton 

would have crashed and burned long ago when she threw her pants suit into the campaign

 ring.  What is looking bad for Trump are the serious polling results showing greater gains 

for Carly, almost across the board, if you drop out the totally unscientific polls Trump often 

refers to as showing him in the lead.

The more Trump trumpets his wealth, how great a wheeler dealer he is and what he will 

single handedly do to return America to its greatness, the more people are realizing that 

Trump's bravado is simply too far fetched to believe, and they would be right.  Trump has 

burned all the bridges behind him that will be necessary to bring forth Republican 

 politicians in Congress into his camp as the real soldiers of political change. 

Now, back to Carly Fiorina and her role in toppling The Donald.  Carly is a very bright and 

articulate campaigner.  She has assiduously avoided being drawn into a Trump mud fight, 

much to her credit.  Compared to Trump, Fiorina is looking like the real adult in the room 

with actual policies to offer on various critical issues important to Americans.  Carly has

 clearly done her homework on the issues of the day.  She has listened to the collective 

voice of those voters likely to vote for Republicans.  She continues to act in a manner 

consistent with someone who listens, rather than runs their mouth.

Will Carly become the Republican nominee?  It's possible, but history tells us it is 

improbable for a complete outsider to capture such a treasured and valuable reward, no 

matter how worthy they may be.  That brings us back to the original tease.  I see Carly as 
the  force that drives out Donald Trump and opens the door for either Jeb (ouch!) or Marco 

Rubio.

Head to head, I see Marco Rubio besting Jeb, campaign money being equal, if that is 

possible.  Marco has the energy, the experience in national security and foreign relations 

policy, and the compelling personal story, not to mention his genuine Hispanic roots, while 

Jeb married his Hispanic claim to fame and comes from a Bush family brand that has 
pretty  much burned itself out for another generation or so.

In the end, I see Carly Fiorina as the Vice Presidential candidate, since I cannot see at this 

time, anyone with a better claim to that position.  I think Republican voters would demand
it  and in the end it would be the right thing to do for America in electing a woman as the 
first Vice President in American history.