According to everyone inside the DC beltway – actually, pretty much every beltway in the nation – former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley is now the one to watch to take the Republican nomination from Donald Trump.
In reality, she has now been crowned as the person most likely to come in second because the Koch brothers money machine has officially rolled out its ATM to her campaign, Chris Christie is a no-hoper, Vivek is too blunt, and DeSantis can’t smile very well.
As to DeSantis, there’s even a name for it – a non-Duchenne smile: https://www.newscientist.com/definition/duchenne-smile/ . Basically, a Duchenne smile is one that reaches your eyes, while a non-Duchenne doesn’t and can look forced or fake. Take these two folks, for example:
Ironically, the Vulcan Mr. Spock = Duchenne while the fetching Jill Ireland who is not Vulcan = non-Duchenne (in this shot it’s practically hostage smile, but you get the point.)
And since Nikki Haley can smile better and because she says meaner things about Trump and because everyone inside (practically) every beltway is looking for anyone to stop Trump, she’s the go-to gal now.
The Kochs feature prominently in most woke conspiracy theories, and, to an extent, rightly so. They can be seen as the right’s version of George Soros, even though they don’t spend nearly as much as he does and are not actively and intentionally and inexplicably trying to ruin Western civilization.
But the Kochs are statist conservatives who are very well served by the current power structures and do not at all in any way want to rock the boat too much – they just want a captain who will answer their calls.
For example, the Brownstone Institute - https://brownstone.org/ – for which I write is continually accused of taking Koch money, being a Koch mouthpiece, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth – Brownstone’s call for a rational pandemic response, a demand to get real answers to exactly why everything went so terribly wrong, and its hard stance on personal liberties are anathema to the Kochs.
Remember, the big giant “Covid Crisis Group” that released a “lessons learned” that came to the exact wrong conclusions report earlier this year was funded in part by the Kochs.
So, yes, Haley has officially become the statist candidate – good luck with that, ambassador.
Speaking of luck, or lack thereof, DeSantis himself can’t seem to catch a break. His campaign staff is in turmoil, he really really really should have waited until 2028 – there was literally no reason to run this time except to be able to hire and pay the bunch of consultants who talked him into it if you were wondering why he did – and the debate is in the process of being dismissed and memory holed by the national media because he won.
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