OPINION:
It is reasonable to wonder why former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would stick with her vanity run for president only to suffer a humiliating rejection in her home state, where she was elected twice and was once viewed as the future of Republican politics.
“As long as I keep growing per state, I am in this race,” she declared over the weekend.
She came in a distant third in Iowa. Former President Donald Trump beat her by double digits in New Hampshire. And she faces certain defeat next week in Nevada, where she signed up for the wrong election and is polling behind “none of the above” — by 20 points.
And the latest polling shows her cruising into South Carolina with three huge losses under her belt, only to lose to Mr. Trump by nearly 30 points. This would be beyond humiliating. We are talking about a career-ending suicide mission.
Ask former Vice President Al Gore what it meant to lose his home state of Tennessee in 2000. Ask former Sen. John Edwards about losing his home state of North Carolina in 2004.
You do not recover from that kind of political rejection from the people who know you best and have known you longest.
Ms. Haley, however, says she is hellbent on carrying on into March.
“I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday, through Super Tuesday,” she said. “We’re going to keep on going and see where this gets us.”
So what is she trying to accomplish? Is she just a glutton for public humiliation? Is she trying to ruin her political career so she can go back to making real money working for the taxpayer-funded defense industry?
Maybe.
But for sure, Ms. Haley is willing to keep her campaign going for as long as she can find wealthy people willing to dump money into it. Who doesn’t like free money? And the ego boost is powerful.
As the adage goes, running for president is like making love. Nobody does it just once and then decides: “Well, I have done that. I don’t ever need to do that again.”
Usually, people do it once and decide to make a habit of it.
But there is more at play here for Ms. Haley than just the sneaky fun of it all in the back seat of a Cadillac Escalade. And it’s pretty stupid if she thinks it is part of a grand strategy to get picked as Mr. Trump’s running mate.
Ms. Haley has turned caustic toward her former political benefactor, who launched her to the national stage when he made her his ambassador to the United Nations.
She now claims — hilariously — that as U.N. ambassador, she would call Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and tell him that he is his own worst enemy. Really? Can you imagine that conversation?
What a self-serving lie.
Ms. Haley has also taken to lumping Mr. Trump into the same senile camp as President Biden. Seriously? Mr. Trump bungles a story by mixing up the names of Ms. Haley and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and he suddenly belongs in the memory wing of the old folks’ home with Mr. Biden?
Has Ms. Haley listened to a single speech from Mr. Biden in the last couple of years? Or is she simply willing to claim absolutely anything if it advances her political career?
Perhaps worst of all, Ms. Haley sided with a crazed New York jury that levied a ludicrous $83 million judgment against Mr. Trump based on no actual evidence of rape.
“I absolutely trust the jury,” Ms. Haley preened. “And I think that they made their decision based on evidence.”
Who knows what kind of calculations are going on in Ms. Haley’s accountant mind. But if she is thinking of a political future, she should hurry up and quit.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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