“Our ultimate retribution is success,” said former U.S. President Donald J. Trump during a solo town hall meeting presentation on Fox News on Wednesday evening, January 10. As Trump took the stage, his two major remaining opponents for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, appeared on CNN for a tiresome fifth Republican debate, held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowa is a crucial state in the American presidential contest. Its ‘caucuses’ process, which will be held on Monday, January 15, resembles a primary and is the first such contest in which the major political parties select their candidates.
One might well question Iowa’s importance this year. An average of polls shows Trump leading by 36 points over both Haley and DeSantis, who are in a desperate battle for a distant second-place finish, with each polling around 12% of Iowa Republicans. It is difficult to imagine what the prize would be. Neither opponent is strong enough to lend Trump the support he needs to win the nomination. Trump has labeled DeSantis, whom he endorsed in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election over an initially stronger Republican candidate, as disloyal for challenging his comeback campaign for the presidency.
Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is regularly dismissed by her former boss as a “birdbrain,” an evaluation that matches the estimation of such ‘Never Trump’ commentators as Trump’s sometime national security adviser John Bolton, whose memoirs portrayed Haley as an airhead who was unable to deal with sophisticated foreign affairs matters. Figures close to Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr., have ruled out any possible role for Haley in a new Trump administration, including as vice president, an office for which she seemed to be auditioning some months ago, perhaps not unrealistically so since Trump says he will appoint a female candidate.
The debate’s general timbre was sour, with DeSantis and Haley both coming across as scavengers trying to feed off whatever crumbs Trump’s overpowering campaign may have left behind. The atmosphere was rather more exciting than the previous couple of debates due to the departure from the race earlier of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who endorsed Trump in 2016 only to become embittered, it is said, after being denied any role in his administration. Christie, whose campaign largely consisted of repetitive anti-Trump diatribes, has a following that is widely believed to be more likely to support Haley than DeSantis. But even so, it is unlikely to make any difference in Iowa or nationally, where Trump’s lead is holding steadily at around 55 points above his two closest rivals. Some feel that momentum in Iowa might give Haley a better chance in the New Hampshire primary, another early contest, which will be held on January 23. But there, too, most polls show Trump enjoying an insuperable lead, even if all of Christie’s supporters back Haley’s campaign. Christie himself said on a live microphone during his withdrawal speech that Haley will get “smoked” by Trump as the primaries continue. As for DeSantis, rumors hold that he will soon drop out of the race if his standing does not improve in the early primary contests.
If ‘futility’ was the watchword, the debate itself descended from Alice in Wonderland’s ‘curiouser and curiouser’ formula to ‘pettier and pettier.’ Little substance came up for discussion. The first half of the debate was marred by DeSantis and Haley petulantly calling each other liars with both increasing volume and increasingly grating clichés. At one point, Haley referred the audience to a website called DesantisLies.com to track the Florida’s governor’s alleged falsehoods. DeSantis accused Haley of trying to appear to be all things to all people. For two obviously intelligent people, it was a painful spectacle.
Of the two, DeSantis came closer to landing meaningful blows by criticizing Haley as too internationalist for the current spirit of the Republican Party and too non-committal on so-called ‘red meat’ conservative issues, such as illegal immigration and abortion. At one point, he mocked Haley’s ambassadorial posting, saying, “You can take the ambassador out of the UN, but you cannot take the UN out of the ambassador.” Haley’s support from the Koch brothers—more or less libertarian internationalist billionaires who lean Republican—attracted DeSantis’s derision, while Haley riposted that DeSantis is sore because major establishment Republican donors deserted him once they began to believe that he is unelectable. This has benefited Haley to some degree among former DeSantis supporters in high finance and in GOP establishment circles, who see her as the next best chance to stop Trump from returning, but in view of the polls, many in those and adjacent communities are now either backing Trump, reconciled with Trump, or staying neutral with the intention of supporting Trump over incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden in the U.S. general election if he becomes the Republican nominee.
DeSantis and Haley were reticent on the subject of the former president, though both agreed in rather whiny tones that he should have participated in the debate. Trump has consistently refused to take part in the GOP debates since they began last August, arguing that his massive lead effectively means they are pointless exercises in political rhetoric. He also maintains in principle that he cannot agree to a condition of participation that requires those taking part to pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee. In any case, his absence has proved brilliant politics, since without saying a word, spending a dollar, or launching an attack, he has remained the center of attention as the other Republican candidates fight each other in ever-nastier terms. The only real criticisms of his campaign in this debate were Haley’s less than severe admonition that Trump lacks moral clarity and DeSantis’s argument that Trump’s legal troubles may limit his effectiveness as a candidate.
Haley has shown some movement among Republicans in recent weeks, but not enough to alter the course of the Republican nomination campaign in forthcoming contests. Even if she performs relatively well in Iowa and New Hampshire, she will almost certainly still lose in both states and lose by a margin large enough to cast doubt on her viability. Then, on February 24, she faces another difficult contest in her home state of South Carolina, where many local Republicans despise her for her less conservative views on social issues. Trump leads her there by 29 points. A home state defeat is all but the kiss of death for any American presidential hopeful, and she may then finally begin to fade away.
Trump Wins Yet Another Republican Debate
“Our ultimate retribution is success,” said former U.S. President Donald J. Trump during a solo town hall meeting presentation on Fox News on Wednesday evening, January 10. As Trump took the stage, his two major remaining opponents for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, appeared on CNN for a tiresome fifth Republican debate, held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowa is a crucial state in the American presidential contest. Its ‘caucuses’ process, which will be held on Monday, January 15, resembles a primary and is the first such contest in which the major political parties select their candidates.
One might well question Iowa’s importance this year. An average of polls shows Trump leading by 36 points over both Haley and DeSantis, who are in a desperate battle for a distant second-place finish, with each polling around 12% of Iowa Republicans. It is difficult to imagine what the prize would be. Neither opponent is strong enough to lend Trump the support he needs to win the nomination. Trump has labeled DeSantis, whom he endorsed in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election over an initially stronger Republican candidate, as disloyal for challenging his comeback campaign for the presidency.
Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is regularly dismissed by her former boss as a “birdbrain,” an evaluation that matches the estimation of such ‘Never Trump’ commentators as Trump’s sometime national security adviser John Bolton, whose memoirs portrayed Haley as an airhead who was unable to deal with sophisticated foreign affairs matters. Figures close to Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr., have ruled out any possible role for Haley in a new Trump administration, including as vice president, an office for which she seemed to be auditioning some months ago, perhaps not unrealistically so since Trump says he will appoint a female candidate.
The debate’s general timbre was sour, with DeSantis and Haley both coming across as scavengers trying to feed off whatever crumbs Trump’s overpowering campaign may have left behind. The atmosphere was rather more exciting than the previous couple of debates due to the departure from the race earlier of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who endorsed Trump in 2016 only to become embittered, it is said, after being denied any role in his administration. Christie, whose campaign largely consisted of repetitive anti-Trump diatribes, has a following that is widely believed to be more likely to support Haley than DeSantis. But even so, it is unlikely to make any difference in Iowa or nationally, where Trump’s lead is holding steadily at around 55 points above his two closest rivals. Some feel that momentum in Iowa might give Haley a better chance in the New Hampshire primary, another early contest, which will be held on January 23. But there, too, most polls show Trump enjoying an insuperable lead, even if all of Christie’s supporters back Haley’s campaign. Christie himself said on a live microphone during his withdrawal speech that Haley will get “smoked” by Trump as the primaries continue. As for DeSantis, rumors hold that he will soon drop out of the race if his standing does not improve in the early primary contests.
If ‘futility’ was the watchword, the debate itself descended from Alice in Wonderland’s ‘curiouser and curiouser’ formula to ‘pettier and pettier.’ Little substance came up for discussion. The first half of the debate was marred by DeSantis and Haley petulantly calling each other liars with both increasing volume and increasingly grating clichés. At one point, Haley referred the audience to a website called DesantisLies.com to track the Florida’s governor’s alleged falsehoods. DeSantis accused Haley of trying to appear to be all things to all people. For two obviously intelligent people, it was a painful spectacle.
Of the two, DeSantis came closer to landing meaningful blows by criticizing Haley as too internationalist for the current spirit of the Republican Party and too non-committal on so-called ‘red meat’ conservative issues, such as illegal immigration and abortion. At one point, he mocked Haley’s ambassadorial posting, saying, “You can take the ambassador out of the UN, but you cannot take the UN out of the ambassador.” Haley’s support from the Koch brothers—more or less libertarian internationalist billionaires who lean Republican—attracted DeSantis’s derision, while Haley riposted that DeSantis is sore because major establishment Republican donors deserted him once they began to believe that he is unelectable. This has benefited Haley to some degree among former DeSantis supporters in high finance and in GOP establishment circles, who see her as the next best chance to stop Trump from returning, but in view of the polls, many in those and adjacent communities are now either backing Trump, reconciled with Trump, or staying neutral with the intention of supporting Trump over incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden in the U.S. general election if he becomes the Republican nominee.
DeSantis and Haley were reticent on the subject of the former president, though both agreed in rather whiny tones that he should have participated in the debate. Trump has consistently refused to take part in the GOP debates since they began last August, arguing that his massive lead effectively means they are pointless exercises in political rhetoric. He also maintains in principle that he cannot agree to a condition of participation that requires those taking part to pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee. In any case, his absence has proved brilliant politics, since without saying a word, spending a dollar, or launching an attack, he has remained the center of attention as the other Republican candidates fight each other in ever-nastier terms. The only real criticisms of his campaign in this debate were Haley’s less than severe admonition that Trump lacks moral clarity and DeSantis’s argument that Trump’s legal troubles may limit his effectiveness as a candidate.
Haley has shown some movement among Republicans in recent weeks, but not enough to alter the course of the Republican nomination campaign in forthcoming contests. Even if she performs relatively well in Iowa and New Hampshire, she will almost certainly still lose in both states and lose by a margin large enough to cast doubt on her viability. Then, on February 24, she faces another difficult contest in her home state of South Carolina, where many local Republicans despise her for her less conservative views on social issues. Trump leads her there by 29 points. A home state defeat is all but the kiss of death for any American presidential hopeful, and she may then finally begin to fade away.
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