News Analysis: Carly Fiorina comes out as serious candidate after scoring big in Republican debate

Former Hewlett-Packard (HP) CEO Carly Fiorina came out swinging during Wednesday night's nationally televised Republican debate, hitting her opponents hard and emerging as a candidate to be taken very seriously.

In the second debate among more than a dozen Republican candidates vying for their party's nomination, Fiorina stood out the most, experts and observers said.

Pundits gave front-runner and billionaire mogul Donald Trump passing marks for his performance as he had no shining moments.

Fiorina hit Trump with a series of stiff jabs, blasting his business performance in recent years and pointing out that he has lost money in his famous Atlantic City casinos, though ironically many experts said Fiorina was a poor CEO during her time at HP.

"You ran up mountains of debt, as well as losses, using other people's money," said Fiorina. "Why should we trust you to manage the finances of this nation?"

Pundits said Fiorina had the night's best performance, though some hesitated to give her a perfect score, as she expressed mostly intensity and rarely smiled, which is something that voters like to see once in a while, as it makes candidates seem more approachable.

Fiorina's performance will possibly give her a much-needed recognition boost, as she is still unknown to 47 percent of Republicans, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Her familiarity had been as low as 35 percent prior to the first debate, some 18 percentage points lower than where it is now. But a comparison of her current 53 percent familiarity rating to the 93 percent familiarity rating enjoyed by Trump shows just how far she has to go if she is to become a serious contender for her party's nomination, Gallup said.

"Carly Fiorina helped herself a lot in the debate," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"She noted how (Trump's) business was built on a mountain of debt. She presented herself well and came across as very knowledgeable about the issues," West said.

"As the only woman in the GOP field, it is easy for her to distinguish herself from the other candidates. Her gender makes her different and helps her bring a woman's perspective to a range of issues."

"She has unusual credibility to take on Trump since his comments about her personal appearance were so outrageous," West said, referring to recent negative comments that Trump made about Fiorina's physical appearance.

"By being matter of fact but still quite forceful in telling him off, she came across as a strong leader who can hold her own in a difficult situation. That should pay dividends for her on foreign policy since voters want someone who can stand up to adversaries abroad," West said.

Still, Fiorina has weaknesses that can be exploited, West said.

"Her greatest vulnerability is her past business experience. She laid off tens of thousands of people at HP and the company performed poorly on her watch," West said.

"It will be easy for opponents to remind people of these facts and suggest her CEO experience was terrible and she shouldn't be trusted with an even bigger executive position. Both Republicans and Democrats will say she was a cold and heartless leader who did not care about her employees," he said. Endi