🇺🇸 Nikki's Moment?

Plus, intense juggling.

The Flag

Good morning, and happy Monday. Rather than hypothesize about a non-profit that would help Filipino orphans, a student turned a college project into a real one.

Plus, one talented circus performer decided to toy with fate as he climbed onto a slackline and walked a distance of 34 feet and 4 inches while juggling three knives.

Also, the electric vehicle (EV) revolution is no longer just a dot on the horizon. It's here.

Left: Words Like 'Terrorism' & 'Genocide' Are Weapons Page Fortna, Los Angeles Times

Right: Election of Milei, Wilders & Cogswell Scares the Left Roger Kimball, American Greatness

QUICK CLICKS

Hostage Release, Palestinians Students Shot, Chauvin Attacked

World: Hamas releases third group of hostages as part of truce, and says it will seek to extend the deal (AP)

US: 3 Palestinian students shot in Burlington, Vermont, police say (CBS News)

US: Derek Chauvin, officer convicted of George Floyd's murder, was stabbed in prison (NPR)

World: Israeli-linked oil tanker seized off the coast of Aden, Yemen, intelligence firm says (ABC News)

World: Russia says it downed dozens of Moscow-bound Ukrainian drones after it struck Kyiv (NPR)

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2024

Nikki’s Moment?

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s rising poll numbers have drawn media speculation over whether she could successfully turn the crowded GOP primary into a one-on-one.

Reporting from the Left: Eyes on 2024: Haley rises as race for second heats up (NBC News)

Reporting from the Right: Will stars align for Haley in bizarre GOP contest? (Washington Examiner)

From The Flag: Former President Donald Trump has been the clear frontrunner for the entirety of the Republican primary campaign season. Flordia Governor Ron DeSantis was initially seen as a viable alternative, but his campaign has struggled to generate widespread support from the Republican electorate. Meanwhile, Haley has been rising in both national and state-level polls, while DeSantis’s second-place lead decreases. Here’s what both sides are saying.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Haley’s Growing, But Does It Mean Anything?

  • “The former South Carolina governor is drawing support from Trump-skeptical donors and activists in early nominating states.”

  • Republicans are lining up behind Haley because she’s polling stronger in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

  • Haley may be surging in the polls, but even if she overtakes Desantis’s lead, it’s highly unlikely she’ll replace Trump as the nominee."

Nikki Haley is consolidating the ‘Never Trump’ vote, Sally Goldenberg et al., POLITICO: “Two years after Nikki Haley vowed not to challenge Donald Trump for the presidential nomination, the former South Carolina governor who served in his administration and once called him a ‘friend’ is becoming the standard-bearer of the movement to knock him out. In recent weeks, Haley has drawn a surge in support from Trump-skeptical Republicans across the GOP, including donors and organizers in early-voting states. A group of former Tim Scott donors is preparing to host a fundraiser for her in Manhattan. Haley’s campaign events in New Hampshire this week required overflow rooms. And in Iowa — where Haley has steeper competition from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — some conservatives are busy corralling support for her. … Still, Haley is running far behind the former president. And in a party he continues to dominate, consolidating the anti-Trump vote is likely to get Haley only so far. In a still-crowded primary, Haley is in some ways the latest manifestation of the challenge confronting all of them: Run hard against Trump, and turn off those who stick by his side. Support him and lose those desperate for a different choice next year.”

How Haley could eclipse DeSantis to become the Trump alternative, Ronald Brownstein, CNN: “The most important question in the GOP presidential race for the next few weeks isn’t if anyone can narrow Donald Trump’s imposing lead over his rivals; it’s whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can surpass the other clearly enough to create a genuine one-on-one contest with the former president. The answer to that second question likely will go a long way toward answering the first. No one in the party disputes that all the candidates face long odds of toppling the current front-runner. But many of the Republican strategists skeptical of Trump now view the race as a kind of stair-step: before any other candidate can really challenge Trump, they argue, he or she must achieve what his 2016 rivals could not by clearing the field to create a binary choice with him. … The reason some in the party now view Haley as a stronger option than DeSantis is not because of big shifts in the national polling, where he still typically leads her as a distant second-place finisher to Trump; rather it’s because of how they are positioned in the first three major contests on the calendar – Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Nikki Haley Is Surging and Still Completely Irrelevant Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Slim Chance, But Maybe She Could Pull it Off

  • Haley is far behind, but she has a narrow path to victory if she can make the right moves and appeals to a broader GOP electorate.

  • If some donors are going to dip their toes in the water with Haley, they need to make a fuller commitment and “go all in.”

  • “Republican donors aim to boost Haley while Biden backers fret about his chances”

Nikki Haley faces ‘narrow path’ to overcoming Trump's hold on GOP, Mabinty Quarshie, Washington Examiner: “ Breakout performances at the first three primary debates and stinging rebukes of her competitors have all helped her rise in the field as others have begun to drop out of the race. … Yet as the 2024 election cycle inches closer to next year's Iowa caucuses, Haley's path to the nomination remains daunting given the former president's seemingly unbreakable hold over the GOP base. Despite increasing legal troubles, Trump's supporters have remained loyal to him, with some giving perfunctory consideration to the rest of the presidential field. … Woodrow Johnston, a Republican consultant based in Las Vegas, said Haley had a "narrow path" to the nomination. … Trump and his allies are portraying an air of inevitability about the former president securing the GOP nomination. Trump, who has generally taken to attacking both Haley and DeSantis, skipped all three previous GOP primary debates and will skip next month's fourth debate in Alabama, claiming that his lead in the primary is proof enough that he will win the nomination.”

Donors Are Leaning Towards Haley. It’s (Past) Time for Them to Go All In, Michael R. Strain, National Review: “While Wall Street’s die-hard Democrats are sticking with President Biden, many other financiers have been casting about for an alternative to Trump, the former president they see as too unpredictable among other concerns. … Attention on Haley, a former South Carolina governor and Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, intensified after Sen. Tim Scott’s (R., S.C.) unexpected exit… Major donors should not wait until Iowa. They should not until January. They should not wait until December. To establish a stronger position in Iowa and New Hampshire, Governor Haley needs more resources right now. Haley clearly has momentum. But the GOP’s major donors rallying to her en masse would be a major boost in both resources and momentum. The longer major donors continue to feel out their options and sit on the fence, the higher the likelihood that President Trump wins the 2024 nomination. …Governor Haley has the right stuff to beat Trump for the GOP nomination and to beat President Biden in the general election. In the months since, that has become even more self evident. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the political right.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Wall Street Eyes Nikki Haley as Trump Spoiler, Cara Lombardo, The Wall Street Journal

FLAG THIS

Nikki on the Climb

A mid-November poll showed that 20% of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire would support Haley, up from 12% in September, placing her firmly in second place.

Trump received support from 42% of primary voters, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received 14%, DeSantis was backed by 9%, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy had 8%. The poll found that 52% of likely GOP primary voters in the state had made up their minds (CNN).

However narrow it might appear, do you believe Haley has a shot at winning the Republican nomination?

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WATERCOOLER

The First Crusade, Clean Desktop, Deserted Alaska

Depiction of Pope Urban II preaching the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont

On This Day in 1095: Pope Urban II made perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus vult!” or “God wills it!”

Today I learned Alaska is so large and deserted, it has the equivalent population density of 16 people living in Manhattan.

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