GOP 2016 presidential hopefuls come to town

US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivers his remarks at the morning plenary session of the Values Voter Summit in Washington, Sept 26, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Earlier in the day, a surprise entrant into the early 2016 conversation flew into town for an appearance. Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who made an unsuccessful run for the US Senate in California in 2010, spoke to a group of about 200 Republicans in West Des Moines.

Fiorina has in the past two months launched a political action group, Unlocking Potential, that is putting paid staff in six battleground states during the midterm elections, including Iowa.

An official with the group said UP has 24 paid staff in Iowa alone. And Fiorina made comments this past week indicating that she is considering a run for president herself in 2016, as a Republican. Before coming to Iowa Saturday, she had traveled recently to early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Even if it is a ploy to gain a platform for a particular message, Fiorina's move is notable because she clearly intends to try to become a national conservative voice. She made clear her concern that Republicans are losing women voters because of what Democrats have labeled a "war on women" by the GOP. And Fiorina has declared her intent to be a loud public combatant with the Democratic perspective on women's issues, and to help conservative women push back against the Democratic narrative.

In making her case, Fiorina sought to model how she believes Republican women and men should talk about women's issues, particularly abortion. She demonstrated an approach that fuses conciliatory rhetoric toward women voters with a confrontational, offensive-minded defiance toward professional Democratic politicians.

"I personally am a proud pro-life woman, but I understand and respect that not everybody agrees with me. And women actually are prepared to disagree on that subject as long as the disagreement is respectful," she said. "There's a lot of common ground among men and women, even on the powder-keg emotional issue of abortion."

Fiorina cited polling showing 63 percent of women oppose abortion after five months of pregnancy. She argued that women are not being denied access to birth control but rather to the doctor of their choice, and by the president's Affordable Care Act. And she accused House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of comparing the Republican Party to NFL running back Ray Rice, who is serving an indefinite suspension after being caught on videotape punching his then-fiancee in an elevator and knocking her unconscious.

"So now the Democratic Party would like voters to believe that we are the party of wife beaters. Ladies, we cannot take this sitting down," Fiorina said. "This is an insult to our intelligence. I am sure you will join me when I say, as a proud Republican woman I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore."

Social conservatives complained after the 2012 election that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lost ground among voters because rather than make the case for the pro-life position, he avoided talking about the issue. Fiorina's emergence this past week into the political conversation is an interesting development, and may provide those on the right with a figure who comes from a business background and is not considered a religious zealot to be a standard-bearer for their point of view.