I have to admit when Carly Fiorina first announced that she was running for President that I was unimpressed. I worked for a company that was previously part of HP at the time she was CEO, and saw first hand people that were affected by the decisions that she made. Perspective is different when it’s personal, so I had a much different view of what happened during the tumultuous times of the HP/Compaq merger. More on that later.

When Carly ran for Senate in California in 2010, she was accused of being a little to coy with conservative issues. Her strategy was ultimately effective though in winning the GOP primary, but ultimately losing to Boxer. Having lived the majority of my life in California I came to understand the compromises and maneuvers that Republican candidates had to make in order to have any opportunity at being elected. Still, as with many others, it made me question what her real position was on many of the issues.

When the current election season was in full swing I, like many others, had our preferences. I wanted a Governor, and I believed that Scott Walker was the best of them (and still do). Unfortunately, like the rest, he wasn’t ready for a national campaign and hired all the wrong people which seems to happen all too often in the GOP. I ranked the others according to secondary preferences, and Carly was quite a ways down the list of 17. Then something happened that changed my view of her and her candidacy.

Not only was Carly the first one to bring this up, but she did it in such a way that it was impossible to argue against. Even the other candidates were stunned by the forceful and heartfelt statement that she made. Immediately she moved up the list of candidates in my mind. No one else was talking about the most important issue our nation was facing. More important than the economy, Islamic terrorism, executive overreach, and overregulation. Nothing is more important than standing up against a government that supports the wholesale slaughter of its own citizens.

I knew that this issue would quickly begin to wane in the minds of the people. Our entire nation suffers from an advanced form of ADHD when it comes to political issues. Democrats thrive on this knowing that no matter what happens, people will quickly forget. Sure enough, christian (lowercase intentional) leaders began to jump on the Trump bandwagon. Why? The usual reason. “It’s the economy, stupid.” Sure, they couch it in how poor people are affected and how Trump would change all that (would he? really??). The last time I checked the list of six things the Lord hates, poverty was not among them. The shedding of innocent blood absolutely is.

Back to the HP/Compaq merger, which is what most people use to show Carly was an ineffective leader. At the time, Compaq was slowly dying. They simply couldn’t compete against Dell (and others) in the PC market. They did however have the best Intel-based servers in the industry. HP’s Intel-based server division was also a mess. While they competed well in the UNIX division, the Intel servers just didn’t cut it. It was a marriage made in corporate heaven, but not without a cost in personnel. I have to wonder though how many would’ve lost their jobs if Compaq finally collapsed and HP just gave up on their Intel-based servers. My guess is it would’ve been a lot more. Capitalism is ruthlessly darwinistic. Only the strongest survive.

I have to admit that Ted surprised me with this selection. The timing makes sense with California coming up, but I believe there’s more to it than that. He’s actually surprised me more than once during campaign. It’s clear that as a campaigner, he really has no equal. The selection of Carly Fiorina I believe is a signal to Christians. Character matters. God isn’t interested in your checkbook. He’s interested in Life. Carly was right in her acceptance speech yesterday. This is a fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

It really does come down to character. Trump doesn’t have it. He’s a mob-affiliated, strip-club-owning, misogynistic, racist, narcissistic, xenophobe. His entire platform is, “We’ll make the scary brown people go away”. Hillary doesn’t have it. She’s an old, lazy, sickly, angry, lying, unindicted criminal that hasn’t accomplished a single thing in her life other than marrying someone successful. Her entire platform is promising free stuff to everyone while telling her banker buddies and foreign nationals she’ll make sure they’re well taken care of financially.

Ted Cruz has character. He’s more than once stood completely on his own to do what’s right, even at great political and personal cost. He’s been willing to call a liar a liar. He has always been on the side of life. Selecting Carly as his VP just solidifies it. This election is about the soul of a political party and the character of a nation. I know that. Ted knows that, and Carly knows that. It’s time the rest of the Christians in this nation stop buying snake oil and start doing what’s right.