It’s only partly about Trump.It’s only partly about Trump.
Nikki Haley is in it to win it, or at least to see what happens.
No one is giving her just-announced presidential campaign high odds of winning the GOP nomination, yet she’s an accomplished politician with real talent who belongs in the race.
Haley is a two-term governor who served admirably as ambassador to the U.N., is well spoken, and makes a good impression on Republican audiences. If she’s a long shot, she’s not a political nobody running for a cable TV gig or a book contract — as many unlikely Republican presidential candidates have over the years — and it’s not crazy to think she’ll get a serious look from Republican voters at some point.
Her announcement video didn’t light the world on fire, but it was well done, and displayed her skills as a communicator.
She used her Indian American background to position herself as transcending the nation’s traditional white-Black racial divide. She defended America’s founding principles and history in a way that got some welcome pushback from the left. She touted her economic record as governor in South Carolina and her unifying response to the shooting at Mother Emanuel. She noted that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections (Sub-text: former President Donald Trump failed to do it in both his runs). She hit the Washington establishment. And she talked of kicking bullies with her high heels.
The tone was firm, yet upbeat, and a good summation of the case for her campaign.
With Trump having announced and everyone else still on the sidelines, she’s taking advantage of the phony-war phase of the Republican nomination battle to get an extra increment of media attention as the second official candidate in the ring.
