Fiorina announces bid for White House

WASHINGTON – Carly Fiorina jumped into the Republican race for president Monday, taking presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on directly and charging that Americans are tired of a “professional political class” governing the country.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO cast herself as a business leader and not a politician, saying she has executive experience making “a tough call in a tough time” and understands how the economy works.

“Our founders never intended us to have a professional, political class,” Fiorina said in a 60-second announcement video, which opens with a clip of Clinton announcing her run for the presidency. “We know the only way to re-imagine our government is to re-imagine who is leading it.”

Fiorina, the only woman in a crowded Republican field, has earned points among Republican voters for sharp critiques on Clinton, whom she said is “not trustworthy.”

“People of all political persuasions now believe that there is a huge gulf between their lives and what the professional political class is concerned about, and Hillary represents that professional political class in so many ways,” said Fiorina, fielding questions from reporters in a 40-minute conference call after her announcement.

Fiorina, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in 2010, barely registers in Republican polls and acknowledged she’s unlikely to raise as much money as her rivals.

But she noted “greater reception” to her candidacy than some had expected and said she was confident she could raise sufficient money to compete.

“We may not raise as much as many others in this race, but we’ll have the money to do what we need to do,” she said.

She charged that President Barack Obama’s administration has “made the world a more dangerous place.” She called for arming Ukraine and the Kurds and sending weapons to Jordan to battle Islamic militants.

She also criticized the administration’s proposed Iran deal, saying her second call after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “He might not take the call, but he would get the message,” she said, adding that she’d tell him the U.S. would impose sanctions until Iran “open themselves up to full and unfettered inspections.”

She said she’d also call the head of the Democratic Party to pledge interest in working together.

Fiorina touted her technology prowess, but that didn’t prevent her fledgling campaign from making a tech mistake when it neglected to register the domain carlyfiorina.org. Someone else did and used the site to hammer Fiorina on the layoffs she oversaw during her tenure at Hewlett-Packard.