Fresh from the Iowa Caucus the three Republican presidential candidates vying for the presidential nomination lined up in order, Donald Trump Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis all ready to face the voters and brave more frigid temperature to wind the hearts and minds, but most importantly the votes needed to secure the top spot.
Trump is basking in the glow of his expected victory in Iowa, as the declared front runner and his supporters have done their utmost best to say, game over and that all the contenders need to do is pack up and go home. But, Haley who scored the second sport in Iowa, has not given up the fight, despite trailing DeSantis by 2 points in Iowa. In her determined and often ladylike way she has seemingly mastered the art of retail politics: an eternal smile, a sincere handshake and a mastery of quick witted repartee, whose one liners could put her as the lead in a local comedy café.
A memorable line when asked about Henry McMaster’s support and appearance with Trump, Haley quipped: “I’m sorry, is that the person I ran against for governor and beat? Just check it.”
DeSantis, has faced an uphill battle against the juggernaut of Trump supporters , all sporting their red MAGA baseball caps, and proclaiming victory. In what some have deemed an inconsistent campaign where his often wooden like demeanor has held him aloof form voters, despite earning some bona fide cultural credentials as governor of Florida: the Parental Rights Act dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, creating havoc at the liberal New College of Florida, railing against Critical Race Theory (erroneously believed to be taught in grammar and high schools) and waving the rhetorical banner that Florida “is the place where woke goes to die,” was having a connection problem with GOP voters, and this despite having his wife Casey, an attractive and articulate former TV news anchor, humanizing him in appearances; but, all to no avail, so much so that on Sunday dropped out of the race, and has pledged to vote for Trump.
Earlier, he had said that he was in the race to stay and swatted questions about his sagging polls, and low votes. But, now game over, and the ground has been conceded to Haley and Trump.
With the field narrowing to a two person race, many are now saying that Haley does not have a chance, that she has not connected with voters, and that her dependence on undeclared voters in New Hampshire, and the educated class might give her a boost. There is a roughly 50/50 split between registered Republicans and undeclared (independent) voters.
The slugfest is now present with Trump mocking, mispronouncing and misspelling her given name, Nimarata, as “Nimbra”, getting a responsive guffaw from his base, but also showing the same racial dog whistles, this time for her Southeast Asian heritage, that he has always done, since 2016.
Haley on the other hand, after he said that she was responsible for security on Jan. 6th and thus allowing the violent insurrection that overtook the Capitol, in 2021 had to eat some shoe leather, since she was not in office and not in Washington, D.C. The confusion, as the media has pointed out, is that Trump confused Haley with Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic Speaker of the House.
She pounced on that, not name calling, but questioning his mental fitness for office, a point well taken, and she cited her aging parents, saying “that I love dearly” but that mental decline is inevitable for older people. Trump is 77 years old.
Rising in defense of the former president, GOP officials said that the two names began with the letter “N”, a weak and implausible explanation, but Haley poking at the soft underbelly of Trump placed a doubt in voters minds about the wisdom of electing a senior citizen an appeal to younger voters such as herself, at the much younger age of 52.
Continuing the theme of age, she also took a bipartisan swipe when she told those gathered at an appearance, “The reality is that he was confused. He was confused the same way that Joe Biden was going to start World War II. He was confused the same way that he said he ran against President Obama.”
She then topped off her remarks by telling those assembled, “Do we really want to have two presidential candidates in their 80’s?”
Senior moments aside, the latest polls show her between 34 and 36 percentage points, with Trump holding a commanding lead in the 50’s.
The Washington Post/Monmouth University poll has Trump, as of Monday, at 52 percent and Haley at 34 percent.
Her hope, and it is just a hope, is that she could win enough undeclared voters to boost her numbers, but that might be a Hail Mary pass on this political field. Some have also noted that she might try to hang in and win enough votes in her home state of South Carolina, but FiveThirtyEight.com has her polling there at 25 percent to Trump at 61 percent.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told CNN: “if [Haley] loses on Tuesday, it almost certainly marks the end of her run.”
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