What’s going on with Nikki Haley at this point?
I suppose Haley is staying in because she wants to position herself as first in line after Trump, if somehow the latter is made unable to run.
Her Koch financing is disappearing, though.
While we’re at it, I’ll mention that Ronna McDaniel is finally resigning as chair of the RNC. It’s official; she announced it herself.
She was running so many anti-Trump ads on X in the last few weeks she’s likely unacceptable to the second Trump administration. Seems to me her funding came from never-Trump sources.
If Trump didn’t want McDaniel, he shouldn’t have had his chief of staff in California whipping votes for her. Time and funding lost.
There’s some speculation that she might run as a third party spoiler. I have no notion of which side she’d actually take away votes from though. How many voters who would’ve otherwise voted for Trump would instead vote for Haley if she was available as a third party candidate? Seems a strange notion, but people are strange.
Kate:
Agreed about Trump and McDaniel.
She should go run in her home country of India.
Trump was trying to thread the needle with McDaniel, IMO.
She had access to the GOPe money. If the party is completely controlled by an America First agenda, that money is going to dry up.
Is it a coincidence I’m receiving 50 emails a day from Republicans looking for support?
This is a real concern. There was been a tremendous transfer of wealth from traditional old-money (call it the GOPe) to globalist wall st and technocratic (which are largely leftis/post-America).
Trump’s money is the only nativist capital sector left (real estate), which is why he could campaign against their interests, with the rare exception of nationalist entrepreneurs.
Money may not buy elections– (well Zuck bucks proved it can) but at the least influences them. Trump proved you could win without overwhelming money advantage– but the left has refined their tactics and neutered some of his advantage. Can Conservatives win with a substantial money deficit?
Depoet Nikki, Haley was born in the USA. India is not her home country.
she really is a case study, in how not to win over people, flub the question on racism in new hampshire, diss the people of iowa, then insult the people in your home state, thats just three foot falls she has made,
then she blythely accepted the premise of the lawfare, which ended pence and
christies campaign,
I think Haley is trying to remain viable for a potential brokered convention, like the Never Trumpers tried back in ’16, or hoping that Trump somehow self destructs between now and June.
“Sore loser laws” can be a factor. Some haved argue that they aren’t constitutional when it comes federal elections, and only a handful of states apply them to presidential elections. Still, there can be some meddlesome litigation when primary losers try to run as independent or third party candidates in the general election.
I think Haley realizes that staying in the news will make it more likely for her to get a job in the media or the non-profit sector after the convention — she’s a better bet to get such a job than Chris Christie. Nikki Haley may also see herself as the post-Trump face of the party, but that’s unrealistic — she’s in the same bin as Jeb Bush at this point.
Why do candidates drop out of the primaries? Is it because of the embarassment, or because their funding dries up? Are they concerned about the party and its chances in November, or do they get bought off with jobs and promises the way that so many of Biden’s opponents did last time?
I’m going to vote in the upcoming FL primary and vote for DeSantis mainly to register my preference for a backup. Certainly not Haley for me. I still have large doubts about Trump winning. I just see so much TDS out there; at least as much as 2020 if not more…I know anecdotal.
Niki is weak tea compared to DeSantis and if Trump is unavailable for whatever reason Niki will find that her future is dim indeed.
I was hoping No Labels would choose Tulsi Gabbard, but I don’t know a lot about No Labels. I would also like to see Haley run as an additional challenger on a different party’s ticket and I hope RFK, Jr. stays on the ballot.
I long for an end to two party dominance in U.S. politics and hope real traction can be made this year. I’m doubtful, but I haven’t completely given up hope.
I think she will run third party because she will be funded by Democrats and never trumpers to act as a spoiler.
its two heads are manchin and hogan, I call him happy hogan, there are other figures, but if you cannot understand the consequences of voting for the candidate who wants to change this disaster area, I can’t help you, if you are acting irrationally toward a certain candidate, we trust you to be rational for another,
Never, ever underestimate the ego factor in a politician. Nikki has been flattered and puffed for so many years (“Yay first lady governor! How stunning! How brave! You go, girlboss!”) she undoubtedly believes she has something special to offer. Of course, she is merely playing out in real time the role of Norma Desmond in the Hollywood epic, “Sunset Boulevard.” I can’t wait for the scene where she makes that glorious, languid, floating, flowing descent on the staircase with that deranged look in her eyes. She may never come to realize that, although she is ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille is not going to put her in the movies ever again.
Dan Bongino calls him Harry Logan (a fraud) from his personal political experience in Maryland.
well bongino is entitled, but happy hogan, is another one of those taranto questions, he pushed on those lockdowns as strongly as any dem governor
and well he got a lollypop from Time Magazine, now he’s better than Wesley Moore, thats not an even an attempt at a question
I’ve already decided that if Republicans put up Haley, I will be writing in Vivek or DeSantis. She’s not really an alternative unless the goal is to re-elect Biden.
While we’re all guessing about what Nikki’s up to, I might as well throw my guess in the ring.
She keeps hitting two points.
1. Chaos follows Trump because the establishment is out to get him, and he fights back. She claims this chaos is bad for the country, and intimates that it’s Trump’s fault.
2. She claims that 70% of the voters don’t want to see a rematch of Biden and Trump. She claims she’s the favorite of those 70% and would beat Joe Biden.
As to point one. If she was the frontrunner and the Democrats took aim at her (which they would) wouldn’t that create chaos too? She wouldn’t fight back.? Of course she would fight back, but she doesn’t have the resources that Trump has. Her claim that the chaos surrounding Trump is Trump’s fault just doesn’t hold water. The chaos has been created and is being created by the Democrats and their lackey MSM.
As to point two. She claims she is the better candidate to beat Joe Biden but hasn’t won a primary. Her figure of 70% seems way too high. Although I’m sure there’s a poll that she can cite with that figure. If she’s the best candidate, she should win some primaries. Otherwise, she’s making claims that just don’t add up.
However, my guess is that she holds on because she thinks (and fervently hopes) that Trump’s legal issues could cripple/ruin his candidacy before the RNC convention. If so, she would be the one still standing, ready to move into the candidacy. In other words, a lot of things have to go her way for it to work out.
I’ll say this for her – she’s as tenacious as a bulldog with a bone. But I don’t think her dreams are going to come true.
I agree that “Haley is staying in because she wants to position herself as first in line after Trump”
I find it hard to see as credible the idea that the Uni-Party can afford to allow Trump to once again to occupy the oval office.
What can’t be allowed to happen, won’t be allowed to happen.
I say this as a Haley supporter who just filed out his mail in ballot with a pretty pointless vote:
She’s looking for attention and a lucrative post election gig at this point. She’s burned her bridges with the GOP base (even those who are not die-hard for Trump). So, she’s trying to flatter lefty and NeverTrump heavy hitters in hope of a book deal, cable news commentator contract, large speaking fees, or some heavily paid ‘consultant’ sincecure.
She’s not Liz Cheney.she won’t go that far, but at this point it’s primarily about feathering her own nest.
Depressing. But reality.
she has become john kasich, in high heels, the fact that she patently ignores the lawfare in the room, and legitimizes it, then she demagogues against Tiktok, but enabled it’s use, her previous employer, Boeing depends on the largesse China can provide,
Out of work politician grifting as long as the money keeps coming followed by looking around for another grift. Anything but a real accountable private sector job that requires actual work.
J.J. on February 26, 2024 at 7:22 pm said:
Her claim that the chaos surrounding Trump is Trump’s fault just doesn’t hold water. The chaos has been created and is being created by the Democrats and their lackey MSM.
Democrats hate Trump simply because Trump is a threat to their power. If you recall, during the 2016 primary they were boosting him, to harm the Republicans.
Trump himself is a moderate Republican and more pragmatist than ideological. They have tailored their attacks on him to focus on his speech and mannerisms they can exploit, as well as his communications, either taking them too literal, too serious, or altering them via context or outright lies, and then feeding that to their base via the media.
If Nikki was the GOP candidate somehow, Democrats would have to recalibrate their attacks for her. Of course, she has no chance either in the primary or the general. I think most Trump supporters would write in a candidate in that case.
I think Haley is positioning herself for 2028.
She’s predicting that Trump cannot win. Suppose for a second that she is correct (and I think there’s a good chance there is). The GOP will have lost four of the past five presidential elections, with the same nominee for a majority of those elections. It will have nominated the 78-year-old loser of the last election to run against a Democrat whose chief liability (among many) is age. Trump will have lost twice to Joe Biden, for pity’s sake.
I think Haley is betting that the populist/MAGA wing of the party is going to bear the brunt of the blame for Trump’s losses and that a majority of the party is going to want to go in a different direction. I think Haley is betting that the person who correctly (at least in this hypothetical) predicted the disaster of a third Trump nomination will be a potential choice to lead the party back to power.
I don’t see any scenario in which Haley is the nominee this year or any scenario where she has a political future if Trump wins.
I haven’t even read all the comments here, but I’ll go ahead and disagree with anyone who says Haley will, in the end, sabotage Trump. She is almost certainly in her 14th minute of fame. In her 15th she will reluctantly support. Hell, I’m reluctant myself. But I’ll paraphrase Churchill – if you didn’t support Trump in 2016 you have no heart. If you don’t support him in 2024, you have no head.
Concerned Conservative is wishcasting, again.
I’m in the same boat as Rufus. I’m coming to see why George Washington warned against parties. The two-party system has produced some very undemocratic unintended consequences. I was talking to two other people recently about whether there should be age limits for running for office, in the context of the report on Biden. I said the people should be able to judge for themselves whether a candidate is fit for office. But I acknowledge that a lot of people aren’t really doing that, because to them it’s all about party. They just want their team to win so they aren’t doing their job as voters.
She’ll never win either a national election and obviously not even a primary. The reason is there is not a position she would not sell out at with even a little bit of pressure.
I think there should be age limits, term limits, career limits and nepotism limits on every position in government elected, appointed or hired at every level of government federal, state and local. No more senators for life and no more county clerks for life either. Spouses and children of presidents and senators specifically barred from all government for life.
John Quincy Adams.
Gingers especially should be banned (sarc).
In ’28 there wont be a country left that we will recognize
Rufus – Unfortunately, I think our Constitution is not really compatible with more than 2 parties. You’re going to end up with the huge and growing power of the presidency in the hands of a candidate who wins 40% or less of the total vote.
I still think that step 1 is for Congress to claw back as much power as possible from the President and restore the norm that the President enforces the law rather than making it. Without that, it’s hard to see how more than two parties would work.
There is one party that is erasing its opponents through lawfare through violence through cancelling their finances and one thag pretends this isnt happening
Whatever respect I had for Haley ( I agree with her foreign policy positions) went out the window after she decided to continue her campaign despite her having a 0.0000% chance of prevailing.
As for McDaniel quitting; not sure this will amount to a hill of beans. The dumbpublicans are incredibly inept when it comes to politics.
I guess her replacement can’t be any worse.
I am sick of Right-thinking people propping up Gabbard or JFK Jr. as viable options.
Those two are Democrats, with the negatives that implies, even if they aren’t total party-line stooges.
GOP has enough problems with RINOs, without letting Democrat donkeys’ noses inside the tent! A pox on this phony, one-way “bipartisanship”!
I think the Two Party System is the worst possible system for the USA, except for all the other ones. May God help us if Gabbard or JFK Jr. worm their way into office!
Halley is running because there’s lots of money in it for her. Sometimes its so simple.
I agree that Haley is staying in hopes that Democrats will be successful in preventing Trump from running, even if it takes assassination to do it.
I think our Constitution is not really compatible with more than 2 parties.
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You’re not doing much thinking. Strict two party systems are unusual in this world without regard to the constitutional architecture. The only sort of place they’re common is insular countries with five and six digit populations,
Haley leaves me cold and cringing. I liked her at the UN and have the impression she did a good job defending MAGA values and our country’s interests. Her rhetoric now is cringe worthy and she comes across as a war mongering military industrial complex supporter. Although it might take Trump more than one day to resolve the Ukraine situation, I believe he has a much higher probability of facilitating a mostly peaceful resolution than Hailey or anyone else running this year.
I like Haley but am no longer listening to her. Vast majority of Trump fans ain’t gonna write in nobody—the 75-63=12 million more votes Trump got 2020 will mostly stay home, not bother, if Trump is not available to vote for. This will likely be a big GOP problem from 2028 on.
But if Trump falls, somehow, including death or accident, Nikki will will be there, ready to be Rep candidate and almost certainly lose to the Dem, who I still doubt will be Biden. If it’s really Haley vs Biden, she could win since the elites don’t hate her so much, yet.
The big CA primary is March 5, Nikki might get a big number of votes. I think there are more Reps in CA than any other state, it’s still that full of people. As long as she’s in, she gets talked about, like here! She is becoming the leader of the never-Trumpers, hoping to be in 2028 the leader of the post-Trumpers, as well. If Trump loses to a Dem, she’ll be pushing to be a Rep leader and an expected 2028 candidate. (DeSantis Haley?)
If Trump wins, she’ll become the media go-to Republican to criticize him, more than Romney.
Being anti-Trump doesn’t really make you a RINO, nor is there any single issue that does so, including being pro-abortion, tho it means most pro-life folk won’t support you in any primary.
When I was in the US, as a Libertarian, I thought that the more proportional systems like in most EU countries was better. They’re not, see Italy and Israel and the reality of unstable coalition governments, which actually do give small parties far more law making power, as also in my new country, Slovakia.
Politics is about compromise, trade offs, and the resulting package—with the BIG egos involved. Pushing the factions into a de facto 2 party system means the coalitions are far more stable, despite more voters more dissatisfied with some issue their coalition supports. Purity police are mostly for the small, legal, but mostly idea oriented rather than election oriented parties, like Green and Libertarian.
For Jew hating Dems, they don’t want the Dems to support Israel. For aggressor hating Reps, like me, we want to support Ukraine as much as we can to punish Russia, even a high body count 2+ year shooting war. We don’t want Trump to let Russia win. (Unlimited guns & ammo, no cash, no men, to Ukr is my in between position.)
Well I still choose the Trump package—and it would be better if more people were able to be honest about every vote being for the package, or even against the other package. Of policies mostly, tho inevitably about the person.
I do think Haley would do better criticizing Biden & Dems more than Trump, but maybe she does and her 90%+- anti-Dem stuff is never in story, and the Dem media reports only her anti-Trump stuff, to demonize Trump, while the Rep media reports only her anti-Trump stuff to demonize her, since they’re pro-Trump. And all laugh at any of her dumb stuff like civil war not being about slavery.
Has anybody heard a full speech by her in the last month, rather than just ads?