Is Nikki Haley Hitching Her Wagon to Lone Star Ted Cruz?

The GOP picked Nikki Haley, the popular and charismatic governor of SC and possible Republican vice presidential selection, to give the party’s response to Obama’s State of the Union address.

The irony is that Nikki Haley is a true Republican conservative who became Governor on the Tea Party wave and his now being attacked for calling out the fake Republican and fake conservative, Trump, who has hijacked the GOP. She said Wednesday that she had Mr. Trump in mind when she made the comment.

Laura Ingraham, a prominent talk radio host in conservative circles, lamented that Haley missed an opportunity “to stand with working people who want borders enforced”. “NOT SMART”, she tweeted.

Speaking on NBC’s “Today”, Haley said she’s willing to have a conversation about running as vice president once a nominee is selected. In fact, given the context, she might have meant to refer not to immigrants at all, but merely to people visiting the country on ordinary visas-in which case she didn’t really say anything wrong at all.

Trump noted that Haley solicited and received campaign contributions from the NY billionaire.

“This is just something that we learned in SC that I’m passing along”, said Haley. Because of the volume of reader comments, we can not review individual moderation decisions with readers. We were still travelling back from the Capitol while she was delivering the response.

In that speech, Haley warned the party that no matter how dire the circumstances, they mustn’t heed the “siren calls” of the party’s “angriest voices”.

“When she said there’s an anger that we shouldn’t have”. She feels that anyone who follows the country’s laws and is hard working, honest and follows America’s traditions should not feel neglected and unwanted in the nation.

She faced a backlash from some conservatives, who interpreted her remarks as a call for unlimited legal immigration into the country, something they reject. She’s weak on illegal immigration.

Coulter tweeted: “Trump should deport Nikki Haley”.

When Trump had proposed this ban, Haley spoke to some reporters the next day itself where she dismissed such a proposal as both an embarrassment to the GOP, as well as, an unconstitutional one.

“There’s other people in the media, there’s people in my state”, she said. The soundbite garnered immediate attention, given Rubio’s support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants remains a key vulnerability for the Florida senator.

Before the night was out, the angriest and loudest right-wing voices in the Republican party were bashing Haley. Ted Cruz 33 percent to 22 percent, according to the average from Real Clear Politics, though no polls have been released in SC in almost a month.

Her return to national prominence has kicked off fresh speculation that Haley could be a top vice-presidential pick for the Republican ticket in 2016. She believes the governor disqualified herself from potentially being the GOP vice-presidential running mate of whoever gets the nomination.