The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The New Hype-Shire Primary UPDATE: Trump Wins, CNN and Haley Lose

Posted on | January 23, 2024 | Comments Off on The New Hype-Shire Primary UPDATE: Trump Wins, CNN and Haley Lose

UPDATE 8:25 p.m. ET: Well, that didn’t take long — CNN called it a victory for Trump about 8:15, so that all their pro-Haley hype was just so much wasted airtime, I guess. And now on to South Carolina, where Nikki will lose again.

*** PREVIOUSLY ***

Today the TV in my office was tuned to CNN — I watch CNN, so you don’t have to — and it’s just incredible how they’ve been hyping up Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary. If you knew nothing else except what CNN told you, you might believe (a) there’s actually a chance Haley will beat Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and (b) winning New Hampshire is part of how she’s going to do it. Well, start by forgetting about (a), because that ain’t happening. Go look at the Real Clear Politics average — nationally, Trump’s been leading the GOP primary field by a massive margin for months. It doesn’t matter whether you love Trump or hate Trump, the reality is that a majority of Republican voters want him to be the candidate, no matter what the media says and no matter how many Democratic prosecutors indict him. If Trump was sitting in a prison cell right this minute, he’d still win the Republican nomination. And I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he’ll also win the New Hampshire primary, which would basically kill the Nikki Haley campaign, because if she can’t win New Hampshire, where’s she going to win? Her home state of South Carolina, maybe?

Not likely. The latest polls show Trump leading by 30 points there. There is no “path to victory” for Haley, just like there was no “path to victory” for DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, or any of the other candidates who showed up in the TV debates that Trump didn’t even bother with, because why should he? He is basically running like an incumbent and, not to stoke anyone’s conspiracy theories, but c’mon, man — 81 million votes? Does anyone really believe that? How is it that Biden supposedly got elected in a nationwide landslide, yet he is less popular than syphilis?

OK, that was unfair. Nobody hates syphilis as much as voters hate Joe Biden. Joe’s approval ratings are a toxic dumpster fire, and yet there are people who think Biden could somehow beat Trump in a rematch. Why do they think that? Maybe they’re watching CNN, which is one of the few places where Joe is slightly more popular than syphilis.

Anyway, the polls will close in New Hampshire in a little while, and it probably won’t be long before I’ll be able to report that Trump has won in a landslide. Or maybe not. But either way, this “campaign” is almost over.

UPDATE 7:25 p.m. ET:

Less than 5% of the vote reported so far, and these numbers are certain to wobble a lot, but you see Trump’s still winning.

UPDATE 8 p.m. ET:

Still less than 20% of the vote counted, but the lead for Trump has remained steady around 8 or 9 points. If Haley gets over 40%, she’ll call that a “moral victory,” and the hype train will roll on.



 

Category: Election, New Hampshire

Comments

Comments are closed.