Posted on 01/18/2008 4:42:34 PM PST by unspun
Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is strongly denouncing push polling activities in South Carolina, and any state in the country.
"As I've said before, our campaign has nothing to do with push polling and I wish they would stop. We don't want this kind of campaigning because it violates the spirit of our campaign. I want to become President because I am the best candidate, not because I attacked the other candidate," said Huckabee from the campaign trail in South Carolina.
National Campaign Manager Chip Saltsman agreed: "Anyone who has the slightest understanding of the race ahead and the mindset of voters would know this sort of activity is extremely counterproductive. It takes the campaign off message at a time when Governor Huckabee is resonating with voters here in South Carolina."
"We have enthusiastic, overflow crowds at each of our events. It loses votes rather than gains them. It's an underhanded way of doing business that is not welcomed by the campaign and it flies in the face of what Governor Huckabee stands for: integrity and clean politics. On behalf of Governor Huckabee and his campaign, I ask once again that these calls be stopped immediately," said Saltsman.
Push polling is regarded as a negative political campaigning technique that involves telemarketing like phone calls to large numbers of people.
If Mike Huckabee loses in South Carolinw, it will likely be to reports from CNN, etc., etc., implying that Huckabee and Saltsman are behind this.
ROTFLOL! That surely wasn't said with a straight face!
Er, at a campaign rally the other day, voters were telling Fred that the push-poll calls they got were from Huckabee’s campaign. Mr. Clean is awfully dirty, and lying about it to boot.
Yeah Mike, let's keep focus on a "living, breathing" Constitution.
That way your campaign won't be damaged. /sarc
Go get 'em Mike!
....all the RINO's and Socialists that you can take away from Hitlery anyway!
Here’s an article referring to the man behind the robo-calls in South Carolina touting Huckabee, Patrick Davis, of “Common Sense Issues.”
http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS03/80116069
The article above contains Huckabee’s campaign manager, Chip Saltzman’s harsh words for this man who may have formerly been a friend.
If Huckabee doesn’t win tomorrow, it would likely be due to what is made of what this man and his fellow instigators have been doing, IMHO.
They were wrong. If their campaign were doing push polling, they would be acting contrary to South Carolina law.
Or his tax record.
Or his tuition for ILLEGALS.
Or his sudden about face on ILLEGAL immigration.
“........Governor Huckabee stands for: integrity and clean politics.”
Hmmmm. Was that “integrity” he had, when he used his political stature to keep his son out of trouble for torturing and killing a dog?
He really doesn't need a reason in order to lose. Just losing would be sufficient.
Of course. We know that.
What do you think the term "extremely counterproductive" means?
“A charge made by only one man.”
In a rape case, isn’t it true that the charge is made by only one woman?
My recollection is that Jeemy had nothing to do with what his lieutenants did also. They were such a clean bunch.
Ask a genuine conservative and the answer is NO!
Ask Mike Huckabee and the answer is YES!
Who to believe - the guy who's been insane stumping for Huckabee, or the voters themselves....
FWIW, a woman I just spoke to said she got push-polled a couple of hours ago by Ron Paul's campaign.
Thanks for the confession. ;-`
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As a conservative Baptist Christian, I often hear that I "should" be supporting Mike Huckabee. Yet, I do not, and indeed I CANNOT in good conscience, as a Christian, support Mike Huckabee for the Republican nomination. Here are four of the reasons why, from a moral perspective, Mike Huckabee will NEVER get my vote.
His dishonesty: "Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight." (Proverbs 12:22)
Mike Huckabee has repeatedly been caught being fast and loose with the truth. After the Iowa caucus, he was caught lying about having a theology degree1 which his campaign now admits he doesn't have.
Huckabee was also caught lying2 about the recent NIE report on Iran's nuclear program. Huckabee, who was completely unaware of the NIE report at the time it came out, tried to cover for his ignorance by claiming it had only come out a few hours before he was asked about it. In fact, it had been released a day and a half before he was queried - Mr. Huckabee was merely trying to cover up his lack of knowledge on this important issue.
Huckabee has claimed that 80% of Arkansas voters approved the gas and diesel fuel tax which he supported. In fact, this tax was not subject to voter approval - it was passed by the Arkansas legislature and signed into law by Governor Huckabee3. The voters never had a chance to approve or disapprove it.
Huckabee claimed that he released convicted rapist Wayne Dumont because of evidence that he was reformed, and that the Arkansas parole board went along with it happily. A member of that very parole board, however, has contradicted4 the Governor's testimony on this regard.
Mr. Huckabee claims to be tough on immigration, saying that he has signed a pledge to oppose illegal immigration and that he will deport all illegals. This is despite that fact that, while he was the Governor of Arkansas, he opposed every effort at enforcement of our immigration laws, and even told an interviewed in November 2007 that if voters are looking for the toughest guy on immigration, he's not their man5.
Most recently, Huckabee's campaign has resorted to push-polling voters6 in South Carolina, claiming that Fred Thompson is in favor of partial birth abortion. That even a cursory examination of the votes in the Senate about partial birth abortion shows that Thompson voted pro-life every time demonstrates an added measure of desperation to Huckabee's already considerable reputation for dishonesty.
His hypocritical associations:"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." (I Corinthians 15:33)
While Huckabee claims to be the best candidate for Christians on the social issues we care about, this assertion is undercut by many questionable associations which he has formed over the years, especially during his campaign.
Huckabee, who portrays himself as the strongest candidate opposing the gay agenda, recently took on as a top adviser the journalist James Pinkerton. Pinkerton is on the record7 as saying that a gay Washington DC Republican politician is a "political hero" of his, and that gay Republicans need to be "unhampered" by, among other things, "homophobic zealots". Pinkerton has elsewhere been shown to be no friend to the social issues movement that Huckabee claims to be the standard-bearer for. His 1993 article entitled Conservatives: Don't Bash Gay Marriage makes an unconvincing case that gay marriage is actually "good" for the institution of marriage. In John S. Gardner's review8 of Pinkerton's 1996 book What Comes Next, Gardner notes about Pinkerton that,
"He enthusiastically supports the need to form as broad a political coalition as possible, observing the necessity of pushing areas of agreement such as "personal security" and "personal responsibility" to the top of the agenda of political concerns, and divisive issues like abortion and gay rights to the bottom."
Pinkerton has been a consistent voice within the Republican coalition towards "de-emphasizing" the social issues that concern many Americans, and about which majorities agree with the conservative Christian position.
Of course, Huckabee is also on the record9 as saying that he would accept the support even of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group that works to liberalize Republican policy-making on gay issues, if it would help him to win.
Of course, Huckabee's campaign is ran by Ed Rollins, a man who was overheard10 telling a subordinate to go negative in South Carolina, and even to "put some good in there if you have to, with the bad. Do what you gotta do." This would imply that Rollins, and presumably Huckabee, are fine with going negative and lying about other candidates if it will help Huckabee win.
Mr. Huckabee has also not been above taking money11 from organizations which support embryonic stem cell research, gun control, and "emergency contraception" (i.e. abortion in a bottle) - all things which Huckabee professes to oppose.
Mr. Huckabee appears to allow money and power to corrupt his convictions, leading him to associate with those whose influence he, as a Christian, should eschew.
He presents a bad testimony for Christianity: "Abstain from all appearance of evil." (I Thessalonians 5:22)
By having a record of untruths and questionable associates, Mike Huckabee presents a bad testimony for Christianity. His behavior does nothing but cause others outside the faith to discount and avoid it. Mr. Huckabee, in his campaign and by his record, doesn't practice what he preaches when it comes to his Christianity. People can smell hypocrisy a mile away, and when you have a guy running for President who is a Baptist preacher and who wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve in the way that Huckabee does, he'd better keep his public life as straight-arrow as his private life. Having campaign personnel who are willing to stoop to dirty tricks and who undercut you on your (correct) social issues agenda presents confusion. Being caught in a number of public, bald-faced lies doesn't just tell people that you're campaign is suspect - it tells them that the religion you profess is also suspect, when that religion is seen to be such a large part of the makeup of your character and substance. And that suspicion is going to rub off onto all the rest of us who share the same profession of faith as you do.
He turns Christians into just another special interest group: "....for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8b)
The implication in Mike Huckabee's claims to be the "Christian leader" in the race is that if you don't follow him, then you're not really a Christian. If you "care" about Christianity, then you'd better vote for Huckabee, otherwise you're working against God. In his attacks on Mitt Romney's religion before the Iowa caucus, Huckabee was playing the "religion card" to a T - Good Christians vote for Mike Huckabee, cultists vote for Romney. This is just one example of Huckabee's attempt to turn Christians into just another special interest group, voting as a bloc, following a leader who tells them what to think and how to vote, rather than making an informed choice and voting accordingly.
When he is speaking about religion, Mike Huckabee often sounds Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, except that he exploits the fears and concerns of his fellow Christians instead of African-Americans. And if you disagree, well, you just stepped off the reservation. This is an attitude which threatens to nullify the ability of Christians to participate reasonably in the political system of the United States. Instead of being encouraged to make informed choices, Christians are being told that you'd better vote for the Christian Candidate, or else you are a traitor to the cause of Jesus Christ. This sort of religious pandering is offensive and disgusting.
If their voice is to be heard and listened to, then Christians need to avoid demagogues like Mike Huckabee, and make informed decisions about political matters. We cannot allow ourselves to be self-segregated into a political Christian ghetto by those claiming to speak for us. This means that sometimes, the best candidate for a Christian to choose is not the one who is most religious. Ronald Reagan was not very much of a church-going man, yet he was an infinitely better leader than the very religious but very inept Jimmy Carter. Likewise, in this primary season, there are other candidates, Fred Thompson first and foremost, who are much better than Huckabee on the issues of importance to conservative Christians. We cannot be gulled into supporting an inferior candidate just because he deals a religion card to us.
End Notes
(1) - http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59222
(2) - http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1699051,00.html
(3) - from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 04/25/99
(4) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHdd_aZIvys&feature=related
(5) - http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/30/huckabee_draws_fire_on_immigration/7892/
(6) - http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/01/17/fred-gets-feisty.aspx
(7) - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/politics/freemedia112399.htm
(8) - http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9603/reviews/paradigm.html
(9) - http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDc1ZDRlZjdiMDRjMzljY2I4NjJmNjcwYTUwOGQ0MGU=
(10) - http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/13a3122e-dfd6-4d8a-81a3-bc8c6e11f550
(11) - http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-28-huckabee_N.htm
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