Huckabee could face hurdles from the past, Parole of rapist haunts campaign

Boston Globe ^ | October 14, 2007 | Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

[dano1]

(snip)

If Huckabee, who is creeping upward in the polls, gains more momentum, the case is certain to become an issue. Stevens said she is prepared to campaign actively against him if he becomes a serious candidates for president or vice president. (snip)

Bloggers have already dubbed the matter "Huckabee's Willie Horton," referring to the case of a Massachusetts man who was paroled during Michael Dukakis's tenure as Massachusetts governor, and then raped a Maryland woman and terrorized her fiancé. The episode tainted the onetime Democratic presidential nominee's campaign even though Dukakis had not personally intervened on Horton's behalf.

And a surge in the Huckabee campaign - once seen as a quixotic mission by a man hoping to become the second governor from Hope, Ark., to make it to the White House - no longer seems unthinkable. Huckabee placed second in the GOP Iowa straw poll, in which Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani chose not to compete. Afterward, Huckabee pulled ahead of McCain there in a recent statewide poll, and he is edging up in other early primary states. (snip)

Huckabee is different from many politically active evangelicals. Faith, Huckabee said, does not merely influence his public policy; it drives it. He rejects the fire-and-brimstone warnings delivered by some fellow religious conservatives and instead frequently talks about the need for forgiveness and diplomacy.

"When I see people who are very confrontational, you know what they're against. You're not sure what they're for," Huckabee said. "I believe that there's a place for judgment and for justice - don't get me wrong. But I think sometimes people mask their own personal anger in the form of righteous indignation."(snip)

[Travis McGee]

I’m sure not pleased about the likely next president.

Bad or worse.

[Old 300]

It’s sad that so many traditional Americans watch, listen, and ignore all the obvious signs that the front-runners (even in Phyllis Schlafly’s values voter debates) are so easily taken in by rinos. Think: Schwarzenegger’s “conservatism” in the California recall election. There’s a reason we keep getting rinos at the head of the pack. The system is resisting change.