Still, let’s not fool ourselves here. Trump has won Iowa easily. And he benefits greatly from the tight DeSantis-Haley finish, because it means they’ll both stay in, splitting the non-Trump vote. So in a matter of days, he will win New Hampshire. Not by as wide a margin as Iowa, perhaps, but he’ll win. At that point, this “race” will be essentially over, if it isn’t already. Soon enough, it will be mathematically over as well.
Gingrich’s prediction of Trump prevailing in a 50-state march of the bootlickers will have come to pass. This is a party whose elites have turned themselves over to Trump lock, stock, and barrel. Even his strongest opponents (to the extent that we can call them “strong” or “opponents”) don’t significantly challenge this reality. Haley’s and DeSantis’s “attacks” were usually carefully balanced by praise. And the others, with the occasional exception of Chris Christie, had almost nothing to say. Businessman turned North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum said last summer that he wouldn’t do business with Trump. On Sunday, Burgum, no doubt taking measure of the drapery in the secretary of the Interior’s office, endorsed him.
And by the way: The fact that Haley couldn’t even beat DeSantis is a bad look for her. He’s been getting pulverized in the media for weeks. She’s been winning favorable press—so much so that many contended she might sneak out of Iowa with a victory over Trump here. None of the polls suggested that a win was in the offing, but it was within her power to exceed expectations and grab some momentum heading into persnickety New Hampshire. And from there, the story might have gone, who knows?