Now we have proof of what we already knew about Nikki Haley’s lifeless 2024 campaign
The CPAC conference has never been nearly as influential as the media has made it out to be. If anything it’s more of a far right evil twin to the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary. These are all events that the media builds up each year as supposedly being influential so it can then milk them for ratings, but nothing that happens during these events ever seems to actually impact the presidential primary process.
If there is one way in which an event like CPAC is occasionally useful, it’s when a supposed Republican presidential contender just flat out fails to generate any interest. Attendance at CPAC appears to be way off this year, which is not a surprise given the serious allegations against its founder, and the fact that multiple Republican candidates not named “Trump” have decided to stay away.
But even with the reduced overall attendance, Nikki Haley’s CPAC speech on Friday stood out in particular. The room was mostly empty to begin with. The few people who did attend didn’t appear to respond to anything she was saying. If you’re trying to generate enough interest and momentum to run for President of the United States, the only thing worse than getting negative interest from your target audience is getting no interest. Negative interest means you might be able to recalibrate your message or approach. No interest means there’s nothing you could say to change anyone’s mind.
What’s got to be particularly concerning for Haley is that she’s been something of a household name for awhile now. The entire media has been endlessly hyping her (right leaning outlets hyping her positively, left leaning outlets hyping her negatively) for years. She’s not some obscure newcomer who’s being ignored by her own base because no one knows who she is yet. She’s a known quantity who’s being ignored because everyone already knows exactly who she is, and isn’t interested in her.
This doesn’t yet mean that Nikki Haley is done. If only because her divisive name is good for ratings, the major media outlets will likely continue hyping her 2024 campaign for awhile. It doesn’t matter that she’s polling extremely poorly, or that she’s making no impact; the media will try to keep her afloat for as long as it can.
Haley is clearly expecting Donald Trump’s upcoming criminal indictments to realistically take him out of play. Throw in Ron DeSantis’ near total lack of political savvy and a personality of cardboard, and he’s likely to botch the hype that the media is trying to hand him. That could leave a 2024 Republican field consisting of unpopular yet recognizable names like Haley, Mike Pence, and a dozen other middling candidates. That would allow someone like Haley to muddle all the way to Iowa, even if she never does get anywhere in the polls, so she can drop out and cash in with a lucrative book deal during the Iowa caucus hype.
So we may be stuck with Nikki Haley for awhile longer. But Friday’s speech was a pretty clear indicator of what we already knew: she’s running a lifeless zombie campaign that only really has support from a ratings-hungry media, and not any real support in the real world.
