Haley Faults Obama, Warns GOP in Republican Rebuttal South Carolina governor accuses president of falling ‘far short of his soaring words,’ cautions her party for candidates’ immigration rhetoric By Reid J. Epstein
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-gop-rebuttal-south-carolina-gov-nikki-haley-to-push-for-republican-in-white-house-1452648013?mod=trending_now_2
WASHINGTON—South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley accused President Barack Obama Tuesday of falling “far short of his soaring words” while also cautioning her own party not to fall for its own populist rhetoric.
Those twin themes dominated Mrs. Haley’s rebuttal to Mr. Obama’s final State of the Union address, with the Republican governor faulting the president for “the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels” and warning her own party against following the anti-immigration rhetoric that has propelled Donald Trump to the lead in GOP presidential election polls.
More on the State of the Union
“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she said, without mentioning Mr. Trump or other 2016 candidates by name. “We must resist that temptation.”
Instead, she said Republicans should focus on bringing prosperity back to America. If a Republican is elected president, “taxes would be lower for working families, and we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt.”
Mrs. Haley, who has occasionally been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, said Republicans share blame with Democrats for the nation’s polarized political culture.
“We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves: while Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone,” she said. “There is more than enough blame to go around.”
First elected with tea-party support during the 2010 Republican wave, she received widespread support last June when, after the murder of nine members of a historic black church in Charleston, she led the successful and quick campaign to take down the Confederate battle flag from its perch in front of the state capitol in Columbia.
She was mentioned as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney in 2012 and has been discussed in GOP circles as someone who could provide useful demographic balance to the party’s presidential ticket.
Mrs. Haley is the third woman in a row chosen by Republican leaders to give the official rebuttal to Mr. Obama, following Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst last year and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in 2014.
Mrs. Haley, speaking from Columbia, S.C., highlighted her ethnic background. The daughter of Indian immigrants was, for a night, the face of a party whose elders fear leading presidential candidates’ anti-immigration positions may alienate Hispanic voters key to winning the presidency.
“My story is really not much different from millions of other Americans,” Mrs. Haley said. “Immigrants have been coming to our shores for generations to live the dream that is America.”
And yet Mrs. Haley made clear that Republicans still oppose new laws that would provide a citizenship pathway for illegal immigrants or refugees from war-torn Syria that Mr. Obama has sought. “We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally,” she said. “And in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined. We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.”
But in another shot at Mr. Trump, Mrs. Haley called for politicians of all stripes to spend more time listening to their political disagreements. “Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference,” she said. “That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume.”
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