Haley also has far more in common with Cheney regarding foreign policy. While Cheney used her recent memoir to cast her exile from the GOP as an outcome of her righteous crusade against “Orange Jesus,” their differing stances on foreign affairs went ignored.

It’s often underappreciated just how much Cheney’s representation of establishment neocons made her an outcast in the Republican Party. Before she joined the partisan Jan. 6 Select Committee, Cheney spread the bogus Russian bounties story claiming Trump ignored Kremlin dollar signs on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan. Cheney’s support for endless aid to Ukraine also sets her far apart from the majority of Republicans who say the U.S. has spent too much on the seemingly never-ending conflict.

Haley, meanwhile, has spent the Republican primary banging the war drums over China and Ukraine to the ire of GOP voters alienated by the candidate’s aggressive interventionist foreign policy. Haley and Cheney might run in Republican primaries, but their views on foreign affairs are incompatible with the GOP electorate. So, it’s not Clinton with whom Haley has the most in common. It’s Cheney.

[Yes, but that may be why Haley will hang on longer in the primary, too. DeSantis wanted to give Republicans a chance to choose conservo-populism without Trump’s baggage. So far, though, the GOP’s populist base is still adhering to Trump. Haley provides a contrast for the more moderate Republicans and GOP-leaning independent centrists to rally around. — Ed]