Dem
51
GOP
49
By now, pretty much everyone has heard that Nikki Haley followed up on her "insight" into the causes of the Civil War this week, answering a question about racism from Fox host Brian Kilmeade thusly: "We're not a racist country, Brian. We've never been a racist country."
Let us now pause for a moment to share the first 10 thoughts that come to mind on reading that:
We don't really know what goes through Haley's head when she says such things. Does she acknowledge to herself that she's peddling a ridiculous falsehood? Does she split hairs, along the lines of "Sometimes the PEOPLE are racist, but the COUNTRY never is?" Does she not think about it at all? In any event, it's kind of a shame that she feels (and knows) that, as a brown woman, her only hope to become the Republican presidential nominee is to grossly oversell the notion that the U.S. is a post-racial society.
We don't know if the two events are related, but not too long after Haley shared her newest historical thesis, one of the fattest of her fat cat donors announced that he was pushing the "pause" button. Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, said that he wanted to see how things go in New Hampshire before writing any more checks. "If she doesn't get traction in New Hampshire, you don't throw money down a rat hole," he remarked.
And on that point the polls of New Hampshire are coming fairly fast and furious. Here are the four from the past week:
| Pollster | Trump | Haley | Net |
| Suffolk | 50% | 36% | Trump +14% |
| St. Anselm | 52% | 38% | Trump +14% |
| American Research Group | 40% | 40% | EVEN |
| Emerson | 44% | 28% | Trump +16% |
The fact that independents can cross over introduces an X factor, but it sure looks like Trump is going to win the state easily. If so, then between her verbal gaffes and her performance at the polls, the money spigot will be turned off, and the wheels will soon fall off. In short, we kinda think that this week is the high water mark for Haley '24. (Z)