Gov. Haley’s response to Obama cheers many – but not far right

The South Carolina Republican was viewed as targeting Trump and Cruz.

The celebration by Republican elites was instant, as was the backlash on the far right.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the youthful daughter of Indian immigrants, had delivered a sunny and inclusive Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address that stood as an unmistakable counter to her party’s two presidential front-runners.

But Haley’s moment and its aftermath revealed an uncomfortable reality for GOP leaders. Even as they praised their chosen representative for condemning the polarizing politics fueling the rise of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the currents of the 2016 race still churn against the establishment.

Conservative talk radio and social media lit up with contempt for her critique. “Trump should

deport Nikki Haley,” commentator Ann Coulter tweeted. Rush Limbaugh accused Haley for taking part in a GOP conspiracy to “drive conservatives out of the party.”

And Trump, predictably, slammed her as soft on immigration and hypocritical.

What initially was hailed as a breakthrough for a party struggling to assume control of its image and message — Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, said Haley displayed “courage you can count on” — became a fleeting episode that called fresh attention to the establishment’s limits to do so.

With just 19 days until the kickoff Iowa caucuses, party leaders are tiptoeing around Trump and Cruz — nervous about agitating them and their supporters, fearful that their hard-line views on immigration and other topics could lead to general election defeat, and uncertain about how to deny either the brash billionaire mogul or the combative Texas senator the nomination.

“There doesn’t seem to be a plan for how to deal with Trump. They’re afraid,” said William J. Bennett, a top official in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

“What’s worse,” he said, “is that this leaves them in a position to be thumped by Trump. This is not the way he talks or campaigns and he’ll hit them right back as fuzzy and weak.”

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., jointly selected Haley to deliver the party’s nationally televised response. Haley embodies the kind of party Ryan in particular is trying to build: even-tempered, reformminded, pro-business and open to minorities.

“She clearly is a terrific advocate for an inclusive, younger, solution-oriented Republican Party,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

Speaking Tuesday night from Columbia, S.C., Haley urged Americans to resist the temptation “to follow the siren call of the angriest voices” and to make everyone in the country feel welcome.

She also said Democrats were not solely responsible for the failures in Washington. “There is more than enough blame to go around,” she said. “We, as Republicans, need to own that truth.”

Ryan and McConnell reviewed the text of Haley’s speech before her delivery, but there was no coordination to use the setting to attack Trump, their aides said. “Gov. Haley did a great job with the speech. She had the pen and didn’t need much input from anyone,” Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck said.

Tim Pearson, Haley’s political adviser, said the governor told Ryan she would deliver the response only if he agreed to let her say whatever she wanted to say.

“There was nothing in the speech that she didn’t want in there and there was nothing that she wanted in the speech that didn’t get in there,” Pearson said. “It was all hers.”

Outside operatives said they suspected otherwise.

“Many conservatives feel that even though she’s a good governor, she probably got some of her talking points from the establishment,” said Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to a Cruz-allied super PAC. “It was an attempt to undercut Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.”