Posted on 12/25/2007 7:33:47 PM PST by Tlaloc
Mike Huckabee loves homespun tales and self-deprecating jokes. Mitt Romney basks in PowerPoint slides and statistics. Mr. Huckabee, a firefighter's son, is a Southerner born and bred. Mr. Romney, son of a CEO-turned-governor, roamed from Michigan to Massachusetts to Utah.
They embody two wings of the Republican Party -- social conservatives and economic conservatives -- that sometimes sit uneasily.
While John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are competitive in national polls, all three are focusing on states after Iowa. The kickoff Jan. 3 caucus here is largely between Messrs. Romney and Huckabee.
Mr. Huckabee displays his Southern Baptist religion proudly, dropping Biblical references and telling reporters he wouldn't hesitate to put the Ten Commandments up in the Oval Office. Mr. Romney is uncomfortable discussing his Mormon faith. He gave a speech devoted to "Faith in America" only after his campaign was put on defense in Iowa by Mr. Huckabee's rise. In the speech, Mr. Romney mentioned Mormonism by name just once.
The differences are a matter of style, too.
Last week in Waterloo, Iowa, Mr. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, talked about the challenge of overhauling the tax system this way: "In the South, we say if you can't fix it with duct tape and WD-40 it can't be fixed."
A week earlier, Mr. Romney showed a PowerPoint presentation charting the budget deficit. "See how big it gets?" he said, pointing to a line tracking entitlement spending. "This line is the historical average of how much money the federal government takes away from taxpayers."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Go Fred !
Go Huckster , but only to stop Romney in Iowa if Fred can’t do it .
Iowa should know that Duncan Hunter is just as much of a social conservative, as Huckabee, if not more so.
Hunter and Brownback were the only presidential candidates to attend the pro-life march in D.C., Hunter fought the aclu to keep the Mt. Soledad cross, Hunter fought to allow students to pray in schools, and President Reagan even called Hunter and praised him for his fight, Hunter introduces the personhood-at-conception law each year, and Hunter and Brownback both said that it was right for Congress to intervene to help save Terri Schiavo, while RudyMcRomneysonbee either did not, or were not sure if Congress should have intervened.
“Sun” wrote: “Iowa should know that Duncan Hunter is just as much of a social conservative, as Huckabee, if not more so.”
If Governor Huckabee loses in Iowa and Governor Romney loses in New Hampshire, Congressman Hunter is my dark horse for endorsements by James Dobson and Tony Perkins.
“Neu Pragmatist” wrote: “Go Fred ! Go Huckster , but only to stop Romney in Iowa if Fred can’t do it .”
I’m currently supporting Governor Huckabee, but I’d say Governor Romney is a significantly better (i.e. more conservative) candidate than Senator McCain, and I’d be interested to know whether any supporters of Senator Thompson here would agree.
Given McPain’s Liberal sellouts , he does have a somewhat Conservative track record on certain issues . Romney has a decidedly Liberal track record with a whole lot of Conservative flip-flop talk .
What’s your take ?
Romney boasts that he doesn’t “see eye to eye with the NRA on every issue” and wants to ban weapons of “extreme lethality.” John McCain voted against the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban and even voted against requiring background checks at gun shows. No contest.
Huckabee has surged because he won a couple of debates and he’s got evangelical support. If a quick rise can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
Fred is the only one who hasn’t had the spotlight yet . When he does , he will weather it as he is the only one who doesn’t have a Liberal past that can be used against him .
Rush said it best , Thompson is the only candidate running as a Conservative in this race .
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119863290236250061-exnk9c5BVxoB86TAzVxrIbrPCBE_20080124.html
That’s a very well-written article. Thanks for posting.
“Neu Pragmatist” wrote: “Given McPain’s Liberal sellouts , he does have a somewhat Conservative track record on certain issues . Romney has a decidedly Liberal track record with a whole lot of Conservative flip-flop talk . What’s your take ?”
I’d say Governor Romney at his worst was essentially a pragmatic governor in a liberal state, as opposed to a crusading socialist. There’s no way for any of us to know whether his conversions to conservative policy positions have happened at the heart level or only at the political level, but even if it’s the latter, he’s painted himself into a corner where he’d lose his political viability if he didn’t actually pursue those policies.
When you’re wrong on issues, as Governor Romney clearly has been, flip-flopping is a good thing. Senator McCain, in contrast, has never repudiated his past liberal sellouts.
I still cannot forgive McCain for shamnesty, and I fear that Huckabee will be Shamnesty-Part II. I don't know if Mitt Romney really means it or not when he says he's not for amnesty, I have to look at his record in Massachusetts, and I'm not thrilled.
I'm about 45 days away from not giving a rip who wins in November. Even a Hillary win would help us rebuild our party if the best we can nominate is a Giuliani, a Huckabee, or a McCain.
Hey, I love PowerPoint. GO MITT!
Plus he made the people (taxpayers) of Massachusettes pay for 5,000 abortions a year.
“Kevmo” wrote: “Huckabee has surged because he won a couple of debates and he’s got evangelical support. If a quick rise can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.”
Governor Huckabee isn’t liberal, but you make a good point about Congressman Hunter. I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about how things might break his way. He could obviously become the consensus nominee in a brokered convention, but short of that he’d probably need major gaffes by both Governor Huckabee and Governor Romney to trigger a January surge.
With all due respect, you seem very conflicted. I cannot believe that so many Republicans seem to be considering Leftist candidates.
Huckabee is a liberal Democrat on everything but abortion and gun rights. Even those two fights will be lost if the Democrats achieve super-majority status as they would under a Huckster regime. He has lead a huge Dem resurgence in Arkansas. No conservative would or should EVER consider supporting Huckabee.
The same is true of McCain. Conservative on a few issues but a Democrat dream come true.
Mr. Romney has an extremely liberal record for his first 61 years. He would have us believe that he has converted to conservatism on most issues in recent months.
Only Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter can honestly say that they are conservatives.
“Neu Pragmatist” wrote: “Fred is the only one who hasn’t had the spotlight yet . When he does , he will weather it as he is the only one who doesn’t have a Liberal past that can be used against him . Rush said it best , Thompson is the only candidate running as a Conservative in this race .”
Senator Thompson had the spotlight the moment he announced. Since then his poll numbers have declined dramatically:
And he actually does have liberal positions in his past. During his 1994 campaign he said, “I’m not willing to support laws that prohibit early-term abortions.” He told Project Vote Smart, “Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy.” He explicitly refused to support laws prohibiting abortions for convenience:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P5a_Fpu_8KE
In 1996 he signed a document saying, “I do not believe abortion should be criminalized.” If anyone here can provide me with a more recent quotation that contradicts the above statements, it would be much appreciated.
Senator Thompson supported the expansion of NAFTA and voted Bill Clinton “not guilty” of perjury at the end of the impeachment trial:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1932681/posts
He played a critical role in the passage of McCain-Feingold’s immoral and blatantly unconstitutional restrictions on political free speech, and he opposes a Marriage Protection Amendment to prevent our most liberal states from establishing legal definitions of marriage that vary from the traditional meaning of the word.
I’m probably not going to comment on what Rush said unless it’s quoted directly.
Bump
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