Nikki rising

Latest RealClearPolitics presidential match-up polling shows Nikki Haley defeating President Joe Biden by 4.3 points, former Presidential Donald Trump winning by 0.7 points and Gov. Ron DeSantis losing by 1 point.

Haley is capturing hearts and minds, and this warrants attention.

Per Haley's campaign, in the most recent quarter, 40,000 new donors were added and $11 million was raised.

Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who withdrew from the presidential race, endorsed Haley in a column in The Wall Street Journal. "Our nation deserves a leader who can unite us and navigate the complex challenges we face, particularly on national security. Ms. Haley is the best person in this race to do that," per Hurd.

The following day, Washington Post columnist George Will wrote that Tim Scott should withdraw from the race and that the party should unite behind Nikki Haley as its candidate.

In Will's view, Haley has established her policies, both foreign and domestic, as preeminent among the field of Republican candidates.

Haley's warning that the recent horrible aggression by terrorist savages in Israel should raise concerns in our country about our vulnerability to the same from our southern border was recently echoed by Pastor Franklin Graham.

Per Will, Haley has been "the most forthright against the amalgam of nihilism, isolationism and opportunism" that defines the views of too many elected Republicans regarding how our country should relate to the rest of the world.

Outrageous and absurd accusations by Vivek Ramaswamy that Haley's support of Israel and our nation's common interests with the only democracy in the Middle East is somehow driven by financial interest on her part is enough, in my view, for him to terminate his cartoon candidacy.

Will also notes Haley's courage in being willing to take on the very hard but huge issues of Social Security, Medicare and the exploding national debt.

Herbert Stein, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Richard Nixon, made the observation that "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."

The terrorist invasion of Israel has made clear to Israelis that a situation that they thought could be contained and held in place indefinitely cannot be. Hamas must be permanently wiped out.

We saw in this attack that vestiges of the horror of Islamic extremism that precipitated 9/11 remain and pose an ongoing threat to Israel, to the United States and to all who wish to live in freedom, civility and peace.

Haley has been out front, even before this attack, when she was U.N. ambassador, about this problem and the need to stand behind Israel.

It is also clear our fiscal realities at home cannot go on as they are.

Social Security and Medicare, systems designed 50-90 years ago, are no longer functional. These systems consume some two-thirds of our budget expenditures and must be reformed. We need new approaches.

As I have written in the past, people run for office and aspire for political leadership and power for all kinds of reasons.

At this very difficult time, we need a leader who is motivated by one thing -- a selfless love of our country and a willingness to work without compromise for what needs to change.

Our country has dangerously drifted from its roots and the truths that informed its founding as a free nation under God.

We hear voices of darkness across the nation reminiscent of the voices in the 1930s that suggested that Hitler's aggression across Europe was not relevant to the United States, even some praising that satanic figure.

We need leadership today in the spirit of what Herman Wouk described.

Increasingly, it appears that Nikki Haley has these characteristics.

Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.