There have been two Republican presidential primary debates so far, and I think we have learned a lot from them. But, the Trump-dominated Republican National Committee is thinking of canceling the third debate, and I think that would be a huge mistake! Things are only now just getting going!
I think the debates thus far reveal that Nikki Haley is the most articulate, principled, and charismatic candidate in the current Republican primary field. She has the maturity, vision, experience, and communication skills that are required to be a superb President and to beat Joe Biden. Others have also done well in the debates, like Mike Pence and Tim Scott, but Nikki Haley is overall the winner.
The two big losers in the debates held thus far are Donald Trump, for not showing up, and Ron DeSantis who just does not have Nikki Haley’s charisma and star power on stage. Already, polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina are showing Nikki Haley pulling ahead of Ron DeSantis for second place behind Donald Trump.
This raises the question of whether Nikki Haley has what it takes to be a good President. I know a lot about the presidency from having surveyed every Presidential Administration from George Washington through George W. Bush in my Yale University Press book: The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (2008). I think Nikki Haley would be a superb President both because of her past experience and because she is a true-blue Reagan Republican, like me, and unlike Donald Trump!
First, Haley served very successfully as the Governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. She has thus proved that she can be a chief executive by managing South Carolina’s executive branch for six years. This experience as a Governor is something that both former Presidents Trump and Obama lacked as the American people became painfully aware. Haley knows how to run a large executive branch, and she has done so with great success.
Second, Nikki Haley is the only candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, other than former President Donald Trump, who has serious foreign policy experience. Haley served as Ambassador to the United Nations for two years from 2017 to 2018. At a time, when Russia has invaded Ukraine and China is threatening to invade Taiwan, we desperately need a President with foreign policy experience.
Trump’s foreign policy “experience” is in signing a peace treaty with the Taliban and freeing thousands of their jailed members from U.S. overseas prisons so they could go on to topple the democratic government of Afghanistan. If re-elected, Trump would ditch the almost 75 year old NATO Alliance supported by twelve prior American presidents from Harry Truman to Barck Obama—all to help his pal Vladimir Putin who secretly paid for Trump’s failures in the real estate industry.
During both of the two Republican presidential primary debates, Nikki Haley came across as seeming like the only adult in the room other than Mike Pence. She memorably said of Vivek Ramaswamy that his lack of experience in foreign policy showed badly, and that “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber!”
Haley is the only one of the Republican candidates challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination who has a realistic chance of beating Trump for the nomination.
Ron DeSantis has seen his poll numbers crash despite spending much more money than all the other Trump alternatives put together. He should accept the reality that his campaign has been a failure, and he should drop out and stop splitting the anti-Trump vote.
Sadly, former Vice President Mike Pence, who is a wonderful person and who was a hero on January 6, 2021, also has dismal poll numbers and no realistic shot at the nomination. He, more than anyone else knows why it is imperative to beat Trump, and he should put his country first and endorse Haley. The debates reveal that Mike Pence is a wonderful and decent man, but they also reveal that he lacks the charisma to win a presidential election even against Joe Biden.
Former Governor Chris Christie’s campaign has been premised on the idea that he is the only candidate who can attack Trump effectively. So far, Haley’s attack on Trump for spending too much money and contributing to our current inflation is much more biting than any attack made by Christie. After the bridge-gate scandal, there is no way Christie is ever going to be elected President, nor should he be.
Christie is polling at abysmal numbers so far in every Republican state primary except for New Hampshire. If he stays in the race at this point, he will only help Trump by splitting the anti-Trump vote in a State where Trump rarely polls over 40%. Chris Christie is lying by staying in the Republican primary race, saying he wants to stop Trump, and then splitting the anti-Trump vote so that Trump will come out on top.
Senator Tim Scott has run an admirable, positive campaign, but he has not excelled in the debates, and his poll numbers are also quite low. Scott lacks the experience Haley has as a former Governor and the foreign policy chops Haley has as a former U.N. Ambassador.
Vivek Ramaswamy is only 38 years old, and he has never held any elective office before. His youth and inexperience show badly, and he is frankly an embarrassment.
Nikki Haley has a position on abortion that can win, she knows how to criticize Donald Trump’s record without attacking him personally and alienating his voters, and she is the sort of center-right candidate who could win a presidential election. Unlike Donald Trump, Haley has not been indicted four times, stripped of his control over his New York real estate, including the Trump Tower and his sons’ homes, and she has not called for the killing of General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Donald Trump is manifestly out of his mind at the age of 77, and he is no longer qualified to be President. Now former President Trump is calling for canceling the third Republican presidential primary debate. Gee I wonder why? Is it perhaps for the same reason he wanted to cancel the 2020 presidential election because of Covid? Of course, Trump is worried that the debates are boosting Nikki Haley and in his usual cowardly way, he is trying to get the RNC not to hold any more of them.
Steven G. Calabresi is the Clayton J. & Henry R. Barber Professor, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
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