Posted on 02/22/2008 11:42:36 PM PST by Kurt Evans
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee met with conservative Christian leader James Dobson Friday as he vied to pick up the Colorado delegates pledged to Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race. Huckabee's visit comes two weeks after Dobson endorsed him for president.
"Personally it was a great encouragement," Huckabee said of the endorsement. "I think it also was an extraordinary boost for our campaign because Dr. Dobson is seen as such a true national leader when it comes to issues of life, marriage and family."
Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister and a former governor of Arkansas. His campaign has been kept alive in part by support from conservative Christians who don't want to back Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Appearing without Dobson at a podium on a lawn outside the campus of Focus on the Family, Huckabee declined to describe what he and his friend of 14 years discussed.
Huckabee, who was in Colorado Springs to speak Friday night to the conservative group, Leadership Program of the Rockies, said the meeting was "personal" in nature and "not a meeting that I was having with him in his capacity as the leader of Focus on the Family."
Although Huckabee said Dobson's backing has helped him, he doubts the Focus on the Family founder will be campaigning for him.
"I think it would be very difficult for him to go on the campaign trail," Huckabee said. "I did not ask for that, and I would not expect that."
Through a spokesman, Dobson also declined to describe the conversation and cautioned against reading into why he didn't appear with Huckabee.
"This was a long-planned private conversation between two friends and Dr. Dobson wanted to keep it that way," said Gary Schneeberger, a Dobson spokesman. "It's certainly not meant to temper his support of the governor."
He said Dobson would not comment on a private meeting. Schneeberger also said Dobson was sensitive to IRS rules that restrict tax-exempt groups like Focus on the Family from getting involved in politics. When Dobson endorses political candidates, he emphasizes he is speaking as an individual and not for the group.
Many political observers believe Huckabee, with 254 delegates, doesn't have a chance of catching McCain, who has 958 delegates of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination. Romney, who dropped out of the race earlier this month after picking up 280 delegates, has endorsed McCain.
That hasn't discouraged Huckabee.
"There's 46 delegates at stake in Colorado that could be mine," Huckabee told dozens of cheering supporters.
Dick Wadhams, Colorado chair of the Republican Party, said that that the Feb. 5 caucus—where Huckabee came in third after Romney and McCain—was a "preference poll" and that delegates are still up for grabs.
Huckabee also commented about a New York Times article Thursday alleging that McCain's staffers were concerned about a relationship with a female lobbyist during his first presidential run eight years ago. McCain and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, have denied they had a romantic relationship.
"My only experience with (McCain) as a fellow candidate the past 14 months is a positive one," Huckabee said. "I see him as a man of integrity. He's denied the allegations in the New York Times article. I have no reason to doubt him."
Mimi Hailes, 50, of Colorado Springs has been working on Huckabee's campaign in Colorado and it was thrill to meet him and see him person.
"I told him that I've been praying for him and that I pray for him every day," Hailes said. "I'm very hopeful that he's still going to be our candidate."
The cheerful, lighthearted Huckabee cracked some jokes with his supporters and talked about his upcoming guest appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on Saturday, saying that if he couldn't make it they might get Brad Pitt to portray him.
“He not only didn’t show wisdom, he was dishonest about his intent ...”
I know Governor Huckabee has said repeatedly that he never intended for the question to be included in the article (and it seems to me he’d have to be pretty dumb if he did), but I’ve never found a source where he explicitly stated his intent. Do you have such a source?
“He not only didn’t show wisdom, he was dishonest about his intent (just like the Iowa news conference with the negative ad) and then even what he actually had said when called on it.”
Wisdom? He is the only one left standing, and he did it on his own with no money to purchase a new image.
You keep telling us his internal thoughts, you keep trying to sell us an unrealistic scenario, the conversation made total sense, get back in touch with human interaction.
“God isn’t going to bless us on an international scale if we continue to slaughter the death-toll equivalent of 9-11 in their mothers’ wombs every single day.”
If you are dead, no one will be blessing you on an international scale, and there will be no mothers’ wombs in which to have babies. Get your survival instinct screwed on right. You have to be alive first in order to have babies, now don’t you.
He has to know when to fold them.
“He would have said something to the effect, ‘I respect people of different religious beliefs and feel that you are free to worship as you please in this country. It would be inappropriate to comment on another candidates religion. I think I’ll just talk about mine if I choose and Governor Romney can talk about his if he chooses.’”
That’s almost exactly what he had said—over and over and over—and the media was ripping him to shreds for refusing to say Mormonism wasn’t a cult. Was the rhetorical question a political miscalculation? From the standpoint that it underestimated the malicious intent of the reporter, it probably was. But I hardly think it disqualifies him as a presidential candidate.
“If that was true then he never would have asked his rhetorical question about Mormons and Jesus and Satan. He would have said something to the effect, “I respect people of different religious beliefs and feel that you are free to worship as you please in this country. It would be inappropriate to comment on another candidates religion. I think I’ll just talk about mine if I choose and Governor Romney can talk about his if he chooses.”
So what is the answer to that rhetorical question? You keep trying to sell us that a Jewish writer and an ex-preacher would know the answer to such a simple question, what is that answer ?
LOL, by the way is this the way that people talk on your planet?
“He would have said something to the effect, “I respect people of different religious beliefs and feel that you are free to worship as you please in this country.”
Congressman Hunter will almost surely have a huge influence on Governor Huckabee’s foreign policy. I don’t trust McCain on foreign policy at all. He’s not stable.
If Huckabee picks Hunter, which for some reason my gut tells me he won’t, then ok, Huckabee could be a reasonable vote, but I guess we will have to wait this out a bit more.
“Get your survival instinct screwed on right.”
Survival is boring.
This is another Hannity argument. “We have to defeat the Islamofascits, or we don’t get to debate issues like abortion.” If we’re going to keep slaughtering 3,500 kids per day, maybe we’re no better than the Islamofascists.
“If we’re going to keep slaughtering 3,500 kids per day, maybe we’re no better than the Islamofascists.”
Speak for yourself. I and none of my friends are slaughtering babies. You generalize as if everyone in the USA is doing this. And then you generalize even further saying we are no better than Islamofascists. You are way over the top in your broad strokes on this subject. Again, back to the original discussion, if you are dead you won’t have babies. I guess one could say that effectively stops abortions, but at the expense of the human race in America. You’d better take care of those Islamofascists first if you want to have babies later.
Its crazy how many alleged conservatives hate Huckabee for committing the sin of being conservative and a Christian.”
_______________________
Vote for him or not...he’s the most conservative thing left on the ticket.
First and foremost he is a candidate so, to steal a line from Obama via Deval, "Words matter."
You keep trying to make it sound like two average Joe's sitting on a park bench flippantly discussing religion. This is a Presidential candidate...millions of people will parse a candidates words, from the average Joe voters to media pundits to competing campaigns (in both/all parties). There are strategies developed on how one will parse their public statements depending on the subject, whether it be a current event or a boilerplate issue or a response or comment to/about another camapign. Yes there are off-the-cuff remarks but even those areas have been refined. Religion is a biggie particuarly if you are discussing another candidate's faith. Therefore when you ask...
LOL, by the way is this the way that people talk on your planet?
..the answer is that is how the Planet of Politics talks, ten-fold when it is Presidential politics. So if a candidate is asked about another candidates religion where in this case the issue of Romney's being a Mormon had had thousands of articles written about the subject then, yes, a smart and reasonable response to being asked about Mormonism would have been...
“I respect people of different religious beliefs and feel that you are free to worship as you please in this country.”
Sure that sounds stilted but that would have been the reasonable and smart template a campaign would have chosen. It's the more successful candidates (good and bad) that are able to take talking points on an issue and make them sound natural and even off the cuff.
That's what Huckabee did here. He and the sleazy Ed Rollins (who if I remember threatened to punch Romney in the nose - there's maturity) decided that Huckabee would let slip his Jesus and Satan question at an opportunity of his choosing.
To pretend that couldn't have been such a choice is to be ignorant of the most rudimentary strategic planning a candidate develops when interacting with the media elements of a national political campaign - especially in todays internet age. Mike's not dumb - Mike is just sleazy like Rollins. And remember Rollins was the same guy that ran the spoiler's campaign that put Bill and Hillary in the White House - Ross Perot. As of now Huckabee is the Perot of the Primaries and Rollins is...Rollins.
“where in this case the issue of Romney’s being a Mormon had had thousands of articles written about the subject then, yes, a smart and reasonable response to being asked about Mormonism would have been...”
Nothing was written to explain Romney’s cult beliefs, the word Mormon was mentioned a lot less than evangelical, but it was mentioned, that is all.
Never did anyone really delve into the Mormon religion.
Show me the thousands of articles that will answer or even discuss the worlds questions about Mormonism, think about the reaction of the media to the single question that was reported to have come up during that two hour drive, you are outraged by it.
If thousands of articles had raised such questions we would know more now about Mormonism than we did a year ago, but we don’t do we?
Thanks for making my point. He chose the standard, logical choice for months on end. He had a template if asked about the issue. It was clear that stratgically he, along with Rollins, decided to stray from that template to play the "Wacky Religious Beliefs" card knowing it will both get attention and play to the fears of skeptics and bigots. There is no small interview in todays internet media environment. Huckabee's declaration today strive for a brokered convention was first uttered at some local Texas radio station. In no time AP, Reuters, Drudge yada yada had spread his comments far and wide. That's the reality, not some fantasy about some honest inquiry made by Huckabee in the role of ex-preacher in a conversation with another man of faith on a park bench.
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” (Deseret Morning News - 12-11-07)
“Thanks for making my point. He chose the standard, logical choice for months on end. He had a template if asked about the issue. It was clear that stratgically he, along with Rollins, decided to stray from that template to play the “Wacky Religious Beliefs” card knowing it will both get attention and play to the fears of skeptics and bigots. There is no small interview in todays internet media environment. “
It isn’t the worlds job to worry about that politician from Massachusetts, he is gone, he lost, the guy is history.
Right now we are in a presidential race, if you have a defense of McCain to make then make it, or support the other choice Huckabee.
LOL, is your choice Huckabee or McCain?
Perhaps one of the huckster’s worshippers can explain to me a few things. According to his own words the huckster decides to head off to the Cayman Islands for a speaking engagement...during a presidental campaign?!? Who paid for it? When was it planned?!?
And Mrs huckster....who paid for her trip to Vegas?!?
And where are their fine children?!? Sure dont see much of these outstanding examples of family values.
First of all, thanks for using the "cult" label. It lets me know what mindset I'm dealing with.
I didn't say more or less, I said thousands and I know that is true. The subject of Evangelicals has been discussed for over 25 years now. Some people wrote about Romney's "cult belief" by talking to members, former members, officials, critics, supporters, agnostics etc. Some just opined on their own. Dozens of polls were done about whether one's vote would be affected by Romney's Mormonism. So your opinion that the "cult belief's" of Romney's were never "delved into" shows either ignorance or dishonesty.
If thousands of articles had raised such questions we would know more now about Mormonism than we did a year ago, but we don’t do we?
Depends on who you are asking and what they read and what the sources were. Dozens of articles have been posted here with the subject of Romney and/or LDS/Mormons, some vanity and some sourced, with thousands and thousands of responses. There been massive discussions on this board about the subject (I've seen some of your posts) so it's beyond belief that you contend that knowledge of the subject is less than a year ago. It's subjective as to what the RIGHT opinion is on the subject but indisputedly many opinions have been made. So your use of absolutes like "nothing" and "never" don't hold up to the simplest scrutiny, your logic...simply illogical.
Right now we are in a presidential race, if you have a defense of McCain to make then make it, or support the other choice Huckabee.
I win!
The American people know no more now about Mormonism than they did a year ago, because the media never “delved” into it.
What church is an evangelical? And what does this have to do with which republican you are voting for, Senator McCain or Governor Huckabee?
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