NIKKI Haley suspended her campaign for the Republican (GOP) presidential nomination last Wednesday, after winning only one state on Super Tuesday. But the scrappy Republican’s influence on the 2024 US presidential nomination elevated the discussion. It also held up a stark mirror to the GOP’s capitulation to the tsunami that is former President Donald Trump.
Make no mistake, The Seattle Times editorial board strongly endorsed President Joe Biden last month, not just for the Democratic nomination, but for the whole shebang – again.
The Times Feb 2 Biden endorsement read:
“Through it all, Biden has taken the high road, neither demeaning himself nor his position by engaging in the sort of vulgar political food fights so favoured by former President Donald Trump. Four years ago, Biden said he would restore dignity to the White House. He has kept his word,” the board wrote.
Washington’s presidential primary this coming Tuesday is the state’s only election that requires voters to pick a party before they make their selection. The parties, after all, get to select their standard-bearer for president.
So the editorial board also offered Republican voters advice for a candidate on the Republican side. That was Haley. Hands down.
By any measure, the conservative’s views, including on abortion rights, are far afield of the editorial board’s positions and Washington state’s interest.
As Emma Hinchliffe wrote in Fortune, most feminists won’t bemoan Haley’s departure: “Her conservative politics hardly align with feminist’s vision for the United States.”
And yet her exit means the Americans enter another election cycle without a woman in contention for the top job – another four years to wait. Vice president is once again a ceiling…, Hinchliffe pointed out.
“Rather than watching a woman run for president this year, we’ll have to pay attention to the policies that affect our lives most, from abortion rights to the ongoing effort to secure paid leave and affordable childcare.”
Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, showed her mettle in making her case that the GOP had to move on from Trump. The only woman among more than a dozen Republican challengers, the men fell like bowling pins, obsequious in their gentle challenges and enthusiastic in their sudden endorsements of the man who led an insurrection to overturn his 2020 defeat by Biden.
“While Trump fawns over the dictators of Russia and North Korea, she is on to them and the geopolitical threats they pose,” the Feb 2 editorial read. “While Trump is making up names for his adversaries, she is lamenting eighth-grade test scores.
“While he is demanding House Republicans resist a solution for the U.S. border crisis so he can use it as a campaign cudgel, she wants it prioritised and is not averse to compromise.
“While Trump and the right-wing media spin up the Taylor Swift conspiracy endorsement theory, she laughs and says, ‘I don’t get it.’ Then adds that she has taken her daughter to one of the star’s concerts and enjoyed it.”
By last Wednesday, Haley had won only 89 delegates to Trump’s 995. Resplendent in red and atop her storied five-inch heels, the daughter of immigrants announced she was suspending her campaign. Significantly, Haley did not endorse the former president. She warned him he had to make a strong case to win over her supporters.
She also reiterated her concerns about the future of the country, including the crushing national debt, Congressional dysfunction, including its retreat from support of Ukraine and other allies. Trump has fanned that dysfunction and dismissed US alliances. The contrast between the two remains stark.
Haley is out, but she stirred a pot that needed to be stirred. And that has been a service to the national debate about presidential leadership. — The Seattle Times/TNS
Source Agencies
