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Tea Party favorite Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute she remains undeterred by Tea Party criticism of her decision to endorse Mitt Romney for president and attacked President Obama for being a “bully”.
The first-term governor swept into office in 2010 amid the wave of Tea Party enthusiasm in the wake of the passage of Obamacare, which she details in her new book “Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story”.
Some Tea Partiers savaged Haley for endorsing Romney, labeling her a “sell-out”, and Rush Limbaugh
used her Dec. 2011 announcement that Romney as an opportunity to mock her conservative credentials.
But picking a presidential candidate who was a Washington outsider and who knew what it means to meet a payroll stood at the top of Haley’s criteria for who she would endorse, and only Romney fit those criteria.
“A lot of it was that I knew that I needed a partner in Washington, and I knew that right now I didn’t have one,” Haley said, referring to the Obama administration’s lawsuit against her state’s illegal immigration laws. “I wanted results, and when I looked at Gov. Romney and saw that he took this failed Olympics and made it a source of pride for country.
“He was a governor of a Democratic state, a liberal state, and was an executive. He cut taxes 19 times and balanced his budget with an 85-percent Democratic legislature.”
Haley also factored in the familiarity factor with Romney because she knew the former Massachusetts governor and he had been supportive of her.
“He just wasn’t a candidate who wanted to win,” Haley said. “He’s somebody who has spent the last four years saying how he would handle the situation had he been the president, and all of those let me know that was the right person.”
The governor reaffirmed her support for the Tea Party and told Red Alert Politics that she believes the movement will be “stronger than ever” going into November and that a lot of young people will become engaged by it.
“They want someone who understands that government works for the people and who understands that the protection of their freedoms and liberties matter,” Haley said. “The first thing I did was sit down with Gov. Romney and ask him tough questions.”
Romney’s promise that he would abolish Obamacare on his first day in office and that he would not impose any sort of individual health insurance mandate on South Carolina helped sell her on his candidacy.
“He said what we did for Massachusetts was for Massachusetts and that I would never do that for a big federal or national mandate,” Haley said. “I need to know that whatever happens on the federal or national level that it’s not going to stop the will of the people of South Carolina.
“It was Tea Party values that I asked him that question on, and we got responses back.”
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Haley warned Republicans not to lose their vision amid President Obama’s “bullying” tactics and effort to distract attention away from his failed record as president.
“He’s going to continue to distract,” Haley said. “That’s his job. We need to stay focused. That’s our job.
“Look at the debt. Look at the loss of the credit rating. Look at the gas pumps. Look at the fact that he has not balanced the budget.”
The governor chided Obama’s 2008 campaign message of “hope” and “change”, but instead he has resorted to scare tactics and bullying people into getting his way.
“He is such a bully,” Haley said. “He is falling apart a little bit by bullying the Supreme Court, and he’s reached a new level.”
