Nikki Haley is going to get obliterated by Donald Trump. The former South Carolina governor knows this, along with all her supporters—all four of them. It’s now about lowering expectations, which the Haley camp has sunk to ridiculous depths to spin this dumpster fire of the campaign. No one expects much on Super Tuesday. The Haley campaign has reached a point where these new media lines from her communications staff do more to the case that she should drop out of this now-embarrassing spectacle.
It’s something Ms. Haley should have done after New Hampshire. Buoyed by liberal donors, she continued in this self-destructive crusade to beat Trump. Now, there’s no more liberal money filling the coffers because everyone but this woman knows she’s politically dead. So, what’s the new line in the sand: they want a competitive showing (via NBC News):
Nikki Haley, who has yet to win a Republican nominating contest this year, isn’t predicting any victories on Super Tuesday. Rather, she’s seeking to dial back expectations, telling me that her goal heading into March 5 — the biggest primary day on the 2024 calendar — is a “competitive showing” against front-runner Donald Trump.
“We’re looking at it as we’re hoping for a good, competitive showing,” Haley said Thursday in the first of a two-part interview with the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor.
[…]
She said that all of Trump’s legal challenges should be “dealt with” before November: “We need to know what’s going to happen before it — before the presidency happens. Because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard.”
She said that Trump shouldn’t be able to claim presidential immunity: “I don’t think that a president should be immune from anything. I think that a president has to live under laws, too. And he’s asking for things that no other president’s ever asked for. So I hope the Supreme Court rules quickly.”
She said that she doesn’t know whether Trump would follow the Constitution if elected president again: “I don’t know. I mean, you always want to think someone will, but I don’t know.”
And she said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should be commended for stepping down from his leadership position at the end of the year: “I wish that our presidential candidates would do the same thing. … The fact that we have two candidates in their 80s blows my mind.”
Is this where everyone can see that Haley can no longer spin these humiliating defeats and that she’s looking plain absurd right now? There won’t be any competitive showings, as Trump will probably clean up next Tuesday by double-digit margins.
When you can’t lower expectations to blunt an impending loss, it’s time to call it quits. Also, these remarks about McConnell are fitting since she should also step down from her 2024 bid that never got off the ground. The Trump obsession has her sounding more like a Democrat than someone who wants to defeat Joe Biden. That’s been the case for a while now, but even that can’t be hidden.
Take a hint, lady: GOP voters don’t want you.
