Wash. Post: Nikki Haley Could Be 'GOP's Obama'

After South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address Tuesday and took a softer tone on immigration than the usual harsh rhetoric heard from GOP presidential candidates, The Washington Post said that Haley could be "the GOP's Obama."

The Post notes that the parallels between Obama and Haley's life are uncanny.

"Haley has suddenly gone from being a three-term state legislator to a nationally prominent politician," New York Magazine reporter Jennifer Senior said back in 2010.

"She speaks well and looks terrific on TV. She's young and has two young, telegenic children, and she stands out in a party of dreary white men. Sound like anyone else you know?"

Senior adds, "Haley, like Obama, has an extraordinary ethnic heritage, which was both a liability and an asset during her campaign."

"Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa — her parents immigrated from Amritsar, India, in 1963 — Haley often heard her full name on the campaign trail, just as Barack Hussein Obama did, when someone wanted to make the not-so-subtle point that perhaps she was insufficiently American for the job."

In response to Senior's question of faith, Hayley shot back by saying that although she was raised a Sikh, she was married in a Methodist Church and both of her children have been baptized in the Methodist Church.

Some in the GOP believe that Haley is too similar to president Obama — both stress compromise when their base wants a standoff, the Post reports.

"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," Haley said in her State of the Union response.

"There is more than enough blame to go around."

However, in response to the governor's speech, conservative gadfly Ann Coulter unleashed a twitterstorm targeting Haley:

Nikki Haley: "No one who is willing to work hard should ever be turned away." That's the definition of open borders.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

Hey Nikki - how can you "vet" if you can't look at religion?

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

Haley: Let in unlimited immigrants "just like we have for centuries." Has she read a history book? Coolidge shut it down for 1/2 a century.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

There is no way to "properly vet" -- as Nikki Haley says -- the 680k immigrants from Muslim countries we let in every 5 years.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

The only way to keep out Muslims terrorists, is to keep out Muslim immigrants.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

Nikki Haley: "The best thing we can do is turn down the volume" Translation: Voters need to shut the hell up.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 13, 2016

Despite Coulter saying that "Trump should deport Haley," others have embraced her controlled tone.

After her handling of lasts year's mass shooting at a church in Charleston and the removal of the Confederate flag, many are convinced that Haley might have what it takes to obtain a top job as vice president at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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