GOP Candidate Carly Fiorina Called For Leadership For US

Talking to a crowded room at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, Carly Fiorina made a call for leadership Tuesday while bolstering her outsider status and business record.

“I do, come before you, wanting to be the leader of what should be the most powerful nation in the world,” Fiorina said calling into question the strength of the U.S. on the global stage as well as President Barack Obama’s leadership here at home.

After seeing a surge in the polls since the second Republican debate, Fiorina sits third behind Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson in Oklahoma.

In a bitter and crowded Republican primary race, she has come from relative obscurity to the top second choice candidate for many primary voters.

During the talk, which lasted nearly 40 minutes, she played up her business experience as CEO of Hewlett-Packard saying she kept 80,000 jobs in the company and doubled its growth.

However, her track record has come under scrutiny.

While heading the tech giant, H-P cut 30,000 employees and many economists say the exponential growth had more to do with the $25 billion acquisition of then competitor Compaq than the efficiency of the H-P under Fiorina.

She was also critical of the Iran deal saying she’d throw it out and negotiate a tougher deal on the Middle Eastern nation’s nuclear program. Fiorina also questioned Obama’s decision to ask Pope Francis to work with the Iranian leader to release four American captives.

Her largest point was limiting government regulation and cutting spending.

She told the oil industry crowd she'd overhaul the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the U.S. was a “nation of rules” instead of laws.

Fiorina also repeated her idea for a 0-based federal budget plan. Under the plan agencies would have to start with a working budget of $0 and build their budget upward; much like a corporation.

“The federal government spends more money every year, has been doing so for 50 years, and yet the federal government never has enough money for what it's supposed to do,” Fiorina said to applause.

Fiorina did bring up the issue of climate change in her speech. While not explicitly saying whether she subscribed to mainstream climate science or not, she said it would take a “global effort to fix global warming.”

She said the U.S. alone couldn’t solve environmental problems and the current polices were hurting the U.S. domestic economy by trying.

The president and the government weren’t her only targets.

Fiorina also took rhetorical swings at left-wing voters and the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, saying she took too long to take a stand on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Fiorina said she supports the pipeline and Clinton’s opposition to it is based in ideology not science.

Fiorina, like the two candidates ahead of her, is hoping her outsider status and new found energy will propel her to the nomination still more than 10 months away.

The event may have also been a two-fold visit.

Fiorina is lagging far behind in campaign funds.

Currently Jeb Bush, the fundraising leader for Republicans, is out funding Fiorina 30 to1. Fiorina’s Super Pac has only raised just over $3.5 million, according to estimates. The Federal Elections Committee deadline for campaign finance filing is Wednesday.