Fiorina: 'Slow news day' caused #carlycurse

Carly Fiorina’s 140-character endorsement of Hawkeye football over her alma mater, Stanford University, was the tweet heard ‘round the Rose Bowl.

“Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today. #RoseBowl” the Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard tweeted.

The tweet, which was retweeted more than 800 times, caused an internet firestorm with users calling it “phony” and “pandering.” And as Stanford overtook Iowa in the game, the hashtag #carlycurse began trending in Iowa and California.

“I will never again try to have a light-hearted moment on Twitter because it clearly doesn’t work,” Fiorina said during a Wednesday morning meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board. “But the reason I did it in the first place was because the people of Iowa had asked me about it.”

As a fan, she was torn over the Hawkeye team’s “great story” and being a Stanford graduate, she said.

“You know, honestly, the way people reacted to that you would have thought I lied about Benghazi or said ISIS was the J.V. team,” she said taking a swipe at Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.

As to why the tweet caught fire, Fiorina didn’t skip a beat: “’Cause it was a slow news day, that’s why.”