Why Huckabee scares me

Huckabee beat Romney dispite being outspent 15 to 1. He did this with the help of the evangelical Christians. Now these are the same people who put Shrub into power and have helped him stay there.

Another factor is Ron Paul. It blows my mind that he is getting so much attention from so-called progressives when virtually everything he stands for goes against progressive ideals. The only thing he has going for him is his promise to get us out of Iraq and I have my doubts that he can actually pull that one off. If Paul can pull some of these voters into a third party ticket he will siphon off enough votes to lift Huckabee to victory. It's happened in the past. Remember when Clinton won in 1992? One of the reasons he won was because one of the most successful third party campaigns in history drained votes from the GOP.

The other factor that bothers me is that we as Democrats cannot come together behind a candidate. We have many strong candidates and I would be happy to support the eventual nominee. But it appears that many people would rather throw their vote away in protest or not vote at all than vote for anyone except their first choice.

These two factors can and will have a devastating outcome on the presidential election. We could end up with another "good ol' boy" in the White House. The only difference will be the bumper stickers. They'll change from the oval W to "I like Mike" or something "the people" can understand.

Bush and Cheney's predictions about a GOP victory in November can happen. But I think it can only happen if we don't take Huckabee seriously. And if we don't come together as a party of like minded voters.

on Imus.

He's also talking about JE's challenges, with the hedge fund, the house, the hair...

and for that reason I hope he wins NH as well (though he won't)

he is bat-shit crazy even for the repukes. the farther he gets the more he splinters the right.

i want him to keep going for a while.

He won't win NH, but I'm fantasizing a Huckabee nomination for the General Election. He'll be SO easy to beat!

I would never vote for Paul in the general election, but he stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Republican field. And the reason is simple.

He believes in the Constitution. He doesn't think the Constitution is "just a goddamn piece of paper."

Paul's beliefs are mostly 180 degrees from mine, but he has respect for the most basic law of the land, unlike every other Republican candidate in the entire field.

I saw Huckabee last night on the Craig Ferguson show. He was only joking about getting Ferguson citizenship, but I thought it was revealing that he said "We'll ignore the Constitution, and just do what we have to do."

:(

For example, he twice authored legislation to prevent burning the flag, in direct conflict with the First Amendment. Nice pandering to blind patriots but he's not actually not the defender of the Constitution Ronbots set him up to be.

The idiot Ron Paul is the Republican candidate I would most like to go up against in the General election but I won't get that wish. He came in fifth place in Iowa and seems to have last place locked up in national Republican Primary polls. There's just not enough people stupid enough to vote for him, not even Republicans.

Huckabee doesn't worry me either. He thinks the earth is flat. The Republican candidate we have most to fear is McCain.

I'm sure you weren't being intentionally misleading.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/12/paul/index.html

Frivolously introducing legislation to get attention is even worse.

And how about Roe v. Wade? He says, "There is no serious argument based on the text of the Constitution itself that a federal 'right to abortion' exists." He claims on the one hand that abortion should not be determined by the Federal government. Yet he has voted for the ban of partial-birth abortions in H.R. 760. And he introduced H.R. 1094 this year, "(t)o provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception."? Were those stunts too?

That Mythical Constitution guided him to cast the lone nay vote on legislation to grant Rosa Parks a Congressional medal. That sure made his Stormfront pals happy. Seems it's unconstitutional to spend $30K on her medal but it was just fine for him to earmark $8 million for 'Wild American Shrimp Marketing' in his home district.

He's a defender of the Constitution until it suits him to do otherwise.

McCain is the most insane of the lot.

But I know what you're sayin'.

You've probably observed this yourself. Wingers are cockeyed optimists who predict victory for themselves no matter what their real chances. Liberals, of course, are just the opposite, predicting disaster for themselves no matter how strong their suit.

But we will wipe the floor with him in the general. First off, if Huck is the nominee, expect all of the big-name contributors from the business wing of the party to sit this one out. He isn't "one of them" and they don't like him. They won't go to bat for him the way they went to bat for Bush. He'll never raise enough money.

Second, Bush was able to "win" in part because he managed to attract the Jesus freaks without scaring off the normals. Huck can't do that. Even most of the Freepers appear to understand this. His "faith" message is too overt. Bush, for all his support amongst evangelicals, rarely (never, as far as I can remember) quotes the Bible, or talks about faith in anything except general terms. Bush does a good job of sending what I'd call "coded messages" to the evangelicals, whereas Huckabee just comes out and says this stuff.

It was all subtle and coded. I have a feeling that if he continues to win primaries, his handlers will tell him to keep it like that except when he's among the most fanatical. That's a little scary.

And if he becomes frightening enough, the Dems will start playing "protect our lead" again and choose a candidate out of "electability desperation," whether or not they truly like said candidate--which is also scary.

either (I think it was Time; it may have been U.S. News & Report.

The guy is rather tempermental and rigid in his "beliefs" and agenda.

First there's the pardon of the rapist, then there's the questionable "gifts" he got as governor. Then there's the fact that he raised taxes while governor, and didn't eliminate state income tax in favor of the Flat Tax he's always talking about. Finally, he got a lot of folks here ticked off when he forced through school consolidation (which didn't consolidate schools but rather added another expensive layer of bureaucracy instead). When he left office, he wasn't very popular in NW Arkansas, which is the most conservative part of the state.

The McClurkin/evangelicals will vote Republican no matter how much more Obama panders to them.

They're saying Obama by 10%

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_huckabee_vs_obama-516.html#charts

No way he will win the presidency. NO.......WAY.