It’s funny but the evangelicals got their man who was pro-life, anti-gay marriage and a compassionate guy who threw limited government principles to the wind.
Are we talking about George Bush again?????
Posted on 02/12/2008 11:12:23 AM PST by Ol' Sparky
The GOP's "Big Tent" looks more and more like a Circus Tent, and the barkers inside it never wanted Mike Huckabee under its spotlight. To his success, he has ignored them, picking up victories even as they instructed him to "get out of the race."
Usually party operatives tell a candidate to drop out of the race because he is likely to do badly; in Huckabee's case, they told him to get out because they feared he would do well. On the weekend before Super Tuesday, prominent GOP operatives called Huckabee "selfish" for staying in the race. He then proceeded to sweep much of the South.
How selfish of him to win. Doesn't this Arkansas hillbilly know that he belongs in coach with the other Christian conservatives? Doesn't he see that he should let the gents from the Squash Club call the shots in the party?
Even after winning in Kansas and Louisiana, the harassing question dogged him. Surely Huckabee is one of the only candidates in American political history who, upon winning, received as the first question: So when will you be getting out of the race?
And then there is Rick Perry's now-reported phone call to Huckabee, in which the Texas governor and John McCain supporter, behaving like a Soviet party hack, demanded that Huckabee drop out of the race there. How pathetic. So much for the GOP as the party of "rugged individualism."
Huckabee is right to mock GOP officials for their fear of competition and clamoring for "coronation." If Huckabee is too threatening to McCain in Texas, how could McCain possibly defeat Obama or Hillary in the fall? Anxious calls for McCain's coronation are a measure not of his strength as a candidate but his shakiness.
Whatever happens on Tuesday and beyond -- Huckabee's talk of a miracle tacitly acknowledges that it is a very long shot -- he has shown considerable pluck in bucking the establishment. Far from threatening his future, staying in the race this long has made it. Moreover, why should he listen to the counsel of Republicans who spent much of the campaign belittling him? Since they didn't make him, they are powerless to unmake him; if anything, their heedless hostility furnished him with a powerful motive to keep going.
Even conservatives who don't particularly like Huckabee should see that the longer he stays in the race, the better, if only because his presence stimulates much-needed debate about pervasive liberalism in the party. A vote for the Southerner at this point is a vote against the coastal Circus Tent Republicans who turned the GOP into a PC party.
Perhaps if Huckabee does well in a few more states McCain will get the message: that in order to get the conservative base out in the fall, he must knock off the liberal babble. Anybody who thinks McCain can defeat Hillary or Obama by poaching moderates and independents from them is dreaming.
Imagine McCain getting into a bidding war with Obama for independents: Obama's pitch is sure to be more seductive, and in any case, for every moderate or independent McCain, through PC Republicanism, could woo to the polls, he would thereby kill the interest of a host of conservative Republicans from even showing up.
With no resources save the fat of the free media, Huckabee has inspired a devoted following -- an instructive lesson for McCain who will despartely need those rank-and-file conservatives, many of them religious, to stay interested in politics.
Has the GOP already forgotten that the fear of gay marriage under the Dems handed victory to Bush in 2004? That it was the cultural contrast between the parties which got conservatives to the polls? In their pouting post-mortems, the Democrats acknowledged that aggressive secularism had turned off a lot of Americans and they scurried to find religion. The defeat scared Hillary enough that she, if only for a moment, changed her tune on abortion, casting it more in terms of regret than celebration.
The relative success of Huckabee's candidacy is a reminder to the GOP that many Americans still want a culturally conservative choice, not a secularist echo. If McCain remains blind to this and runs a campaign of muddled moderation and PC pieties, what we have seen in the primary elections -- Democrats rushing to the polls in huge numbers, demoralized Republicans staying home -- ill spill over into the general one.
The GOP ignores the Huckabee phenomenon at its own peril.
Now, now, we all know the huckster from hope is a member of a cult and we all know that members of cults are subhuman and incapable of telling the truth.
bump
“in Huckabee’s case, they told him to get out because they feared he would do well.”
No, they feared his staying in the race would mean that McCain would win the nomination, since the conservative vote would be split between him and Romney. And they were right.
"Other Christian conservatives"? I'm both Christian and conservative as you'll ever find. I don't know how Christian he is but, Huckabee is not conservative.
It’s funny but the evangelicals got their man who was pro-life, anti-gay marriage and a compassionate guy who threw limited government principles to the wind.
There’s more to being a conservative than just the social issues.....
Interesting article. Thanks for posting.
Just a note to all the Huckabee bashers still reacting as if this race had other candidates than McCain and Huckabee:
1) Huckabee has an outside chance of winning enough delegates to make this a contested convention — where all bets are off and a dark horse conservative nominee could be nominated (to the joy of almost everyone at FR).
2) Huckabee has no chance of winning the nomination outright short of a true miracle.
Therefore . . . see tagline . . .
It’s funny but the evangelicals got their man who was pro-life, anti-gay marriage and a compassionate guy who threw limited government principles to the wind.
Are we talking about George Bush again?????
The Texas governor does not speak for me. This might be good news though. Does King Richard think his VP spot is in jeopardy?
Are you talking about George W. Bush or Mitt?
Does King Richard think his VP spot is in jeopardy?
______________________________
VP Checklist for Perry:
Nice hair: Check.
Big State: Check
Loyal: Check
Southern: Enough to get by.
Swing State: Not unless the world has turned upside down.
Helps with Conservatives: BLECH!
BZZZZZZ . . . try again Mr. McCain.
To my Evangelical / Social Conservative friends… CONGRATULATIONS!...
Wow, last night 2-9-08 was a tremendous win for Huck in LA, not sure in WA but no matter, it's not about the "# of delegates" anyway. Fantastic real or moral victory but more importantly, a victory for Social-Conservatives of all kinds, religious, and non-religious like me.
We Social-Conservatives KNOW that this is not about Huck or even winning the nomination or even the general election, very unlikely although not impossible… Huck just happens to be the best candidate that represents our values at the moment. This is the ONLY candidate who made it through coming from nowhere and he is still alive!.. What I hoped it would happen with Duncan… A true grass roots choice who made it big and that is GREAT beyond words.
For one, it shows, the Evangelicals who care about ‘values’ have not lost their focus… their eyes ARE ON THE BALL! and I congratulate them and support them. Just think, if the Evangelicals have been to accomplish this much themselves… THINK of what we could do if ALL OF US UNITE in the fight!.. Heck let's learn from the homos themselves!... Look what the have accomplished with such a tiny percentage… and all because they have been united in purpose… Look at the Blacks… You see them all over the place on TV now :) ... probably electing the first Black president in this country… I would say that IS success.
So, if they can do it… Why not us?... After all, we are on the side of God and that should count for something, or not? :)
I have decided that I will vote for Huck now that our turn is coming here in VA. I also sent him a small contribution. I encourage all Social-Conservatives of ALL kinds, from ALL religions, and non-religious people who care for the same 'values' to join our Evangelicals friends in their fight.
America is not Europe!... And that is why this movement will grow stronger… For the simple reason that social-conservatives have NO OTHER CHOICE than to band together if we are going to have a fair fight against this monster of a Goliath that is the MSM, ACLU/Homosexual-agenda, Hollywood, The Teacher's National Association :), Liberal Universities Faculties and all the others, all working together to turn this country into a cesspool of immorality. We must fight to protect the unborn, the boys-scouts and such, even the MILITARY - The homosexual's last frontier so to speak - who dream to convert it into a laboratory for social engineering. Someone who is ready to sacrifice their very own lives for this country should not have to worry about these people… if you get my meaning. If we let that happen, shame on all of us Social-conservatives!
I purposely use the Social-Conservatives label, to differentiate us from the 'other' conservatives who seem to care about every 'conservative' cause, except social values! .We on the other hand care about those values a lot, otherwise we'll end up with a very 'rich', very 'free' but a very ugly country. In other words, although important, it's more than just about money or philosophies or guns for us.
Very well said.
Indeed. Offering up Tax Hike Mike is a giant upraised middle finger to the rest of the coalition. In fact, it's an unprovoked assault -- nobody in the GOP has ever proposed forcing cultural conservatives to get abortions, enter into gay marriages, etc, and yet Tax Hike Mike forced fiscal conservatives in Arkansas to cough up the loot for his big-spending ways.
Indeed. So why wasn’t flipper asked to leave instead.
The rest of the coalition has no problem with Romney, despite the fact he raised fees/taxes more per year than Huckabee and passed through socialized health care. And, Huckabee cut taxes more than Romney and supports a Fair Tax proposal that radically conservative.
So, why don't you just admit you don't like Huckabee because he is too Christian.
You seem to be posting that a lot. Wounded Mormon, perhaps?
Just a note to all the Huckabee bashers still reacting as if this race had other candidates than McCain and Huckabee:
1) Huckabee has an outside chance of winning enough delegates to make this a contested convention — where all bets are off and a dark horse conservative nominee could be nominated (to the joy of almost everyone at FR).
2) Huckabee has no chance of winning the nomination outright short of a true miracle.
I would rather see Huck stay in and try to make this a contested convention, instead of willy-nilly handing over the nomination to McKerrySoros
Now, it loks ridiculous bashing Huck because it pretty much means you support McKerrySoros. I rather have someone I just merely disagree with on some issues (Huck) than someone who would be a disaster for conservatives and the conservative movement
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