COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Nikki Haley was supposed to give Mitt Romney strength going into the South Carolina primary. Instead, she exposed some of her own weaknesses.
Romney?s decisive defeat Saturday immediately got dropped in part at the feet of the South Carolina governor, who provided him a high-profile endorsement ? though a controversial one among the local tea party forces who propelled her into office in 2010. But in this first test both of translating her appeal and playing on the national stage, she flopped.
Continue ReadingWesley Donehue, a South Carolina GOP strategist who had worked for Michele Bachmann, said the lesson is that Haley reached for too much too quickly.
?Nikki Haley has great potential but she?s not there yet,? Donehue said. ?She doesn?t have the stature to have a lot of pull. Right now she?s a brand-new governor that hasn?t proven herself yet. She needs to go be the most conservative governor in the United States of America, just like Jim DeMint is the most conservative senator. If she wants to be the conservative rock star, that?s what she has to do.?
She may have even hurt Romney?s case in the state ? there?s a sense that a handful of state legislators who would have backed Romney but refused to out of principle, simply because they hate Haley so much, and mock her for moves like requiring state employees to answer their telephones, ?It?s a great day in South Carolina!?
Romney?s state campaign chairman, State Treasurer Curtis Loftis ? a political rival of Haley, despite both backing the same presidential candidate ? couldn?t resist taking shots at Haley. Less than an hour before the state?s polls closed, Loftis couched his criticisms of Newt Gingrich in terms that sound surprisingly like the way other local operatives describe Haley.
?Since I?ve gone into government, I?ve seen that there?s almost no correlation between great speeches with lots of red meat and the ability of people to govern,? said Loftis, who, like Haley, was first elected to statewide office in 2010.
Asked if Haley helped or hurt Romney in South Carolina, Loftis replied: ?I made a promise to myself to stay out of that.?
He declined to elaborate.
Haley was working the hustings for Romney all week, but on the last day, not in the way he wanted. Introducing him at his Greenville campaign headquarters Saturday morning, she veered into talking about the sore point of releasing his tax returns.
And though it?s her job as a surrogate to express full-blast optimism, Haley appeared to demonstrate a fundamental misreading of her state?s voters as recently even as people were heading to the polls. While Romney?s campaign was trying to lower expectations all day, Haley responded by cranking them up.
?Tonight is going to be a great night. We?re going to celebrate,? she said Saturday morning, predicting, ?we are expecting today to be a great day. Everything is showing that it?s going to be what South Carolina primaries are, which is close. I love that.?
Pressed afterward, she insisted that the reports of South Carolina slipping away from Romney were wrong.
?No, no, no, don?t be fooled,? she said. ?I absolutely think we?re going to have a great night tonight.?
Results show a nearly 14-point spread between Gingrich and Romney.
Haley?s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday night.
But the verdict on Haley came in with the Romney results.
?It?s a little embarrassing, and it shows that endorsements don?t matter,? Donehue said. ?Her endorsement was a nothing burger.?
Still, Romney took time out from his concession speech to acknowledge ?your governor, Gov. Nikki Haley, I owe her so very much for her help.?
But Haley wasn?t there to be recognized. She wasn?t didn?t show for the speech, or the party.
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