Not at the present time.
Even if you like and agree with Huckabee, you've still got to get past the rapist's pardon
You are misinformed. There was no "pardon".
Posted on 12/14/2007 11:43:07 AM PST by Yomin Postelnik
Why Huckabee is the Best General Election Candidate and What Makes Him the Ideal Candidate to Win
By Yomin Postelnik
An increasing number of pundits, both conservative and liberal but all heavily entrenched in Washington or Medialand disconnect, are making assessments about the candidates. As usual, they are wrong and a party that listens to them will gain their approval at the expense of the votes of the nation.
Pundits today generally take into account small anecdotal tidbits of history that best suit their own personal biases. No analysis is given to the overall race, the candidates, or to electoral history and how it relates to the changed field of today.
The fact is that there’s one simple formula to fielding a candidate. Look at the key issues of the day and couple that with genuine leadership abilities.
For the first part of this equation, every election season is different. In 2000 the public clamored for morality and the candidate best representing moral values and who came across as most genuine had the advantage. In 2004 national security loomed largest. In 1992 the public looked for economic change after being hammered with bad economic news, even if it didn’t translate into daily life. When economic woes did affect people on an everyday basis, those elections, 1976 and 1980, resulted in change (of course, in both of those elections change in leadership persona factored greatly too).
So what does this mean for today? In short, based on analysis and current voting concerns, for the GOP it’s Huckabee or bust.
As to the second part of the equation, while issues may, the glamour for a genuine candidate never does. The public consistently wants authenticity. Sure, they’ve elected inauthentic candidates once in a while, but only after being sold on their perceived realism and usually come to regret buying the inauthentic package. This factor too makes nominating Huckabee the best political move the GOP can make.
In this election cycle, partly due to the theatrics that have been its hallmark since its untimely and all too early inception, people are dazzled, enthralled, over-enthralled and then bored to death, but through it all they have more trouble relating to candidates than ever before. Simply put, this cycle is the first 12 months premature baby to survive outside of the womb and it’s got more than a few defects which are now all too apparent.
The top tier seems superficial and superficial is tiresome. This cycle, fortunately, it’s also become loathsome. In other words, electing “the most electable candidate,” meaning the one TV pundits say is most electable, is nothing short of a recipe for disaster.
Huckabee has shown the exact opposite, an ability to connect with voters over and over again. That’s how his campaign from nowhere was launched into first place. His support grew stronger after every debate, with people first asking “Why isn’t he in the top tier?” and later realizing that he is in fact the most trustworthy, likeable and broadly appealing.
All of the arguments the punditry use against him were the same type of arguments made that Reagan was a sure loser in 1980. We know how that turned out. In Huckabee’s case the “weaknesses” they attribute to him are actually strengths. He zeroes in on issues that bother the average person and proposes new ideas that are just what the average voter wants. It’s those qualities that translate into the average voter voting for him.
To date Governor Huckabee has proposed education changes that, unlike the Democrats, don’t seek to politicize the process by fighting achievements already made and unlike other Republican candidates, are solid and well thought out. The fact is that enhanced arts education is shown in study after study to develop civic awareness and dramatically reduce truancy and juvenile crime. Society would benefit in many ways, most noticeably fiscally, in the reduction in crime that these programs always show.
Governor Huckabee also realizes that the prison system is too harsh and needs reform. The current system not only makes career criminals out of non-violent offenders (as they’re exposed to harder and more violent crime) but is also a breeding ground for Islamic extremism, which recruits dejected inmates serving long sentences. As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, even prison owners stand to benefit by turning many facilities into short labor assignment places where non-violent inmates would be contracted out for hard backbreaking labor, then sent home at night, a stronger deterrent without the climate that leads to hopelessness, which in turn leads to violent and dangerous crimes.
As far as those who challenge his fiscal conservatism go, contrary to popular belief, Huckabee does have a fiscally conservative record. If you listen to his issues, he wants more effective spending, not more spending. Unlike many other candidates, he personally supported the line item veto and the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
Most importantly, fiscal conservatives will trust him to keep his promises because based on his record, he does keep promises. Social conservatives are less convinced that the socially liberal candidates will keep theirs. So yes, contrary to other pundits, Gov. Huckabee is far better positioned to keep the Reagan coalition of social and fiscal conservatives alive.
As for a campaign slogan, he’s got one, “I like Mike.” Something like that already worked form someone else who many talking heads once discounted because of his last name.
Lastly, it needs to be pointed out that in the general election, many solely fiscal conservatives will be voting Democrat or third party based on how they perceive the economy. Democrats are counting on this and will make this the issue. Nominating a primarily fiscal-only conservative plays into this game. Nominating a candidate who will follow conservative fiscal policies but who will relate to voters primarily for his bold societal ideas and genuine conservative moral values is the only answer to this as well. (Anecdotally, this is also why the GOP will probably lose Ohio but gain Pennsylvania this time, but that’s for another article.
If you're going to mention Dane, then ping Dane.
And Dane already stated that Dane isn't dano1. Even if Dane actually is dano1, so what? There should still be a ping.
Plus Dane and dano1 are entitled to their opinion here so long as they are not banned.
(And no, this is not from another incarnation of Dane/dano1).
>>>>>The reality here is that Americans have been electing governors to the presidency for a long time — such men as .... Carter, Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush; and guess what, there are only two former governors running in the GOP primaries, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.
Being a governor doesn't mean you'll make a good POTUS. Four of the five recent governors mentioned who went on to be elected president, only Reagan was truly successful. Carter was a absolute failure, Clinton's liberalism was kept in check by the first GOP Congress in 40 years and Bush43`s mixed domestic policies has led to a mixed record at best.
Its time voters began looking in other directions. Romney and Huckabee may have been Governors, but I wouldn't call them conservatives by any stretch of the imagination.
No clue...
That is “plum sick” give me a dirty feeling all over!
Too old?
Harrison
Taylor
Buchanan
Reagan
Bush41
Were all about the same age.
Too slow? I think not, ask Romney and Marsha. LOL
The only true conservatives left are in Congress. Closest to the people. The Senators and Governors may have been conservative at one point but they’ve been bought by corporate dollars and media attention.
The media’s motives have been blatantly obvious:
Fawn all over Huck now and then jump all over him after the primary for being a “religious nut”.
NO!!!
There are some solid conservatives in the Senate.
Tom Coburn from Oklahoma is one. Wayne Allard of Colorado is another. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Jim Bunning of Kentucky.
One ex-Senator would make a fine conservative POTUS. Fred Thompson.
He'll lose everybody who's got doubts about or hostility towards "compassionate conservatism" and evangelicals in politics.
Add together Northerners who are just fed up with mixing religion and politics with conservatives who don't want the GOP to support more big government and that's probably a majority of the country.
I'm not saying Hillary or Obama have won over a majority of the country, just that enough voters will stay home to ensure that Huck loses by a landslide.
Even if you like and agree with Huckabee, you've still got to get past the rapist's pardon -- and a few more scandals will probably come out before election day.
If Huck and Edwards are nominated it just might be the break Bloomberg is looking for (tongue in cheek, but not entirely).
Not at the present time.
Even if you like and agree with Huckabee, you've still got to get past the rapist's pardon
You are misinformed. There was no "pardon".
I'm just guessing that it is succor and comfort for their desperation and hate of Mike Huckabee's rise in the GOP Presidential race.
And to reinterate, I am not dano1.
Someone new comes in the race and becomes popular quickly because people don't know the negatives.
Look at the blue line for Fred Thompson.
That's the kind of boom and bust that Huckabee may also have.
Spam, you not?
Perfect! I hope it’s printed as a poster and distributed everywhere.
Both Clinton and Huckabee are big tax and spend liberals. Hucabee is for amnesty for illegal aliens. So is Mrs. Clinton. He’s supported the pardons of criminals. So did Clinton (and yes, Bush).
I see no degeneration in making these comparisons.
pro-life, pro family, anti gay special rights, pro marriage, pro-gun, fair tax not so much like clinton...
That’s one side of him. There’s another as I pointed out.
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