
Mark Sanford is challenging Trump for the Republican nomination. But he has his work cut out for him. His own party isn’t holding a Republican primary in his home state of South Carolina.
The South Carolina Republican Party executive committee voted Saturday to skip a presidential primary in 2020, leaving an open path for President Donald Trump to win all of the Palmetto State’s delegates without competition.
Sanford, who has had plenty of time to consider his options, chose to announce the day after that.
Former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said on Sunday that he would challenge President Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, criticizing Mr. Trump’s stewardship of government spending and the global economy and questioning the financial ethics of his administration.
How’s that for an example of executive leadership skills? Saying it was not great would be a kindness. But I have to agree with him on one point. Spending.
As an observer or Trump tactics free from the blind hatred of the left, I find he is typically several moves ahead of everyone else. Real deal makers are like that. And while Mr. Trump has said he’d deal with the debt and deficit in his second term, I’m not seeing anything that appears (to me) to be chess moves with any of the spending on which he has signed off.
Sanford gets a point for that, but not much else appears to be on his side. Which may not matter. This could be nothing more than an expensive marketing play to buy some earned media. Doing anything to challenge Trump will spark media interest. That equals many hours of exposure for you and your issue or issues.
He’s been talking about running for months but always as just one option for his next step, even noting in the “ad” he cut a few months ago that he might pass on a presidential run and start an “advocacy organization” focused on federal spending instead.
Might just be a big publicity smokescreen. And with only a fraction of the never trump vote available for Bill Weld, and Joe Walsh, I’m not sure how serious a challenge he can mount.
Not that Weld or Walsh are getting much out of this. Although Walsh has a future as a “republican” diversity hire and resident Trump basher on crash and burn CNN after he gives up. And maybe that was the point.
As for Sanford, announcing the day after your state committee makes it impossible for you to win your own state? Really?
| Hot Air
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