Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Nikki Haley falls in line and endorses Trump

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.

We begin today with David Frum of The Atlantic noting that yesterday’s formal endorsement of the shoe salesman for president by Nikki Haley is no indicator of who her supporters may vote for this coming November.

Most of her supporters voted for Haley as a way to stop Trump. Haley’s announcement today that she intends to vote for Trump won’t raise their opinion of him, it will only lower their opinion of her. When she says, as she said again today, that she wished Donald Trump would “reach out” to her voters, she’s speaking words that may sound like English, but make no sense. The only way Donald Trump could reach out to Trump-skeptical Republicans is by pleading guilty to the many criminal charges against him and vowing to devote the rest of his life to restitution for the victims of his many civil frauds.

It’s neither surprising nor disappointing  that Haley has aligned herself with Trump after inveighing so fiercely against his utter unfitness for office. His rivals always do. Ted Cruz did it after Donald Trump insulted his wife and accused his father of involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Marco Rubio did it after Trump’s relentless mockery of his height, character, and intellect. Compared to those gross self-humiliations, it’s a relatively small thing to submit to a candidate who merely called you a “birdbrain,” scored xenophobic points off your name, and implied that your military-deployed husband had gone overseas to run away from you.

Haley is making a calculation about 2028. Perhaps it will work out for her. I doubt it, but who knows? The question before those who once backed her is more immediate.