The 2024 presidential campaign is underway, Lord help us, and on Tuesday former South Carolina Governor and US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley joined the fray. The question her opening video didn’t answer, but she will have to, is: Why her?
Some Republicans want to clear the field for one candidate to beat Donald Trump, who would almost certainly lose again to President Biden. But running for President is an ordeal, and primary contests have the virtue of identifying candidates’ weaknesses that will give GOP voters an idea of who is the best long-distance runner.
Ms Haley’s candidacy is welcome in that sense, and she brings clear strengths. She was a popular Governor, held a cabinet-level position in a foreign-policy role, and brings racial and gender diversity to the GOP field. She also has charisma and can light up a room of Republicans.
Some of these advantages sound more impressive than they are. South Carolina’s Governor is constitutionally weak — legislative leaders hold most of the power — and remaining popular in the solidly red Palmetto State is no sure sign of resilience at the national level.
She is relentlessly upbeat — as Governor she mandated that cabinet agencies answer phone calls from the public with the line “It’s a great day in South Carolina.” She repeated that “great day” theme in her presidential announcement, and it may soon be open to parody like the exclamation point after Jeb! in 2016.
Ms Haley’s finest moment came in 2015 when she signed a bill removing a Confederate flag from a monument on the grounds of the state house. This happened after the murder of nine African-Americans by a white supremacist in Charleston. The Governor’s speech on the occasion of the bill signing was inspiring, and throughout that episode she played her role admirably. But the removal of the flag was not the result of her effort. When her opponent in the gubernatorial race proposed removing the flag a year earlier, she dismissed the idea.
More concerning is Ms Haley’s reputation for speaking in the absence of knowledge. As U.N. ambassador Ms Haley performed well enough. But she also resigned from the position after less than two years, and her colleagues in government have been critical in their memoirs about her work ethic and depth.
The bigger challenge for Ms Haley is identifying the rationale for her candidacy beyond a winning persona. Her campaign announcement stressed a belief in America as a force for good, the seriousness of global threats, and the follies of the progressive left. Is there a Republican presidential candidate who believes something different?
She hasn’t staked out any clear domestic policy directions, and she doesn’t have an obvious core of support. Her “new generation” line suggests Ms Haley, age 51, will make her relative youth and vitality a contrast with Messrs. Biden and Trump. Good idea, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another likely candidate, is 44. Other likely candidates are similarly youthful.
Ted Kennedy famously fizzled in the 1980 Democratic primary when he couldn’t answer the question “Why do you want to be President?” Ms Haley needs her own answer.
The Wall St Journal
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