Though you may not have heard, Nikki Haley participated in a CNN-hosted town hall on Sunday evening. Apparently, the hot new thing among Republican candidates is to go on far-left networks and get asked a bunch of ridiculous questions to show how tough you are. Personally, I’m still in the “stop giving these hacks fodder and ratings” camp, but I digress.

Haley’s performance was a bit of a mixed bag. She answered some questions well, but then there were others that showed exactly why she’s gaining no traction in the Republican primary.

For example, when pressed on the possibility of a six-week abortion ban crossing her desk as president, Haley deflected, saying that host Jake Tapper should try asking Joe Biden and Kamala Harris whether they support late-term abortion. Pointing out media hypocrisy isn’t a bad thing, but I think that’s a question GOP candidates need to answer in the affirmative as well.

As I’ve said, the best answer (in my view) is that we fought for decades to make abortion a state issue and that it should remain one. To start federalizing it again, even with the best of intentions, would set the precedent that the next Democrat-controlled government could fully legalize abortion at the federal level. That would be an abject disaster for the pro-life movement. It is smarter to narrow the battlefield to individual states and take the position that any federal intervention is unconstitutional.

Of course, Haley also played the fact that she’s a woman, which has pretty much been the extent of her campaign so far.

It's time to put a badass woman in the White House. pic.twitter.com/HkZGsbTWjT

— Team Haley (@TeamHaley) June 5, 2023

This stuff is cringe because it’s so obviously not who Haley is, and while I’ve got zero problems with a woman being president, simply being female doesn’t mean anything to me. Haley needs to make a case for herself without falling back on her womanhood somehow representing a clear and present advantage. That stuff just doesn’t play in a Republican primary.

When asked to define “woke” (another favorite gotcha question of the left), Haley fumbled a bit.

Tapper: How do you define woke? 
Haley:… All of these things that are pushing what a small minority want on the majority of Americans… pic.twitter.com/XrpJ8EtJZA

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 5, 2023

I would have expected her to have a more tested answer to such an obvious question. While being “woke” does currently represent a minority pushing their views on the majority, that in and of itself is not the definition. Heck, federalism sometimes means the minority getting its way over the majority, and that’s a good thing.

Wokeness has to be critiqued on a far deeper level than just the end result. The problem with wokeness is not that it’s a minority ideology. Rather, it’s that it’s a pervasive, harmful ideology. Even if it eventually gains majority support, it will remain such. That’s why the explanation of it being “cultural Marxism” is better. Being “woke” means destroying systems and norms, including oppressing others, in a relentless pursuit of identity-based social justice. Wokeness can be about transgender ideology and the destruction of women’s spaces or it can be about Critical Race Theory and the destruction of traditional education.

Unfortunately, Haley didn’t do any better when it came time for her to draw a contrast with the other GOP candidates. When asked about Disney’s battle with Ron DeSantis, she repeated an incredibly telling attack.

Haley: Here you have DeSantis who accepted $50,000 in political contributions from Disney. But because they went and criticized him, now he's going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit pic.twitter.com/YuD2E96jDj

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 5, 2023

I’m sorry, what? Does she think that Florida pushing back on Disney is about criticism of DeSantis? Because that’s absolutely not what the controversy is about. Disney pledged to fight and overturn a then-proposed law that protected children from sexualization in schools.

We already know that Haley supports Disney in that fight, as she made a laughable call for them to move to South Carolina recently. But for her to continue this ridiculous, false line of attack that DeSantis is just being thin-skinned is a bridge too far. Republicans who don’t know what time it is have zero justification to be the Republican nominee.

Further, have none of Haley’s consultants told her that this line about Disney donating to DeSantis is self-defeating? She’s essentially announcing that if donors give her money, she’ll do whatever they want. How is that a good thing? The fact that DeSantis told Disney to pound sand despite past contributions is the kind of fortitude the GOP needs. Spinning that as a negative is ridiculous and shows Haley remains unready for primetime.

To summarize, I just don’t understand Haley’s campaign. She refuses to say anything overly negative about the front-runner in Donald Trump while she keeps making these petty, misleading attacks on DeSantis that only make her look worse. All the while, people from both the Trump and DeSantis camp can’t stand her. Whatever her campaign was supposed to be, it’s devolved into what it currently is, and what it currently is won’t be winning anything (including a VP slot).