Romney Out; What Will Huckabee Do?
| Thu Feb. 7, 2008 10:32 AM PST
Mitt Romney has quit the race. It seems that his money was no good here.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Romney announced he was suspending his campaign. In a fiery speech, he took shots at France, Harvard, and liberal judges. Citing pornography and "government welfare," he thundered that the "threat to our culture" comes "from within." Hailing family values and decrying gay marriage, this past supporter of abortion rights and gay rights positioned himself as one of the GOP's leading culture warriors. He called for tax cuts, deregulation, and tort reform. He denounced Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's positions on Iraq as a "surrender to terror." And he called for beefing up the U.S. military to deal with "radical jihad" and the China challenge. In other words, he reminded the cheering crowd of conservative die-hards at CPAC that he's a full-throttle conservative on all fronts: culture, economics, and national security. He's now 60 years old. In four years, he will be seven years younger than John McCain is today. And remember this: Ronald Reagan failed to win the GOP nomination in 1976 before he nabbed it in 1980. And there's this: if John McCain does manage to win in November, could he run for a second term, given his age?
Romney's message to the conservatives today was this: I'm your Reagan. He and they may just have to wait a few more years before those pesky Republican primary voters get it.
One key question now is, what will Mike Huckabee do? Recently, he's become the anti-Romney spoiler--sweeping up non-McCain voters and preventing Romney from becoming a competitive alternative to McCain. It seemed that Huckabee and McCain had an implicit--if not explicit--nonaggression pact, and this has even fueled talk of a Mack-Huck ticket. So with no need any longer for him to block Romney to help McCain, what's Huckabee's role in the race? With his get-Romney mission accomplished, will he withdraw and wait for his reward?
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Comments
Huckabe is a one trick pony ? he loves Jesus. To most evangelicals, he loves Jesus more than Mitt. Huckabee can only win in Jesus freak states and not New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Missouri etc? McCain needs some help from the Jesus freaks or else some douch like Pat Robertson will run and split the vote. SO Huckabee will run a mellow race against McCain and gladly accept the VP offer. Hey ? its better than Fred Thompson!
Paul ? I wish I could agree with you, but I can't. Even if the evangelical vote is 10% (I say it's 20), that is more than enough to push you over in a presidential election. 2000 and 2004 were won on very small margins.
Ralph Reed is marginal when compared to Dobson and Robertson. They have a network that goes direct to pastors and the pastors do their dirty work. Sundays in the pulpit is time to play with your 501c3 status and push the envelope. Pastors know this, have been trained on it and they will be putting that in practice from now till November. Then, they get their sheep to the polls.
I know this from living in Indiana and working with evangelicals. It isn't just Indiana, but all over the US. There is a large and growing network and it is informed (misinformed more like it), organized and able to mobilize.
Hell ? just look at the Focus on the Family website. It is a 501c3, but has direct links to their 501c4 FotF Action pages. Then in Dobsons radio editorials, he gets into serious legal issues. People listen to this and pay attention then the pastors rev it up on Sunday. I have no idea how this can be legal and I have contacted some attorneys and the FEC about it.
I am (or have been) a Yellow Dog Democrat, but I like the Huck/Colbert ticket more than one leading D contender. He seems nice (Huck).
I cant argue with his comments about not only surviving but thriving as a Repub in a severely Democratic state.
I'll bet ?0.25 before the week is over, Rush will be pushing the Huckster. If that happens, I will believe that Huck is the best option for bringing the nation together. Not that it will matter because my agreeing with Rush has got to be a sign of the apocalpse
Huckabe is a one trick pony ? he loves Jesus. To most evangelicals, he loves Jesus more than Mitt. Huckabee can only win in Jesus freak states and not New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Missouri etc? McCain needs some help from the Jesus freaks or else some douch like Pat Robertson will run and split the vote. SO Huckabee will run a mellow race against McCain and gladly accept the VP offer. Hey ? its better than Fred Thompson!
Paul ? I wish I could agree with you, but I can't. Even if the evangelical vote is 10% (I say it's 20), that is more than enough to push you over in a presidential election. 2000 and 2004 were won on very small margins.
Ralph Reed is marginal when compared to Dobson and Robertson. They have a network that goes direct to pastors and the pastors do their dirty work. Sundays in the pulpit is time to play with your 501c3 status and push the envelope. Pastors know this, have been trained on it and they will be putting that in practice from now till November. Then, they get their sheep to the polls.
I know this from living in Indiana and working with evangelicals. It isn't just Indiana, but all over the US. There is a large and growing network and it is informed (misinformed more like it), organized and able to mobilize.
Hell ? just look at the Focus on the Family website. It is a 501c3, but has direct links to their 501c4 FotF Action pages. Then in Dobsons radio editorials, he gets into serious legal issues. People listen to this and pay attention then the pastors rev it up on Sunday. I have no idea how this can be legal and I have contacted some attorneys and the FEC about it.
I am (or have been) a Yellow Dog Democrat, but I like the Huck/Colbert ticket more than one leading D contender. He seems nice (Huck).
I cant argue with his comments about not only surviving but thriving as a Repub in a severely Democratic state.
I'll bet ?0.25 before the week is over, Rush will be pushing the Huckster. If that happens, I will believe that Huck is the best option for bringing the nation together. Not that it will matter because my agreeing with Rush has got to be a sign of the apocalpse
Submitted by capt (not verified) on Thu Feb. 7, 2008 10:46 AM PST.
Interesting turn of events.
Also re: Reagan - did you hear what Bush said to the people hit by the storms?
We're the government and we are here to help (Paraphrased)
How anti-Reagan can one get?
Think you got it backwards. This looks to me like a deal between McCain and Romney to block the Huckster. Romney is named Vice President and possibly shores up the "conservative" base of the party and is promised that McCain is a one-termer with Mitt waiting in the wing.
The Real Republicans, ie., the rich, absolutely despise the Flat-earthers like Huck and the people who vote for him. They'll pander to the idiots and laugh all the way to the stock broker when they can snooker the trailer park vote, but they'll NEVER actually vote for a theocratic "common" man. He's just not one of "Our Crowd".
Did I forget to mention the huge number of gay Republican congressional staffers [not to mention gay elected officials] and Jewish Repubs and their very real fear of someone who would trash the constitution and follow the letter of Levitican law (gays)and the tradions of the church against jews... [Pogroms,anyone?]
Huckabe is a one trick pony he loves Jesus. To most evangelicals, he loves Jesus more than Mitt. Huckabee can only win in Jesus freak states and not New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Missouri etc McCain needs some help from the Jesus freaks or else some douch like Pat Robertson will run and split the vote. SO Huckabee will run a mellow race against McCain and gladly accept the VP offer. Hey its better than Fred Thompson!
I have to say I disagree with the 'logic' here only because it suggests that the radical Christo-Fascist vote will remain as pertinent in future campaigns as the Christian Coalition, et al have made it seem in more recent years. Eventually even the most retarded of the so called 'trailer park set' will start to scratch their heads and say, 'Yeah, God hates fags, we all know that, but what about my starvin' cousin-kids?' I mean, the ease of the Clinton I years made social issues like gay marriage easy fodder, but in a more complicated and disheveled socioeconomic time, that ploy will lose its strength against more relative issues. I think that we're living in a fantasy in which the agenda of the Ralph Reeds and their ilk are timeless, when in fact, we'll see them as only a trend in politics that, like most other extremes, comes and goes. I mean, Nazi Germany was an absolute terror to many, but it wasn't permanent. I don't think we could go that far, though I can be as emotional as the next person when I think about what the Christo-Fascist groups really want to do to America, but they are not the majority, just organized and noisy. We have to stay true to our values, stay involved, and when ever possible, denounce their narrowness. I know I never write Republican politicians, but what if I did, said I wanted to vote for them but disagreed with their mingling of Christian doctrine/social conservatism with politics? What if lots of us liberal progressives wrote them letters like that? Are we legally obliged to really vote for them? No. But at least our letters might help to balance the barrage of mail they get from the other side, saying things like, 'Dear Congressman, please stop these welfare moms from getting gay abortions! It's wrong! Gay abortions are immoral!' [A little irreverent fun, butI'm two cocktails into the evening.] Anyway, just some thoughts.
Submitted by capt (not verified) on Thu Feb. 7, 2008 8:38 PM PST.
"the agenda of the Ralph Reeds and their ilk are timeless"
Lately I have observed - the kids these days are better informed and many just don't take race or sexuality as seriously. The crazy theocrats really make the case against themselves in the long run.
There is hope for the future. I think the next generation will do far better - in some ways we have served as an example of what not to do.
Submitted by capt (not verified) on Fri Feb. 8, 2008 6:30 AM PST.
"We have to stay true to our values, stay involved, and whenever possible, denounce their narrowness."
Absolutely! I agree 100%.
Paul I wish I could agree with you, but I can't. Even if the evangelical vote is 10% (I say it's 20), that is more than enough to push you over in a presidential election. 2000 and 2004 were won on very small margins.
Ralph Reed is marginal when compared to Dobson and Robertson. They have a network that goes direct to pastors and the pastors do their dirty work. Sundays in the pulpit is time to play with your 501c3 status and push the envelope. Pastors know this, have been trained on it and they will be putting that in practice from now till November. Then, they get their sheep to the polls.
I know this from living in Indiana and working with evangelicals. It isn't just Indiana, but all over the US. There is a large and growing network and it is informed (misinformed more like it), organized and able to mobilize.
Hell just look at the Focus on the Family website. It is a 501c3, but has direct links to their 501c4 FotF Action pages. Then in Dobsons radio editorials, he gets into serious legal issues. People listen to this and pay attention then the pastors rev it up on Sunday. I have no idea how this can be legal and I have contacted some attorneys and the FEC about it.
I agree totally. Mike the Huckman probably stayed in the race this long due to the urging of either McCain or his campaign chairpersonage for the Huck to stay in the race long enough to get Romney to give up. If that is NOT the case, then the Huckman is even dumber than I thought!
Like I said, kirkbrew, they are noisy and organized. I still think that, like so many phases in society, this too shall pass. Who knows when, but even a mouse trained to hit a button to get a pellet would stop eventually without the 'reward' of the pellet. Let's hope anyway. I mean, I know they're trained to think of rewards that greet then in Heaven, but if their unhappiness and economic insecurity are not solved by their church, even if it takes a whole generation, there will be a drifting away from it.
Re: the "Christo-Fascist" element:
What's left? The majority of these 'United State's' have already statutorily codified their hatred of gays. Guns are even starting to waste mere city council members; they're still plugging away in college and the numbers of billionaires is sky-rocketing, while those in poverty, well, also skyrocketing. For the CF's, all is well. There's nothing left. A dream ticket? The dottering old "kill everything that ain't American" McCain and the 13th apostle, Huckabee. Paul, you're right..."This too is now passing."
Submitted by catherine (not verified) on Fri Feb. 8, 2008 4:16 PM PST.
It seems to me like God's top preachers are under attacked now days. Right or wrong I am sure that Satan is loving all of it. Catherine Berryhill
Mr. Miller, the real question is: will it pass soon enough?
It's true that the pendulum will inevitably swing the other way--heck, Baptists were once KNOWN for being some of the staunchest advocates of a separation between church and state (alas, how easily people forget when they are not being persecuted). Still, it's hard to hazard a guess as to how long it will take history to grind away at the Goldwater/Reagan trend in the Republican party. I certainly HOPE it is sooner rather than later. It sort of boggles the mind, though, to think how consistently lower-income Christians have unwittingly colluded with the rich to screw everyone else over (or perhaps they think they will be rich, too?)...anyway, I hope Huckabee doesn't align with McCain, since his presence tears nicely at the party's seams. Speaking of, I hope Ron Paul stays in the debates--isolationism is a nice change of pace to the other guys' warmongering.
Imagine a McCain/Huckabee victory followed just after inauguration by McCain's timely demise. We'd get stuck with Mikey for nearly four years. Ye gads!
A superficial observation: I cannot stomach the thought of McCain's wife being First Lady. I've never noticed her before because I don't have TV so only get news on line or through radio. But I was in New York last weekend and watching TV in my room before heading out. Everything was the game and politics. I went from Michelle Obama's speech on one channel - eloquent, warm, on point, beautifully delivered - to this smirking puppet on another channel who I came to understand was Mrs. McCain. She was doing the 'washing the window' wave that queens and beauty pageant enthusiasts practice. With her French twist [a hair-do that brings to mind bitchy corporate characters - admittedly backlash fodder - from 80's prime time dramas] and power red outfit [Alexis Carrington Colby Devereux anyone?]she could not have exuded white entitlement more had she been leading a slave from a third world country around by a leash. Yuck! Please, please, please, America, do not vote in McCain, if only to keep her from hosting White House luncheons!
I am (or have been) a Yellow Dog Democrat, but I like the Huck/Colbert ticket more than one leading D contender. He seems nice (Huck).
I cant argue with his comments about not only surviving but thriving as a Repub in a severely Democratic state.
I'll bet 0.25 before the week is over, Rush will be pushing the Huckster. If that happens, I will believe that Huck is the best option for bringing the nation together. Not that it will matter because my agreeing with Rush has got to be a sign of the apocalpse
