Carly Fiorina at Tonight's #VotersFirst Forum in New Hampshire

Carly Fiorina at Tonight's #VotersFirst Forum in New Hampshire

Carly Fiorina speaks with such purpose and has such thoughtful and intelligent ideas to offer, we at CARLY for America are sure you, like the rest of America, were hanging on every word she said tonight.  But just in case the voice recorder on your iPhone fritzed out on you or you can’t read your own notes, we have transcribed all of Carly’s top moments from tonight’s debate.  So feel free to quote Carly in all your articles.

“Carly absolutely knocked it out of the park tonight. It’s no wonder she is resonating with voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and around the country. Carly has proven time and again that she’s not afraid to answer the tough questions, and tonight was no exception.” Leslie Shedd, CARLY for America Press Secretary.
 
#1 Carly on Challenging the Status Quo and Crony Capitalism
“I think one of the most difficult decisions you have as a leader is to challenge the status quo, whatever the status quo is the status quo in any system. In a business, bureaucracy, and especially in Washington, D.C, is powerful because people who have benefited from the status quo want to preserve the status quo. And so when you challenge the status quo, when you say you know what, this problem has been festering for too long, and we’re going to finally fix it.  Or these folks have been in charge for too long, we’ve been talking about this for too long, we’re going to fix it. The truth is 80 percent of the American people now think we have a professional political class that is liking the status quo. And we have festering problems. Our budget gets bigger and bigger every year for forty years.  We’ve been talking a lot today about illegal immigration. How long have we been talking about the border being insecure? Thirty years. How long have we known it was insecure? Thirty years. How long has it been insecure? Thirty years. We talk a lot at election time, but somehow we never solve these festering problems.  It’s because the status quo is in charge.”

#2 Carly on Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood
“Absolutely not. This is about the moral character of our nation.  This is not about whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life. Just as taking care of people who need our care is part of the moral fiber of our nation as well.”

#3 Carly on What We Need in a President
“I started out as a secretary in a little nine person real estate firm, went on to lead the largest technology company in the world, and now I'm running for the presidency of the United States. My story is only possible in America. But our nation is at a pivotal time. Whatever your issue or cause or festering problem that you hope would be resolved, the political class has let you down. Margaret Thatcher once said I am not content to manage the decline of a great nation. Neither am I.  We need a president who understands the economy, the world, how it works, who is in it; bureaucracies, how to hold them accountable, cut them down to size; technology.  I have a proven track record of challenging the status quo and problem solving. With your support and your vote, I will lead the resurgence of a great nation.”

#4 Carly on Foreign Policy
“President Obama has continuously provided to the American people a false choice. The false choice is this: either you agree with what I’m doing or not doing or the option is to go to war. That is not true. There are many things we could and should be doing. First we must have the strongest military on the face of the planet and everyone has to know it.  Which means we have to invest in tooth – fighting men and women, the tip of the spear.  And we need to reform tail – bureaucracy in the Department of Defense. Secondly, on my first day in the Oval Office, I would make two phone calls.  The first would be to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu, to reassure him we will stand with the State of Israel. The second would be the Supreme Leader of Iran. Realistically, he might not take my phone call. He’d get the message. The message is, until and unless you allow full, unfettered, anytime, anywhere inspections we will make it as difficult as possible for you to move money around the global financial system. Why do I start with those two things?  Because, knowing more world leaders on the stage today than anyone running, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton, only I didn’t do photo ops, I know that our allies need a message from us: that we will stand with them.  And our adversaries need a message from us as well: we will confront you. In terms of ISIS, we have allies who know this is their fight. King Abdullah of Jordan, a good man I’ve known him many years. The Jordanians.  The Saudis, I know the Saudi royal family.  The Egyptians.  The Kurds.  The Kuwaitis.  The Emiratis.  The Bahrainis.  All of these people know ISIS is their fight.  But they’ve asked us for very specific things: bombs, materials, sharing intelligence, weapons.  So I would hold a Camp David summit and ask them what they need from us. Yes, they may need more special forces but we need to show leadership, resolve, support or our allies will lose courage.”

#5 Carly on the Democrat Nominee
“I think Hillary Clinton thinks they are political inconveniences, that’s what she gives off. But they are far more than that.  She lied about Benghazi. They knew it was a purposeful terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11. She went to the American people and talked some fiction about a videotape. She stood over the bodies of the fallen.  She has, as well, lied about her servers and the kinds of information she had her server and why should kept everything on a single device.  These go to the core of her character.  But here’s the thing, in order to beat Hillary Clinton or whoever their nominee turns out to be, we have to have a nominee on our side who will throw every punch.  Because this is a fight.  It’s a fight for the future of this nature.  It’s a fight for the character of this nation.  And unfortunately, we know that sometimes right questions don’t get asked in a presidential debate.”

#6 Carly on Federal Spending
“The least popular actions are when you have to say to people we can’t afford to do this anymore.  And Lord knows we need to do that in Washington DC…People understand, honestly, our government has gotten bigger and bigger every year for almost 50 years.  You have to invest in those things that are a priority: securing the border, helping people who truly need help, and you need to quit spending money where you are wasting money. And we are wasting hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And by the way, we know where it is because there are reports that come out every year.  They land like a thud on Congress' desk and literally nothing happens.”

#7 Carly on Dodd-Frank
“This is a classic case where the political class failed. So, the financial crisis was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government sponsored entities that have been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. They have not been reformed. Twenty five federal government agencies were supposed to be minding the store – they didn’t. Democrats passed Dodd-Frank. Dodd-Frank has caused, what, ten Wall Street banks too big to fail, have become five, even bigger, more powerful Wall Street banks and thousands of community banks have gone out of business. This is an example of crony capitalism.  So we need to repeal Dodd-Frank just like we need to repeal Obamacare. But we also need to get about what we should have been doing years ago. Reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government should not be in the mortgage business. And have government agencies who were supposed to be regulating the financial system be competent at their job. Not, as we know from IG Reports, have federal government regulators supposed to be minding the banking system watching pornography all day long, and earning the same pay, pension and benefits as somebody trying to do a good job. This isn’t not rocket science folks. It just never seems to happen.