Nikki Haley Process of Elimination

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Nikki Haley, 2024 Republican Party presidential candidate, with husband Michael Haley.

What does Nikki Haley have, that Hilary Clinton didn’t have when she ran against Donald Trump? It’s a question prompted by polls that she is the next favorite 2024 candidate, after Donald Trump. I should not be entertaining this question because I don’t do polls. I don’t believe in guesswork. How polls collect information should not be a yardstick for making decisions about politics.

Hilary Clinton. Democratic Party 2016 presidential candidate. Wife to former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Nimarata Nikki Haley. Republican Party, one of the candidates trying to bag the 2024 presidential nominee. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, during the Trump administration.

What could Haley have that would make her the first female U.S. President, something that eluded Hilary Clinton? I’m sorting this out in my head because they are both women, although they are world’s apart. Clinton has longer birth tentacles than Nikki Haley who was born in the U.S. but whose parents came from India. Clinton’s celebrated life as U.S. First Lady is common knowledge and it made it easy for her to try and re-enter the White House as the president and not companion.

Hilary Clinton’s life might have worked against her with some voters. It screamed privilege, sense of entitlement, ‘legacy’ political admission like legacy admission to universities like Harvard and name recognition, the staple of American politics.

Nikki Haley on the other hand was born in South Carolina. Her parents came to America from Punjab, India. Therefore she built her own political base in the Republican Party, which led to the present rocky road to 2024. Nikki Haley knows why she belongs to this Party, its propensities and long term plan.

That plan is anchored in the part of America called the South. It includes what is regarded as ‘rocks’ that should be removed from the road, and substitute them with sand, that will absorb the way of life, in the South. People who live there watched it unfold over the years. Is Nikki Haley part of the problem or part of the solution?

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

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