A few hours later …

Thoughts on Super Tuesday

Our considered editorial opinion on the voting that took place Tuesday: For the record, some of these thoughts are more considered than others.

■ From a buried-deep paragraph in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the very day a third of the nation was going to the primaries: “On Monday, [Nikki] Haley made her potential last stand in Texas, one of the states voting Tuesday, before traveling to South Carolina. She has no events scheduled for Tuesday or beyond. Her campaign also has no future TV or radio ads booked, according to AdImpact, although it is still spending on digital ads and text messaging to turn out the vote … .”

Wow. That message was sent loud and clear. And it did nothing good for Nikki Haley’s campaign for the Republican nomination. It came as no surprise, her dropping out Wednesday.

■ From the same article, quoting Nikki Haley about Donald Trump’s leading the GOP to electoral losses in 2018, 2020 and 2022: “How much more losing do we have to do before maybe we realize Donald Trump is the problem?” Apparently at least one more time. In Arkansas, we sometimes make the same point this way: How many kicks of the mule is it going to take, y’all?

■ This from a report by Allan Smith of NBC, in Internet-style quick-points writing:

A lot of Haley voters are not saying they will vote for the GOP presidential nominee regardless of who it is.

There continues to be a substantial break between Trump and Haley voters on whether Biden legitimately won in 2020. This is in line with splits that have been observed in prior primary states, such as New Hampshire and South Carolina.

GOP primary voters tend to think Trump is more physically and mentally apt to serve as president than Haley. So much of Haley’s message is that both Trump and Biden are too old and unfit to serve.

Haley is either winning college grads or keeping the margins relatively close. Trump is blowing out Haley with voters who do not have college degrees.

Essentially no Trump voters approve of Biden’s job as president. But with Haley voters, Biden’s approval rating is actually above his national average.

This does not look good for Donald Trump. “A lot” of Haley voters won’t say they’ll vote for D. Trump in the general upcomin’. According to Haley’s voters, Joe Biden’s “approval rating is actually above his national average.”

But what does that matter? Except during the general election, when the presidency will be decided.

■ Joe Biden lost the Democratic presidential nomination caucus in American Samoa to somebody named Jason Palmer. The president lost 51 votes to 40 votes. How big a deal is that? As big a deal as Donald Trump losing Vermont (and only Vermont) Tuesday night.

■ More worrying for the incumbent’s campaign managers: More than 45,000 voters in the Democratic primary in Minnesota voted for “uncommitted” delegates rather than pro-Biden ones. Even Dean Phillips, the representative from Minnesota, didn’t get that many votes in his home state.

The uncommitted choice is a continued protest vote calling on the administration to do more to end the war in Gaza. The papers say progressives and young people have led the effort. If the Israel-Hamas war continues into the summer, with this administration appearing not to do much to end it, this could spell trouble for Joe Biden & Co.

■ We’re not sure what to make of polling right now. We remember Michael Dukakis beating the brakes off George Bush I back in the summer of 1988, and Mitt Romney polling better than an incumbent Barack Obama in 2012. But The Hill reports that the polling is so bad for Joe Biden that his people are in a panic.

Peter Welch, a senator from Vermont, thus a Democrat, told The Hill that he’s apprehensive, but . . . .

“We’re concerned. This is going to be a tough race, but it hasn’t really begun yet, so a lot of the coverage is just about Biden’s age, not about his policies. The president is going to get out on the stump and he’s going to have an opportunity to show he’s got the energy as well as the intellect and the acuity to do the job.”

Which brings us to our last bullet point today:

■ A poll the other day said that 73 percent of the American people, or at least 73 percent of those who answered this poll, say President Biden is too old to run for re-election. We are anxious to see the performance tonight. So are many Americans.