Grading Nikki Haley

When former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announced last year that she was throwing her hat in the ring to become the Republican candidate for President this year, I smiled, shook my head and thought good luck with that.

I knew two things about Haley at that point. 

The first was that she had called for the removal of the confederate flag from the state capital soon after a young white supremacist (whose name I will not include) slaughtered nine Black people in a church in Charleston and quickly passed legislation to make this happen. Good for you, Governor, I thought. (Along with: South Carolina has a female governor of Indian descent? Wow. Who knew?)

The second was that she had served as the Tangerine Wankmaggot’s UN ambassador, which left her tainted in my eyes – along with every other person who agreed serve this self-serving piece of shit.

Well, I have to say, Haley has surprised me, doing better in her run to be the GOP candidate than I would have expected.

Then she had her big hiccup – unable or unwilling to identify slavery as the cause of the Civil War at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. Instead she babbled, semi-coherently, about states’ rights and the role of government – a trope she has apparently been trotting out for years (to more sympathetic audiences). Back pedalling days later to say, well, duh, doesn’t “slavery” go without saying, didn’t do her any favours. No, Nikki, it does not go without saying.

What the hell? And then this week, there she is telling Fox News that the USA “is not a racist country. We’ve never been a racist country.” (Just before stating that she’d faced racism while growing up. Huh?) 

If that’s the case, Ms Haley, why the principled stand on the removal of the Confederate flag? Oh, not so principled, I discover reading this Washington Post article. It seems that, despite loud calls for the removal of the flag, Haley had shown no interest whatsoever in doing so when she was first elected governor. Let me share this bit. 

Oh, my god.

In her 2019 book, With All Due Respect: Defending America With Grit and Grace (gag me), Haley devoted a chapter to the removal of the flag, saying of the Charleston church killer: “The evil act he had committed had robbed the good-intentioned South Carolinians who supported the flag of this symbol of heritage and service. He had encouraged everyone’s worst stereotype for our state. Clearly, something had to be done. But at the same time, I worried that allowing the killer to define what the flag represented for everyone was a surrender.” Oh, okay.

The Post article also includes a quote from an interview Haley did with Glen Beck during her book tour: “And here is this guy that comes out with this manifesto, holding the Confederate flag, and had just hijacked everything that people thought of… People saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage, but once he did that there was no way to overcome it, and the national media came in droves.” Oh, that pesky national media spotlight.

The article concludes with a quote from an op-ed Haley penned for the Post: “Everyone knows the flag has always been a symbol of slavery, discrimination and hate for many people. But not everyone sees the flag that way. That’s hard for non-Southerners to understand, but it’s a fact.” Really, Ms Haley? You don’t think that’s hard for anyone in their right mind to understand?

History grade: F.

Okay, now that we’ve sorted out the History grade, let’s move on to the maths grade.

On Tuesday, Haley came in third in the Iowa caucus – a long, long way behind the Wankmaggot and also behind Ron DeSantis. Despite this, she declared the results had “turned this into a two-person race”.

What else is there to say?

Maths grade: F.

This woman is mealy-mouthed. Mealy-mouthed about the Confederate flag. Mealy-mouthed about abortion rights. Mealy-mouthed about the Wankmaggot. (How many times have you heard her use these exact words: “I strongly believed that Donald Trump was the right president at the right time. But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him.” Rightly or wrongly? Are you kidding me?) Mealy-mouthed about every single issue.

I never thought I’d write these words, but thank god for MAGA heads because

And that doesn’t surprise me. It’s no secret that the majority of Americans have little enthusiasm for a rerun of the Old White Men 2020 election. Unfortunately for them, that is almost certainly what they are going to get, because the MAGA heads will ensure the Wankmaggot is the Republican candidate. Which is a good thing for Biden.

Haley would be a terrible President. (Mind you, I can’t think of a single Republican these days who wouldn’t be even worse.) That’s not to say she won’t be elected one day. I’d say she’s got a decent shot at it in 2028 – particularly if she’s running against Kamala Harris. Not that I can imagine both parties going for women candidates, but you never know.