Nikki Haley for president?

How about Nikki Haley for vice president?

Nikki Haley has decided to run for president. Her official announcement will come on February 15.

Viewed in the abstract, Haley is easily a plausible presidential candidate. She was a popular two-term governor who gained foreign policy experience as our ambassador to the UN. She’s attractive and speaks well. Parties have nominated presidential candidates with less going for them.

But is Haley a plausible presidential candidate in this particular race? I doubt it.

Haley does have a “lane” in which to run. With Ron DeSantis outflanking Donald Trump to the right (or trying to), Haley can run as a less extreme, less strident conservative than the two leading contenders for the nomination.

But that lane is probably a dead-end.

Consider the latest poll from South Carolina, Haley’s home state. The combined total for Trump and DeSantis is 71 percent. Haley and Tim Scott, the state’s junior Senator, combine for 26 percent. Haley runs behind Scott, with only 12 percent support.

Nationally, as you would expect, Haley fares worse. Considerably worse. She’s at 3 percent.

Therefore, Haley appears to be a no-hoper when it comes to securing the GOP presidential nomination. The vice presidential nomination is another matter, though, and I suspect this is what Haley is really after.

Reportedly, Haley altered Trump that she was considering a run for the nomination. . Trump advised her to follow her heart.

This stands in marked contrast to Trump’s reaction to the probability of a DeSantis run. The former president has denounced the Florida governor as “very disloyal.” Yet Haley, who promised not to run in 2024 if Trump did, got the green light from her former boss.

It’s easy to see why. Haley’s entrance probably helps Trump. The more non-Trump options Republican voters have, the greater the likelihood Trump can prevail as a result of his rivals splitting the vote.

This phenomenon depends on non-Trump, non-DeSantis options gaining a certain level of support. The polls say Haley has that in South Carolina (at 12 percent), but not nationally (at 3 percent).

But if Haley builds support, she might serve Trump’s purposes. If so, I think she becomes his most likely running mate.

And even if she doesn’t, Trump might still select her. Kamala Harris never really got her 2020 campaign off the ground. Yet Biden picked her. Biden himself was barely a footnote in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2008. Yet Obama picked him.

It’s also possible that, if nominated, DeSantis would pick Haley as his running mate. In 2020, Harris was a thorn in Biden’s side, but he selected her anyway.

So if we view Haley’s run as an audition for the second spot on the Republican ticket, her entrance makes good sense. If we view it as a serious bid for the top spot, not so much.