Whatever goodwill Nikki Haley might have once enjoyed with Republican voters is burning up like a stack of million-dollar bills at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on How to Keep Your Lobbyist Warm at Night. Haley's path to the nomination doesn't even amount to a "twisty little maze of passages, all alike."
As you're probably already aware, Haley just finished a distant second in the Nevada primary vote to "none of these candidates." By a two-to-one margin, I should add. The message Republican voters are sending to Haley is simple, direct, and unmistakable: SERIOUSLY, GET OUT.
So what the hell is she doing still in the race — if you can call it that?
Haley had exactly one shot to turn her chances around, and please take notice that I didn't say she had one good shot. She had one longshot opportunity to change the perception — the reality, really — that Donald Trump is the all-but-insurmountable frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
That chance was in New Hampshire two weeks ago. The Granite State is both small enough and its voters are quirky enough to produce surprising results from time to time, particularly against frontrunners. When Eugene McCarthy came in surprisingly strong second place in 1968, that was enough to force incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Johnson to abandon his reelection bid.
Pat Buchanan's similarly strong second-place finish against George H.W. Bush in 1992 was like the first of seven Roman Senate knives in Julius Caesar's back. Not that Bush — or Caesar — didn't have it coming.
But Haley didn't manage anything close to that in New Hampshire. Trump trounced her by better than 11 points. The message sent in New Hampshire was also simple, direct, and unmistakable: GET OUT.
If Haley's goal is to just hang on until her home state of South Carolina, put up the good fight, then gracefully and graciously suspend her campaign and endorse Trump — she's going about it all wrong. There has been no grace and little graciousness from Haley as she continues her less-than-quixotic campaign.
But as things stand now, Haley is likely to get a whomping rejection by the voters who know her best and who twice elected her their governor. The FiveThirtyEight poll average shows Trump leading Haley in her native South Carolina by the same two-to-one margin she just lost by in Nevada.
The message she'll get in her home state on Feb. 24 will also be simple, direct, and unmistakable: SERIOUSLY, JUST GTFO.
Haley is staying in the race based on two things: her ability to keep raising money (much of it from "Operation Chaos"-type Democrats) and her ambitions past the primaries.
Mark my words: Haley's ambitions do not include running for office. Even Politico said this week that "Nikki Haley has entered her YOLO stage."
She’s taking repeated, pointed, shots at an “unhinged” Trump’s mental fitness and legal problems. She’s taunting him to debate her: “Show me what you got.” In recent days, her campaign responded to an 815-word memo from Trump’s advisers — a document arguing Haley is toast — with a “Why are you so obsessed with us?” meme from “Mean Girls.”
This is not the voice of a woman who cares if she ever wins another primary or another election with Republican voters.
Instead, mark my words once more, Haley is auditioning for her future role as "Republican Offensively Bashing Other Republicans" on MSNBC, CNN, or some other lefty outlet. You'd think there would be a glut of ROBORs by now, forcing wages down for all those ROBORs already on various networks — but it seems that the demand for ROBORs is unlimited.
I would bet next month's mortgage payment that Haley is looking forward to joining their ranks, sometime after South Carolina voters send her one last simple, direct, and unmistakable message.
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