CARLY RISING – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:  We've advised here repeatedly to watch Carly Fiorina.  She has a kind of political magic.  It's beginning to show, and to work.  From the Los Angeles Times: 

When it was Carly Fiorina’s turn to take the stage at a presidential forum in Oklahoma City, Noah Wolff was thinking of heading outside for a break.

“I thought of all the people, why is she here?” said Wolff, 19, a Republican and political science major at the University of Oklahoma.

But as Fiorina started speaking, Wolff was captivated by her message. While other candidates in the convention hall spent their time spewing standard conservative talking points and criticizing the current Democratic administration, he said, Fiorina outlined solutions, such as how she would negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran.

Wolff stood with the crowd in several ovations for the GOP presidential hopeful.

Previously, the only thing he knew about Fiorina was that Hewlett-Packard had fired her. “Maybe that’s why I was so impressed, I came in with very low expectations, and she was just far and away the best speech,” he said.

Fiorina, who lost a U.S. Senate race in California in 2010 by 10 points, has never registered above 3% in the national presidential polls. But she is showing signs of momentum. She cracked the top 10 in a national survey for the first time last week, a requisite to win a spot in the first Republican primary debate in August.

In Denver on Saturday, she placed second in a conservative gathering’s straw poll — not an indicator of her likelihood of winning the GOP nomination, but a sign of the enthusiasm she is generating among grass-roots activists.

Fiorina also is consistently drawing rave reviews on the stump.

COMMENT:  I don't think she'll get the presidential nod, but you never know.  I do think she'd be a strong vice-presidential choice, and a potential president.  She's one of the most effective speakers I've ever heard, and she wins people over. 

She'd also neutralize the "first woman president" advantage that Hillary would have.

Keep watching her.

July 2, 2015