She booked a small venue, and then packed the room.
I was one of about 150 people. Her campaign set up the room for 90 chairs and then busily added new chairs as people filed in.
In the hour prior to the 6:30 p.m. start, her campaign filled the room with upbeat music from the 1980s. As she entered the room the volume increased, and the song was Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor. After her speech, the song American Girl, by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, pounded out of the loudspeakers.
She was confident, articulate, and presented herself credibly as a can-do, jobs-oriented governor who exemplified the immigrant experience of upward mobility and She did not talk about Trump, January 6, or abortion. More about all this in future blog posts.
Rick Millward's Guest Post today addressed guns, and it was the only "tough" question she got. A woman presented herself as a mom worried about the safety of her school-age children. Haley addressed her worries, saying that guns were not the problem. She said she had a concealed gun permit herself and fully understood why Americans would want to carry a gun for personal protection. One out of four Americans has some kind of mental illness, she said. (Really. One of four. That is what she said.) She said the reason we have mass shootings is that so many people have undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. Therefore, we need a huge increase in mental health professionals, especially within schools. We don't need mere "guidance counselors," she said. We need mental health professionals, one in every school. We also need an armed police officer in every school. We need a single point of entry for every school building.
As a quick parting comment. If DeSantis' campaign continues to struggle under relentless criticism by Trump, and the fallout from a 6-week abortion ban and his fight with Disney, I would expect Nikki Haley to rise in visibility and begin to be taken seriously as a plausible contender. She packages a set of policies that would be acceptable to both Trump supporters and Trump-wary Republicans who want the MAGA message and a toned-down nastiness. She is energetic and articulate, in a way that Biden most certainly is not.
As I write this I am preparing to go next door to watch a Trump rally. I am simultaneously hearing a TV report detailing the testimony in Trump's trial for defamation following sworn testimony that he raped a woman in a department store dressing room. So strange.
Hats off to anyone who can be in the same room as Nicki, as well as being in a room full of trump supporters. You have a better gag reflex than I do.