Iowa proves it: Haley, DeSantis won’t do what it takes to beat Trump, so they’ll lose | Opinion
Two of the most important tasks to win in politics are to make your opponent toxic to voters and make yourself palatable to them as the alternative. If you’re facing an incumbent, it has to happen in that order.
Donald Trump’s resounding victory in Iowa on Monday night proves that no Republican challenger could pull that off. Simply put, the other candidates — chiefly Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley — would not do what it took. So, neither will win.
Trump isn’t currently in office, but as a two-time nominee, he fits the role of incumbent in the Republican primary, at least. To have any chance, DeSantis and Haley needed to bloody him and then present themselves as the best remaining choice. There are many reasons they couldn’t, but the main one is a lack of will, daring and creativity.
Neither would forcefully make the case that Trump is bad for the party and the country. They wouldn’t say that his character flaws, legal liability and narcissism make him unlikely to achieve what Republicans want from the next president. Neither would make the case that he is a consistent loser and likely to fall short again. Neither gave the vast number of Republicans a reason to oppose Trump — so they don’t.
Incredibly, they repeated the mistake of the candidates who watched Trump rise up in 2016 and roll over experienced governors and senators. Each tried to focus on becoming the last standing rival to Trump, targeting one another while Trump simply rolled to victory. As recently as last week, DeSantis and Haley spent hours on a debate stage sniping over their records in Florida and South Carolina and comments from years back, all while ignoring the double-digit margins by which both trail the frontrunner.
It was beyond useless; it was counter-productive. When you look like you’re fighting for second place, you look small. And Americans don’t want a small president.
To be fair to DeSantis, Haley and every other candidate who tried to stop Trump, it’s unclear anything would have worked. There was a time, shortly after his loss in 2020 and his disgraceful behavior leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, when it seemed impossible Republicans would stick with him. When the party did poorly in the 2022 midterms — in many cases because of weak Trump-backed candidates and swing voters’ continuing disdain for him — an aggressive push might have knocked him off the pedestal.
But DeSantis waited and others ran in different lanes. Trump played the hits, and when Democratic officials across the country began bringing absurd legal cases no one else would have faced, such as the weak charges over hush-money payments to a former lover, Republicans saw a guy they still appreciated getting rolled over.
The other thing that has helped Trump is Joe Biden’s political weakness. Republicans no longer worry that Trump, who activates Democrats like no other, can’t beat BIden. It looks like any Republican could, so why not go with the one they love best?
Iowa is but one state. Haley could surprise in New Hampshire. Or maybe a second-place win gives DeSantis new life. Perhaps something on the legal front scares Republican voters before Super Tuesday, when Texas and other large states could deliver a decisive verdict.
But DeSantis sounded oddly triumphant Monday night, as if a 30-point loss was a great victory. He said not one word to persuade voters in New Hampshire that they should, in just a week, regard the race any differently. He gave no rationale for his candidacy over the guy who just demolished him.
Haley did a little better, comparing Trump to Biden in age, complicity in the national debt and grievance politics. “America deserves better,” she said. “We deserve a president who will focus on the needs of our people, not themselves.”
She added: “Our campaign is the last, best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare.”
Iowa, though, made crystal clear what has long been frustrating and obvious: Neither DeSantis nor Haley will pull the trigger on a real effort, no matter how long a shot it might be, to actually defeat Donald Trump. So, get ready for Trump vs. Biden … again.
This story was originally published January 16, 2024 at 5:28 AM.
