Posted on 07/04/2008 7:07:58 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Huckabee No Savior for McCain
Kathryn Jean Lopez
In Texas just before Independence Day, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee co-sponsored a "Rediscovering God in America" pastors' conference. The event, Huckabee said, was "to remind and encourage us that the proper position for America when facing evil and confronting enemies is not to find excuses for defeat but to find the resources, the courage and the strength from God necessary to win." But if John McCain thinks Huckabee as veep will give divine strength to the GOP ticket in November -- he's wrong.
For some in the McCain campaign -- most notably, McCain himself -- a "social conservative" is such a foreign entity that they are flying blind trying to secure that key GOP constituency. Despite his pro-life voting record, Arizona Sen. McCain is on record this election cycle making it clear he has little interest in such issues. Knowing this, conservative evangelicals are not overjoyed at McCain's nomination.
The problem with Huckabee is that he is not conservative. When Huckabee won the Iowa caucus in January, conservative Club for Growth President Pat Toomey declared, "Huckabee's win in Iowa is a temporary setback for conservatism." The former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania continued, "It often seems like Huckabee goes out of his way to anger the other elements of the conservative movement instead of courting them, dismissing his critics who believe in economic freedom and a strong national defense as members of the Washington establishment, Wall Street millionaires and secular elitists."
Toomey predicted: "Huckabee is a fringe Republican and does not represent the conservative movement on economic policy, domestic programs, law and order, and foreign policy. It is hard to imagine a candidate so out of step with most in the conservative movement assuming the stage in Minnesota in eight months as its leader."
Toomey is far from alone. Conservative talk-radio leader Rush Limbaugh declared Huckabee "not a conservative" during the primary fight. Although Huckabee struck an attractive populist tone, his solutions tend to be statist. It's no surprise he'd run a big-government campaign: He was a statist as governor of Arkansas. The Libertarian Cato Institute gave him a "D" rating on fiscal policy when he was in Little Rock; spending increased at three times the rate of inflation during his tenure there. Further, Huckabee is a protectionist and proved during the primary campaign to know very little about foreign policy. While McCain certainly has that ground covered, Huckabee can't pass the "plausible president" test a vice-presidential pick really ought to -- and will need to, especially this year on the Republican side, with a 72-year-old candidate at the top of the ticket.
And how, exactly, is McCain to make an issue of Barack Obama's naivete on the Iran issue if Huckabee also wants to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
In the months since he's dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, Huckabee has done himself no favors. First, there was his disgraceful, juvenile joke about Obama at the National Rifle Association convention. Then there was an exhortation to fellow Republicans not to "demonize" Obama. But no responsible Republicans are demonizing him, so why insinuate that they are? The unnecessary warning once again served to make conservatives wonder whether Huckabee actually knows -- much less is one of -- them.
In substance and style, Huckabee is bad news. Having run ads calling himself a "Christian leader," Huckabee ran on identity politics -- usually a mainstay of liberal Democrats. Although he had the third-highest number of votes in the Republican race this year, polls also showed him a tough sell with nonevangelical Republicans, who felt they had little in common with his mixed record as a conservative.
The Arkansas pol doesn't even offer an outside-the-Beltway thinking. He showed that recently by endorsing Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young's re-election bid. He, too, is a liberal-in-disguise, one with a penchant for government handouts (famously, the $223 million "Bridge to Nowhere"), and under an ethical cloud (and a federal investigation).
So would McCain pick someone so out of step with most in the conservative movement as his No. 2? Stranger things have happened. After all, in the spring of 2007, much of the conservative movement was defeating McCain's "comprehensive immigration reform." Who would have predicted they'd be stuck with him before long as their nominee for president?
With McCain's own troubled past and record with conservatives, he doesn't need to add to the ideological muddle. Despite his impressive turnout in the primaries, Huckabee would be a bad choice to join the Republican ticket. Lead McCain not into temptation.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I will not watch him on CNN or wherever his Publicist/Booker is trying to make him a TV personality.
I seriously doubt he could be elected as a Representative or Senator from Arkansas. I think the citizens of Arkansas are done with him.
I (hate) Huckabees.
From the look of those matching shirts, it is apparent that Governor Huck took personal attention in the prisoner’s textiles work program.
blah blah, blah blah, After the McCain almost endorsement of Barry at the NAACP today, who really cares what Hucklebee says?
The GOP, the party of sellouts, losers, and weasels. They try to out Dem the Dems, and come up as nothing but jokes.
Ooh, they disgust me.
Well so far we dont know who paid for his trip to the Caymans..IN THE MIDDLE of the campaign or who has been picking up the tab for wifeys little visits to Vegas.
Need to follow the money with this scumbag.
The NCGOP, habitual losers, even invited the huckster to the state convention. No word yet on who paid for him and his fellow hucksters expenses.
The facts have shown to disprove the propaganda of the your first assertion. I agree in what you said about Romney -- except he left me with no trustworthy way of assessing whether he is a conservative at heart and would be as president.
Sounds like a personal problem, to me.
I could care less if you trust my judgment or not. It is just my humble opinion. Take with with a grain of salt or walk away. Or try to change my mind with facts and truths on what we’re discussing ... much of this is a carp shot anyway.
I did that during the primary season, thanks. His record in Arkansas was more conservative than Ronald Reagan’s in California.
I advise checking out the real record, instead of buying whole hog what 527’s and other PAC’s say (e.g., Club for Growth, Cato Institute — both of which included fans of Romney and Paul).
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