Well, that disintegrated rather quickly, didn't it?
Nikki Haley was floated a softball right across the plate yesterday during a very friendly Fox News interview, and she did worse than whiff. She took out a golf club and flubbed a slam dunk. (Schlichter doesn't understand sports references, so I feel I need to explain that the point I'm making is she was so bad it was as if she doesn't even comprehend the basics of the game she's playing.)
When asked to chime in on the drama between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, she did worse than criticize DeSantis's handling of the issue (which is what Donald Trump has done).
And she did worse than take Disney's side (which is what Biden's White House and the Democrats have done).
She actually groveled and begged Disney to leave Florida and bring their business to South Carolina. (Which is kind of what evil, Marxist, Machiavellian Gavin Newsom has done.)
She even slammed DeSantis as "sanctimonious" (borrowing one of Trump's attacks) when she tweeted out the video of the Fox News exchange:
Hey @Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 26, 2023
We’ve got great weather, great people, and it’s always a great day in South Carolina!
SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either. pic.twitter.com/uf1PWQjGc5
Yeah, she actually tweeted the video out...like she was proud of it.
This isn't a Fox News appearance; this is a snuff film for her campaign.
Did she think she was running for governor of South Carolina again? I mean, even if you think she's on the right side of the Disney/DeSantis battle (she isn't), it makes no sense for a presidential candidate to try to woo a company from one state to the other. They're still American jobs, Amb. Haley. It makes no difference to a president if the jobs are in Florida or any other state.
More importantly, has she not been paying attention to anything going on in this country over the past year? The fight between Disney and the State of Florida is rooted in the company attempting to meddle in state politics by threatening retribution over the new laws pertaining to sex and gender education for pre-schoolers.
Pre-schoolers.
The state legislature and the governor, elected overwhelmingly by the people of Florida, passed a law restricting such instruction at least until the fourth grade.
Disney screamed bloody murder and began to use their considerable clout in the Sunshine State to try to lobby, cajole, pressure, and threaten lawmakers to allow kids not old enough to watch the latest Buzz Lightyear movie (it was rated PG) to hear instruction about their genitalia without parental consent.
DeSantis dared to take issue with a multi-gagillion dollar corporation meddling in state politics, all the while it enjoyed extraordinary benefits and autonomous governance in the Orlando area based on carved-out agreements dating back to the time Ted Kennedy killed his date.
Not only is DeSantis right to push back and expose Disney's hubris and arrogance, but he's showing Republican voters exactly how the levers of power can be used to advance conservative priorities while keeping the unbridled power of the Democrat/Corporate complex in check.
Haley's ham-handed effort to draw a distinction between herself and DeSantis was beyond clumsy; it was ignorant.
Is she recommending that her home state hand over an autonomous zone in South Carolina to Disney and allow them to have tax-free control over hundreds of square miles? Would any state agree to the deal struck nearly 60 years ago?
It's absolutely asinine.
It's also politically incoherent.
The mood of the conservative electorate in America is frayed and intense right now. We've been beaten down by pandemic protocols. We're watching basic norms in our society, like the sanctity of girls' restrooms in public schools and the integrity of women's sports in college, upended and obliterated by a radical and diabolical minority who won't rest until every kindergartner is taught by a drag queen in a thong.
Disney decided to take the side of the radicals, and all the Florida government (a Republican government, Ms. Haley) is doing is taking back enormously unfair benefits this business just lost the privilege of enjoying because it broke the basic covenant embedded in these sweetheart deals. Disney stuck its nose into issues that were none of its concern.
The Florida government decided to give Disney these great benefits decades ago in exchange for Disney to build theme parks, hotels, and restaurants and attract tourists to Central Florida. That's it. That was the entirety of the deal.
Disney violated that deal. Nowhere in the agreement was a stipulation that Disney would wield its power to ensure that children were exposed to transgender ideology, sex education, or any other grooming nonsense.
If Nikki Haley can't read the room and figure that basic reality out, she has no business trying to lead our party, let alone the nation.
