Haley's not winning, but she sure is flying high on Trump hate

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has virtually no path to winning the GOP nomination outright. 

In South Carolina, her home state and the next contest up on Saturday, former Gov. Haley trails Donald Trump by some 30 points in 538's aggregate, even as she appears to be chipping away at his lead.

Just three days later in Michigan, Haley will take an even bigger beating, with Trump potentially poised to win three to four times as many votes as the former United Nations ambassador.

But voters in 16 states and territories will weigh in on Super Tuesday. Haley is hoping to fare better on March 5 since 11 of the contests have open or semi-open primaries. In particular, states such as Massachusetts and Virginia have a high concentration of college-educated voters similar to those who boosted Haley's bottom line in New Hampshire.

Haley's aides have said they're hoping for a "respectable" outcome in South Carolina that allows her to soldier on. What no one is doing is actually gaming out a scenario where Haley, who has 17 delegates, can actually overtake Trump, who currently has 63 delegates. 

So when Haley planned a Tuesday press conference on the "state of the race," journalists naturally wondered whether she might finally be throwing in the towel. Major cable networks, including Fox News, aired at least some or all of Haley's remarks live. But instead of a farewell, their viewers were largely treated to a Trump roast.