The media are trying to pick the GOP nominee for us just like they did with John McCain. (Remember how great that worked out?) Once again, their pick is the whiny warmonger — this time, Nikki Haley.
No wall and guaranteed to lose! What’s not to like? (Democrats: Please! Anyone but Gov. Ron DeSantis!)
This week, headlines proclaimed the results of a Wall Street Journal poll showing Haley beating Joe Biden by 17 points!
Does anyone think that Haley will beat Biden by 17 points? The only presidential election decided by anything close to that in the last half-century was in 1984, when Ronald Reagan smashed Walter Mondale, winning by 18 points and 525-to-13 in the Electoral College.
We shall not see anything like that again in our lifetimes, unless it’s Biden’s margin over Donald Trump next year.
Didn’t the WSJ pollsters say to themselves, How did we screw this up? Oh well, I guess we’ll have to take another poll …
“She wants to start wars on three continents and keep the illegals flowing. So do billionaires! And for that matter, so do the media.” Nope! The media are push-polling for Nikki.
Like their former “It Girl” McCain, whatever Haley does is adorable.
— Haley flips out at a debate and calls Vivek Ramaswamy “scum” after he makes a completely legitimate point against her.
Media in unison: He IS scum! How dare he make a devastating point against a female candidate?
— Haley petulantly refuses to answer a question from Ramaswamy at another debate.
Media in unison: Yay, Nikki! She refused to take the bait!
— Haley becomes the favorite of the donor class (HATED by actual Republicans).
Media in unison: That’s it. DeSantis is done. (Remember everybody, do NOT mention that he’s still beating her in the polls.)
Of course Haley’s a hit with megadonors! She wants to start wars on three continents and keep the illegals flowing. So do billionaires! And for that matter, so do the media.
Everyone forgets this, but the secret to Trump’s surprise win in 2016 was that he was the only candidate who opposed open borders and nonstop military interventions. (At least, that’s what he said. How were we to know Trump was like ABBA, just mouthing words he didn’t understand?)
Thus, the Koch network loathed him. By October 2015, members of this billionaires’ club had already given multiple millions of dollars to every GOP candidate — except Trump. According to The Hill, “The most popular presidential candidates among the Koch brothers’ conservative donor network are Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.”
(This may be why we don’t have the expression, “As go the megadonors, so goes the country.”)
Sorry for the digression into the mind of the plutocrats, but their issues are also key factors in the media’s admiration for Republicans like Haley and McCain — plus one more. In addition to their near- obsessive focus on any country other than ours, both Haley and McCain would lose.
I know it’s hard to believe that journalists, who are 99.9999% Democratic, wouldn’t have your best interests at heart, Republicans, but keep in mind that the fawning over this or that Republican ends sharply the moment the primaries are over.
Before McCain sewed up the nomination, the press’s flattery knew no bounds! Quotes from a February 2007 Vanity Fair article were typical:
“PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE … Honest-to-God American Hero … the American media’s favorite politician … the maverick, freethinking … a political star … McCain remains irresistible … palpably, pungently human.”
Then on Feb. 7, 2008, Mitt Romney dropped out, effectively making McCain the GOP nominee.
Precisely 12 days later, The New York Times launched a major front-page expose, suggesting that McCain was embroiled in a long-term affair with a lobbyist. (This had apparently just come to the Times‘ attention.)
“A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fundraisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. … Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship.”
And so it went:
CNN, June 15, 2008, “Sen. John McCain’s age, 71, has been highlighted in the presidential race”
CBS, July 22, 2008, “Critics Pile on as McCain Gaffes Pile Up”
Politico, Oct. 22, 2008, “Why McCain Is Getting Hosed in the Press”
Right now, Haley’s getting the McCain treatment — not to be confused with the Michelle Obama treatment, which lasts forever.
Republicans, you want the candidate the media fear — and not fake-fear, like with Trump, where their hyperbolic attacks are calculated to gin up the base. (See Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo.)
Ever since he kept Florida open during Trump’s COVID shutdown, DeSantis has terrified the media. How is President Senile Dementia going to debate him?
It’s manifestly obvious that the one man the media do not want Biden to face is DeSantis. Please let that be your guide, Republicans.