Carly Fiorina 'Regrets' Mocking Barbara Boxer's Hair, But No Apology
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California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said on Sunday that she regretted being caught on a live microphone making fun of her opponent Barbara Boxer's hair.
"I regret this whole situation. I gave people the opportunity to talk about something petty and superficial," she said, during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." "This is a very serious election year about serious issues."
Addressing, for the first time, her coif gaffe, Fiorina did not apologize to Boxer herself. Nor did she answer the question of whether she called the Senator personally to make amends for saying of her hairdo: "God, what is that? ... Sooo yesterday,"
Fiorna did address some actually weighty, policy questions as well. And, despite moving from a primary setting to a general election, she showed very little interest in moderating her views. The Republican candidate restated her support for the tough new immigration laws being implemented in Arizona and affirmed that she supported abortion only in the case of rape and incest. Perhaps most noticeably, she continued to insist that people on the government's no-fly list should have the right to purchase guns -- rationalizing her position on the hook that the no-fly list once included Ted Kennedy and a "seven year old."
"Why should a law-abiding U.S. citizen who has the right to bear arms be prevented from doing so because of government incompetence?" Fiorina said. "This is what people are crazed over."
The most pointed set of questions, however, concerned Fiorina's time as head of Hewlett Packard, where she oversaw the outsourcing of 30,000 jobs, was fired in 2005, and left the company with a $42 million golden parachute. How could she talk about creating jobs when she was personally involved in eliminating so many?
"You know every family and every business in California knows what it means to go through tough times. And every family is cutting back, and every business is laying off right now. I don't say that with delight, I say that with sorrow. But yes, it is true that jobs are being taken out of California. By the way, China fights harder for our jobs than we do. Texas fights for our jobs, Nevada fights for our jobs, North Carolina fights for our jobs. We have to start fighting for our jobs in this nation and in our state."
The notion that China "fights harder for our jobs" may seem like a political risky statement to make. But Fiorina seemed to be referring to government policies that encouraged tax breaks for manufacturing, agricultural development, and so on.
"I know how to create jobs," Fiorina said with an understated caveat: "and I know why they leave."
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First Posted: 06/13/10 10:55 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:45 PM ET