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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She absolutely banking on Trump stroking out.
Bill Penzey is bringing it to Florida!
𝑊𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑡 1809 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑂𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑂𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜 𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 “𝑤𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒.” 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒.
[...]
𝐼 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑚𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒. 𝑆𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦. 𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠, 𝐼 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠.