Nikki Haley’s media machine is breaking down
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In 1984, Prince wrote “Darling Nikki,” a hit about a kinky one-night stand with the song’s namesake. As hard as it is to imagine now, the lyrics were so provocative for the Reagan era that it led pearl-clutching culture crusader Tipper Gore to create the “parental advisory” sticker system for the music industry.
Forty years later, perhaps it’s time for a new kind of advisory sticker, this time warning news consumers about the mainstream media’s perverse ode to a different kind of “Darling Nikki.” That would be Nikki Haley, the presidential hopeful from South Carolina who just thudded back to earth with a distant third in the Iowa caucus.
Donald Trump’s dominating performance on Monday, the biggest win in caucus history, is proof that the mainstream media has failed to wishcast Nikki Haley as the new breed of Trump-killer that would “save” the Republican Party from its own voters.
It’s not for a lack of trying. According to a study by the Media Research Center, evening newscasts on the Big Three networks were 41 per cent more negative to Trump than Haley in 2023.
Consider recent headlines from other liberal news outlets, such as “Nikki Haley emerges from the TV debate as Trump’s nearest rival” from The Guardian or claims that “Haley is playing for a future without Trump – and winning” on MSNBC. Last week, the New York Times even slunk around Iowa and invented a new demographic they deemed the “Haley-curious left” by talking to a couple of random Haley voters who had sometimes voted for Democrats.
Most embarrassing of all the coverage was last week’s Hollywood Reporter column projecting that Haley’s choice of traditionally feminine wardrobe means she could “just ride the Barbie wave all the way to the White House.”
Sorry, but wearing a pink dress to a debate – to borrow a phrase from the Barbie movie – is not “Kenough” to magically become the Republican nominee.
It’s the voting, not the clothes, that make the candidate, and for many months now, the polls have made it crystal clear that Trump was not only the frontrunner – but on track for a historically lopsided victory. His support has remained steadily over 50 per cent since April, according to Five Thirty-Eight, and that’s approximately the percentage of Iowans that showed up in his corner on a bitterly cold night. Trump’s 30 per cent margin over DeSantis and Haley even set a record for a Republican Iowa caucuses that didn’t include an incumbent (more than double Bob Dole’s 13-point victory in 1988).
The last time the race was relatively narrow was nearly a year ago. Back in February 2023, national polls listed Ron DeSantis as roughly within 10 points of the ex-president. No longer. Once the 2024 campaign actually kicked off, the Republican base got to see more from Haley and the GOP’s island of misfit candidates (raise your hand if you realise that Texas pastor Ryan Binkley is still in the race), Trump’s support actually grew rather than shrunk. That’s why the Trump-free TV debates often felt like the kids’ table, with lots of yelling and stomping to see who’d eventually get second place.
So, why was the press hyperventilating so much about Haley?
It’s simple. The liberal press hates Trump with a white-hot rage, a fact they couldn’t conceal last night after Iowa was called for him in sheer minutes. To the media, everyone else looks good in comparison, but especially if they’re perceived as an establishment candidate who is less socially conservative than their rivals.
It’s little wonder that news coverage of Haley hasn’t dwelled on the fact that the former UN ambassador is essentially a new-age neocon who has more in common with Dick Cheney than Barbie. She’s been vocal about a desire to wage war with China, cut corporate taxes, Medicare, and Social Security, and calls herself a “union buster.” It’s the kind of platform that has caused austerity-loving oligarchs like the Kochs to be smitten as well. Big donors from Never-Trump land have helped Haley outspend every candidate thus far ($50 million and counting), including Trump.
Secondly, everyone loves a good story, and a Trump-Biden rematch – for better or worse – has seemed inevitable for years now. When you’re focused on horse race coverage of elections, as the mainstream media does every four years, it’s boring to be stuck with the same ol’ aging stallions for an entire cycle. Novelty makes for more eyeballs and clicks.
That’s why we should expect plenty more Haley worship in the near future, enough to make someone like Prince blush.
