Haley's Comet: blazing to the White House- or deep space?

[Stavros]

The current spat between Nikki Haley in the UN and her White House chums reveals what most people know anyway, that US foreign policy is as confused as the people supposed to represent it, with one set, in New York promoting what it believes is the policy on Russia that the Washington branch has said it is, while Washington claims otherwise.

The point of fascination is the prospect that the first President, or Vice-President of the USA to be a woman could be a Republican, as reported here-

A former governor of South Carolina, Ms. Haley has assumed a more prominent role than most of her predecessors, at times eclipsing the secretary of state. And along the way, Mr. Trump has grown suspicious of her ambition, convinced that she had been angling for Mr. Tillerson’s position and increasingly wondering whether she wants his own job.

Republicans close to the White House whisper about the prospect of an alliance between Ms. Haley and Vice President Mike Pence, possibly to run as a ticket in 2020.

Aides to both scoff at such suggestions, but the slightest hint of such a pairing would be likely to enrage Mr. Trump, who has made it clear that he plans to run for re-election. The talk was exacerbated in recent days when Mr. Pence named Jon Lerner (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/us/politics/pence-jon-lerner-nikki-haley.html), Ms. Haley’s deputy, as his new national security adviser, while allowing him to keep his job at the United Nations.

That plan collapsed within 48 hours when Mr. Trump grew angry at reports that Mr. Lerner had made anti-Trump ads for the Club of Growth, an economic conservative advocacy group, during Republican primaries in 2016. Mr. Lerner stepped down from the job in Mr. Pence’s office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/world/europe/trump-nikki-haley-russia-sanctions.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Clearly one should never upset the Commandante as he tends to sack people, assuming it ends their careers, when it might not, but I guess the Republican Party has to decide if it is going to select a Republican to run for the party in 2020 or stick with the dirty old man it chose in 2016 who is an Independent not a Republican.

Haley may represent a more acceptable face of the Republican Party as it struggles to make sense of itself and its American mission, but will the American voters warm to her charms?

[buttslinger]

I think Trump sent Nikki Haley to the UN to die, after all those things she said about him during the Primaries. I no longer try and make sense of it, because it makes no sense

[sukumvit boy]

She makes me cringe

[Stavros]

“No, I’m not running for 2020,” she declared, unprompted. “I can promise you what I’ll be doing is campaigning for this one. So I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.”

Watch this space, or outer space?

[Stavros]

This space, as in: she's back. And she's Vice.

https://theweek.com/articles/848759/nikki-haley-wont-save-trump

[Stavros]

And back again, as rumours revive the argument that Bonehead is going to replace the semi-comatose Archdeacon Pence with dynamic superstar Haley. Problem is he doesn't like powerful women, so the speculation may be just that.

[filghy2]

It would also be elevating a rival to Junior, who seems to be positioning for a run in 2024. Don't tinpot dictators usually try to anoint their idiot sons as their successor?

[Stavros]

So maybe it is her gig for 2024? The Guardian publishes this today-

Nikki Haley has kept busy since leaving her post in the Trump administration (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/09/nikki-haley-resigns-quits-trump-un-ambassador-latest-news) as United States ambassador to the United Nations.
A former governor of South Carolina, Haley is often mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate for either 2024 or 2028 – depending on whether Donald Trump wins re-election in November.
There has even been speculation that Trump might switch out Vice-President Mike Pence for Haley as his running mate in the hopes of boosting his lagging approval numbers (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/27/trump-election-biden-polls-2020) among the broader electorate, though there has been no strong evidence that that will happen.
Either way she has positioned herself as a national leader within the Republican party.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/10/nikki-haley-post-trump-republican-party

But could she prove divisive in the party given that people like John Bolton have such little time for her. Here he is on Nikki Haley durig the transition, before the President had decided on a candidate for Secretary of State, but appointed her UN Ambassador, a job Bolton sees as a State job below the Secretary-

her appointment was "a bizarre step to take with the Secretary of State still unchosen. Haley had no qualifications for the job, but it was ideal for someone with presidential ambitions to check the 'foreign policy' box on her campaign résumé" (p7).

Then there is this curious claim Bolton makes of an incident with Rex Tillerson, as told to him by the President-

Haley, said Trump, had some disagreement with Tillerson, who responded "Don't ever talk to me that way again". Before Haley could say anything, Tillerson said "You're nothing but a cunt, and don't ever forget it" (p.57).

I am going to suggest that Tillerson did not use the 'c' word, but I can think of two men who might. Bolton complains throughout the time when she was UN Ambassador that she meddled in issues that were not her responsibility, Russia in particular (see pages 451-451), and that she did so to promote herself, while on other occasions she was happy to let someone else from State appear on TV to answer for some confusion in policy, a confusion endemic in the Administration because of the President's inability to control his own staff. He makes a point of ilustrating this by claiming that when Haley decided to resign, the people she first told were the President and Jared Kushner and his wife, rather than her superiors in the State Department. He concludes of this episode-

'Few doubted the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination had begun..." (p239).

If Bolton loathes her so much, does this amount to a positive for those who think Bolton is the problem?

[Stavros]

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Nikki, America, and [Saint] George!'

"Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley requested a meeting with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Wednesday, but Trump refused to meet, Politico reported on Thursday.
The request came on the heels of a Politico magazine story (https://www.politico.com/interactives/2021/magazine-nikki-haleys-choice/) in which Haley condemned Trump for his role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
“I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have,” Haley said on January 12. “We need to acknowledge [Trump] let us down….He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him.”
However, Haley has not expressed support for Trump’s impeachment and defended parts of the former president’s record in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-media-tries-to-divide-republicans-11613580575?mod=hp_opin_pos_2) on Wednesday."
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-refuses-meet-nikki-haley-204247164.html


"I will gladly defend the bulk of the Trump record and his determination to shake up the corrupt status quo in Washington," she said. "I will never defend the indefensible. I didn't do that when I served alongside President Trump, and I'm not going to start now."
"If that means I want to have it 'both ways,' so be it," Haley added. "It's really the only way forward—for the party and the country."
https://www.businessinsider.com/nikki-haley-op-ed-liberal-media-pre-trump-gop-2024-2021-2?r=US&IR=T

[Stavros]

Sound the trumpets! Here we go again.
And looks like 2024 is already creeping onto the front pages.

As for Nikki “CRT [critical race theory] is un-American,” (who started it, er, Americans?) -she is now clear-

"I don’t think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in DC. I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and really start fixing things.”"

And

"Haley, for her part, seems to think she’s in with a shot. In a recent interview with Fox News (https://www.mediaite.com/news/nikki-haley-teases-2024-run-against-trump-ive-never-lost-a-race-not-going-to-lose-now/) she noted that she’s “never lost a race … Stay tuned.”"
Trump seems oddly relaxed about Republican rival Nikki Haley. Is it because she doesn’t stand a chance? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/31/trump-seems-oddly-relaxed-about-republican-rival-nikki-haley-is-it-because-she-doesnt-stand-a-chance)

[filghy2]

It serves Trump's interest to have a large field to divide the 'not Trump' vote. He's going to welcome anyone he doesn't think is a serious threat but might take votes away from De Santis.

[Stavros]

The Comet has landed! America, are you read for Nimrata?

Nikki Haley to seek Republican nomination for 2024 presidential election | Nikki Haley | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/14/nikki-haley-to-seek-republican-presidential-nomination-donald-trump)

[Stavros]

Pence drops out, De Santis crumbling, Vivek not so vive, Trump tangled up in blue -as the contenders are spaced out, it looks like the Comet is burning brighter, and brighter...

[KnightHawk 2.0]

Pence drops out, De Santis crumbling, Vivek not so vive, Trump tangled up in blue -as the contenders are spaced out, it looks like the Comet is burning brighter, and brighter...Indeed it sure is.

[Stavros]

A fairly positive view of Haley's campaign, and another link to her policy record. The assumption is that regardless of the polls, Trump will not be the 2024 candidate, which leaves Haley in pole position, though if Glenn Youngkin does well in this year's elections, he may decide to go for it.

Can Nikki Haley be a history maker or just best of the rest in Trump’s party? | Nikki Haley | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/04/nikki-haley-republican-presidential-primary-trump)

Political positions of Nikki Haley - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Nikki_Haley)

[Stavros]

Latest from Nikki 'The Comet' Haley -end anonymity online....

'Blatantly unconstitutional': Nikki Haley ripped for 'fascist' proposal to outlaw anonymity on social media (msn.com) (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/blatantly-unconstitutional-nikki-haley-ripped-for-fascist-proposal-to-outlaw-anonymity-on-social-media/ar-AA1jYg3B?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a6ae3df00581463db8cbd28403bf83c7&ei=68)

[Stavros]

Although I think Haley will be the Republican candidate based on current politics in the US, she is tying herself in knots in an attempt to appease her party base on Abortion, while appearing, if you can believe it, more 'Liberal' or maybe 'lenient' to attract voters for whom Abortion has proved to be a vote loser for Haley's party, or rather, the Trump Party. Thus

""As much as I'm pro-life, I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don't want them to judge me for being pro-life," Haley said at the time, while also making it clear that she'd sign a GOP-crafted national abortion ban into law if she were elected president."
Nikki Haley's attempt to thread the needle on abortion could end up backfiring among the conservatives she'll need to take down Trump (yahoo.com) (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/nikki-haleys-attempt-thread-needle-225203450.html)

Is this not a contradiction in terms? Don't judge me for being 'pro-Life' even though I am going to ignore the voters opposed to it?

I don't see any way the Republicans can get out of this hole they have dug for themselves.

[Stavros]

Slavery…oh dear.

Has she blown it? The nomination, not the other thing.

[Luke Warm]

She was never, ever going to get the nomination anyway. Why so much interest in which Republican comes in 2nd, 3rd or 4th place? Yes there is media coverage of things like the Republican debate (minus Trump) because the media needs fresh stories to reinforce the “horse race” narrative which gets them clicks. And writing stories about legislation, or war, or the economy isn’t nearly as much fun, and requires knowledge and research.

[Stavros]

She was never, ever going to get the nomination anyway. Why so much interest in which Republican comes in 2nd, 3rd or 4th place? Yes there is media coverage of things like the Republican debate (minus Trump) because the media needs fresh stories to reinforce the “horse race” narrative which gets them clicks. And writing stories about legislation, or war, or the economy isn’t nearly as much fun, and requires knowledge and research.

As this new article argues. people like Haley because she has a way of upsetting Trump, as Emma Brockes argues, there is no point being smarter than him, rather " in the case of Trump, you have to fight dumb with dumb."
Don’t underestimate Nikki Haley – for starters, just look at how she gets under Trump’s skin | Emma Brockes | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/01/underestimate-nikki-haley-under-trump-skin-president)

But do people want Haley to take on Biden? I have read it is the Democrat nightmare.

[Stavros]

If not Comets, are there Boomerangs in Deep Space? If the Sex Offender for some reason doesn't make it to November, could she stage a sizzling return?

[Fitzcarraldo]

I'm waiting for her inevitable endorsement of Trump.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

I'm waiting for her inevitable endorsement of Trump.Same here.

[Stavros]

"The former president was given another reminder of the scale of his problem on Tuesday with the Pennsylvania (https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/pennsylvania) primary. Nikki Haley (https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/nikki-haley), who axed her own campaign over a month ago, managed to take 16.5 percent of the vote.
Trump, the only candidate still actually running, therefore easily won the primary with 83.5 percent, according to the Associated Press (https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2024/pennsylvania/?r=39593). But the problem for Trump is that Haley’s 16.5 percent amounts to more than 155,000 votes. In other words, 155,000 Republicans chose to support a defunct campaign instead of Trump in a key battleground state where, in 2016, he beat Hillary Clinton (https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/hillary-clinton) by fewer than 45,000 votes."
Trump Bruised by Another Brutal Haley Protest Vote in Pennsylvania Primary (yahoo.com) (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-bruised-another-brutal-haley-115659448.html)

BOOM!....erang...er...?

Stranger things have happened. Anyone want a $5 debt? $3?