The Pointless Nikki Haley Campaign
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nikki Haley, one of the many Republicans who swore to stop Donald Trump in 2016 and then became a loyal supporter, is now running against Trump. Her campaign is already a collection of meaningless platitudes and she is unlikely to win, but she is the essential example of why the current GOP cannot be trusted with power.
Why Did She Bother?
I will admit, as a charter Never Trumper, that I was also an early adopter of “Never Haley.” This is because I attach never to any candidate in 2024 who feinted at opposing Trump and then bent the knee to him later. But even in a party of cowards and hucksters, few people can rival Haley when it comes to platinum-tier opportunism.
Back in 2016, the then–South Carolina governor made a number of excellent points about why Donald Trump was unfit for public office. “I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK,” she said at a Marco Rubio rally seven years ago this month. (Yes, a Marco Rubio rally. Such things once existed.) “That is not a part of our party. That is not who we are.”
But it’s who Nikki Haley was, at least for a while. We might attribute some of her later cringe-inducing sycophancy for Trump to her position in his White House, but even after the January 6 insurrection, as the former Republican operative Stuart Stevens noted recently, “Haley was openly embracing her inner MAGA.” In late 2021, months after the Capitol attack, she said of Trump that “we need him in the Republican Party” and “I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump.” She’ll never snatch the green jacket from the Master’s Open in Sucking Up from Lindsey Graham, but she’s certainly putting in the effort.
The video announcing Haley’s candidacy was as vapid and weightless a product as any in recent political memory. Of course, it checked all the right boxes: Family, devotion to public service, all the usual generic gloss, and all of it presented as if the past seven years had never happened. As an Indian American woman in a party whose standard-bearer is an endless stream of misogynistic and racist nuttery, her chances seem remote. (Right now, Haley is polling somewhere between Mike Pence and a dust bunny; she’s tied at 3 percent with a hypothetical Rubio candidacy.) So why is she running at all?
One possibility is that she’s getting out in front and taking some heat from Trump as a way of providing top cover to other candidates who will then reward her with the vice-president spot. It’s also possible that she thinks she can win. But it seems that Haley is just another Republican politician who is willing to make deals with the MAGA base if doing so is the price of remaining in public life. Haley, like Graham, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Ohio Senator J. D. Vance , and so many others, sees principles as disposable, making her yet another example of why the GOP cannot be trusted with power. Haley knows how to say the right things about how the violence of January 6 was bad, but to this day she refuses to hold Trump accountable , and so there is no way to know if she or any other candidate will withstand the antidemocratic demands of Republican primary voters. For Republicans in elected office, the GOP base is now so hostile to our democratic institutions that loyalty to the Constitution has become an unaffordable political luxury.
Another warning sign is that Haley and others have no apparent interest in changing any of these views among the GOP electorate. For all her talk about “ a new generation ,” Haley knows that the Republican base doesn’t want to move on. Those voters, to judge from the polls, want Trump, unless he can’t win; in that case, they’d like a Trump who can win, a candidate who reeks of Trump’s cheap political cologne but who will wisely wear somewhat less of it while campaigning in the crowded spaces of a general election.
Some of the critics who come at the Never Trumpers from the right will likely argue that rejecting someone such as Haley means, in effect, that Never Trump means Always Democrats , based on the magical thinking that Haley and other Republicans, if only given the chance, can restore some sanity to the party. After all, Haley’s a relatively centrist Republican, the kind who was at home in the old GOP of candidates such as the two George Bushes, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. She isn’t going to lose all her political moorings just because the base fell in love with Trump for a while, is she?
Allow me to remind you that Elise Stefanik exists. She was once the kind of Republican that Haley claims to be, but led by her ambition and fueled by her liquid-nitrogen cynicism, she has since fused herself to Trump. (And it’s paying off for her: At 38 years old, she’s the House GOP conference chair.) To win in 2024, Haley and every other Republican candidate are going to turn into some version of Trump, or Stefanik, or Vance, and this makes every one of them untrustworthy around the levers of national power.
To note this is not to be a permanent friend or foe of any one party. Rather, it is a recognition of political reality. As a former Republican, I’d welcome the spirited primary between, say, former Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, and former Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts. But because I currently live on this planet, I recognize that the GOP race is going to be a Trumpier-than-thou contest among imitators of Trump’s hideous shtick, all of them pretenders to Trump’s gilt-and-glitz throne.
Donald Trump is still the leader of the GOP and its choice (so far) for president in 2024, and Haley, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others, is courting Trump’s base. This means appeasing people who refuse to hold Trump responsible for trying to overthrow our government. As I wrote when Trump ran for reelection in 2020, and as I will continue to insist so long as the GOP resists reckoning with his legacy, no person or party should ever get a second chance to betray the Constitution.
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Ah Nikki, 7 or so years ago I was a big fan but in that time you have sold yourself out to crass political expediency chanting trite worn out maxims. You disappoint, and that is an extreme rarity for me when it comes to women.
Ah Hal....you'd love her if she were a progressive on the order of AOC. She certainly has better credentials and credibility than the current VP.
The daughter of immigrants and a woman of color, and she's already taking it to Trump!
The next year and a half should be interesting.
How so, Donald already took a swipe at her and his minions will swallow every, and they will be many, insult he throws at her?
The Libertarian website Reason Magazine is already calling her a RINO.
If I live long enough, I doubt it, I'll judge AOC when she is in her mid 40s. As of now she is the age of Jesus and I try hard not to crucify those of that age. A MTG on the other hand ... pass me the nails.
MAGARINO! Let's face it, all MAGA'ites are RINO's, they haven't supported an actual Republic for nearly a decade or more as right wing white nationalist fascism has spread among them like a virus. Now the party is fractured with a centrist minority of the party that still holds the ideals of the party of Lincoln being held captive by the far right extremists.
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magarinos...I love it!
The so called small government party has turned in to the party of telling people how to live.
The party that wants religion to run government.
It almost sounds like large Marge's fan club....
Yes, your constant bullshit.
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Swallow? You deal in it....
They have. You see it in your state and I see it in mine. But the people in both our states won't be happy until we are all one religion and one race
Yer on a roll today my friend
No sale necessary, just watching the spineless MAGA'ites squirm and grovel at the feet of their festering orange pustule of pomposity.
It looks a lot like this...
"Doors will be shattered"
"Pence should be hung"
"They'll be beaten and battered"
"Through cracks we will run"
"We will storm down here to ready the crown"
"Down in the deep of MAGA-Town!"
I tried to get some exercise yesterday. I think it made me grumpy...
It was a damned joke. FFS the skin around here is getting Saran Wrap thin................
No imagination is required to see the sad state of the Republican party after the damage done to a once Grand Old Party by a fat greasy liar, sexual predator, adulterer and monumental narcissist who bewitched the poorly educated hordes of whiny white religious bigots who had been woefully lamenting the perceived loss of their unearned unwarranted privileged pedestal.
No wonder the once Grand Old Party of Lincoln is now known merely as the gop!
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Some of your fellow travelers have skin as thin as rice paper
Mega Dittos and it is more like Zig-Zags LOL
Even better! LOL!
Yes and WE (LOL) aren't the thin skinned ones.
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That's not an indication of those with thick skin.
Yes I do prove you wrong every day. Thanks for the confirmation.
Rubber/Glue? Seems to be a lot of that emanating from the left side of the site lately....................
Okay, you can have the last word now.
Lately?
Good point.............LOL
I think it's rather humorous that the rightwing religious whip cracker conservatives who, along with their descendants, have been supporting the status quo of discrimination, slavery and prejudice and have literally lashed and whipped the backs of the liberals, minorities, lgtbq community and progressives throughout our history for trying to stand up for their human and civil rights are now considering those they continue to whip metaphorically 'thin skinned'.
Many who fought for civil rights have died, many more still bear the physical wounds of that fight, and today they and their descendants continue to stand up for what's right in the face of their oppressor's, only to now be called "thin skinned" for having the temerity to complain and refuse to accept the second class citizenship with limited rights that white religious conservatives have essentially, begrudgingly offered.
"FFS the skin around here is getting Saran Wrap thin..."
I used to like her, too
Maybe she can get my trust back
It is really heartwarming to hear a progressive supporting a woman of color / S
MSM having a fit about her.
How dare she call herself "brown!"
Just following your shadow Vic.
Supporting someone just on the merits of gender and race is precisely what you continuedly accuse those on the left for doing, but when they don't you mock them?
hypocrites will be hypocrites
She is a sell out to the MAGAts.
Then she sounds like someone you can get behind.
she might have a shot if she can clear the GOP ideology obstacles in front of her.
And her parents were became citizens before she was born.
what about the other 4 major hurdles?
nimrata randhawa
go for it...
Racists are going to racist.
Unless I'm missing something those are the five.
You say they can be easily debunked.
So debunk that she is a woman, debunk that she is non-white, debunk that she has flip-flopped, and debunk that she was / is a Trumpster. I'm pretty confident you cant debunk a single one of those.
yeah, it might be difficult for you to prove she's not a woman, she isn't white, she hasn't flip-flopped on any issues, and she didn't have her lips firmly attached to trump's asshole the last 5 years. it is pretty smart for the GOP to have consolidated their token female and token person of color into one candidate that hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of being nominated by the sedition party though...
what am i missing? another one of your meandering thoughts ?
I took a quick look... but couldn't find her program.
Gosh...
Nikki does not have a program, she has a dance card.
Kind of like Joe Biden's campaign in 2020
No, it was the gop had no platform in 2020!
Remember?
In other words you discarded it out of hand and made no attempt to read it. Ah denialism, the new american exceptionalism.
The incumbent is running on his performance. It is the challenger who requires a vision/policy.
Biden was locked in a basement. The 80 million voted on neither.
Remember?
It is you who have discarded Haley's campaign.
Ah projection, the progressive's best friend.
No, that would be yours, plus deflection and denial.
They never have a platform except for hate, vengeance, hate, being whiny little bitches, oh and sticking it to the libs.
No we voted for Joe (not Hunter).
You might want to follow the practice of Shiva and uncover the mirrors in your house of pre-played cards.
As to Ms. Haley, she bounces around erratically like a football. She's all yours to helter-shelter run after.
WTH does your comment have to do with Vic's? There wasn't any reference to Hunter unless he was hiding in the basement with dear OLD dad................
Well y'all on the right have spent years 'welding' Hunter to Joe ... do I need to digress?
Who died and made you moderator [removed]
Can't Vic speak for himself?
Must you follow me around and hang on my every word? It's quite tiresome. I'm not interested.
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Haley's campaign will be the same it's always been. Nikki-Nikki-Nikki.
What do you think Hillary's was?
...and Hilary lost... twice.
Nothing to see here, just the usual, democrats attacking a woman of color simply because she left their plantation.
Tom Nichols is not a democrat, he is a republican who did not drink Trump's 'man' juice. [deleted]
Would that be along the lines of the way MAGAs attack reality ?
It’s a valid criticism, but is it an important one? I think that’s harder to say. Politicians are always shifting with the political winds. They’re extremists in the primaries, and centrists in the general election. They insist their opponents are unfit for office until one of them wins and wants the other on their staff or in their cabinet.
It’s especially disappointing when you thought you had a public official who can think for themselves, and then it turns out they will say whatever they need to to get ahead. Saying “they all do it” isn’t an excuse, but it is a pretty accurate observation.
I am unsure if this maxim will hold in 2024, it did not fare well in 2022.
You don't think Democrats weren't extremists in their primaries?
Hell many of them never even bothered to move to the center in the general elections- like Uncle Fester wannabe Fetterman.
The difference is in the way the media covered them; and the amount of support candidates received from their parties. Democrats ran commercials backing pro Trump candidates in the primaries (esp in Michigan); once Pro Trump candidates won then the Republican party abandoned them.
Midterms were about Democrat and government cover ups that would have damaged Democrats; and the media giving wall to wall coverage of Democrat smear jobs on Trump. Trump wasn't running- but you sure as hell couldn't tell.
We will see if 2024 is different now that Republicans control the House and it will be 24/7 Brandon investigation hell for Democrats. Brandon is guilty of everything Democrats accused Trump of and more. It will be a pleasure to see Mayorkas and Garland squirming under Republican questioning.
Fetterman is a left wing populist.
Tom Nichols, the "Republican" who only attacks Republicans, finds another Republican he could never support. It must be a day that ends in Y.
How trite!
Fitting for the ever so mundane "Tom Nichols despises a Republican" column.
How spot on!
Didn't you just call someone out yesterday about attacking the source? hmmm... I'm sure I'm mistaken, you'd never do that.
Of course, every new Republican that gets in only makes it easier for Trump. That is why he said the more the merrier yesterday.
Tim Scott is getting in soon
And why every left winger like Tom Nicols will do their best to attack any Republican who challenges Trump.
Seems to me that many R partisans do not seem to realize this. If they did, they would be criticizing Trump (as if he were a D) in an attempt to marginalize him out of the race. They do not seem to realize (or believe) that Trump needs only a plurality to secure the nomination and ensure the GoP does not win the presidency.
They are behaving as though they have no problem resorting to Trump as the nominee ⇒ "If Trump gets the nomination I will vote for him over any D". Bad thinking. What would be best for the GoP is: "Under no circumstances will we let Trump secure the nomination".
latest poll I heard said that 37% of R's said they plan on voting for him.
The way you say that sounds like the gop nominating Trump and Biden whooping him again would be a bad thing...
It would be a bad thing (for me). I prefer having a real choice when voting for PotUS.
And I do NOT want to see Biden in a second term.
Some of us have been asking for seven years when the Republican Party was going to grow the balls to tell Trump to go to hell.
The answer is "never".
The rest of us have to save the country , the GOP sure as hell never will.
Are you suggesting that these are the results of Biden decisions? Basically this is a snapshot of the wave of reality compared to other waves. Good things and bad things happen in the economy. Political parties routinely compare (with cherry-picking) the current situation to other situations in time to make it look as though they are somehow in control of the economy. Surely you would not give Trump the divine-like credit for the economic rise during his first three years. Same basic idea applies to Biden (and every other D).
To wit, these are accomplishments that most any individual who happened to be the sitting PotUS would likely be able to claim. (If you wish, consider only D individuals.)
Bottom line, Biden is waaaay too old and past his prime. I want to see a PotUS who is 45-65 (roughly). I have other criteria, but Biden's age is the overriding factor right now. Next factor is his choice for V.P. It is very scary to think of Biden in a second term with Harris as the next PotUS should Biden die in office.
Clearly.
Brandon created all of the problems; and then tries to take credit when they are only partially solved- no thanks to him.
It is called the pandemic morons.
Let us know when the Brandon administration stops lying about the number of jobs created; and employment returns to pre pandemic levels.
This is what happens when there are 28 million fewer people working. Low unemployment should mean low job openings- especially with the record setting number of illegals flooding the country since Brandon took office. That is not the case.
Only Democrats would consider this a good thing.
Does Brandon want to take credit for the Pandemic? That is the only reason this occurred. Brandon didn't create any new manufacturing jobs.
The Pandemic. The Pandemic. The Pandemic! The only thing concerning the Pandemic recovery that Brandon can take credit for is more people have died from Covid 19 during his watch than under Trump. That is with the 3 vaccines and cures readily available during his entire time in office. According to Brandon he should be resigning any day now over this; as per his debate with Trump.
Brandon setting records everywhere- all of them bad.
Thanks again to the Pandemic and all of the money dolled out by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress finally sunsetting. Also, Brandon can thank his two staunch Democrats in the Senate from preventing much larger bills from passing that would have ballooned his deficits.
Brandon has taken lying to a whole new level.
Gas prices are still nearly double those from when he took office.
Brandon has released more oil from the strategic oil reserve than all past presidents combined to keep prices lower than what they should be thanks to his policies.
What is going to happen to gas prices when Brandon is finally forced to replace every last damn barrel of oil he has taken?
Brandon taking credit when he caused the problem- and has done jack shit of nothing to fix it. The Fed raising interest rates every quarter has brought down inflation. Democrats bloated inflation is keeping it artificially high.
Democrats taking credit when they created the problems to begin with. Typical.
A pile of disingenuous nonsense. Propaganda, nothing more.
Keep dropping it and I’ll keep calling it out for what it is.
Take it to the bank. The more desperate they get, the more bullshit we will have to tolerate here
Biden parrots the lies and half truths his handlers give him.
This list is one of those.
that's rich
You will note, they refuted not one thing...
All the republicans have their trump knee pads.
Wow, the more bullshit you will have to tolerate?
Who is the we you are referring to?
Again,
It's freaking hilarious!
JFC your typical PD&D
It's stupid and tiresome that you always refer to President Biden as Brandon. It's only you and one other poster who does that. WE pay no attention to anything you (and he) say and disregard all your CONSTANT ranting, whining, and projection, deflection and denial (and his too).
And in your own words, who is this we you refer to......................
I told my wife last night I'd jump parties if it comes down to Trump and Biden. It might be time to elevate a 3rd party.
I'm with you
It is way past time to have a viable third party. Our political system is dysfunctional largely because we have dumb and dumber to choose from. When dumb fails us we elect dumber, when dumber fails us we shift back to dumb. It is pathetic.
The operant phrase there is viable third party.
I’m all for it if it is truly viable. Last time that “happened” I voted for the guy, he got the most votes in recent history for a third party and all it did was elect the last guy I wanted.
”Viable” is key and I have serious doubts that will ever happen in my lifetime.
This is why we are defeated before we even begin.
I do not expect to see a viable third party in my lifetime either.
Agreed. I have no problem voting for a third party if the primary candidates are unworthy, but I know that my chosen candidate will not win.
I'm looking closely at the Forward Party, but other than their initial announcement I haven't seen anything from them.
That would be we as a collective membership of NT. Unlike your "we" that encompasses, it seems, some sub group you feel you are a part of.
What do you call 7.3.8? If there was actually an independent fact checker most of those would be rated needs context if not outright lies. It has been pointed out numerous times in numerous publications but you must really like the meme because it seems you continue to post it even though it is bullshit.
No, as in 100% true but the gop hates it!
All true, but the gop will not credit Biden.
Ah, more bullshit, more deflection, more overused memes, more ignoring a direct question asked.
No surprise.
That is untrue. The facts are the facts.
Because you don't like it changes not...
The facts are the facts.
I agree. Maybe you should post some facts instead of spewing misinformation. And maybe you could answer the question asked in 7.3.31 instead of having to admit your previous post about no one refuting was also bullshit.
So your proof is a post from the Whitehouse?
Source is usually required...........just like that other bullshit meme you post...................
I hear it on the news every morning. But the news also says that people don't trust the gov't and are expecting another repression
You mean recession? I hear that too but refuse to participate LOL
Link to your source? Or is this fiction?
Thank-you. I was looking for the word and then had a senior moment
Repression...recession....
Now you are spelling like me. Haha
Do you know what they call record low unemployment, two consecutive quarters of economic growth, growing wages and booming businesses making record profits?
"Not a recession"...
The supply chain issues that resulted from Covid and Putin's War in Ukraine are mostly resolved and the anti infationary measure taken by Congress and the FED are working. Yes, the greedy hedge funds (short sellers) are all in on recession bets. They want us all to panic sell thus driving stocks down making them incredibly richer. Then they can use all of that money to buy our assets cheap. It is not going the way they planned but that hasn't stopped them from trying...
Bullshit.
Facts can be proven. Opinions are only something folks think or feel.
So prove your meme or it remains bullshit.
The gop proves me true every day now...
And, I don't have to do one damn thing!
Your comments “prove” little here each day.
You do share your “opinion” and feelings often thought.
Much to the deelight of the liberal/progressive hive I’m sure .....
The gop proves me true every day now...
Prove it
That one is easy. Created 11 million jobs?
Total, unadulterated bullcaca.
Most of that 11 million were jobs that already existed at one time but feel free to show proof that they weren’t. So again, until you do, all you have is feelings and opinions.
No facts.
They both work these days ....
Just gotta have the last word.
Continue
When do you ever answer a direct question asked?
Never.
No surprise.
Yep. Learned from his old boss who inherited a recession with a shit load of lost jobs and when they came back, claimed he created them.
In Mr. Biden's case, he was helped by shutdowns due to Covid and then they come back and he "created". Similar to the bullshit about small business applications. Dollar to a doughnut a large percentage of those were businesses who had to close their doors during the pandemic and are now trying to get back on their feet.
Yep, and our friends on the left spin it all like a Whirling Dervish.
When do you ever answer a direct question asked?
Almost always but you obviously rarely read or retain them.
No surprise.
Ann Coulter did her usual with Haley by telling her to back to her own country and a few other racist comments along with why don't they eat cows in India with all the starving people there?
I guess that moosh noosh Coulter doesn't realize that South Carolina is a state in the US.
Then she took off on American Indians, she must have gotten mixed up with American Indians and Indian Americans.
Perhaps Haley or someone with a backbone could ask Coulter about her heritage and what shithole country (s) her ancestor came from which is Germany, England, and Ireland one could have a field day with that.
Ann hunts roadkill.
Uh..Ann is as dumb as a box of rocks. Haley couldn't run for POTUS if she had born in India. I do believe Ms. Haley's country is the USA.
Now MTG, the resident dumbass has joined in against Haley. ''Bush in Heels'' and a number of other lies, but what can you expect from her?
I love it when the republicans eat their own
maybe they'll get their AR's out next year...
On a program I just watched, a Republican commentator said she was running to be VP. IMO she would be a smart choice by the nominated candidate for that.
She will end up being either president or VP.
New Republican candidate for POTUS. Danger, danger worker drones. Must attack, must attack ..... buzz, buzz, buzz buzz.
Thou takest my name in vain.
Lol ..... only if you buzz, Buzz.
My mother nicknamed me Buzzy when I was 4 years old - I was running around with my arms stretched out making buzzing sounds during WW2 to imitate a Spitfire. It stuck, and everyone called me Buzzy or Buzz from then on.
She is just following orders to become the next "tea party" distraction so people will look at her rather than the vast amount of failures of the Republican party, their policies and their own destruction by their own hands. If people follow the shiny object they aren't looking at all the corruption and all the harmful policies or time wasting while Republicans trip down the path of ideology over actual solutions.
[✘]
Their leader was the model for another Chinese spy balloon. It isn't working out. Too many similarities to the real thing evidently......................
Brilliant