Nikki Nullified

South Carolina Republicans have fallen out of love with their former governor, Nikki Haley.

She lost the state's Republican primary to Donald Trump by twenty percentage points.  She didn't lose by as much as the polls had predicted, and some pundits will find some way to spin it as being a revealing look at Trump's disadvantages and weaknesses in a general-election matchup with Joe Biden, but it's still a crushing loss.  The one-on-one knock-out, drag-down fight that people had been hoping for between Trump and an anti-Trump has finally happened, but it's Haley who is getting knocked out and dragged down.

This is a loss that Haley richly deserves.  Some pundits have actually applauded her for finding her voice and lashing out at Trump at long last, but the truth of the matter is that she's merely changing her message to appeal to the anti-Trump faction in the GOP after treating Trump with kid gloves didn't work out.  But then bashing Trump for his numerous deficiencies was something Chris Christie had done in his 2024 presidential campaign since day one, and he didn't get any credit for finding his voice. What he got was an early exit from the campaign when he tried to gain traction but ended up in traction.  Haley only bashes Trump with the knowledge that she has nothing left to lose, so why not go full tilt boogie in being the anti-Trump when no one gives a twit?

But I'll be happy to see her continue her campaign long enough to drive Trump crazy. 😉 

Haley vows to stay in the presidential campaign for as long as she has the money.  She could theoretically stay until the bitter end.  But Chris Christie knows better than to plan to vote for Haley in the last-in-the-nation New Jersey presidential primary in June, because Trump will have long before won all the delegates needed for the Republican presidential nomination.  

Ron Is On

I took a break from not watching the news last night to watch the returns from Iowa.  I'd hoped to write Ron DeSantis's political obituary, at least in national politics, at the conclusion of the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, but he actually eked out a second-place showing in the Hawkeye State, edging out Nikki Haley by just a couple of percentage points.

Haley was considered the favorite to give Trump a big scare in New Hampshire, but her calculations have possibly been scrambled as a result of DeSantis' better-than-expected run in Iowa.  As all this has happened, Chris Christie has withdrawn as a candidate, having seen that he has no chance of winning and wanting to avoid splitting the vote against Trump after his road-to-Damascus conversion from Trump acolyte to Trump adversary (COVID will do that to you), but not only has Haley been diminished at DeSantis's expense - Trump won an outright majority of caucus-goers' votes, the first presidential candidate to do that in Iowa in either party since, when?  Ever?

Democrats hoping for a bruising battle among Republicans that could affect Trump's chances in November might still get their wish.  Haley, who finished only a couple of points behind the Florida governor, could still make this difficult for the Donald in New Hampshire, where independents can vote in the primary, or DeSantis' new-found momentum could result in the knock-down brawl between Don and Ron that once seemed likely only a year ago.  But the Biden campaign had best not count on too much drama in the early state GOP presidential nomination contests, because, as Trump's success last night proved, it's ultimately not going to matter much.    

Mike Drop

Mike Pence withdrew as a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, thus ending an accidental political career.  A politician so inept that he lost his first two House bids to an incumbent Democrat, Pence was elected only when the Republican incumbent representing his Indiana district in the House chose not to seek re-election.  Pence's career seemed moribund when he chose to run for a second term as governor of Indiana in 2016 and was seem as likely to lose when Trump selected him as vice presidential his running mate. 

That out of the way, I don't really want to harp on Pence any more because he's gotten enough of a raw deal already.  Yeah, sure, he put his values in a blind trust to support Trump, who was as amoral and blasphemous as Pence was not, but Pence did redeem himself when he refused to try to overturn the 2020 election once it became apparent to him that there was no legal way he could refuse the electoral votes of key states.  Yes, he looked for ways to do it legally, and he even consulted Dan Quayle on the issue, but he did the right thing after he exhausted all of the alternatives.  According to the late Winston Churchill, he's a typical American.

How, you ask, could I be so sympathetic to a right-wing, misogynistic, non-alcoholic-beer-drinking prude like Pence?  Two reasons.  First, Martin O'Malley got subjected to the same ridicule for his presidential run when he ended it in February 2016, and I'm still ticked off about that.  Second, even Martin O'Malley, unpopular as he was with the Democratic base, never had to worry about being hung by his detractors, which is how Pence ended his vice presidential tenure. 

Oh yeah, this isn't going to affect the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.  Even though Pence ostensibly bowed out to encourage other low-performing candidates to do the same and coalesce around one anti-Trump candidate, his support was too miniscule to help any other candidates or change the dynamics of the campaign.  But even if all but one of the candidates not named Donald by their mothers withdraw from the campaign tomorrow and got behind the last person standing in a united front against Trump, it's too late for that.  Trump has a majority of Republican voters in the primary and caucus polls - 59 percent, according to one survey - so even if the anti-Trump Republicans get behind one candidate, they've likely already lost.

Pence's withdrawal from the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, like Will Hurd's before, has further normalized what was once considered an anomaly back in 1987, when Gary Hart and Joe Biden quit their presidential campaigns - the act of presidential candidates ending their campaigns before the start of the primary/caucus voting.  And Hart and Biden quit that early because of scandal.  Mike Pence's only scandals were demonstrating fealty to Trump - and, in the eyes of MAGA Republicans, breaking that fealty when the price of fealty proved to be too high.

Southbound Suarez

All of these candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, candidates who have no chance of  winning the nomination if they weren't named Donald by their mothers and Trump by their fathers . . . and now there's another one!

This time it's Miami mayor Francis Suarez, who is running on a platform of uniting the country and providing new leadership.

Hmm, as I seem to recall, a Democratic former big-city mayor ran for President on the same platform in 2016, and we all know how that turned out!

At least Martin O'Malley, as mayor of Baltimore, had actual responsibilities.  As mayor of Miami, Suarez has no responsibilities.  His job is pretty much ceremonial, no more powerful than that of the King of England.   I've seen mayors of suburban towns in New Jersey with more authority than Suarez.  As I understand it, he's mostly a cheerleader for his city to get more economic investment.

We need a President, not a booster.

Why is Suarez running?  I can only assume that a coconut must have fallen on his head.

Maybe it'll take another one to knock some sense into him.   

Burgum Shmergum

Doug Burgum is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.  He's the governor of North Dakota.

These jokes write themselves, folks!

Burgum made something of a splash when he announced his candidacy last week, mainly because no North Dakotan has ever run for President before - so there was the, um, historic angle.  Burgum thinks he has a chance just because he founded a computer software company out of Fargo (right, I understand that Fargo is the Silicon Valley of the Great Plains) and became a billionaire when he sold it to Microsoft.  So, that's likely why he thinks he can govern this country despite governing fewer people than the borough president of Staten Island does.  So what if he's the richest billionaire in North Dakota - he's the only billionaire in North Dakota!

Burgum's platform is the typical Republican plate-boiler biz - low taxes, pro-life, and small government - well, he has the small-government thing down.  How?  Perhaps you weren't paying attention - he's the governor of North Dakota.

I predict that Nia-Malika Henderson will laugh at her own mention of his name - and not because it sounds like a character from "Li'l Abner." I also predict that Molly Ball will pretend to forget his name.  Yes, I predict that Doug Burgum will be the Martin O'Malley of 2024.  But at least Maryland is a more substantial state, with a real city with two major-league sports franchises and a world-class university.

As for laughing at the mention of Doug Burgum's name, I'm laughing at it right now.

As for what happened to Martin O'Malley in 2016 . . . I'm not laughing at that.

Chris and Chris

Current New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu will not run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will.  And the reasons why are the same - Donald J. Trump.  

Sununu (above) is afraid that, with nine Republicans already challenging Trump in a winner-take-all primary and caucus system, he would just be one more person splitting the anti-Trump vote into smaller pieces.  He thinks he can use his success as governor of New Hampshire and his traditional conservative political philosophy (lower taxes, small government, screw the poor) to steer other Republicans away from Trump and possibly have an effect on his state's first-in-the-nation (for the GOP, anyway) primary.  

Christie (above), on the other hand, is taking Trump head-on in an effort to damage his comeback hopes and also convince others that Trump is a fraud, as well as someone who uses people for his own gains and demands loyalty from others without bestowing loyalty in return.  Christie knows this firsthand; despite being a friend of Trump for years before Trump entered the White House, Trump's cavalier dismissals of his advise and counsel and his failure to show any empathy for Christie when he got COVID and almost died left the former New Jersey governor embittered and angry.  He also escaped Trump's mind-control cult, and he now preaches against Trumpism the way Leah Remini preaches against her former religion of Scientology.   

The truth is, I'm afraid, that Sununu and Christie are likely to be ineffective in stopping Trump.  And for the same reason - Republican primary and caucus voters are so enthralled with Trump and his extreme and extremely inconsistent positions that he somehow finds a way to keep them coming back for more.  Like a slutty pop diva with no apparent singing talent, Trump becomes more popular as he displays more shallowness and tastelessness. Whatever lofty ideals Sununu and Christie may believe in that give them faith that they can restore the Republican Party to what it used to be before Trump came along (which wasn't all that much better than it is now), it's really too late for any of that.

Darling Nikki

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley became the first Republican after Donald Trump to announce her candidacy for her party's 2024 presidential nomination.

She says it's time to bring a new generation of leadership to the White House.

New generation of leadership . . . new leadership . . . yeah, I've heard that line before.  It's been used most often by presidential candidates who go on to become hasbeens.

In fact, Haley is a new kind of leader.  The new Nikki Haley is running against Trump.  The old Nikki Haley said he wouldn't run for President in 2024 of Trump did.  The new Nikki Haley highlights her experience as governor of South Carolina. The old Nikki Haley served as the United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration, the most xenophobic presidential administration in American history.  The new Nikki Haley complains about "bullying" from the American left and promises to kick back in high heels.  The old Nikki Haley opposed Trump, a bully himself, in the 2016 presidential election by supporting Marco Rubio for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and later Ted Cruz.   The new Nikki Haley says that America is not a racist country.  The old Nikki Haley was born Nimrata Randhawa, going by her nickname and married surname because . . . who in America would vote for Nimrata Randhawa for President?

Oh, yeah, then there's this . . .

In other words, Nikki Haley comes across as the same old type of Republican.