Right now, @nikkihaley is speaking to a full house in Amherst. Lots of positive energy.#nhpolitics #FITN pic.twitter.com/vMeut5Zot4
— Greg Moore (@GregMooreNH) December 14, 2023
Slightly scary reminder: Iowa’s (GOP) primary is scheduled for Monday, January 15th; New Hampshire’s (GOP) primary is on Tuesday, January 23rd. Since neither state is of much importance to Democratic primary voters this time, that makes them much more dedicated to wooing Republican candidates, lest they lose all those lovely earned media dollars in future election cycles.
New Hampshire, per ‘popular governor Chris Sununu’ is throwing its chips behind Nikki Haley; meanwhile, the DeSantis campaign has decided that Iowa is their best hope not to flame out before snowmelt. Me, I’m gonna enjoy watching the carnage, from a safe distance.
USA Today reports “Nikki Haley clinches crucial NH endorsement as she looks to narrow Donald Trump’s lead”:
New Hampshire’s popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Tuesday night, a critical move that could invigorate the White House hopeful’s campaign as she seeks to take on former President Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary.
“It’s unbelievable,” Sununu said to a packed crowd at the McIntyre Ski Area in Manchester, describing Haley’s momentum in the state. “To see her out there to see you’re connecting with folks to feel that momentum is real and it is changeable.”…
Among the most popular Republican governors in the country, Sununu has urged flocks of voters packed into tiny diners, American Legion halls and auditoriums across New Hampshire to “get behind a winner” who could beat President Joe Biden in a general election match up.
“I call it retail management,” Sununu, 48, said while discussing the factors impacting his potential endorsement outside of a Haley event in November. It’s an old-fashioned style of politicking Sununu employed during his four successful gubernatorial campaigns in the Granite State and one he believes could be a winning strategy for the modern-day GOP…
Haley in recent weeks has also racked up a number of major conservative endorsements, including one from the Koch-brothers backed Americans for Prosperity Action. The pushes signal growing consensus for the former Palmetto State governor as a top Trump rival.
Sununu’s move to endorse Haley breaks with a decision by his early voting state counterpart, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, to back DeSantis.
The Florida governor has largely bet his chances in the 2024 race on Iowa’s evangelical voters. A Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll published earlier this week found the governor in second place in the Midwest state, over 30 percentage points behind Trump and just three points ahead of Haley…
There seems to have been a major outburst on rightwing twitter today over a report that TFG might just consider Haley for his VP, assuming he’s not dead or in jail by the time campaign season rachets up. She’s not a MAGA fave, and Donnie Jr. announced Haley would be Daddy’s choice ‘over my dead body’ — which is, IMO, one reason the idea isn’t totally unfeasible.
Reminder: ‘Independent’ New Hampshire voters ratf*cking opposing candidates’ primaries is a proud local tradition — and this year they don’t have an ‘official’ Democratic choice to expend their bile:
Nikki Haley and the NH Governor calling for Democrats to vote in the Republican primary
This was the plan all along pic.twitter.com/635hiN8s6H
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 13, 2023
Ed Kilgore, at NYMag, throws cold water — “Nikki Haley Needs a Miracle, Not Just Hype, to Beat Trump”:
[Sununu’s endorsement is] the good news this week for the former United Nations ambassador and governor of South Carolina. The not-so-good news was that she has lost her momentum in Iowa, according to the latest gold-standard Iowa Poll from Ann Selzer, and is still running third there behind Trump and Ron DeSantis. This sets up two possible paths ahead for the new Republican Establishment favorite, both of which lead to her home state’s primary on February 24…
The underlying problem for Haley is that there’s nothing in her background and message that is appealing to Trump supporters, who represent a solid majority of Republican voters nationally (61 percent in the latest RCP polling averages) and a near majority in the early states where his rivals have concentrated their efforts. Her fans have been avidly promoting her electability credentials as evidenced by some (though not all) polls showing her running better against Joe Biden than any other Republican candidate. But electability is not presently the biggest worry of Trump backers, who are more focused on plotting vengeance on his and their tormenters when he wins. Unfortunately for Nikki Haley, her own backers are squarely in the MAGA crosshairs too. She needs a small miracle and a lot of luck to keep her campaign going through Super Tuesday.
I still say Haley is getting a jump start on the 2028 campaign cycle — the Sensible Choice, once TFG is off the ticket, for whatever reason. Ron DeSaster, on the other hand, is looking more and more like this year’s Bobby Jindal. He’s so desperate, he’s even started (tentatively) saying bad things about Dear Leader!
DeSantis goes after Trump hard! https://t.co/bv9T0kDKdR
— christopher byrne (@chrisbyrnenj) December 13, 2023
CNN’s own review:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday showed new urgency in taking on Donald Trump, attacking the former president at every turn at a CNN town hall in Iowa with the state’s caucuses less than five weeks away.
DeSantis was quick to flip many questions into opportunities to contrast his record as governor with Trump.
The economy? Trump “set the stage” for rising inflation, DeSantis said. The border crisis? Trump didn’t complete the wall, and Mexico didn’t pay for it, he said. Abortion? Trump is “flip-flopping on the right to life,” the Florida governor claimed.
He even blamed Trump for the Satanic Temple of Iowa’s display at the state Capitol, a development that has roiled Iowa and triggered a free speech debate. “Lo and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion,” DeSantis said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service granting the group tax-exempt status in 2019.
Missing from Tuesday’s event were the conservative culture war-infused buzzwords that typically pepper DeSantis’ speeches and town halls. Instead, he focused on issues that polls show are top of mind for the broader electorate. And he treated everything — even a question about an endorsement rival Nikki Haley had just gotten from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu — as an opportunity to attack Trump…
“When he gets off the teleprompter now, you don’t know what he’s gonna say,” DeSantis said. “It’s a different Donald Trump than in ‘15 and ‘16. You know, back then he was colorful, but it was really America First, about the policies. Now a lot of it’s about him.”
It was a striking string of attacks, though, not because it covered new ground. DeSantis has lobbed similar critiques at Trump on the campaign trail for weeks. But he has rarely, in a prime-time appearance, narrowed his attacks so directly at the former president, and at every turn…
The change in approach Tuesday is perhaps illustrative of the mounting urgency within his campaign to make headway in the state. DeSantis has signaled a readiness to go after Trump in the past, before retreating. It remains to be seen if this time will be any different…
He also, apparently, tried to bribe Iowans by offering to deport the Department of Agriculture from DC…
When I’m President, Iowa will have first dibs on the Department of Agriculture.
An agency like the USDA should be staffed by Americans who understand agriculture and farming, not pointy-headed bureaucrats imposing an agenda. pic.twitter.com/xc3A0RuIM9
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 14, 2023
… and publicly courted Sean Hannity as a ‘more substantive’ moderator than Jake Tapper:
Sean Hannity held the most substantive debate of the cycle last month.
If he wants to host a debate between Nikki Haley and me or Donald Trump and me, I’m game. pic.twitter.com/82CjNC8UKb
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 14, 2023
Anyone wanna run a pool on the date when Ron officially throws in the towel?
Alison Rose
Don’t threaten us with a good time, Junior.
MattF
You just take one look at those pictures of DeSantis— and there’s an immediate, automatic ‘Ick’ reaction. Quite remarkable.
Harrison Wesley
Tiny diners? American Legion halls? Auditoriums? How many reporters does the New York Times have up there in New Hampshire, anyway?
lowtechcyclist
Let’s see: Iowa’s on January 15th, so I think Ron calls it quits on January 17th, in order for his exit to be overlooked more than if he did it on the 16th.
Ken
I thought I saw a report a few weeks ago that he had. Not in those words, of course; just that he had scaled back or ended operations in many states so that he could concentrate on winning in the first few.
Alison Rose
@Harrison Wesley: They’re secretly cloning them in the basement.
Quinerly
Bizarre morning. I got a text on my phone from Nikki Haley asking me to take one minute of my time and read her message. First time I have ever received anything by text or email from a Republican. I texted back “Fuck off.”
For some reason that little text back gave me a little morning rush.
I hate these people.
Mr. Bemused Senior
How can I resist? Your proposal is acceptable.
Scout211
I don’t gamble (not that there’s anything wrong with it) but my guess is March 6th, the day following Super Tuesday.
Quinerly
@MattF:
He is repulsive. In his own way as much, perhaps more repulsive than Trump. OK, maybe not more so. Even.
Alison Rose
@Quinerly: LOLLL excellent.
dmsilev
A strategy like this might have made a difference six months ago, if deSantis adopted it and stuck with it. He might have had a chance to chip away a reasonably sized block of Trump’s supporters. Now? Just a few weeks prior to the caucus, with Trump having consolidated his support essentially without opposition from the other candidates? Way way way too late.
scav
Cmon you corn-fed dears. Even you know that when a pointy-toed career Republican comes in talking about turning over the USDA to “Americans who understand agriculture and farming” he’s talking about the heirs of Monsanto.
dmsilev
@Quinerly: “Reply ‘Stop’ to unsubscribe or ‘Fuck off Assholes’ to really truly unsubscribe’ “
Harrison Wesley
Prince Puddinghands of the Wedged Boots will be out by the end of January. He will then return and brood in his castle in Tallahassee, dreaming of bigger, more effective ways to turn Florida into America’s Sewer.
Alison Rose
@scav: I thought he meant the immigrants who work in hellish conditions to pick all of our produce for shamefully low pay and zero protection from literally anything.
Patricia Kayden
@MattF: Yet he’s been elected twice by Floridians. Makes you wonder.
surfk9
@Alison Rose: Hear Hear! I grew up in Salinas and I know what shit conditions farm workers live in. We now live in San Joaquin county and volunteer for the Western Farm Workers Association. Everyone here would be appalled at the conditions these people live in. That does not include the impact of climate change on their work
Harrison Wesley
@Patricia Kayden: Rick Scott was elected twice as governor and is now in the Senate. His greatist claim to fame was being involved in the biggest Medicare fraud we’ve ever known. I guess it qualifies as an accomplishment of some kind.
Martin
So much for those California delegates.
wombat probability cloud
@MattF: Blinky has an uncanny valley quality about him; not a good look.
Brachiator
I guess it makes sense that DeSantis wants to try to make an early splash in the first primary.
But eyes will be on Trump. The question might be what level of dominance will squeeze the other candidates out of the running.
ETA. I flipped on the news and saw that the top story was about the GOP beginning its impeachment probe, i.e., grasping at straws to try to get something on Biden. The partisan stupidity just deepens my disgust towards these idiots.
Ken
@Martin: Don’t worry, if DeSantis is still running when California’s turn comes around, he’ll promise them first dibs on Agriculture too.
Villago Delenda Est
That Sununu is one of the most popular Rethug governors says a lot about New Hampshire’s electorate. None of it good.
Harrison Wesley
@Brachiator: And they take the impeachment so seriously that they immediately went on vacation.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: Or the MBAs who run Conagra and Archer Daniels Midland.
Suzanne
@Quinerly:
Come sit by me, friend.
I’m so sick of “Real Americans = FARM” nonsense. There are farms in every state in the country, especially the big blue one!
Baud
@Suzanne:
The Republicans confer social status on them so they feel good about the Republicans robbing them blind.
Suzanne
@Baud: I know. It’s just bewildering to me that other people don’t know! It’s plainly evident!
I used to try really hard to try to see things from others’ points of view, but…. fuck it, I’m right.
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
Eh, Bashear is a popular governor, but KY’s electorate is still crappy.
cain
@Harrison Wesley: they will have a whole phalanx of reporters. They will have 2 maybe for the Democratic party.
Baud
@Suzanne:
There’s always a limit to such things. Some people don’t seem to understand that.
Jeffro
@lowtechcyclist:
That’s not a bad bet!
Let’s all stretch a bit and guess when Ron starts in with the trumpian bootlicking in earnest…a week off for recharging says it’ll be January 24th
Baud
@cain:
Will it be Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson? The nation is on pins and needles!
stinger
@Martin: The current Secretary of Agriculture is a former Iowa governor. Do you suppose DeSantis is aware of that, or nah?
Danielx
Oh noez not pointy-headed bureaucrats! Please no!
I thought that one died with George Wallace but sadly, no.
RaflW
One trifling copy edit for USAT (and I’ve seen other outlets do this): Saying “Koch-brothers backed…” is weird. David Koch died in 2019.
Charles is still alive, and of course their slush funds will continue as zombie funders of the apocalypse even after there are no extant brothers. But I think it’s flat wrong to refer as they did. Unless Charles has one hell of a Ouija board.
Ken
I would not be surprised if Biden won as a write-in candidate.
Mike in NC
Nikki Haley would be Fat Bastard’s VP choice the day hell froze over. He despises all women and non-white women in particular.
Yarrow
@Baud: OMG, I was listening to something on my local NPR station. No idea what show it was was, but they were talking to high school kids who are focused on climate change actions. One young woman said she was disappointed with Biden because of something he authorized (drilling somewhere maybe? Sorry, can’t remember) and said she was interested in Marianne Williamson because she said she’d stop whatever this thing was on her first day in office. Uh huh. Biden has done more for green initiatives than any other president but sure, Marianne Williamson will save the planet.
wjca
Never. Because admitting defeat is impossible for him.
But the date when his campaign is reduced to him (and his worse half) and nobody else? (OK, a few staffers being paid by Florida taxpayers, but illegally working for the campaign. But work with me here.) Maybe 2 weeks after he finishes third, or lower, in Iowa.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Probably the Willow project in Alaska. Approved by trump in March 2020. Biden tried stop, then limited it, but courts had already ruled in favor of drilling projects approved by the gov’t before Jan ’21, and the Biden admin decided that further fighting would just postpone the inevitable
Baud
@Yarrow:
We deserve to be ruled as serfs.
Jinchi
What’s the bigger offense to the Republican base, Casey DeSantis urging out of state voters to swarm the Iowa caucus or Nikki Haley asking Democrats to vote for her in the New Hampshire Republican primary?
Barbara
@Yarrow: They go out of their way to find people like this and then try to make you think it was happenstance. It’s why I never listen to NPR anymore.
Baud
@Barbara:
Yes. A young person who said they were all in for Biden would end up on the cutting room floor.
ETA: Or whatever the digital equivalent is.
Jinchi
@Barbara: Right. They just happened to speak to the one high school student who knows that Mariane Williamson is a person running for president and decided she’s representative of her generation.
NotMax
@Baud
The pixel pail?
//
CaseyL
@wjca:
Is DeSantis having money problems? My guess is, he won’t drop out while anyone, anywhere, is still sending him money.
I’ve heard he’s gone through his campaign funds pretty damn quick, but don’t know if that is entirely through profligate spending (he and the missus are having a stinking good time, flying on private jets and all) or if the fundraising is falling off.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, that’s what it was. Thanks.
@Barbara: I thought something similar. It was so frustrating. They must have got at least 10-15 minutes of time. I wish they’d profile some young people who understand how politics works.
Shalimar
That screenshot of DeSantis and Tapper is brutal for Ron. Tapper is standing like an adult. DeSantis has the posture of a 10-year-old who just got scolded by mommy for talking in church.
NotMax
@Yarrow
“Good luck with that.”
– Diogenes
…
Timill
@NotMax: The bit bucket, or used to be when I were young…
Gvg
@Martin: The return of the spoils system? Fools, aren’t they? Lots of states have lots of agriculture even while they also sometimes have other things too. Florida is a big agricultural state too, and it show during his whole tenure that Ron doesn’t even know that. Citrus is collapsing and they voted to give the citrus industry more funds for publicity….admittedly lots of citizens don’t know that, but a politician should. Promising that to another state as if it was a crackerjack prize instead of an agency to serve everyone, just the gall.
He doesn’t even know what it does. Jackass.
StringOnAStick
Answered with better info above.
Geminid
@CaseyL: DeSantis excited a lot of big donors when he announced his run early this year. He ended up with enough money to start a very ambitious campaign operation with a lot of overhead.
By April, his personal appearances had exposed DeSantis’s personality deficits and the money started drying up. Many of his original donors washed their hands of him months ago.
Compared to what was planned last February, this is a skeleton campaign that badly needs a win. Trump’s people hope to put DeSantis away in Iowa and it looks like they will.
wjca
I’d bet on both.
Agreed, he’ll keep going while the money (less grift embezzled but not yet spent) holds out. But considering that he’s going all out in Iowa, I don’t doubt he’ll blow most of it there.
Kathleen
@Yarrow: NPR always manages to find these people. I remember in 2016 they never found any Hillary supporters anywhere they went. That’s when I stopped listening.
tybee
@Baud:
the bit bucket
Timill beat me to it.
Paul in KY
@Mike in NC: Plus she’s not near enough of the toady/lickspittle he demands.