John Ellis: “Ask a suburban woman in any major or secondary media market this question: which candidate do you feel best understands what your life is like? I would guess that at least two-thirds of them would say… Nikki Haley. That doesn’t mean they would vote for her for president, necessarily. It does mean that, politically speaking, she deserves respect.”
“Trump’s graceless and weirdly angry ‘victory speech’ in New Hampshire was incredibly stupid, politically speaking. He won. There was no need to use the occasion to demand that Haley drop out, to say that she would ‘be under investigation’ if she won — and to suggest there are skeletons in Haley’s closet that ‘she doesn’t want to talk about.’”
“Trump’s ‘victory speech’ will be long forgotten in a week or two. But it’s part of a pattern of behavior that has come to be part of his ‘brand.’ That’s fine in the GOP primary electorate universe. He has more than enough support across all the demographic sub-groups to win the nomination, quickly and decisively. It’s not fine in the general election universe. If 37% or 38% or 40% of suburban women think you’re a jerk and a bully, you’ll lose.”
