#MemeOfTheWeek: The Racial Politics Of Nikki Haley

The White House praised Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina Wednesday for having the “courage” to criticize GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

“Trump’s response the next day will just be, ‘Well, you heard President Obama and the Republican leadership response echo each other, they’re on the same team.’ That’s his thesis”, said conservative Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia.

Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham tweeted that Haley squandered an opportunity to stand with working Americans on immigration, while Rush Limbaugh called her remarks proof positive that the Republican party is trying to drive out conservatives.

Nikki Haley joins US military service members and community business partners for the launch of Operation Palmetto Employment, a statewide military employment initiative aimed at making SC the most military-friendly state in the nation, February 26, 2014, at Sysco in Columbia, S.C.

“I am very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger”, Trump said.

“I think some people are looking at the tone and the rhetoric you’re seeing today and are anxious about the general”, he said. Most succinct was a tweet from the right’s bombastic blond bomb thrower, Ann Coulter, which said, “Trump should deport Nikki Haley”. And in later interviews she acknowledged that they were directed at Donald Trump, among others. If he did, I would say something about that.

Democrats – including Obama on Tuesday night – say the United States has the strongest economy in the world, is experiencing a surge in private-sector job creation, and has an unemployment rate of just 5 percent.

A Haley adviser involved with preparing the speech told CNN that when the governor accepted the high-profile role, she did so on the condition that the speech would be her own. It was focusing on the fact that the name Haley uses now, Nikki, was not the one given to her at birth. She’s supported by the Tea Party.

Haley called for the candidates to be “responsible with your words”.

But her point is well-taken: Haley, the American born daughter of Indian immigrant parents, doesn’t jibe with the white supremacy that’s revealed itself in the heart of the GOP base.

At about 10:29 a.m. ET, Costello brought up Governor Haley’s speech after guest Errol Louis recalled that President Barack Obama had complained about divisive politics.

“I thought she was remarkable, actually”.

“On one level, I wasn’t surprised to see some of the themes of the speech given that”, he said.

And we were encouraged that, in what is surely going to be a long and contentious year, two leaders on different sides of the aisle issued calls for less angry shouting, less hostility and more civility. She doesn’t, and I think the people in her great state, I love her state, I’m there a lot, and by the way I have a massive lead in SC.