How Huckabee Could Stop President Palin

Frum Forum ^ | November 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 am | David Frum

[onyx]

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

[onyx]

Exactly. RINO pushing RINO.

[onyx]

Ha ha ha. I hope you’re right.
I don’t want the Huckaboob to run.
He makes me sick.

[who knows what evil?]

Then I don’t want to hear any complaints when NH picks Romney or Huckabee to be the 2012 nominee...conservatives are idiots for letting this podunk marxist state set the table for the Presidency. The media will ‘get behind’ whoever the NH dems select for the GOP...

[onyx]

I’m with you. Neither one of these two losers will get my vote.
They’re both non-starters.

[onyx]

Frum, and his husband, Mitt Romney, are behind most attacks on Gov. Palin for their Obama and their DNC.

You are right!

Huckaboob looks connected, too.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Then I don’t want to hear any complaints when NH picks Romney or Huckabee to be the 2012 nominee.

The only one complaining here is you.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Frum, and his husband, Mitt Romney, are behind
most attacks on Gov. Palin for their Obama and their DNC.

Because they're all establishment-types, and people like Palin are a threat to that establishment.  That's why members of the GOP from Rove to Gingrich and Frum hell-bent to destroy Palin and her supporters, rather than focus all this energy into working together to put the Democrats into the permanent minority status they rightfully deserve.

[who knows what evil?]

Right now, that is true. But there will be plenty of complaints when the ‘Rookie and the Wookie’ wind up staying in the White House until 2016.

[traditional1]

Huckleberry has NOT been attacked for his TV Show, but Sarah Palin's "Alaska" is cannon fodder.

Is anyone surprised that the State-Run-Media is promoting RINO Romney and leaves Huckleberry alone, as they are not formidable Conservative opposition, so they are "OK"?

[Luke21]

Huckabee is a maggot.

[exit82]

Huckleberry has NOT been attacked for his TV Show, but Sarah Palin's "Alaska" is cannon fodder.

Is anyone surprised that the State-Run-Media is promoting RINO Romney and leaves Huckleberry alone, as they are not formidable Conservative opposition, so they are "OK"?

Excellent point.

[Diogenesis]

No. Romney is NOT establishment. Romney is IAG, Sharia and Fascism.

There is also RomneyCARE and his other impositions.

Mitt Romney: "Make me your King, or Rove, Frum, Wallace, Parker
and my saboteurs will bring your stinking GOP down for Obama and the DNC.

---

Mitt Romney: "I'm not running as the Republican view or a continuation of Republican values.
That's not what brings me to the race.
(Romney Video, accessed 9/19/07)

---

"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party
 over to the traitors in the battle just ended.
We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged
 to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support.
Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates
wouldn’t make any sense at all.""
--  President Ronald Reagan

[onyx]

Oh, yes, you’re right about that!! Not a word about his “Little Rockers” either.

[Doogle]

..plus Joy Behar endorses him.

[tal hajus]

Never had fried squirrel cooked up in a popcorn popper but I have had it cooked up in a cast iron skillet, and squirrel gravy too! YUM!!!

[onyx]

I agree.

[Jane Long]

If he’s running, then he better quit his TV show.

I thought that show ended in the '60's.

[onyx]

I just saw Huckabee on Fox n’ Friends and that clip from The View! He’s her favorite Republican. No wonder, he’s a RINO.

[SumProVita]

“...they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin,...

Huckabee????????????

LoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooL...!!!!!!!!!!!

[RedMDer]

Woa! Keep all sharp instriments away from that crowd. They might spring a leak.