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Highway to heaven (Huckabee's nutty infrastructure plan)
The Atlantic ^ | January 25, 2008 | Megan McArdle

Posted on 01/26/2008 10:20:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Is Huckabee's highway plan the nuttiest thing to come out of this presidential election? I don't want to speak too authoritatively, because I certainly haven't tried to catalogue every nutty thing everyone has said. But it certainly seems like a good candidate. I say that as the daughter of an avid transportation infrastructure advocate--indeed, my dad just co-authored a report on transportation finance for the next 50 years, which I hope he'll be joining me for a podcast on next week. Transportation spending takes years, even decades, to complete, which makes it less than ideal for stimulus spending. In a phone chat a few hours ago, my father estimated that in a best case scenario, if you jammed through a law mandating the widening of I-95 from Florida to Maine today, it would clear the EIS process and be ready to break ground about 20 years from now. And the idea that adding two lanes to I-95 would lower America's energy usage is, to put it mildly, unsupported by any sort of credible evidence.

As Dad points out, if you want to use government works projects for fiscal stimulus, the only way to do it is to initiate a large number of small-scale projects like playground reconstruction in low-income communities, which fly below the EIS ceiling, and which you could therefore require be initiated in 90 days from successful bid.

(Excerpt) Read more at meganmcardle.theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: china; daft; debates; economicstimulus; election; electionpresident; elections; fl2008; gop; gopdebates; highways; huckabee; hucksters; infrastructure; issues; mikehuckabee; republicans; roadbuilding; supertuesday; transportation
Are evangelicals really that desperate for a "leader" that they'll follow this guy?
1 posted on 01/26/2008 10:20:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Megan McArdle must not be a true Christian...


2 posted on 01/26/2008 10:25:11 PM PST by counterpunch (Mike Huckabee — The Religious Wrong)
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To: counterpunch

HeHeHe!


3 posted on 01/26/2008 10:36:06 PM PST by SoConPubbie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dunno how desperate they are.

I know Huckabee is the least qualified man running on the GOP side for President. Some of what he says is junior league. Like this. ... or “Jordan has WMDs” or “Bush is arrogant” or his flakey defense of taxes “we raised hope” ... list goes on (lots of other stuff like that).

We have to say NO to proamnesty-proCO2caps-CFR-nannystate-RINO John McCain. I can’t believe any real conservative would prefer McCain over Mitt Romney, and you’d have to be a social conservative with a I-dont-care-about-the-other-stuff-since-raptures-coming-soon-anyway voter to go for Huckabee.

So I say: Mitt Romney for President.

But I seem to recall you being on the other side of many a Mitt Romney thread.... have you thrown in the towel and become a “Fredhead for Mitt”? Or NOTA?


4 posted on 01/26/2008 10:36:19 PM PST by WOSG (Mitt Romney for President. Say NO to proamnesty-proCO2caps-CFR-nannystate-RINO John McCain)
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To: WOSG

Still looking, and not very happy...


5 posted on 01/26/2008 10:41:28 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Second To None!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ever notice how much huckabee looks like Gomer Pyle?


6 posted on 01/27/2008 2:22:13 AM PST by Waco
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Huck's I-95 position is not an original idea.

Last September, USDot designated 5 corridors, including I-95, as Corridors of the Future.

Although there were small amounts of money included in the designation, the main purpose is to streamline the permitting process.

Corridors of the Future

7 posted on 01/27/2008 2:55:17 AM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If you could get the political support, you could speed things up by exempting the project from large parts of the EIS (laws are good for that). On the other hand, I don’t think $150 Billion dollars will handle ading lanes to the George Washington Bridge (NJ/NY) or the nightmarish Quinnipiac Bridge in New Haven, Connecticut. I suspect there’s a nasty section or two in Maryland as well.


8 posted on 01/28/2008 3:52:16 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (Not a newbie, I just wanted a new screen name.)
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To: WOSG

Mitt Romney won Nevada with 25% of the vote being mormoms. He has avoided South Carolina because he knew in advance he couldn’t beat Huckabee and McCain. That shows the same weakness Giuliani has shown. If you think you can’t stand losing, why run for President. A real candidate is someone who stands by his convictions and not his calculations on the outcome. It also shows disdain for grassroot republican activists. And that leads as we all know to defeat at the general election. So if Romney wants to do any good to the Republican party he exits the race and endorses whoever he wants to endorse. Someone who says Huckabee is the least qualified either doesn’t know who Huckabee is or just wants to spread lies.


9 posted on 01/30/2008 5:35:48 AM PST by moneyRomney (Romney can't beat McCain, let's try Huckabee on supertuesday)
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To: moneyRomney

HEY NEWBIE ROMNEY BASHER, YOU SIGNED UP TODAY TO SHARE THAT FUD? GIMME A BREAK!

Romney would have won without the Mormon vote in Nevada.

Romney is the only candidate who *respects* conservative base voters. Romney won the conservative vote in Florida and the evangelical vote in Florida. Romney won in Florida if you exclude the pro-amnesty Spanish-speaking voters and/or the proabortion voters.

Romney has won as many states as any other candidate so far.

Huckabee has won zero since Iowa. Huck is a loser.

“Someone who says Huckabee is the least qualified” ... has studied his very non-conservative soft-on-crime tax-and-spend record.


10 posted on 01/30/2008 8:51:49 AM PST by WOSG (RINO MCCAIN DOESNT FIT - VOTE FOR MITT - Another Conservative for Mitt!)
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