South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley broke recent tradition by not wrecking her political future with an embarrassing response to President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening. No, she waited until Wednesday to screw up being considered as a vice presidential possibility.
It was clear that Haley was talking about Donald Trump in her SOTU response, but then she decided to make it clear that she also disagrees with Marco Rubio and Jeb! Bush. "I have disagreements with other presidential candidates," Haley said. Then, specifically, "Marco Rubio believes in amnesty, which I don't. There's lots of things." Then came the realization that she'd just stepped on her national ambitions, big time.
Later, in an interview with Fox News, she walked it back.
"I'm against his Gang of Eight bill. He is not for amnesty, but I was against his Gang of Eight bill," she said, referencing the bipartisan group Rubio once belonged to that pushed comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
Moments after that, Haley elaborated.
"It's been a long couple of days," she said. "What I said was that I didn't agree with him—I meant what I didn't agree with him was on the Gang of Eight bill. I said that he wasn't for amnesty. That's not what I meant. What I meant was that he supported the Gang of Eight bill and I did not."
Yeah. Right. Good save there, Nikki. Note that she didn't bother to walk back her criticism of Jeb! It seems everybody but him has come to the conclusion that he's toast. But this could make things particularly interesting for Rubio in tonight's debate, which just happens to be in South Carolina, which also happens to be a state Rubio sees as critical to his presidential hopes.