The suspense was killing you, I’m sure, but Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary. Voters apparently couldn’t overlook how she’d failed to secure the Capitol on January 6. Trump is now the first Republican presidential candidate in a contested primary to win both Iowa and New Hampshire since 1976.
There was no last-minute come-from-behind upset victory for Haley, whose former allies have turned against her like rats and endorsed the Giant Rat King. Sometimes you can tell white voters that America was never a racist country and they’ll still vote … for the bigger racist, especially if he’s white. Weird.
Haley swept all six votes in Dixville Notch, which predicted every Republican nominee from 1968 to 2012. (The streak ended in 2016 with Trump.) For most of the day, the cable news channel chyron had the former South Carolina governor whooping Trump by 100 percent. Tuesday afternoon, MSNBC commentators were scavenging exit polls for scraps of stale hope. There were more moderates and liberals voting in New Hampshire than in Iowa! Only a minority of voters polled said they were part of the “MAGA movement”! Democrats didn’t have a real primary to worry about, so maybe they could vote strategically with anti-Trump forces and cast a ballot for the candidate who supports a national abortion ban but nicely. (I can’t wait for the day when Republicans must cast a strategic presidential vote for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez because the alternative is even scarier to them.)
Exit polls are notoriously for crap, so when the actual results started coming in, it wasn’t long until Dave Wasserman had seen enough.
This was 20 minutes after the first polls closed at 7 p.m. in New Hampshire. He didn’t even have to wait until the final polls closed at 8 p.m. (New Hampshire is so independent they can’t even agree to close their polls at the same time.)
I’m writing this Tuesday evening in real time, so while I wait for Haley’s victory speech, let’s go back to those “strategic” Democratic voters. I appreciate wanting to stop Trump from a three-peat Republican nomination, and Haley is at least lawful evil. However, Democrats probably should’ve considered keeping their Machiavellian scheme under wraps.
It’s one thing if Democrats or moderate Republicans who backed Biden in 2020 would consider Haley in November. That’s been her whole selling point: She can win while less-than-smooth criminal Trump cannot. But these are clearly votes from people who won’t even consider supporting her in the general election. She can’t win them, especially on her “Read My Lips: No New Abortions” platform.
This also explains why Trump supporters adore their candidate without reservation — a given with a cult but still scary to see — but according to CNN, most Haley support is rooted in opposition to Trump or (until he dropped out) Ron DeSantis. Just 30 percent of her supporters like her without reservation. (Trump carried self-identified Republicans by almost 50 percent.) That’s usually fatal to a broader general election campaign.
But hey, I’m no Haley fan, so if we want to string this out for a while until she’s utterly humiliated in South Carolina, I’m all for it. However, our home state has a higher percentage of white evangelical voters than Iowa and fewer independents than New Hampshire. It’s an open primary state but no one in my family is voting for Nikki Scarlett O’Haley, not even “strategically.” They’re gonna vote for Joe Biden.
Haley remains oblivious to reality, so during her remarks last night, she declared, “This race is far from over. The next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
Bless her heart. It’s gonna be a bloodbath.
[CNN]
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What I find interesting is that while Haley lostm she got 46% of the vote. While in Iowa 49% of caucusers votes for someone other than the Orange Felon. For all of Trump's claims of being the inevitable candidate there are a lot of Republicans voting against him.
It doesn't matter a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys whether she wins SC or not. Trump's getting convicted, and he is going to lose. All she has to do is not quit.