Nikki Haley absorbed a double-digit loss to Donald Trump in New Hampshire's Republican primary, but vowed to keep fighting, saying, “This race is not over yet.” But in reality, as the saying goes, all is said and done but the screaming.
I went to Ms. Haley's Monday night rally in Salem, New Hampshire, and as I sat there and watched her throw the weakest punch possible at Trump, she ran to defeat Trump. It didn't look like he was running, and I thought he was just running to prove it. She can compete with him.I don't even understand that feeling she I think she can win.
She knows how to throw a jab, but she can't knock it out.
In the Republican race, Ms. Haley is the last challenger in a truly sad position, many of whom have since hid their tails to submit to Trump. And some, like Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott, have supported the former president in an overly bromance-y, flattering way, compared to Mike Pence, who once spoke of Trump's The way he was showing off his “broad shoulders” is now inferior.
Haley survived, evidence of a gelatinous spine rather than a steel one. She has a Play-Doh tendency to try to fit into the mold of the person she's talking to. While she tries to be an authority figure, she is constraining herself from hurting a Republican base that has abandoned the Republican brand.
And while she has recently stepped up her verbal attacks on Trump, they have been erratic and mostly petty. Ms. Haley continues to struggle with the causes that defeated most of Mr. Trump's other opponents. She doesn't want to beat Trump, she wants to tiptoe past him.
Haley continues to insist that she would do better than Trump if she faced President Biden in the general election, pointing to the other side of the unmoved mountain.
Trump won't just disappear. He would have to be defeated. And Hayley can't defeat him because she doesn't have the answers to the central questions. She needs the support of a group of voters who are religiously devoted to him.
But I believe the longer she stays in the race, the more damage she will do to President Trump. She began to emphasize his well-worn, confused rant. We've spent a lot of time thinking about Biden's age and acumen, and Trump is about the same age. He may also make mistakes and gaffes. Haley brings out some of Trump's true self.
As McKay Coppins wisely observed in this month's Atlantic, Trump is an abstract figure to voters, and in the minds of many Americans, “not as the actual person who tells the country everything.” It's the day we find out who he is and what he plans to do in his second term. 'And what he's planning is pretty scary.
I witnessed this ambiguity firsthand at a polling place in New Hampshire on Tuesday, as many of the people who voted for Trump described him in hagiographical terms. I've seen it even among some liberals who have somehow forgotten the agitation and anguish created by the Trump era.
That's probably not her intention, but Haley is serving the public. It's a soft launch, reminding voters that Trump is a master disruptor who has plunged the country into a dizzying series of unnecessary melting pots that will test the nation's very durability. institutions and our ability to withstand his anti-democratic onslaught.
Ms. Haley has begun work that, if Mr. Biden and his campaign team are wise, will expand greatly in the future. Because conversations at the same polling place showed me that some of President Trump's support wasn't as passionate or committed as I thought. Some people who told me they voted for him are worried about criminal proceedings against him. One man told me he was a registered Republican and voted for Trump because his favorite candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, dropped out.
Currently, President Trump is portraying himself as a victim in the context of a pending criminal case. But as we move towards a general election and the possibility of an actual trial, his victim narrative may lose its value as a political advantage and become more of a millstone.
I arrived in New Hampshire worried about the possibility (a very real possibility) of Mr. Trump winning a second term as president, but also that he was weaker than he looked and that Haley's jab was not as effective. That's not the case, but he's left feeling elated by the sense that it's just a premonition of a Trump presidency. Some believe there is a possibility that the Biden campaign will make a landing.