Posted on 01/22/2008 12:48:23 PM PST by Salena Zito
Good news for Huckabee TRIBUNE-REVIEW Salena Zito Posted January 22, 2008 3 :00 PM
Democratic strategist John Lapp said, "On first blush, it would seem that (Mike) Huckabee is the main beneficiary of Fred Thompson's withdrawal. Huckabee, Thompson and, to a lesser degree, Mitt Romney were splintering the hard core, evangelical, social conservative vote. With Thompson's withdrawal, Huckabee has the chance to consolidate the far right. However, if Thompson endorses John McCain, that would be a nice conservative credential to have, considering McCain has been struggling with the mainline conservative Republican base."
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
The party is in sad shape when a Massachusetts RINO is the most conservative option available.
I would think that Mitt Romney would get the best “bump” out of this.
No sense at all. I'm not sure where I go from here, but it ain't toward Huckabee.
Help Huckabee?!? Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.
Typical elitest crap. They think all Southerners are Bible Freaks who will get behind another just because they come from the South. They give us no credit for knowing anything. Thompson dropping out will benefit Romney rathet than Huckleberry.
> except that now the only border conservative is Romney.
And Ron Paul.
The Kennedy wing of the late GOP along with
the Democrats will stifle what little self
reliance left in America.
Not likely.
“Frankly, I cannot fathom the mind of somebody who would go from supporting Thompson to supporting Huckabee. It just does not make any sense.”
I agree. Thompson was the thinking conservatives’ choice, and the smart money now is on the Republican who has the best chance of beating Hussein Obama or Hillary. I think that could be McCain or Mitt, but not Huckabee-he’s the Democrats choice.
It’s time to find and get behind true conservatives running for Congress.
“The party is in sad shape when a Massachusetts RINO is the most conservative option available.”
Hopefully, he’ll get back his “hostile takeover” mentality that made BAIN such a success.
Ditto. No Huckabee. Hell fricking No.
BINGO!
The real conservatives are gone.Guess I’ll go with 3/4 conservative Mitt (female Mitt people are called Mittens—I gues that makes me a Mitter).If Mitt goes,I reckon I’ll take 1/2 conservative Rudy.
NcCain or Huck? I’d rather get a razor wire enema!
—former Fredhed.
I just heard on the radio that Huckabee might be pulling out of Florida. Is that correct? (I hope, I hope, I hope.)
I can’t see a Thompsonite going over to Huck, but not everyone is as engaged as FR folks are. Huck looks and sounds conservative to a certain kind of voter, one who doesn’t look too closely at actual policies.
I would say that McCain and Giuliani also appeal to people who are not that deeply engaged, don’t spend a lot of time looking at policy. Most McCain people like his tough (sounding) talk, and figure he’ll fight. Giuliani attracts a similar kind of person, they like tough talking fighters, and we’re in a war. McCain’s long history of shenanigans wash right past most people. They just see the tough guy.
So, of the people not that engaged, Huck takes the church-goer, McCain the old vet, Giuliani the law-and-order guy. Maybe. Thats how I explain it to myself.
For me, there were only two conservatives in the race, and Hunter was my guy, he hit all my buttons. Thompson was number two. Romney a distant number three, Giuliani a distant number 4, Huck a far-distant number 5, and McCain the guy you couldn’t pay me to vote for.
So with the departure of my guys, its Romney. He’s decent, competent, knows what he’s doing, and he’s not McCain. He’s not Hunter, either, but oh well.
Who’s Richard Mellon Scaife backing, Huckabee?
but there is a mormon factor that bothers many people
From Rush’s show last Thursday:
CALLER: I believe it 100%. And, you know what? The fact that the media doesn’t want to follow Romney is the very reason why I want to follow him! Who cares if they approve?
RUSH: Well, you know, this is one thing the Drive-Bys are not going to learn, they will not learn. They’re going to do everything they can to try to shape your opinion without realizing they are driving you the opposite direction they want you to go. It’s a fascinating question, these people that say that they aren’t going to vote if Huckabee or McCain get the nomination. Now, we haven’t discussed this, because the time hasn’t really been right, but lurking out there is the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. I think I mentioned this one time. I play golf at certain places in the Northeast, or I play golf at a place down here where there are a lot of members who summer from the Northeast. And they love the guy.
These are Republicans. “What do you think about Bloomberg?” They see Bloomberg — these guys are all business types — they see Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Network and his 13-billion-dollar wealth, they see somebody that’s cool. “The guy has that much business savvy.” Anyway, he’s lurking out there as a potential third-party candidate. He’s out there doing polls to find out if this person is a Democrat nominee, if this person is the Republican nominee, do I get in? And I’ll guarantee you, if Huckabee is our nominee, he gets in. He’s going to realize that there are a whole lot more Republican votes he might be able to get if Huckabee is the nominee. McCain, I don’t think he’d step on. Then the question becomes, if a guy like Bloomberg gets in, does he hurt Hillary or the Republican more? There’s no consensus on that.
Remember, this guy is a "Democratic strategist" (i.e., an idiot). He thinks that Huckabee is "far right," because to him, anyone to the right of Joe Lieberman is "far right." Very few Thompson votes will go to Huckabee. I suspect they'll mostly go to Romney.
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