We promised you drama.

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

So, where is the drama?

In the closing months of 2023 as we began anticipating the kickoff of primary season, some of us in the pundit business – present company included – were promoting our coming wares by touting the fraught nature of things in the world of politics.

Buckle up for a real slugfest, we were telling you.

It seemed reasonable at the time. The Republican field, just as in 2016, again featured a slate of highly qualified candidates. Of particular note were two very successful governors – Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

DeSantis was coming off a spectacular win in the 2022 midterm elections in which he trounced his well-known Democratic rival, Charlie Crist – himself a former Florida governor and a former Republican. In the process of racking up that huge win DeSantis took Florida out of the ‘swing state’ category and turned it solidly red. DeSantis’s election night was the only real bright spot for the GOP in the 2022 midterms, as the much anticipated “Red Wave” failed to materialize.

Nikki Haley entered the 2024 presidential race after having been Ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump, a job she took following two very successful terms as South Carolina’s governor.

For his part, former President Donald Trump was facing serious headwinds. He entered primary season with four criminal indictments hanging over his head – two of them federal and one each in New York and Georgia – encompassing 91 felony counts. On top of those criminal proceedings, he faced a civil suit in New York – one in which judgement was just recently entered against him to the tune of more than $350 million.

So, it was expected to be a dramatic Republican primary season. I, myself, told you so.

But then came Iowa. Trump won handily. Ron DeSantis threw in the towel.

We were then off to New Hampshire at which time Nikki Haley was the only remaining rival to Trump – everyone else including Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum having by then dropped out. Trump beat Haley by 11.

Haley’s home state of South Carolina was next up. That was this past Saturday. Trump trounced her by 20.

Yesterday it was Michigan, a key swing state. Trump clobbered Nikki Haley 68 to 26. Or as Trump’s former rival Tim Scott put it:

This is a classic, good old fashioned, butt whippin’.”

For reasons that are becoming increasingly unclear, Haley plans to soldier on. Here she is yesterday:

We had 14 people in the race. I defeated a dozen of the fellas. I just got one more fella I gotta catch up to.”

Trump goes into next week’s Super Tuesday primaries in 15 states (plus American Somoa) – one of which states is Texas – with a primary record of 5-0 (if you count Nevada’s largely symbolic primary). If the polls are to be believed – as they have been so far – this time next week Trump will be 21-0.

We promised you drama this primary season. We’ll understand if you ask for a refund.