Carly Fiorina took a well-deserved victory lap Thursday morning, displaying the same steel and charisma that won the previous night’s GOP debate — and which has now catapulted her into the front ranks of her party’s presidential contenders.
“When I went into the debate, almost half the audience didn’t know my name,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO told “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos.
“And I introduced myself successfully.”
Fiorina also kept up a drum-beat against President Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, telling MSNBC that they bear the blame for the country’s “failure in Syria.”
“When we do not lead, the world becomes a more dangerous and more tragic place,” she said.
In a standout performance Wednesday night, Fiorina turned the tables on Donald Trump — criticizing his record as a businessman and responding to his graceless jibe about her looks by looking into the camera and stating evenly, “Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
She also spoke with passion against fetal-tissue harvesting, and with strength and sadness about her stepdaughter’s death from addiction and the need for drug reform.
“I buried a child to drug addiction,” she said, in the debate’s most moving and personal moment.
It was a performance that impressed even partisans from opposing camps.
“The clear winner was Carly,” conceded Saul Anuzis, a former Republican National Committee member who is a Ted Cruz supporter.
“Being on the stage with all the top-tier candidates was a win, and then she did extremely well with her answers.”
View video“Carly had a great night,” said Katie Packer Gage, the former deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney.
“She did what she needed to do — showed she deserved to be on the big stage and was tough on Trump and well-versed on foreign policy.”
Fiorina, the only woman in the field, knew going in that the debate would be a proving ground.
“If you can’t fight on the debate stage, then you are not going to be able to stand up and fight for the American people,” she told CNN Thursday.
Her newly earned GOP star status means more media coverage, which will translate into better polling and more donor cash, predicted Hans Hassell, assistant professor of politics at Cornell College in Iowa.
Meanwhile, another of the debate’s big winners, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, has already seen a big post-debate bump in donations.