This feels like the zillionth Republican presidential primary I've been through. Vanity precludes me from saying exactly how many since I reached voting age, but trust me, it's a lot. I honestly can't remember ever wanting to see a GOP primary candidate vanquished more than I want to see Nikki Haley go.
If it seems like I'm getting a lot of mileage out of complaining about Nikki Haley, it's because I am. Hey, we've got months and months of variations on the "Two Old Guys" election theme ahead of us, might as well take advantage of any other subject matter while we still have the chance.
I began writing this column last week and it got temporarily delayed by travel, then errand-running after two months away from home. The delay didn't worry me at all, I knew that Haley would be still cheerleading for herself after what we all knew was going to be the good old-fashioned electoral a**-whuppin' that Trump was going to give her in her home state. Haley has a gift for pretending that repeated defeats are victories.
I don't know if I have ever soured on a politician I once liked as much as I have with Haley. I got to meet her just before she was elected for her first term as governor in South Carolina. A handful of Tea Party activists were invited to a luncheon with Haley and the late, great Herman Cain during a political conference in Austin.
It was a lengthy lunch, and we had some great conversations with both Haley and Cain. I was very impressed with both of them but paid more attention to Haley because she had the more pressing electoral agenda at the time. (I did, however, end up getting to know Herman when he ran for president. I was supposed to kick off his campaign announcement event, but we had logistical problems. We then spoke at so many of the same events in 2011 and 2012 that we were joking about getting a tour bus and traveling together. He is sorely missed.)
Admittedly, I didn't pay much attention to Haley's tenure as governor because there was a lot going on at the national level during The Lightbringer years that we activist types were focused on. Even though she would eventually become Trump's UN ambassador, she really wasn't on my radar.
Then her leftist spin on the dancefloor during this primary season began.
Frequent readers of mine should know that my dislike of Haley is not at all rooted in some kind of knee-jerk MAGA Trump fandom. Far from it. What happened was, when finally given a reason to scrutinize her, I could see Nikki Haley's inner leftist just waiting to bust out. There are a lot of Republican squishes who are essentially moderate Democrats from yesteryear — looking at you, Mitt Romney — but Haley is on another level that the country does not need.
Nikki Haley's leftist moments have been far-left moments.
Her enthusiasm when she called for an end to anonymous political speech on social media was disturbing. It obviously was not something that she said in the moment — her campaign had workshopped the idea among themselves. A Republican assaulting any kind of free speech is a horrible look, yet Haley and her team thought it was a good idea. It was both amateurish and Stalinesque.
When Haley was caught waxing nostalgic about what an inspiration Hillary Clinton was for her, I wondered why she ever wanted to run for any office as a Republican in the first place. Granny Maojackets isn't an inspiration for any kind of decent person. She sold her soul for a ride on her husband's coattails, which really shouldn't be a "Rah-rah!" event for any modern independent woman.
Haley's habit of slipping into sync with Dem media narratives — especially now that she's desperate — is downright repulsive. Of late, she's joined the Dems' flying monkeys in the mainstream media in calling for Trump to denounce Vladimir Putin. Insisting that a candidate condemn something, or someone is a petty tactic that the MSM likes to attack Republicans with. If the Republican doesn't jump when the enemy media demands it, the MSM can then attack said Republican for something that was never said. It's a sick game and Haley is just giddy about playing it.
Most people on the Right believe that Haley is sticking around this long as some sort of extended audition to be the next Nicolle Wallace or Alyssa Farah Griffin, raking in good money with a television gig that requires her to do nothing but be the Republican who bashes other Republicans. I've even suggested that, but mostly jokingly.
I am not exactly sure what is going on in Nikki Haley's brain these days; I'm just sure that her thoughts are leaning ever leftward. Her leftist tendencies would be unwelcome at any point in history. Given where we're at in 2024, Nikki Haley's lefty political dance for the media is downright un-American.
What Nikki Haley has been doing for the last few months is far more toxic for the GOP than anything Donald Trump has ever done. I can't wait until she's shuffled off to Trump Hater Island, where she can wallow in a cesspool of leftist media colleagues who, deep down, she knows really don't like her.
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