Posted on 01/30/2008 12:39:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Wednesday he has no intention of following Rudy Giuliani's planned exit from the GOP race and he dismissed suggestions that his candidacy could split the conservative vote and help rival Sen. John McCain.
With a narrowing Republican field, Huckabee could draw votes from Mitt Romney because of his strong support among the religious right - a possible boost for McCain.
"If the true conservatives are looking for a true conservative, they'll pick me. Romney's record is not a conservative record, his rhetoric is not conservative, even with what he's said and done," Huckabee said.
Huckabee surprised by winning the Iowa caucus, but has little money and finished a distant fourth in Florida.
The former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher was in Newport Beach for a fundraiser at a supporter's home before traveling to Los Angeles for an Americans of Faith event and to Simi Valley for the GOP presidential debate.
Huckabee also pledged not to drop out of the race, despite his poor showing in recent primaries. He said he would focus his campaign on Southern states that are slated for the Tuesday round of primaries.
"Those are all states where we believe we are not only in play, but we are poised to win," he said.
"This boy isn't on the ropes. There's a saying in the South: 'It ain't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog,'" Huckabee said.
His morning fundraiser in Newport Beach netted more than $100,000, according to organizers.
"Our campaign is so frugal we could go a month on that," Huckabee quipped to about 200 boisterous supporters and volunteers.
Huckabee also was schedule to attend a dinner fundraiser in Thousand Oaks.
Good news...thank you!
“Funny how all of Huck’s verbal shots are directed at Romney and none at the frontrunner McCain. Hmmm, seems like an odd way to stay in the race...”
He knows he can’t win; so it appears he’s looking to become McCain’s VP.
>And evangelicals won’t vote for the Mormon.
Seems the evidence is that evangelicals were picking Romney OVER Huck in some states. There’s still a significant hold out, however.
I agree about Romney, but the trouble is that none of the remaining 3 is conservative on most issues.
McCain is great on military matters, pork-busting ... but he rejected tax cuts (and explained at the time that he did so because he didn’t want to help the rich, who are the ones paying the lions share OF income taxes), mucked around on federal judicial appointments, has totally drunk the Gore-Bal Warming kool-aid, opposes “torture” no matter what the stakes, and, of course, is THE poster-boy for “It’s Not ‘Amnesty’ Because They Have To Pay $2000.”
Romney, as you noted, has flopped all over the place, and recently, too. To his credit, on most issues (not all — guns, for example), he’s NOW saying largely the right things. But can his recent conversions be trusted?
Huckabee has most of the 9 problems outlined earlier in the thread. He’s not as bad fiscally as his worst critics charge, but ... well, it largely reminds me of a religious, anti-abortion, pro-gun Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s also done a lot of Romney-like “campaign conversions,” such as on illegals.
Oy.
Huckster offers the foreign policy acumen of Jimmy Carter, the spiritual sincerity of Bill Clinton, and the personal skills of Richard Nixon.
You're still not getting it. It wasn't just 2006, it was virtually EVERY election after 1996 in which he continually failed with his leadership to build the state GOP. He tried to install his wife (!) as Secretary of State (whom had ZERO qualification for the office) and the voters shot that down. To the point, in 2000, 2002, 2004, & 2006 the party's overall standing withered. NO other Southern state had that happen. Hey, he wasn't a Conservative, so it's no surprise he was such a failure. He just kept rodents in their offices (hell, Beebe didn't even have to fire his appointees en masse, because they were Clinton Democrats !), did next to zilch to help the party, hiked taxes more times than Clintoon did as Governor, and kept the illegal slave labor spigot open for Tyson and that was that. He was a shockingly BAD Governor. Thanks to that and with no GOP farm team (contrast neighboring states of MS & LA that grew at the rate AR should have with increasing GOP elected officials), it will be many years before the state recovers from Huckster.
Huckabee’s literature states that he cut taxes & fees 90 times. It says that he eliminated the capital gains tax for the sale of a home and indexed the state income tax to inflation to keep people from being forced into higher tax brackets.
Nod. I’m with you. I chose to support Huckabee, but there’s something about Free Republic where people have to pretend to themselves that they are supporting the “one true conservative” . . . the same maroons that were slamming Romney when they were for Fred are now slamming Huckabee now that they are for Romney. Personally, I consider Romney the least conservative and least reliable man in the race. Don’t know if you saw this yesterday but it’s a good read:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961207/posts
Why would you go from supporting a Conservative to a sleazy lying Massachusetts liberal in the course of two weeks ?
Huckabee won’t run for VP. The GOP VP nominee should be someone who has been a congressman, since that usually helped Republicans, within the past 60 years. Five of the last six GOP VP’s were congressmen. Those five were Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon. The exception was Sprio Agnew. Huckabee should be our president.
Are you from Arkansas?
“Huck is ahead of Romney in a lot of the national polls.”
Not in any of the polls I’ve seen. What polls are you talking about?
“Huck is ahead of Romney in a lot of the national polls.”
Not in any of the polls I’ve seen. What polls are you talking about?
____________________________
NBC, CNN and LA Times polls.
It’s a perfect storm of perfect idiots and the NY Times is loving it and McCain will run against Hillary and it won’t really matter who wins because the Times will get their man. Or woman. Either way.
And we, the stupid, stupid, stupid “conservatives” let this happen.
We are. Now in. Hell. (or at least a pretty darn good facsimile of it)
>Huck is ahead of Romney in a lot of the national polls.
What is the definition of lot?
The ONLY polls I can find are old ones. The most RECENT one was conducted 1/6, but the same poll was updated 1/13 and has McCain up by 14.
Polls you claim show Huck winning:
* NBC - has McCain by 6
* CNN - has McCain by 9
* LA Times - has McCain by 4
Did Huck officially announce that he was on the McCain ticket?
I’m sorry. You are talking about Huck leading Romney. My bad. I thought in the race.
It’s not on the ropes because it is thru the ropes and laying in the aisle.
I've read a number of your posts on this thread. You certainly seem to think that your opinion on the candidates is the final word. You call FReepers "maroons." I think that you might be the "maroon," especially since you support Huckabee.
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