By Charles C. W. Cooke
Wednesday,
January 24, 2024
From Audrey’s report on last night’s vote:
Before the Granite State primary was called
for Trump, Eric Jostrom of Sugar Hill, N.H., said Haley would be wise to
continue picking up delegates in the event that Trump’s legal troubles
complicate his path to the GOP nomination.
“Put it this way: Strange things happen,”
said an optimistic Jostrom, gin and tonic in hand. “They seem to be getting
stranger all the time. Supposing she’s out there, and she’s in the race, Trump
gets sidelined for one reason or another. What happens is she’s got the field
to herself.”
I
liked this Jostrom fellow before I knew that he drank
G&Ts. Now, I’m sold.
On
Twitter, I have seen some of Trump’s fans suggest that what Jostrom says here
is an argument that Nikki Haley cannot make aloud. Given that Haley alluded to
it in her speech — “This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior
moment. You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos,” she said — this
isn’t quite true. Still, given the state of the GOP, it’s probably true that
she cannot make it as forcefully as she’d like to. Even in 2024, “vote for me
in case Trump is indicted or dies” is unlikely to prevail as a campaign theme.
The
thing is, though: it’s true. In the last few weeks, I’ve heard a
few people ask me rhetorically, “So what’s Haley’s plan? To just stay in and
rack up delegates in case something happens to Trump?” To which my instinctive
response has been, “er . . . actually, yeah?” Trump is an overweight, lazy,
deranged 77-year-old who is under indictment from all corners. It really is not
beyond the pale to observe that a lot of bad things could happen to him before
November. He could die. He could have a heart attack or a stroke. He could fall
off a stage. He could be convicted. He could be jailed. In the NFL, teams often
carry two backup quarterbacks. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the
Republican Party to carry at least one? “Strange things” do, indeed, “happen.”
Providing that she has the money, Haley ought to stay in for as long as she
can.
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