Hello and welcome to the Reason Roundtable. I'm Peter Suderman filling in for

Matt Welch who is stuck on a dark desert highway with cool wind in his hair.

Yes folks he is in Hotel California where they still don't have the internet.

Who knew? Today I'm joined by my regular co-panelists Nick Gillespie and Catherine Mange Ward as well as special guest reasons very own Christian Brichke. Everybody say hi.

Howdy good morning. Hello Peter.

Happy Monday.

So today is January 8, 2024, which means we are exactly one week away from the very first

voting event on the GOP primary calendar. Former President Donald Trump has a commanding lead in national polls,

as well as in Iowa specifically,

where he's currently polling at about 50%.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron Desantis and former UNM

Baster Nicky Haley are in a tight race for a distant, distant second place.

Trump looks like the runaway winner in this race, but of all the candidates, it is Nicky Haley, whose

campaign has shown the most unexpected energy. So we are going to name this segment after an

underappreciated Adam Sandler movie from the turn of the millennium, Little Nicky.

Over the last six months, Haley has beaten expectations.

She's become something close to the default candidate for Republicans and especially

elite Republicans Republicans with power prestige who don't like Donald Trump.

Haley is rhetorically at least a fiscal conservative she talks a big game about reducing federal debt

and controlling entitlement spending.

She's also a hawkish internationalist

who views America as the essential nation

...