Nikki Haley for State?

Apparently, she's a serious candidate for the job. Many times on here I've said she's a terrific leader and the future of the GOP. Before politics, her background was in business. Honestly, the first thing that popped into my head was, I don't know based on her background that State would be the job for her and her for that job. She doesn't have, candidly, the real foreign relations experience that we typically expect of Secretaries of State.

But then I thought some more:

Secretaries of State and Treasuries have different flavors. For Treasury you have economists, a la Summers/Geithner. A respected DC insider to install and push for the POTUS' tax and economic policies, e.g. Baker/Bentsen/Lew. And Wall Street executives, e.g. Rubin/Paulson.

While not as apparent, Secretaries of State also come in different flavors. National security wonks: e.g. Rice/Albright/Kissinger. Generals: e.g. Powell/Haig, political leaders: e.g. Clinton/Kerry.

I think there is an important part of the job (probably the most important), beyond diplomacy and foreign policy - that is as the face and speaker and embodiment of what America represents and her sovereignty...effectively, a Super Ambassador for the World. I think Haley, given her background, would fill that requirement superbly and probably better than anyone else. Given Trump's reputation and personality, someone like Haley (not Giuliani not Bolton) could be perfect as our State representative abroad.

My first choice would be Giuliani, but Haley would be fine (probably great) depending on the roles of the rest of the National Security team.

 

Haley as the choice would be racist and misogynist at the same time.

 

Mark me down as a big Haley fan. She'd run circles around the last two clowns who filled the position.

 

Haley as secretary of state? Really? Even corrupt Hillary could have made a better pick than that. Haley has 0 foreign policy experience. At least Sarah Palin could see Russia from her house.

 

National Security Advisor would formulate policy. She would be the ambassador for that policy...not unlike how ambassadors (with no foreign policy experience) are picked for important missions and are supported by career FSOs.

Obviously, her take on the job wouldn't be as policy focused. She'd represent and speak for the US abroad and she'd run the State Department.

Who the hell do you think foreign officials and foreign media would be more interested in talking to? John Bolton? Yawn. Haley is also infinitely more qualified to manage an executive department than Bolton.

Bolton can be the NSA.

 

What exactly does Haley have to talk about with them? Surely, in the millions of people in this country, there is someone better.

 

Trump was correct that Haley is no longer that popular in South Carolina. She probably does need to find a job elsewhere before she loses in the next primary.

 

How about the United States is being mocked by the World for electing an alleged mysogynistic racist with white nationalist leanings. Hell, I'm not even completely convinced we haven't.

I think a smart, accomplished, telegenic, Southern, conservative, bipartisanly popular, immigrant, successful executive would be a compelling spokesperson and representative for the country.

Despite whatever Hillary may have told you, foreign policy is made collectively at the National Security Council which is chaired by the National Security Advisor.

 

And yet, Trump reached out to her about the job. And those tweets were because she endorsed Rubio.

HTown77, if you're going to rain on my thread...give us names of your nominees.

 

I will rain on any Haley for secretary of state thread. People should be judged on their merit, not their personal traits. Haley has no merit for foreign policy and would be a disaster. Find me someone with substance.

Go find a Kissinger that understands foreign powers. Secretary of State is more than just a spokesperson. They have to have some insight into foreign politics. What insight does Haley have?

 

For the State job, which is foremost The Representative of the country to the World, personal traits are very definitely material to the job. That part of the job is arguably more important, maybe much more, than foreign policy expertise. She is not being considered for National Security Advisor. There is a difference and reasons why they are different jobs.

She's not a foreign policy wonk. But foreign investment in South Carolina has gone through the roof. These are tangible results with foreign countries and foreign entities where often academics just bring opinions and guesses and their research papers.

Do you care about trade pacts? Trade deficits? How many Secretaries of State nominees have actually brought foreign investment and worked with foreign companies to actually bring jobs to the US.

http://www.businessclimate.com/south-carolina-foreign-direct-investment-flows-state/

http://sccommerce.com/news/press-re...ognized-achievement-foreign-direct-investment

http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article88936872.html

Like a John Bolton...no thank you. You go find one Htown77 and give us a name.

Instead of wonks like Bolton that "understand foreign powers," maybe somebody that understands and relates to people?

 

Texas has had a very successful economy. Maybe we should make Rick Perry secretary of state if that is the criteria?

 

He has expertise on Mexican relations. However, his personal traits aren't as compelling. He doesn't have an ability to communicate to a broad audience. And unlike South Carolina which hardly has the infrastructure of Texas, the Texas Economy is just the Texas Economy. A lot of the foreign manufacturing and jobs in S. Carolina are the result of the development plan put in place by her administration.

Did I mention Perry is a terrible communicator? Because I'll say it again. Perry is a terrible communicator.

Do you have any other names?

 

Whether or not I have names is irrelevant to Haley's disqualifying lack of foreign policy experience.

 

So you would have thought Thomas Jefferson was unqualified to be our envoy and spokesman to Europe too. Okay.

 

Haley did not write the declaration of independence.

 

Ha...she did not. We can agree to disagree on this one HTown77.

 

Yep, have to agree to disagree. If posters did not disagree, we would not have a forum. All the above said, she cannot be any worse than Hillary or John Kerry.

 

I wonder if Bob Gates would come back. He was the only good thing probably from the last two administrations. He cleaned up the mess from Rumsfeld, and then after he left Obama screwed it all up.

 

I would not mind Gates. He is experienced, bipartisan and foreign leaders are familiar with him.

 

I don't think Haley would be a disaster, but I would hope we could find someone who would represent the country well and have foreign policy knowledge and experience. That shouldn't be too much to ask.

Rick Perry???? Lol.

 

If we're draining the swamp we're not gonna see the same types of people we've had in the past. We're on the Trump Train --- I say lets kick back, have a cold one, and see where it takes us!

 

One would think Trump lost the election around here.

I'm just glad the president-elect is the only one who's opinions matter when assembling his staff.

He's got a hell of a lot more experience hiring qualified people into appropriate high ranking positions than the last guy.

He could play pin the tail on the donkey and find a better choice than the last two AG's and SOS's.

Trump America is coming and no amount of whining and protests can stop it.

 

Were you expecting everyone to suddenly join the Trump cheerleader team and not offer opinions on his actions/choices?

 

YES! Maybe I will go protest now since I didn't get my way.

It's not the differences of opinions, that was always here during the election and perfectly normal.

Since the election this place has def turned back into what one would expect from an Austin based political board.

The frequency of bashing any move he makes or even rumored ones has elevated here significantly.

I guess it's a side effect from most here thinking Queen HRC had it in the bag and wasn't just the ole bag herself. Surprise!

 

I just love how some think they know exactly what will happen in the future (even though they were so wrong on who would get elected). So far I only have one big issue with Trump. Of course you know I'm going to say Obamacare. It went from repeal and replace to just making adjustments and keeping a bunch of it. One of those things that I think doesn't work is pre-existing. That is a flaw that will prevent it from being successful from the start.

 

To be fair, Trump has said he would keep pre-existing conditions coverage at least as far back as February in the Primary Debates.

I don't necessarily agree with that. In fact I would probably say that's not really insurance. But he did say in February he would keep that portion of Obamacare.

 

I didn't catch that in the primary debates. I probably went to the fridge when it was said. LOL

 

No issue scares me more than Obamacare. If you leave in the preexisiting condition requirement but dump the individual mandate altogether, then why would anybody buy health insurance anymore? They'll have no reason to. However, if they keep the mandate in place, then how will they be able to claim they repealed Obamacare?

However, I'm not surprised that a lot of people missed this. If you talk like a colossal ***, people won't notice that you're actually not very conservative and haven't really promised to do much of anything on the issue. They'll just high-five and revel in your hostility.

And has anyone noticed the gradual flip-flop on illegal immigration? We've gone from deporting all illegal immigrants to deporting criminals and then deferring the decision of what to do with the non-criminal aliens. Why defer the decision? Because Trump is going to do grant amnesty of some sort. There's no other reason to wait.

But who cares? He speaks our language, and does it really matter if you elect a TV character (or cartoon character?) if you don't know he's a TV character?