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Has anyone seen Republican Nikki Haley supporters in the wild?
I read a paywalled article the other day in Australian media optimistically hoping for a sudden realignment of fortunes, that Trump might possibly lose the primary.
The article is realistic that Haley's chances are quite low but it favours her nonetheless. I also saw NYT charts that said Haley won the debates. I still doubt that the NYT knows what makes for a good Republican candidate. Their support may be toxic.
Of course, there are polls showing that Haley is coming close to Trump. The funny thing is that nearly all the unrehearsed commentary I've seen about Haley is extremely negative. Even the Boomers commenting below the Australian article seem to favour Trump. Online people have mocked her for the 'I wear heels. They’re not for a fashion statement. They’re for ammunition' comment, which is admittedly pretty bizarre. I never saw any support for her, only people urging Trump not to pick her as VP. Even DeSantis had some traction on twitter, even if it was just his supporters getting shouted down by the overwhelming Trump chorus.
But I'm slightly self-aware, it's no good saying 'well nobody I know voted Nixon' when I'm not even American. Is Haley the new astroturf candidate like Jeb Bush or am I living in an infobubble? Should we all just trust the polls that say she's the primary challenger? Do you see people in real life or online who favour her? If you do, are they actually Republican primary voters as opposed to Democrats? Do any of you support Nikki Haley? Does she have a chance, perhaps if Trump is sent to prison?
Totally astroturfed by NeverTrumpers and NeoCons and the GOP donor class who have moved on from the desantis trainwreck. There is currently a media blitz going on trying to push Haley through hook or crook.
bad polls with convenient "oopsies" which tend to through sheer chance coincide with a media blitz for Haley; as an example the linked St Anselm poll, a generally good group other than baddd misses in 2022, included Democrats in the survey when NH has a semi-open primary where the registration deadline passed months ago and these Democrats would thus be ineligible to ever vote for Haley in the NH primary
the barebones ARG release (a group which has been garbage since the 2016 cycle) is even more BS and little more than naked manipulation
these sorts of convenient "oopsies" with an agenda in order to shape public opinion and perception is pretty common during these stages, but the sheer amount of obviously bullshit polls produced in support of the desantis trainwreck or the nimarata randhawa fake is staggering (e.g., don't believe any poll conducted by any group connected to Chris Wilson)
and of course, The Gaurdian didn't mention the UMASS Lowell poll, the only of the recent polls which met basic transparency guidelines by releasing a methodology statement and crosstabs, or the Trafalgar poll both of which had Trump leading by +30 and +27 respectively
tl;dr: it's astroturfed and fake and these media orgs continue to burn whatever credibility they have left
a Democrat winning would be better for the GOP voter than Nikki Haley
for those who don't know, Haley won her governorship in South Carolina on the back of the Tea Party wave by running as a Tea Party candidate and her time as governor would be best described as finding ways to lose and betray her voters
she's always among the first GOP losers tripping over themselves to attack their voters and sell them down the river
the only chance Nimarata Randhawa has in the primary is if Trump withdraws; if Trump withdraws, I think it's a toss-up between her and Desantis with a slight advantage to the dork because Desantis will lose NH and likely SC due to his Iowa strategy and Haley's connection to the SC machine, and Desantis's apparent desperate desire to shred a promising political career by attacking MAGA
if she somehow ends up as the national candidate, she would lose badly even in the environment with a laughably unpopular Biden admin because her neocon corporate schtick will lose in the must-win midwest due to the inability to motivate voters to show up for her; my prediction would be she loses a general a few points worse than Mitt Romney, but not as badly as John McCain
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