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Soldier on, Huckabee
Miami Herald ^ | Feb. 14, 2008 | PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

Posted on 02/14/2008 6:32:42 AM PST by dano1

During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, among the best he has delivered, Mitt Romney suspended his campaign, so as not to imperil GOP prospects in the fall.

Said Romney, ''If I fight on . . . all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Sens. Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.'' Thus did Romney endorse the John McCain view that the Democrats who intend to pull all U.S. combat brigades out by a date certain are raising the ''white flag of surrender'' to Islamofascist terror.

But when Mike Huckabee, who also delivered one of his best at CPAC, was asked if he would stand down for the good of the party, as his winning the nomination is now a near-mathematical impossibility, he brusquely dismissed such demands as ``total nonsense.''

''I didn't major in math,'' said the Baptist preacher, ''I majored in miracles.'' Good for Huck. Why should he drop out?

For too long conservatives have suppressed their convictions or meekly submitted, so as not to oppose a Republican president or get out of step with the party leadership:

• Because they did not wish to undercut George H.W. Bush, too many went along with his tax hikes and quota bill. And they paid the price in 1992.

• Because they did not want to get out of step with their K Street contributors, too many went along with the refusal of Bush I and Bush II to secure America's borders. Belatedly, they have awakened to what ''going along'' has done to their country.

• Because they did not want to get out of step with Newt and Dole, too many conservatives went along with NAFTA, Most Favored Nation trade status for China and the surrender of sovereignty to the World Trade Organization.

• Result: $800 billion trade deficits, deindustrialization of the nation and a dependency on foreigners for the necessities of our national life and for the borrowed money to pay for them.

Now, they all wonder why manufacturing jobs are leaving for China, why median family income no longer rises as in the Reagan era, why the Reagan Democrats are going home.

• Because too many did not want to be seen as not supporting a Republican president in time of war, only six House Republicans voted to deny Bush a blank check for war.

Did the rest have no grave concern about the wisdom of invading Mesopotamia to dethrone a tyrant and democratize a nation that has never known democracy, when George H.W. Bush himself, wiser than his son, halted the Army of Desert Storm rather than take Baghdad?

• Because Bush II demanded it, too many conservatives went along with No Child Left Behind, Medicare funding of prescription drugs and the largest increases in social spending since LBJ. And what did their capitulation to Big Government Conservatism do

for them, except earn them the contempt of the base, which they manifestly deserved?

Thinking is hard work, said Mark Twain -- that is why so few engage in it.

For too long, conservatives have not been thinking, but living on the inherited intellectual capital of the past. They have failed to see that the world has changed since Reagan's time, and we must change with it.

The truth is that the prospective Republican nominee is frozen in the past. Though an invasion of his nation is taking place on the border of his own state, John McCain is still reciting Emma Lazarus on the Golden Door. Though China manipulated its currency to seize our markets and loot our industry, and the European Union imposes value-added taxes -- tariff equivalents -- on U.S. imports, McCain is still babbling on about Smoot-Hawley.

Though the Cold War has been over for a generation, McCain has become more bellicose. He warns us new wars are coming, demands the ouster of Vladimir Putin from the G-8 and threatens Iran.

Huckabee has a chance to do himself a world of good by piling up votes and delegates and making himself a conservative alternative to McCain. But he also has a chance to serve his party and country by putting on the table the issues that neither party is addressing.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: huckabee

1 posted on 02/14/2008 6:32:44 AM PST by dano1
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To: dano1

2 posted on 02/14/2008 6:43:11 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: dano1

Great column. Buchanan was right about trade and immigration before it was even socially acceptable to discuss them.


3 posted on 02/14/2008 6:47:32 AM PST by Greg F (I feel a thrill going up my leg when Laura Ingraham speaks. Am I as weird as Chris Matthews?)
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To: Greg F

In my opinion there needs to be billboards everywhere with the message that unions, while once good for America, have no place in the economy right now. Unions in tax based entities should be abolished.

We went to a fire department meeting. What is NEEDED is a Prius and two parametics with their gear. What is NECESSARY for the unionized department is a $700K fire engine, two firemen and two parametics. You do the math!!

Also, the school districts are now competing for levels of administration that resemble corporations!!!

These unnecessary positions and their bloated salaries, not to mention the retirement burden, have killed us as a world competitor since we are taxed for them. Think Europe.


4 posted on 02/14/2008 7:04:03 AM PST by YouGoTexasGirl
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To: dano1
Huckabee isn’t a conservative alternative to McCain. He’s just got different liberal flaws, but he’s not anything close to a conservative.
5 posted on 02/14/2008 7:21:45 AM PST by untrained skeptic
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To: Red Badger

So Pat is encouraging Mike now, an unabashed open borders, amnesty guy, just to spite the GOP? Pat should stick to his own - the Reform Party.


6 posted on 02/14/2008 7:23:32 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: Greg F

What was it that Buchanan said about telling the Chinese to take their 10 cant chopsticks home and arresting them??? (Too much acid in the 60’s, memory gone : ))


7 posted on 02/14/2008 7:25:43 AM PST by mpackard (Proud mama of a Sailor.)
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To: KC_Conspirator
Pat should stick to his own - the Reform Party.

Whatever happened to them?........

8 posted on 02/14/2008 7:26:24 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: Red Badger
Well, if you like to tweak the black helicopter crowd, their party funds dried up in 2000.

Perot had gotten enough votes to qualify for federal funds for the party - millions of dollars, by his strong runs in the 90's. However, Pat Buchanan took those millions and squandered them in 2000, and only got like .5% of the vote - so therefore the Reform party did not get federal funds and is now totally broke. So basically Buchanan wrecked the Reform Party.

9 posted on 02/14/2008 7:40:01 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: KC_Conspirator

Huck is opposed to amnesty and for border security.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=26

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=4


10 posted on 02/14/2008 7:46:04 AM PST by Greg F (I feel a thrill going up my leg when Laura Ingraham speaks. Am I as weird as Chris Matthews?)
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To: Greg F

Gee, you have convinced with those links to his propaganda site! (heavy sarcasm)


11 posted on 02/14/2008 7:49:00 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: KC_Conspirator

But you are mischarecterizing his position. Huckabee has explicitly committed himself to no amnesty and to aggressive border enforcement including building the fence.


12 posted on 02/14/2008 7:50:43 AM PST by Greg F (I feel a thrill going up my leg when Laura Ingraham speaks. Am I as weird as Chris Matthews?)
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To: dano1

“Soldier on”

Bah.

Poor choice of words. Obviously, military service was...can we say Hillery-esque?

Sure.


13 posted on 02/14/2008 7:55:00 AM PST by PurpleMan
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To: dano1

Typical Populist/Protectionist drivel from the Gomer Pyle (Huckabee) crowd.

At best, Gomer is a McCain clone, (clown) and at worst, he is a Democrat in Baptist Minister’s underwear. (Rather self-soiled at that.)


14 posted on 02/14/2008 7:55:41 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP
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To: dano1

now, now, we all know the huckster, the next “man from hope” is a lying cultist. Don’t worry, he will go back to his cult with his tail between his legs and blame it all on those evil Mormons.


15 posted on 02/14/2008 7:58:40 AM PST by Old Mountain man (Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice!)
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To: dano1

Pat is still the man.


16 posted on 02/14/2008 8:22:17 AM PST by Cyclone Conservative
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To: dano1
For too long conservatives have suppressed their convictions or meekly submitted, so as not to oppose a Republican president or get out of step with the party leadership

As much as I hate to say crazy Pat Buchanan is right about anything, he's on target with this one. RINOs and ultra-liberal REpublicans, on the other hand, have no qualms about opposing their party and breaking ranks with it. They even get rewarded...look at a certain "maverick" GOPer and where he's gotten to now...(maverick only in the sense that he was running with the wrong herd).

The whole thing goes back to the party apparatus. The RNC and the head honchos are nothing but Beltway careerists, or their state versions, and their opinions (which are always the most liberal of liberal) are the ones that really matter and are expressed in the presidential candidate.

I think it's quite impressive that Huckabee is trying to buck them.

17 posted on 02/14/2008 8:29:28 AM PST by livius
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To: livius

I don’t think Buchanan is crazy. He’s just a Cassandra.


18 posted on 02/14/2008 8:43:21 AM PST by Greg F (I feel a thrill going up my leg when Laura Ingraham speaks. Am I as weird as Chris Matthews?)
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