FITSNews Political Stock Index – 8/21/2024

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As we approach the pivotal post-Labor Day homestretch of America’s quadrennial experiment in representative democracy, it’s fair to wonder what an already unprecedented election year holds in store for us over the coming seventy-five days.

The 2024 election cycle has already witnessed indictments, assassination attempts, coups and all manner of related intrigue… and we’re still several weeks away from any potential “October surprises.”

This week, our primary focus is on the resurgent Democratic party – led by its reinvented presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. Gone is the failed presidential pretender of 2020 – and the divisively unpopular veep of 2021-2023. In her place? New Kamala, a Beltway/Hollywood amalgamation of audacious Obama-style hope and change.

Will the audaciousness be enough to pull off a come-from-behind win for the incumbent party? We shall see…

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For more than a year, our founding editor Will Folks and political columnist Mark Powell have been monitoring political developments via our Palmetto Political Stock Index.  As noted, each installment is an assessment of how our subjects fared over the previous week. Positive reports don’t reflect endorsements, and negative ones aren’t (necessarily) indicative of vendettas.

We just call ‘em like we see ‘em …

To view the most recent index, click here. And to get your historical fix, click here.

Got a hot “stock tip” for our consideration? Email Will (here) and/ or Mark (here). Just be sure to include “Palmetto Political Stock Index” in the subject line.

Where should you invest your political capital this week? To the index…

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NIKKI HALEY

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STOCK: RISING

There’s no need to clean off your device’s screen. You read that right: Nikki Haley‘s stock is rising. This news outlet has never shied away from calling out the political and ideological shortcomings of the former governor-turned-ambassador – especially her raving neoconservatism and ever-vacillating views on Donald Trump.

Haley has always had an “It’s Complicated” relationship with the truth, but when she’s right, she’s right. And Haley is absolutely correct about the best avenue for going after Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. While Trump, J.D. Vance, and much of the GOP elite flounder about with their messaging – trying without success to ding Harris – Haley has found the silver bullet.

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Complaining about Kamala Harris not doing an interview won’t win us the election. Defining her will. If she won’t tell Americans where she stands, we can only trust her past words and record.

-Raising taxes
-Border crisis
-Debacle in Afghanistan
-Not enforcing sanctions on… pic.twitter.com/DTgTwoBA2d

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 15, 2024

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Haley is spot on. Providing fodder for the D.C. cocktail circuit – or right-of-center social media – is all well and good, but it doesn’t motivate voters in the real world. And it certainly isn’t going to move the needle with independent voters. When single moms and working-class families are putting in extra hours because items cost 20 percent more than they did when the Biden-Harris administration began, does anyone really think questioning her ethnicity or shining a spotlight on her duck-and-hide media strategy will convince folks to pull the GOP lever for Trump in November?

Haley gets it, and kudos to her for saying so.

But is anyone listening in Mar-a-Lago?

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KAMALA HARRIS

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STOCK: RISING

This is the week “that little girl” – the one who famously schooled Joe Biden using that very line during the 2020 election cycle – has dreamt of for her entire life. Kamala Harris‘ acceptance speech on Thursday night will mark the culmination of the most astonishing ascent to the top of a major party ticket in more than a century.

Maybe ever…

The MSM may trumpet Harris’ coronation as though it were the Second Coming, but it isn’t the automatic slam dunk pollsters and pundits would have you believe. While Harris clearly has the upper hand at the moment, she stands the very real danger of being ensnared by her own radical views.

For example, the economic policy she rolled out to great fanfare earlier this month contained gems like this: Harris would have the Federal Trade Commission go after corporations in the grocery industry for “price gouging” – though she didn’t define where profitability ends and gouging begins. That was too much even for the über-liberal Washington Post, whose editorial board chided her thusly: “Instead of delivering a substantial plan, she squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.”

One would think even the densest Republican candidate would seize on that and hoist Harris on her own petard… one would think.

Perhaps they will fare better breaking down her immigration plan?

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PAMELA EVETTE

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STOCK: HOLDING

Call her the “stealth candidate.” Everyone in South Carolina politics seems convinced Republican lieutenant governor Pamela Evette is preparing to run for something. But nobody knows for sure which office she’s eyeing.

Governor would be the first thing to come to mind as Henry McMaster will be stepping down in January 2027 after a full decade in office. So, the natural presumption is Evette will ultimately toss her hat into that ring. Excluding McMaster, though, using the lieutenant governorship as a stepping stone to the top job has been a dicey proposition. In fact, not since John West in 1970 has a lieutenant governor been independently elected to the governor’s office (at least not without having been elevated a priori, like McMaster).

None of those candidates have had Evette’s considerable financial resources to put behind their bids, however.

What about a gig in Washington, D.C.? Although the federal delegation in the U.S. House is firmly set (or will be when Sheri Biggs wins the third congressional district seat as expected in November), there’s always the U.S. Senate. Lindsey Graham is gearing up for a fifth run in 2026, and Evette would be highly unlikely to kamikaze her way into that fundraising juggernaut. But Tim Scott‘s boredom and frustration with life on Capitol Hill is widely known. What if he decides to take a page from his predecessor, Jim DeMint, and resign before his term is up?

That would upset a lot of political apple carts and set the stage for a five-star GOP showdown. Might the current lite gov think “Senator Evette” has a nice ring to it?

When it comes to Evette, there are many questions to ponder – but very few answers to provide. So the political world waits, wonders and watches as she mulls her next move.

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DONALD TRUMP

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STOCK: HOLDING

It started so well for former president Donald Trump last Saturday. A large audience turned out for his rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – precisely the kind of swing state location where the former president needs to draw (and inspire) big crowds. Those assembled were eager to hear a clarion call urging them on to the battlements – to “fight.”

Trump had plenty of fresh ammunition at his disposal to work with, too, with Harris’ aforementioned economic plans still hot off the presses. 

What did attendees hear instead?

“I am much better looking than her,” Trump said during the rally.

No, really… Trump actually said that. And in case anyone missed it, he said it again.

“I’m a better-looking person than Kamala,” he said.

Despite begging and cajoling from top Republicans to drop his rimshot nightclub schtick and move past the one-liner putdowns of his opponent, Trump just can’t help himself.

“What happened to Biden?” he said. “I was running against Biden. I said, ‘Who am I running against? Harris? Who the hell is Harris?’”

Trump seems to be the last person in America to recognize his snarky act is coming off like a stale Saturday Night Live skit from 2016 – and every bit as unfunny. 

Still, there was a small measure of good news for the former president last week. His downward slide in the polls seems to have slowed somewhat. Still… losing ground at a slower pace means you’re still losing ground.

A window of opportunity remains for Trump to turn things around. But it’s a shrinking window… and continuing to trash a woman’s physical appearance is the quickest way we can think of to have it slam shut (especially with female swing voters) once and for all.

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ALAN WILSON

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STOCK: RISING

In last week’s installment of this index, we opined that routinely taking the federal government to task on hot-button social issues has the potential to be a double-edged sword for South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson.

So far, though, it’s cutting his way politically…

Wilson was a key player in a recent appeal that led to the U.S. supreme court temporarily blocking Biden and Harris’ radical redefinition of Title IX – a policy that would have opened the door for transgender participation in collegiate women’s sports.

Similarly, Wilson is one of nine state attorneys general challenging executive order No. 14019 – the Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful bid to turn federal agencies into voter registration vehicles, thus putting the integrity of our nation’s elections at risk.

Both moves are sound on policy – and music to conservatives’ ears. How adeptly Wilson continues to advance his profile on such issues – while avoiding potential pitfalls – will go a long way in determining whether he lives up to the promise of his frontrunner status in the 2026 GOP gubernatorial primary election.

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SECRET SERVICE

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STOCK: FALLING

Just when things couldn’t get any worse for the beleaguered agency charged with protecting the lives of America’s most important VIPs, they did.

The U.S. Secret Service is still reeling less than a month after one of its top protectees was shot and injured on its watch for the first time in nearly half a century. Many people are still asking how a teenage gunman could climb so visibly into position on a rooftop so close to former president Trump – all while alarmed witnesses were calling law enforcement to point it out (and while law enforcement was clamoring for the Secret Service to take action).

We’re still waiting for a plausible explanation for this gross lapse of security, by the way… especially after it was revealed this week that the first shot fired at the assassin (which reportedly disabled his weapon) came from a local law enforcement sniper, not a Secret Service sniper.

Now, the agency is dealing with a fresh black eye after reports emerged that an agent left her post at a Trump event in Asheville, N.C. a week ago to breastfeed her child. 

You can’t make this up, people…

You’d think that an agency still smarting from the black eye it so recently received would make damn sure it was taking steps to rebuild public trust. Not the Secret Service…

Most everyone would agree breastfeeding is natural, wholesome and healthy. In fact, our media outlet just did a story celebrating it. But there’s a time and place for everything in life – and whipping the boob out while you’re discharging your duties to protect the former president of the United States isn’t the time or the place. You can’t say, “would please you hold on a minute, Mr. Assassin, while I top off the little one?”

Security operations don’t work that way.

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