Carly Fiorina was the clear winner of the early Republican presidential debate–at least according to social media.
The former Hewlett Packard CEO joined six other contenders who failed to qualify for the evening’s main event, which is restricted to the top ten candidates in recent polls. However, her performance in the undercard event generated a great deal of online enthusiasm.
Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com weighed in:
Others agreed:
Even fellow debate participants agreed. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed to suggestthat Fiorina would make a better Secretary of State than John Kerry:
Among Fiorina’s strongest answers were her responses on the Iran deal and how she would face cybersecurity threats America faces from Russia and China
“We need to be very well aware of the fact that China and Russia are using technology to attack us, just as ISIS is using technology to recruit those who would murder American citizens. I do not believe that we need to wholesale destroy every American citizen’s privacy in order to go after those that we know are suspect or are — are already a problem,” she said.
Twitter gave her an A-rating:
Update: Chris Wallace, Charles Krauthammer and George Will of Fox News–which hosted the debate along with Facebook–both agreed in their post-debate analysis. Fox News’ Bret Baier concurred that social media had reflected a big win for Fiorina.
Fox News’ snap poll indicated that 82% of viewers thought Fiorina won. As Sarah Rumpf notes:
Fox News viewers agreed with the people appearing on their television sets. In a flash poll taken after the debate, Fiorina was the overwhelming favorite. About two hours after the debate ended, a whopping 82 percent said that Fiorina won the debate. Left in her dust were former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) at 7 percent, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) at 6 percent, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at 2 percent, and former Gov. George Pataki (R-NY) and former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R-VA) at 1 percent.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz and on Facebook.
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