Jim Hartman: Trump’s the one as Haley exits

With Super Tuesday results from 15-state primaries, the two major parties will nominate two candidates most voters say they don’t like – President Biden and former President Trump.

A recent Fox News poll found Trump’s unfavorable ratings are only exceeded by Biden’s – 57% to 59%.

It’s the great American presidential unpopularity contest.

Trump dominates the GOP. On Super Tuesday, he won 14-state primary contests, with Nikki Haley, his last challenger, carrying only Vermont and receiving between 23% and 42% in seven other states.

After Trump’s contemptuous dismissal of her, Haley exited the race congratulating Trump but declined to immediately endorse him.

In her campaign, Haley made an “electability” argument – that she would beat Biden while Trump would lose.

Two March polls showed her winning by far more than Trump did in a head-to-head match with Biden. She lead Biden 45%-35% compared with Trump’s 48%-43% in a New York Times poll, and 50%-42% to Trump’s 49%-47% lead in the latest Fox News poll.

The polls suggest Haley would have given the GOP the potential of a 2024 landslide, but GOP voters decided to gamble on a third Trump candidacy.

Four March polls (New York Times, Fox News, Associated Press and Wall Street Journal) each showed Biden trailing Trump in matchups by 2% to 5%. Biden’s in terrible political shape eight months before the election.

Those polling results deflated Haley’s contention that only she could beat Biden.

Biden hopes his blustery, highly-partisan State of the Union speech will provide a political reset.

TV ads will be reminding voters of Trump’s disgraceful behavior on Jan 6. There are also Trump’s court cases. A third of GOP voters in exit polls say they find a felony conviction disqualifying.

Trump has challenged Biden to debates. Republicans held five debates, but Trump ducked them all. By refusing to debate, he’s given Biden an easy out.

Haley made clear in the GOP debates that helping Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression is in the U.S. national interest.

Trump has expressed a more ambiguous position on the war.

A debate with Haley would have revealed what Trump meant when he said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours. Does that mean Russian President Vladimir Putin should be allowed to annex eastern Ukraine?

Trump declined to condemn Putin for the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He’s said he wouldn’t defend NATO countries that don’t meet their financial commitments to the alliance but would instead encourage Russia “to do whatever they want.”

What’s happening to the Republican Party is staggering. Ronald Reagan would be spinning in his grave.

Republican priorities under Trump include positions that were once considered selling out.

The Congressional Budget Office now projects that Social Security will become insolvent by 2032, earlier than expected. The CBO also projects the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted by 2033. By doing nothing, an automatic 23% Social Security benefit cut will occur in eight years.

Haley was the only candidate arguing Social Security and Medicare face a crisis. Formerly the party of fiscal responsibility, Trump joined Democrats in promising not to reform entitlements.

Over the course of Trump’s four years in office, the national debt increased by $7.8 trillion. It’s now an unsustainable $34.5 trillion and growing.

Formerly the party of free trade agreements, Trump says he will impose a blanket 10% tariff on all U.S. imports. That means a 10% tax paid for by consumers.

Haley criticized the proposal as raising every household’s expenses by $2,600 a year, citing data from the conservative National Taxpayers Union.

The Republican Party in 2020 adopted no party platform. Rather, the party pledged allegiance to Trump for four years.

The insult RINO (Republican in Name Only) was formerly directed at those insufficiently conservative.

Who’s the RINO now?

E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.