Some people don’t like her, but I have no intense feelings of animosity toward former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. She has the resume, experience to be president and skills on the stump, but the base has to agree. Right now, they don’t want her. Maybe ten years ago, she and Mike Pence would’ve had a better shot when the Tea Party movement was in its heyday. That’s been replaced by the neo-populist wave that Trump rode to victory in 2016
Ms. Haley comes off as a DC product who, like many when elected, could become infected with Potomac Syndrome, whose symptoms can present in two forms: complete amnesia of promises made on the campaign trail or being outright co-opted by special interests. Usually, it’s a combination of the two, if we’re honest. It’s the sludge that lines the bottom of the DC swamp.
So, when the new polling showed her handily beating Joe Biden, the clamoring from some is that she must be the nominee next year because she’s our best bet. Put down the Hunter Biden crack pipe, please (via NY Post):
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is the only GOP presidential candidate who would beat President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 match-up, according to a new poll.
Haley, 51, had a six percentage-point lead over Biden, 80, in a CNN/SSRS poll released Thursday — with the president trailing Haley 49% to 43%.
She was the only Republican candidate to dispatch Biden above the poll’s 3.5-point margin of error.
Meanwhile, the other GOP candidates all polled neck-and-neck with Biden under the margin of error.
Former President Donald Trump, 77, drew 47% against Biden’s 46% and former Vice President Mike Pence, 64, bested him 46% to 44%.
These polls are like sports pundits, who are equally abysmal, doing their annual wins-losses analysis for every team as the NFL season begins. You need to play the games first. We’ve seen the first match with the GOP debate, and if there is one clear thing, it’s that the GOP base hasn’t and probably will not abandon Trump this cycle. You saw that when Haley threw this line into the melee: “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America — we can’t win a general.”
The audience was not warm to that remark, whether you agree with it or not. It is September 2023, and these general election matchups mean little, especially since Haley needs to win the primary first, which she won’t do. Trump is 30-plus points ahead of everyone, with a core of die-hard supporters who, along with other Republican voters, rightly feel that Biden is eminently beatable. And Donald Trump is the only candidate who can pull it off. The same cannot be said for Ms. Haley.
Move on, ma’am. It’s over.