Hey, I was just having some fun when I tweeted my support for Iowa in the Rose Bowl, Stanford graduate Carly Fiorina declared Sunday.
Social media weren’t so generous this weekend. Friday, Fiorina, who’s vying for the Republican presidential nomination, tweeted “Love My Alma Mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today #RoseBowl”
Stanford crushed Iowa’s Hawkeyes, 45 to 16. The twitterverse blew up, not only accusing her of pandering, but of jinxing Iowa.
Sunday, Fiorina, competing in Iowa’s February 1 first-in-the-nation caucus, said her tweet was not to be taken so seriously. Fiorina graduated from Stanford in 1976.
“For heaven’s sakes, can’t a girl have a little fun?,” Fiorina said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “That was a tongue-in-cheek tweet, which the people of Iowa understand, because I was asked over and over again in Iowa, having attended a Hawkeye tailgate.”
She explained that “They knew that my heart was torn. You would think based on this reaction that I had said something really controversial, like, you know, 'ISIS is a JV team,' or, 'This demonstration was a result of a video,'’’
Lighten up, she urged. “Let’s just say, if the biggest mistake I make is a tongue-in-cheek tweet about a Rose Bowl, the American people will sleep safely when I’m president of the United States.”
David Lightman: 202-383-6101, @lightmandavid