Haley best option in GOP; Biden for Dems
In many ways, Nikki Haley has struggled as a presidential candidate. Confronted with an opponent, former President Donald Trump, who faces 91 felony counts across four criminal indictments and took a wrecking ball to our democracy with his crusade to overturn the 2020 presidential election, she spent a year on the campaign trail without making any significant criticism of Trump.
Her most notable moments have been mistakes. She initially couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge the U.S. Civil War was caused by slavery or that the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Haley’s home state of South Carolina was motivated by racism.
While at times she has sought to tap into a positivity akin to that of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, she has offered little to voters in terms of a positive vision for the country. A glimmer here and there, but her pitch to Republicans has been almost purely political. Haley argues that she’s more electable than Trump and therefore a better vessel for his self-described America First policies.
But given the choice of Haley or Trump, Republican voters and the nation would be better off with Haley. Between her experience as South Carolina governor and her tenure as
U.N. ambassador, Haley has a solid grasp of domestic and foreign policy.
Unlike Trump, she doesn’t pose an existential threat to our democracy. Unlike Trump, she respects our country’s fundamental institutions. Unlike Trump, she holds this country’s foreign allies in high regard and does not gush over authoritarians. And unlike Trump, she has the temperament of an adult.
We believe Haley to be a better candidate than she has shown on the campaign trail. The best hope for Haley’s candidacy is that should she win the party’s nomination, she would pivot into a unifying leader for the general election. That is an impossibility for Trump.
When it comes to the Democratic race, we recommend President Joe Biden over a field of long-shot candidates that includes Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips.
Biden has not been a particularly effective salesman for his own administration.
He also has struggled to get his arms
around this country’s challenges posed by the influx of migrants on the U.s.mexico border.
As the oldest president in our nation’s history, he will face persistent questions about whether he has the mental acuity and physical stamina to carry him through a second term that would end a couple of months after his 86th birthday.
But these considerations shouldn’t distract us from the fact that Biden has delivered a remarkable record of accomplishment in his first three years in office.
When he took over in January 2021, more than 3,000 Americans were dying every day from COVID-19, the U.S. economy was struggling and our political system was reeling from Trump’s attempt to block the certification of the 2020 election.
Biden’s administration immediately took charge of coordinating the COVID-19 vaccination program and helped the country turn the corner on the pandemic.
He worked, often in bipartisan fashion, to pass a $1.9 trillion pandemicrecovery stimulus, an infrastructure package of unprecedented scope, legislation that advances clean energy and lowers prescription drug prices, a $53 billion investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and a modest (but welcome) step in the direction of gun reform.
The country has produced nearly 15 million jobs under Biden, a record for any U.S. president over their first three years. The economy is growing at a steady pace, and the inflation that dogged this country during Biden’s first two years in office has slowed.
In an era when politicians tend to do more trolling than governing, Biden has delivered plenty of substance but very little style. At least partly for that reason, his reelection prospects in November are cloudy at best. But he has earned the right to represent his party once again.
She has a grasp of policy; his term has been one of substance