In a move that's sure to re-fuel vice-presidential speculation that , Gov. Nikki Haley will campaign tomorrow in Michigan with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Haley has a full slate of activities today in the Upstate, including the signing of a bill reforming unemployment benefits, an and a visit to the .
Haley endorsed Romney prior to the primary here in June, but it did not give the former Massachusetts governor much of a boost, as he lost to Newt Gingrich by double digits. Haley will appear with Romney at 11:30 a.m. in Ann Arbor and then move on to Lansing home of the state headquarters for the Romney team. Her day will conclude with a fundraiser in Detroit.
Recent polls show Romney trailing Pres. Obama in Michigan, but the difference is within the margin of error. As is the case in many swing states, the economy is the key issue. Romney has long ties to the state, as his father George was governor from 1963-69.
According to Haley's spokesperson Rob Godfrey, Haley will then go to the Republican Governor's Association Conference in Colorado before returning to South Carolina on Friday morning. Godfrey said costs of the governor’s travel and expenses will be covered by the Romney campaign and the RGA.
Godfrey added, “There are few things more important to South Carolina’s future than a new occupant of the White House, and now that the legislative session is over, Gov. Haley will do anything and everything she can to help elect Mitt Romney president.”
You must be kidding. In order to be dead, something has to have actually been alive. No serious observer of the South Carolina political landscape ever seriously thought that this governor had even an infinitesimal chance of being seriously considered for the GOP vice-presidential spot. Any conversation about it was both initiated and fueled by the governor's manipulation of the national media, where it was mentioned far more frequently than in the local media---the latter knowing better because it knew her better. This governor can't get her in-state support or her in-state favorables out of the 30th percentile. And there is no need to go through the long list of reasons why she is justifiably viewed so negatively. Suffice it to say that, were she to have been vetted as a candidate for the second spot on the GOP ticket, an 18-wheeler would have been required to transport all the baggage she would have taken into the interview room. This governor's biggest success, beyond using her two elected offices as an employment agency for herself and her family, has been her self-interested, non-stop effort at self-promotion. And, admittedly, she has been riotously good at that.