Free Republic

As far as we know, Nikki Haley isn’t on the short list, nor on the long list. There’s no indication that she’s being considered as Donald Trump’s VP pick, and Trump forcefully smacked down a report in Axios that the campaign was looking at her. She’d still probably be the choice who, more than any other possible pick, would help Trump win in November. By conventional rules, the former South Carolina governor getting the nod would be so obvious as to be completely unremarkable — she’s the runner-up in the nomination fight; she represents a different faction of the party;...

In 2015, Donald Trump burst on the scene with a megaphone, a populist message, an army of grassroots supporters — and not much else. If he runs for the Republican nomination again, as seems likely, it will be different. Early in his first presidential campaign, he had to be grateful for every small crumb of support from Republican officialdom — an endorsement from then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, or former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Now, Trump is a former president of United States who looms incredibly large over his party. He and his loyalists have forged a new establishment —...

Brett Kavanugh is on the Supreme Court and the biggest reason is Donald Trump. When he won the nomination in 2016, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that Trump wouldn’t win the general election, he wouldn’t be true to his promise on judges even if he won, and even if he nominated the right people, he wouldn’t care enough about the Court to see through a difficult, high-stakes confirmation fight. We can now say of these presumptions, wrong, wrong, and wrong. The Kavanugh confirmation was clarifying in another way. Brett Kavanugh is not a loudmouth. He never insulted anyone or said...