Posted on 01/11/2008 5:06:58 PM PST by unspun
James P. Pinkerton, a well-known conservative commentator and veteran of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, has joined Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, a campaign official tells Politico.
Pinkerton resigned as a Fox News contributor and gave up the column he has written for Newsday and other newspapers since 1993.
”I went from one thing I loved doing to something else that I felt called to do,” Pinkerton said.
Pinkerton started Thursday, with the title of senior adviser. The campaign official said he will work at the intersection of policy and strategic messaging. In other words, he will help beef up Huckabee’s policy proposals, which until now have been less detailed than those of some of his rivals.
Pinkerton was lured to the Huckabee team by Ed Rollins, the campaign’s national chairman. Both men are Massachusetts natives. In 1982 and 1983, Pinkerton worked for Rollins when he was President Ronald Reagan’s director of political affairs.
Rollins sold the job to him as a chance to help “restore the Reagan coalition,” Pinkerton recalled.
“I thought, ‘I’m not going to turn THAT down,’" he said.
Pinkerton, 49, describes himself as a Burkean conservative and a Nixonian realist on foreign policy. His columns show that over the years, he has become less libertarian and more conservative on abortion and immigration.
Pinkerton was one of the first White House appointments by President George H.W. Bush, who made him deputy assistant to the president for policy planning.
The addition of Pinkerton is the latest sign that Huckabee’s once-shoestring campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is moving into the big time.
In a Dec. 13 Newsday column headlined, “Huckabee, like Reagan, wouldn't be an 'easy kill,’” Pinkerton compared the former Arkansas governor’s political strength to that of one of his predecessors, President Bill Clinton:
“He has to get nominated first, and that won't be easy. But if he does, he will be formidable in a general election, just like that other Razorback. The Heartland wins.”
In a Dec. 11 Newsday column headlined, “Huckabee's focus: 'broken humanity,’” Pinkerton wrote that the former Baptist minister’s “political views are well within the mainstream of American politics”:
“Elected four times statewide in Arkansas, by the same voters who had earlier elected and reelected Bill Clinton, Huckabee was governor of the Razorback State for nearly 11 years. During that time Huckabee proved his centrist effectiveness — including a willingness to spend money for better education, better health care and better roads. On social issues, of course, Huckabee is more clearly on the right, but most Americans, too, are anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion.”
A Stanford graduate, he wrote “What Comes Next: The End of Big Government — And the New Paradigm Ahead” (Hyperion: 1995). He is a fellow at the New America Foundation, and has blogged for The Huffington Post. He is a science fiction buff and shares Newt Gingrich’s passion for high-tech futurism.
Jim, you have been hoodwinked or you are just spinning.
- Pro-Life
- Pro-1st Amendment
- Pro-2nd Amendment
- Pro-10th Amendment
- Pro-Sovereignty, Anti-Globalism
- Pro-Israel (no land giveaways, unlike Bush, Thompson)
- Pro-Marriage
- Pro-Overwhelming Defense
- Pro-Border Security & Immigration Enforcement
- Small Government Fiscal Conservative
- Pro-American Business
- Pro-Opportunity
- Pro-Wage Earner
- Pro-Tax Reform
- Pro-Personal Investment
- Pro-Individual Healthcare Empowerment
- Pro-Private/Home Education
It would be a big shame not to back him up vs. Fred Thompson's political friend, John McCain. Huckabee is our only good shot.
Next up will be a guy who saw Reagan on TV once.
Some people will sell their soul for a jelly roll.
I expected better of Pinkerton. This sickens me. Restore the Reagan coalition around Huckabee? The next thing they’ll want us to do a dance praising Jesus around an open sewer.
Hogwash. Huckabee is a liberal.
I would wager you could find his name on the Council Of Foreign Relations.
Time to wake up. Reagan was a good POTUS, but it is time to look at what is in front of our faces right now.
Very sorry, am.
Rollins was Reagan’s Dir. of Pol. Affairs.
Could you kindly change the title comment to just (James Pinkerton)?
And he mangaged to raise Arkansas all the way to number 48 of 50 states!
"[Huckabee] says he’s pro-family. If you’re raising taxes on the families of Arkansas, causing wives to go out and get jobs to make ends meet, that’s not pro-family."
Arkansas State Senator John Paul Capps, a Democrat, says:
"[Huckabee] outshines (other Republican hopefuls) with his glibness and ability to speak...He's quick with answers and leaves a good impression. In the past, he blamed Democrats for raising taxes...We voted for them, but he proposed them."
You are correct. That is hogwash.
I’m ill...........very ill!!
” expected better of Pinkerton. This sickens me. Restore the Reagan coalition around Huckabee? The next thing they’ll want us to do a dance praising Jesus around an open sewer.”
BUMP
And an immigrationist bleeding heart,a social-security socialist,an apologizing to Pakistan and islamo-fascist...
A CARTER’s new nightmare....Awwwfull and brainless
Wait a second- didn’t Ed Rollins agree with David Brooks assertion that the Reagan conservative moveement is dead?
Sigh. I’m so confused.
Ols days are over. Mike has jumped into bed with the elites and is fooling the masses.
Such a sad thing. Power does that.
I see only 3 choices for me. Your guy right now, is my third choice though. JMO but FT and supporters (who I think very highly of....well ok, most of them:’) are only going to help Huck by trying him by religion. It’s insulting to Evangelicals. I find myself even brisling and I’m not a supporter. FT needs MH’s base and that “ain’t” no way to draw them in.
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