More signs that the Republican presidential field is approaching a reckoning: columnist George Will whose wife is a consultant for South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, is calling on the fairly well funded, but badly trailing candidate to drop out of the race:
This is the South Carolina Senator's choice: He can acknowledge that his energetic campaigning has failed to enkindle sufficient enthusiasm and depart as he campaigned, cheerfully. Or he can try to become someone whom, to his credit, he has no aptitude for being — another peddler of synthetic anger, stoking today's rage culture.
Will believes Scott – and others – should acknowledge reality, get out now, and put their weight behind the candidate he thinks can defeat former President, and current frontrunner, Trump: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Will says such a move would help crystalize the choice for GOP voters:
Scott could transform the nation's political mood by catalyzing a coalescence around Haley. As long as the Republican race pits Donald Trump against a cluster of lagging pursuers, the nominating electorate cannot ponder a binary choice. When, however, it is Trump against one experienced, polished, steely and unintimidated adversary, voters can internalize this exhilarating reality: There is a choice suitable for a great nation.
Perhaps. This assumes a great deal, however – not the least of which is that other candidates, who strongly appear that they have nothing else to do with their time, would likewise drop out in favor of a Haley candidacy.
To be blunt: the next candidate who may have to leave the race isn't Tim Scott, but former Vice President Mike Pence, who's running out of money (though Pence says he'll keep running).
Will's thesis also assumes the GOP electorate, as currently constituted, is in the mood for an alternative. Polling doesn't show it. If anything, the numbers show the grinding decline of Trump's one-time alternative, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The fundraising reports don't show it. On that score, Trump is widening his lead in the money race even as his rivals are forced to make cutbacks to preserve what's left of their funds.
Unless and until voters change their minds on Trump, the rest of the GOP field is merely auditioning for 2028. We'll have an irrefutable idea of what those GOP voters think once they start heading to the polls in less than 100 days.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
