Posted on 12/23/2007 5:41:56 AM PST by don-o
DAVENPORT, Iowa - To hear Mitt Romney tell it, Republican Mike Huckabee shares more with Democrat Bill Clinton than a hometown in Hope, Ark., and a stint as Arkansas governor.
Both men, Romney suggests, have left-leaning governing philosophies, particularly on taxes and spending.
"Governor Huckabee's record is more liberal than our nation needs right now," the former Massachusetts governor said in Iowa last week, seeking to link his GOP presidential rival to the former Democratic president who is loathed by many Republican loyalists.
Retorted Huckabee: "This nonsense about being a liberal is pure nonsense."
Romney started giving Huckabee that brand — and implicitly linking him to Clinton — as polls started showing a tight race in the first state to speak in the GOP nomination fight. Romney had led in Iowa for months, but Huckabee's recent rise here and elsewhere has prompted Romney to go after his opponent.
The effort may be paying off. Polls show Huckabee's double-digit lead dropping to single digits less than two weeks before the caucuses.
Romney's aides argue Huckabee's record as governor undercuts his claim that he's the only authentic conservative in the race. Romney himself has stopped short of explicitly saying his rival is simply another Clinton, though he's less shy about it in campaign literature mailed to thousands of Iowa Republicans.
He wouldn't bite this past week when pressed on whether Huckabee and Clinton were one and the same.
"They're very different people, and obviously the area of concern relates to spending and taxation. We think of Bill Clinton as being a tax raiser and a spender," Romney said — then mused that he had read somewhere that Huckabee had raised more taxes than Clinton when they were governors.
Asked whether Huckabee was more like him or Clinton, Romney sidestepped.
"I think you have to look issue by issue," he said.
I read all that junk and I will still vote for Romney given the chance. My one thing is illegal immigration.
He is suicidal about illegal immigration no matter WHAT he put on his web site. He called me a racist for being against amnesty. He funded and helped set up the Mexican consulate in Arkansas, fought against bills to keep illegals from drivers licenses and in state tuition.
Huckabee has surged because he won a couple of debates and he’s got evangelical support. If a quick rise can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
primary voters often are forced to choose between their hearts and minds, ideals vs. electablility etc. with an eye on the other side's selection. deciding between who they would want to win in the fall versus who they think has the best chance to win in the GE.
the Huckaboom has served to remind DEM primary voters of the possibility of a GOP nominee from the religious right, which when combined with the words obama/hussein/muslim/madrassa etc. serve to give potential DEM primary voters a subliminal pause when they consider how obama's background could be used against him by such a GOP nominee.
and the ever-present possibility of another terrorist attack during the fall campaign must never be discounted.
Huckabee's ascendance in the polls has not translated into windfalls of money, as would be expected (especially with a tax-exempt base of supporters/networkers) Huckabee's early trickle of money has only doubled, or tripled at most.
the more one learns of Huckabee's history in Arkansas (the master tobacco settlement, the curious dimunition of other potential GOP rivals for the state spotlight, even the peculiar circumstances by which Huckabee gained the Governor's office initially), the more one could make a powerful case that Mike Huckabee's candidacy (and media-driven ascendancy) benefits the Clinton's.
the most curious question then becomes, "on purpose"?
Isn’t Dickey Morris advising Huckabee ..??
I think I remember Morris saying something about that on the H&C show .. but I can’t remember the details.
If that’s true .. that’s where Huck is getting all the left-wing jargon.
What if Roosevelt had protested the 1936 Munich Olympics by not letting Americans go? The world would have missed Jesse Owens beating the Aryan racists on their own territory. That's what Jimmy Carter deprived American athletes of by pulling us out of Moscow.
I might be leaning toward Ron Paul. I like the Constitution and it would be wonderful to see the federal government again constrained by that document.
Thanks for the response.
I hope that when push comes to shove and we have a nominee you will be supportive of him. I know I've had times I didn't like the pick, but I look at the Rats and vote for the Pub.
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