Today, I break down Nikki Haley's campaign, and why it is not working against Donald Trump:The Warning with Steve Schmidt is a reader-supported publication.
My theory: Nikki Haley is hanging in because the non-Trumpers are giving her major money. The only logical strategy is to hang in until the convention and try to prove Trump unelectable. And while she may not be the front runner for nominee she is the alternative if the polls show he cannot win against Biden and she can. Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day and the meltdown of his company may make him so incoherent that it’s clear he will lose.
Trump is drunk with power that has been amplified by his base and the sycophants that cling to him. Nothing is too outrageous nor is there any real accountability for his deviant behavior. Jail time is the only thing that scares him. Others, It just emboldens him to be more outrageous. White Christian evangelicals have anointed him as a savior. Why wouldn’t he believe he is an emperor above the law?
While Haley hasn't exactly been Paul Revere when it comes to speaking out against Trump, she is the only one left who can publicly challenge him in any meaningful way. If she stays in through Super Tuesday, and hopefully all the way to the convention, there will be a lot more negative attention paid to Trump than if she drops out. Also- there is still Tim Miller's "golden hamburger" possibility. Stick it out, Nikki. America needs you.
Nikki Haley’s campaign against Trump is weak and dishonest, but the Dems aren’t doing much better. Why are they so friggin’ frightened of coming right out and saying what this man is? Facts are on our side. We don’t even have to exaggerate. Trump is who he is, and he proves it every single for day; He’s everything you just called him, Steve, and so much more… dangerous, mentally ill, narcissist, authoritarian, and fascist, to name a few.
You are SO right! What he is must be repeated continuously until the election so that it sticks. The Demos around Biden don’t seem to get that. Ridiculous.
Democrats are inept as messaging. The person running Biden’s campaign should be immediately fired. The head of the DNC should have put out alternative candidates to galvanize support for a democratic candidate. Should have would have and could have but didn’t. We may all suffer the consequences of their failures.
Also I am still intrigued why dim witted weak Chuck Schumer has not been replaced as head of the Senate. He is the majority leader but has done nothing as the head. Election reform, electoral college elimination, more Supreme Court justices, Washington DC and Puerto Rico as states, just to name a few.
Democracy in the face of this assault on democracy does nothing but whine and clutch their pearls. They need new energized leadership.
This congress is a stain on our nation. Schumer was never a person of conviction or great intelligence. It was sickening to see his losing strategy over the John Lewis voting rights bill fail because he didn’t have the smarts to turn 2 Republicans. And the sycophantic “activist” groups, like Indivisible, take direction from him. Our government is failing at every level. I live in a small town and see it there and in our county. Those of us who stand for sanity and conviction seem to fall between the Democratic socialists on the left and the fascists on the right. I want to smack them all. We have lost real patriotism. All we have is performative patriotism. Because anyone real is not concerned with him/herself. He/she is concerned with us. Very few of those around. And nobody is sounding the alarm against the open Fascism demonstrated at CPAC this week. I agree, Biden’s campaign leads should be replaced. Either they don’t get it, which is pathetic, or they don’t have the guts to go for it. Equally pathetic. Just like Hillarys campaign.
Eric, I think the same way as you do! It's so frustrating! The only thing that I can think of, that is holding the Democrats back, is the damn filibuster! With a majority so narrow, and with the GOP/MAGAs so scared of Trump, nothing can get done! Our only hope would be that the Democrats have a huge landslide victory in November- President, Senate, and House-so that the majority is big enough, unless that happens their hands are tied. However, if they do win hands down across the board, they better get busy at changing the things that have been abused for decades: the filibuster, the electoral college, gerrymandering. They need to expand the Supreme Court, codifying Row vs Wade, pass the John Lewis Voting Reform Bill and the HR1 Voting Bill, codifying laws that protect citizens' voting rights! There must be term and age limits in ALL three branches of government! No more seventy and eighty year old POTUS's, congressmen/women, and Judges, thank you very much! And they must fix all the loopholes and/or make laws crystal clear as to what a POTUS can or cannot due, and totally get rid of the pardoning power of the POTUS. It is a huge task that will take years, probably decades to fix, but it has to be done! I don't think that America can live through another Trump-like POYUS!
Maybe, but the Democratic Party does not have a Universe of Oligarchical Misinformation Media Machines crushing the truth in avalanches of lies, hatred, and immaculate victimhood.
I agree with Steve. I could post another rant about the Trumpers and how stupid they all are, but that will never be seen by anyone who should see it. Even if one or more (that’s a scary thought) of their media watchers IS here, all they will do as they [try to] pass along any information from this site is they will only spin it into another lie.
That is the problem we face. These people are so brainwashed and the truth has been so perverted to them that seeing any real truth is impossible for these extremists.
If I knew how to get through to them I would share that, but since I don't I will just say that we are up against the biggest threat to our very civil liberties and freedoms I have ever seen in my 70+ years. Anyone who has figured this out would be a boon in figuring out an effective strategy that might work and would be a hero for saving our Constitution, free speech, and the rule of law.
For one thing we on the left don't have a real media voice altho those on the Right say we do when they say we have all of the "Liberal Media". Baloney. They have an entire Network!! Fox plus OAN, Newsmax now including Sinclair Broadcasting. All the Left has really is MSNBC and CNN and pretty much all they do is react to the lies the right says. I'm reading a great book right now. It's called "Stop Pretending America: An Outsider's Guide to Healing the Sickness in Democracy and Media" by Philip J. Gimson. It's got some great information in it!!! I highly recommend it. 💙🇺🇸❤️
Sounds like a great book. I wish we could get the MSM to report on things that are important too-- but when Reagan [basically] killed our unions and the Fairness Doctrine, it was the beginning of the demise of the middle class. And no, we actually have no MSM that leans left and promotes progress. For that you have to go online and then only go to progressive sites because the RWNJ written articles are all lies, half-truths, and propaganda.
Exactly!! Even all the radio stations you turn on during the day have RW'ers on promoting that crap all over the place. And don't even get me started on our own Military Bases blasting Fox News all over the globe!! Grrrrrrr. I've walked out of places if they have it on the television. It's state TV...Just like Russia. Sickening.
Trump’s position on the Alabama IVF issue isn’t because he gives a rat’s ass about families and women not being able to use it, it’s to try to win over some of the women. Ole Susie Wiles went from moderate Jon Huntsman to Trump. I don’t know how that happens. She was a former client of mine and not a delight I will tell you. 😅
Before Trump and his enormously corrupt MAGA cronies and sycophants, the phrase “only in America “ was often used in conjunction with something good that likely could not be achieved in another country. Perhaps it was a person who became an economic success, had great educational attainment, or made great social or scientific contributions to our society. Today I would use the phrase “only in America” to refer to Trump and the MAGA GOP. Only in a American could a convicted slandering rapist, a person convicted of fraud, betrayed his oath and his office, engaged in grift on a major scale, obstructed justice, collaborated with foreign governments to get elected, was impeached twice, and is a serial liar could run for president a second time and have a chance of election. Only in America could a major party whose roots are in the democratic ideals of Abraham Lincoln be infiltrated and corrupted by power hungry radicals seeking grift, power, and the oppression of non-whites or anyone who don’t agree with them to impose a theocratic Christian nationalist theocracy on this country. But only in America do We the People have the civic right, the empowerment, and duty to reject this metastasizing evil and return to making our democracy the more perfect Union that has been envisioned for it by freedom loving Americans.
We have to reject it, but then I look at the governors people are actually electing…. Abbott, Noem, McMaster, Reeves, Reynolds, to name a few, and think we’re too lost on the Batshit Crazy Road.
My issue is: why then do people vote for this disgrace of a man? Would it not be a sane thing for Americans in huge numbers to vote to keep him away from the Oval Office? Why are people such lemmings with this coward?
Perhaps we deserve our fate with him because there seems to be enough of those amongst us who think he should be President again. And will gladly vote for him.
Steve’s synopsis of the Trumpverse should be the message strategy for Biden. What is he waiting for? Is the White House out to lunch or what. Their silence is deafening and dangerous.
I have dear friends, a husband and wife, that are die hard Republicans. They wouldn't vote for Biden, even if he visited with them at their own home! The husband said he was voting for Trump, his wife was not going to vote at all. I was frank, when talking to them; I told them that we are at the end of the tunnel of our lives, we will not see real damage that Trump and the MAGAs will do to America; but their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will! Yesterday, I was visiting my friends, and the husband told me that both he and his wife voted for Nikki Haley! I gave him a kiss on the check! You never know, you might get through to those who you think that you can never reach! We have our work cut out for us, but there is hope!
I'm also glad that Haley is not quitting! She may not have a chance in hell; but her public voice against Trump, will keep reminding some Republicans and Unaffiliated, how evil Trump really is. She might get through to those voters who are on the fence, that Biden/Harris may not ever be able to do! And come November, those voters may just vote for Biden! We can only hope!
This is a good example of what we must try to do individually. I have always hesitated talking to some family members about politics. But it is crunch time. Time to step up and have that talk.
Republicans are not going to give Nikki Haley a second look. She can try to maintain an independent position, but Donald Trump controls the machinery of the Republican Party. Donald Trump has a lock on the loyalty of every existing Republican official in every state that Republicans control. Just to look at the man with his orange-painted face and his shambolic appearance, voters would rightly wonder what is going on inside the man's head. But when he gets behind the lectern and spends an hour relitigating is infinitely large stack of grievances, Trump voters perk up. That is what they come to hear, the grievances, the accusations no matter how wild or ill-founded. The man is a genius at performance art. Nikki Haley could stand there all day offering a litany of rebuttals to Trump and his mania for self-promotion. But that is going to give her no satisfaction. For nearly a decade, Donald Trump has been conditioning his audience and his voters that all of their ills or someone else's fault. Trump has become the American South's "lost cause", which we expect, will lose again in the national election. National reports show that Trump has little campaign money left for political advertising, and just the enormous expense of mounting a national campaign. Money that would otherwise have been used to develop campaign infrastructure has been used, misappropriated, if you will, to pay Trump's legal expenses in defending himself; and to that end, Trump has been saddled with enormous judgments against him stemming from his past misbehavior. I believe that Haley has mentioned some of this in her campaign advertising, but the message has not been getting through. The emotional bond that Donald Trump has formed with his supporters is likely to be able to withstand his criminal conviction in the January 6 insurrection, and in the documents case that are pending against him. Such is the nature of a political cult.
Steve, let's hope to God that Biden wins in November, and that after the riots and Trump's insistence that he actually won and/or that the election was rigged, has died down (if it does die down); what will happen next?!
I am sure that Bannon and Miller won't stop trying to ruin our democracy.; they have come so far, with their dirty work! Will they turn to another MAGA, like Johnson, Jordan, Greene, Gaetz, etc., to take Trump's place? Will the nightmare end, or will it continue with another candidate? It seems, to me, that the "normal" GOP is dead and gone, that Trump's hold on the MAGAs now have deep roots.
Nikki is hanging in because she is setting herself up for 2028. Or, if for some reason the orange god gets tossed in the slammer and can't serve, she will be waiting in the wings.
You gotta love these conservative commentators. Kathleen Parker of South Carolina blamed the good old boys for Haley’s loss. Not a word about Haley’s cowardice — afraid to say the word slavery when asked about the causes of the Civil War.
And George Will. Kamala Harris is unqualified to be President. Yet cannot find one word — one word — to say why.
If you want to see why Trump and his Maggots are on a roll, a great deal of it has to do with the moral cowardice of people who call themselves Republicans.
But... the O's are playing and our new pitcher just struck out the first two batters he faced and Rutschman just hit a HR...and what happened to voting on Tuesdays?
My theory: Nikki Haley is hanging in because the non-Trumpers are giving her major money. The only logical strategy is to hang in until the convention and try to prove Trump unelectable. And while she may not be the front runner for nominee she is the alternative if the polls show he cannot win against Biden and she can. Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day and the meltdown of his company may make him so incoherent that it’s clear he will lose.
Trump is drunk with power that has been amplified by his base and the sycophants that cling to him. Nothing is too outrageous nor is there any real accountability for his deviant behavior. Jail time is the only thing that scares him. Others, It just emboldens him to be more outrageous. White Christian evangelicals have anointed him as a savior. Why wouldn’t he believe he is an emperor above the law?
Very well stated and spot on!
And I agree with her, 39% is a decent chunk making their voices heard that they want an alternative!
People will keep voting for him in primaries regardless.
Nikki has to “force” a face to face debate. This might be done by insulting Trump’s masculinity, or lack of courage or low IQ.
I don't think Trump measures his masculinity in a debate, although face-to-face is a possibility.
He does measure but he does not being talked down to by a strong female
While Haley hasn't exactly been Paul Revere when it comes to speaking out against Trump, she is the only one left who can publicly challenge him in any meaningful way. If she stays in through Super Tuesday, and hopefully all the way to the convention, there will be a lot more negative attention paid to Trump than if she drops out. Also- there is still Tim Miller's "golden hamburger" possibility. Stick it out, Nikki. America needs you.
Nikki Haley’s campaign against Trump is weak and dishonest, but the Dems aren’t doing much better. Why are they so friggin’ frightened of coming right out and saying what this man is? Facts are on our side. We don’t even have to exaggerate. Trump is who he is, and he proves it every single for day; He’s everything you just called him, Steve, and so much more… dangerous, mentally ill, narcissist, authoritarian, and fascist, to name a few.
What the hell are the Democrats waiting for?
You are SO right! What he is must be repeated continuously until the election so that it sticks. The Demos around Biden don’t seem to get that. Ridiculous.
Democrats are inept as messaging. The person running Biden’s campaign should be immediately fired. The head of the DNC should have put out alternative candidates to galvanize support for a democratic candidate. Should have would have and could have but didn’t. We may all suffer the consequences of their failures.
Also I am still intrigued why dim witted weak Chuck Schumer has not been replaced as head of the Senate. He is the majority leader but has done nothing as the head. Election reform, electoral college elimination, more Supreme Court justices, Washington DC and Puerto Rico as states, just to name a few.
Democracy in the face of this assault on democracy does nothing but whine and clutch their pearls. They need new energized leadership.
This congress is a stain on our nation. Schumer was never a person of conviction or great intelligence. It was sickening to see his losing strategy over the John Lewis voting rights bill fail because he didn’t have the smarts to turn 2 Republicans. And the sycophantic “activist” groups, like Indivisible, take direction from him. Our government is failing at every level. I live in a small town and see it there and in our county. Those of us who stand for sanity and conviction seem to fall between the Democratic socialists on the left and the fascists on the right. I want to smack them all. We have lost real patriotism. All we have is performative patriotism. Because anyone real is not concerned with him/herself. He/she is concerned with us. Very few of those around. And nobody is sounding the alarm against the open Fascism demonstrated at CPAC this week. I agree, Biden’s campaign leads should be replaced. Either they don’t get it, which is pathetic, or they don’t have the guts to go for it. Equally pathetic. Just like Hillarys campaign.
Eric, I think the same way as you do! It's so frustrating! The only thing that I can think of, that is holding the Democrats back, is the damn filibuster! With a majority so narrow, and with the GOP/MAGAs so scared of Trump, nothing can get done! Our only hope would be that the Democrats have a huge landslide victory in November- President, Senate, and House-so that the majority is big enough, unless that happens their hands are tied. However, if they do win hands down across the board, they better get busy at changing the things that have been abused for decades: the filibuster, the electoral college, gerrymandering. They need to expand the Supreme Court, codifying Row vs Wade, pass the John Lewis Voting Reform Bill and the HR1 Voting Bill, codifying laws that protect citizens' voting rights! There must be term and age limits in ALL three branches of government! No more seventy and eighty year old POTUS's, congressmen/women, and Judges, thank you very much! And they must fix all the loopholes and/or make laws crystal clear as to what a POTUS can or cannot due, and totally get rid of the pardoning power of the POTUS. It is a huge task that will take years, probably decades to fix, but it has to be done! I don't think that America can live through another Trump-like POYUS!
Maybe, but the Democratic Party does not have a Universe of Oligarchical Misinformation Media Machines crushing the truth in avalanches of lies, hatred, and immaculate victimhood.
I agree with Steve. I could post another rant about the Trumpers and how stupid they all are, but that will never be seen by anyone who should see it. Even if one or more (that’s a scary thought) of their media watchers IS here, all they will do as they [try to] pass along any information from this site is they will only spin it into another lie.
That is the problem we face. These people are so brainwashed and the truth has been so perverted to them that seeing any real truth is impossible for these extremists.
If I knew how to get through to them I would share that, but since I don't I will just say that we are up against the biggest threat to our very civil liberties and freedoms I have ever seen in my 70+ years. Anyone who has figured this out would be a boon in figuring out an effective strategy that might work and would be a hero for saving our Constitution, free speech, and the rule of law.
For one thing we on the left don't have a real media voice altho those on the Right say we do when they say we have all of the "Liberal Media". Baloney. They have an entire Network!! Fox plus OAN, Newsmax now including Sinclair Broadcasting. All the Left has really is MSNBC and CNN and pretty much all they do is react to the lies the right says. I'm reading a great book right now. It's called "Stop Pretending America: An Outsider's Guide to Healing the Sickness in Democracy and Media" by Philip J. Gimson. It's got some great information in it!!! I highly recommend it. 💙🇺🇸❤️
Sounds like a great book. I wish we could get the MSM to report on things that are important too-- but when Reagan [basically] killed our unions and the Fairness Doctrine, it was the beginning of the demise of the middle class. And no, we actually have no MSM that leans left and promotes progress. For that you have to go online and then only go to progressive sites because the RWNJ written articles are all lies, half-truths, and propaganda.
Exactly!! Even all the radio stations you turn on during the day have RW'ers on promoting that crap all over the place. And don't even get me started on our own Military Bases blasting Fox News all over the globe!! Grrrrrrr. I've walked out of places if they have it on the television. It's state TV...Just like Russia. Sickening.
Yeah. Biden is doing amazing things and yet the MSM still won’t use that information often enough to make a difference.
For sure. The Dems have got to step up their Messaging Big time. Especially while we've got the money advantage too right now. It's crazy!!
Trump’s position on the Alabama IVF issue isn’t because he gives a rat’s ass about families and women not being able to use it, it’s to try to win over some of the women. Ole Susie Wiles went from moderate Jon Huntsman to Trump. I don’t know how that happens. She was a former client of mine and not a delight I will tell you. 😅
Before Trump and his enormously corrupt MAGA cronies and sycophants, the phrase “only in America “ was often used in conjunction with something good that likely could not be achieved in another country. Perhaps it was a person who became an economic success, had great educational attainment, or made great social or scientific contributions to our society. Today I would use the phrase “only in America” to refer to Trump and the MAGA GOP. Only in a American could a convicted slandering rapist, a person convicted of fraud, betrayed his oath and his office, engaged in grift on a major scale, obstructed justice, collaborated with foreign governments to get elected, was impeached twice, and is a serial liar could run for president a second time and have a chance of election. Only in America could a major party whose roots are in the democratic ideals of Abraham Lincoln be infiltrated and corrupted by power hungry radicals seeking grift, power, and the oppression of non-whites or anyone who don’t agree with them to impose a theocratic Christian nationalist theocracy on this country. But only in America do We the People have the civic right, the empowerment, and duty to reject this metastasizing evil and return to making our democracy the more perfect Union that has been envisioned for it by freedom loving Americans.
www.tomthedemocratist.com
We have to reject it, but then I look at the governors people are actually electing…. Abbott, Noem, McMaster, Reeves, Reynolds, to name a few, and think we’re too lost on the Batshit Crazy Road.
Yes Thomas, say it again!
Steve, I agree with every word you said.
My issue is: why then do people vote for this disgrace of a man? Would it not be a sane thing for Americans in huge numbers to vote to keep him away from the Oval Office? Why are people such lemmings with this coward?
Perhaps we deserve our fate with him because there seems to be enough of those amongst us who think he should be President again. And will gladly vote for him.
why then do people vote for this disgrace of a man?
They do not consider him a disgrace, which is even more problematic than Trump himself.
Steve’s synopsis of the Trumpverse should be the message strategy for Biden. What is he waiting for? Is the White House out to lunch or what. Their silence is deafening and dangerous.
I have dear friends, a husband and wife, that are die hard Republicans. They wouldn't vote for Biden, even if he visited with them at their own home! The husband said he was voting for Trump, his wife was not going to vote at all. I was frank, when talking to them; I told them that we are at the end of the tunnel of our lives, we will not see real damage that Trump and the MAGAs will do to America; but their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will! Yesterday, I was visiting my friends, and the husband told me that both he and his wife voted for Nikki Haley! I gave him a kiss on the check! You never know, you might get through to those who you think that you can never reach! We have our work cut out for us, but there is hope!
I'm also glad that Haley is not quitting! She may not have a chance in hell; but her public voice against Trump, will keep reminding some Republicans and Unaffiliated, how evil Trump really is. She might get through to those voters who are on the fence, that Biden/Harris may not ever be able to do! And come November, those voters may just vote for Biden! We can only hope!
This is a good example of what we must try to do individually. I have always hesitated talking to some family members about politics. But it is crunch time. Time to step up and have that talk.
John, thank you for your kind words! We are all in this together!
Republicans are not going to give Nikki Haley a second look. She can try to maintain an independent position, but Donald Trump controls the machinery of the Republican Party. Donald Trump has a lock on the loyalty of every existing Republican official in every state that Republicans control. Just to look at the man with his orange-painted face and his shambolic appearance, voters would rightly wonder what is going on inside the man's head. But when he gets behind the lectern and spends an hour relitigating is infinitely large stack of grievances, Trump voters perk up. That is what they come to hear, the grievances, the accusations no matter how wild or ill-founded. The man is a genius at performance art. Nikki Haley could stand there all day offering a litany of rebuttals to Trump and his mania for self-promotion. But that is going to give her no satisfaction. For nearly a decade, Donald Trump has been conditioning his audience and his voters that all of their ills or someone else's fault. Trump has become the American South's "lost cause", which we expect, will lose again in the national election. National reports show that Trump has little campaign money left for political advertising, and just the enormous expense of mounting a national campaign. Money that would otherwise have been used to develop campaign infrastructure has been used, misappropriated, if you will, to pay Trump's legal expenses in defending himself; and to that end, Trump has been saddled with enormous judgments against him stemming from his past misbehavior. I believe that Haley has mentioned some of this in her campaign advertising, but the message has not been getting through. The emotional bond that Donald Trump has formed with his supporters is likely to be able to withstand his criminal conviction in the January 6 insurrection, and in the documents case that are pending against him. Such is the nature of a political cult.
Steve, let's hope to God that Biden wins in November, and that after the riots and Trump's insistence that he actually won and/or that the election was rigged, has died down (if it does die down); what will happen next?!
I am sure that Bannon and Miller won't stop trying to ruin our democracy.; they have come so far, with their dirty work! Will they turn to another MAGA, like Johnson, Jordan, Greene, Gaetz, etc., to take Trump's place? Will the nightmare end, or will it continue with another candidate? It seems, to me, that the "normal" GOP is dead and gone, that Trump's hold on the MAGAs now have deep roots.
Steve, what will be their next step?
Nikki is hanging in because she is setting herself up for 2028. Or, if for some reason the orange god gets tossed in the slammer and can't serve, she will be waiting in the wings.
You gotta love these conservative commentators. Kathleen Parker of South Carolina blamed the good old boys for Haley’s loss. Not a word about Haley’s cowardice — afraid to say the word slavery when asked about the causes of the Civil War.
And George Will. Kamala Harris is unqualified to be President. Yet cannot find one word — one word — to say why.
If you want to see why Trump and his Maggots are on a roll, a great deal of it has to do with the moral cowardice of people who call themselves Republicans.
A lot of people think George Will has been unqualified to be a commentator — for years. He’s a real jerk. No spine. All blab.
He does not like being talked down to by a strong female. Sorry for the bad grammar
But... the O's are playing and our new pitcher just struck out the first two batters he faced and Rutschman just hit a HR...and what happened to voting on Tuesdays?