Nikki Haley - U.N. Ambassador

UPDATE: I posted this favorable comment on Nikki Haley's appointment as ambassador to the U.N., and then briefly withdrew it as I started reading more about her. I'm re-posting it, with this additional comment:

I like Nikki Haley. I was impressed with her handling of the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina after the Dylann Roof church shootings. I think she's smart and capable. She's a fairly mainstream Republican, which means that we have a number of basic disagreements. I think her appointment was largely for Trump to burnish his picks with a woman and a member of a visible minority (daughter of immigrants from India). I also think she's being pushed by the Republican party because she's a rising star in the party who may run for president in the future; this is an excellent way for her to add foreign policy experience to her CV. And while her inexperience is a knock against her, it takes on a different light when you consider all the rest of the inexperienced crew Trump is assembling. Despite her inexperience, though, I think that the main quality requirement of a U.N. ambassador is diplomacy, and I think she has that quality. There are many, many Republicans who would have been far worse (hello, John Bolton, curator of the Mustache of Doom).

Of course, it should be noted that she's had to swallow anything that remained of her honor and integrity by reversing herself and kissing up to Trump, showing that of course she's a political hack who will, to paraphrase JFK, pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of her political career.



Another good appointment by Trump. Haley was an outspoken Trump opponent. While she was supporting Rubio, she spoke of Trump as "everything a governor doesn’t want in a president," and "Donald Trump is everything we hear and teach our kids not to do in kindergarten." Trump retorted that Haley was "very weak on illegal immigration," and "The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley!"

In an article at Politico by By Nahal Toosi and Alex Isenstadt, Trump said of Haley:

"...a proven deal-maker, and we look to be making plenty of deals." He also said the governor has a "track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation."

She's thin on foreign experience, but as governor of South Carolina, she has some experience in promoting state businesses on the world stage (according to Hugh Hewitt, she sought contracts for Boeing, for example). Of course, she boosts Trump's image by being both female and of Indian descent.

Unfortunately, she opposed the Iran nuclear deal, and she was one of several Republican governors who tried to refuse to allow Syrian refugees in her state.

There are those in the Trump camp who would prefer to shun those who spoke disparagingly of Trump during the presidential campaign, the same crew who oppose the idea of Romney as Secretary of State (Huckabee, Gingrich). There was chatter about Haley being nominated for Secretary of State herself; ight-wing bomb-thrower Ann Coulter tweeted: "If Trump wants an Indian Sec of State, how about Tonto?"

Stay classy, Ann.