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November 27, 2007

Comments

Holmes

He is the man! A christian conservative we can trust--Finally...

Boatswain Mate

Taxes? Where does this fellow stand on taxes? I seem to recall he was behind several tax increases in Arkansas. Does he favor a smaller, less intrusive federal government? From the outside looking at Arkansas, I don't see much that would make me think, I'd want him as potus.

SSideDem

Huckabee is the type of Republican that can pull conservative Democrats like me to the Republican side like Reagan did. I am seriously looking at GOP candidates because of the Democrat parties' beholden position to groups like THE RACE.

The Democrat Party is going to have to stop defending the Mexican Invasion if they want to win elections but I do not see that happening.

We need a strong national defense and that begins with secure borders. I will continue to look at every candidate through the test of if they are strong on national defense and the War on Terror. I do not agree with Republican proposals to privatize my Social Security but those checks don't mean much of a terrorist cuts your throat or blows up your house.

This traditional Democrat is looking at Mike Huckabee for President and if Blunt keeps his mexican enforcement campaign up he may yet get my vote for Governor.

When the liberals wake up to find that all those Mexicans keep little pictures of Bin Laden in their wallets or the cars they live in then you might get the point but of course that will be to late. God Bless the United States of America and to the Devil with our enemies.

Brian

Huckabee is a talented politician and a dedicated conservative on social issues. Unfortunately, those qualifications alone don't qualify him to be president.

Republicans need to nominate a candidate who is also a fiscal/economic conservative. Huckabee seems to be a left-leaning populist on such matters.

Keeping taxes low and regulations from becoming overly burdensome is more than just a pro-growth philosophy that leads to prosperity: they are also moral issues, because they represent the ability to live in freedom vs. living under the control of politicians and bureaucrats.

This Republican will NOT be supporting Huckabee for the GOP nomination.

Patriot06

So, Brian, who is the candidate who is both socially and fiscally conservative? I sure don't see one.

This Republican would rather have a candidate with the backbone to stand for what he believes. I note that you KNOW where Huckabee will stand. Can you say that about whoever your choice is?

I think now that conservatives know he stands a chance, he will pick up a lot of steam.

Boatswain Mate

Yes Sir! Just like we knew where "w" stood. Based on their records, I can't say I'd vote for Mitt, Rudy or Huckabee. Come to think of it, I just might not vote for POTUS. Given the current crop of wannabes.

Jimmie

First - where is the disclaimer that AxiomStrategies is working for Huckabee?

November 26, 2007
Huckabee, the False Conservative
By Robert Novak

WASHINGTON -- Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the "Club for Greed"? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender -- definitely in Iowa and perhaps nationally.

Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist, big-government advocate of a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate. Now that he has pulled even with Mitt Romney for the Iowa caucuses with the possibility of more progress, the beleaguered Republican Party has a frightening problem on its hands.

The rise of evangelical Christians as the motive force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own. That has happened now with Huckabee, a former Baptist minister educated at Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The danger is a serious contender for the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the conservative-libertarian model of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

There is no doubt about Huckabee's record during a decade in Little Rock as governor. He was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax increaser and spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden by 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes. When he decided to lose 100 pounds and pressed his new lifestyle on the American people, he was far from a Goldwater-Reagan libertarian.

As a presidential candidate, Huckabee has sought to counteract his reputation as a taxer by pressing for replacement of the income tax with a sales tax and has more recently signed the no-tax-increase pledge of Americans for Tax Reform. But Huckabee simply does not fit in normal boundaries of economic conservatism, as when he criticized President Bush's veto of a Democratic expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Calling global warming a "moral issue" mandating "a biblical duty" to prevent climate change, he has endorsed the cap-and-trade system that is anathema to the free market.

Huckabee clearly departs from the mainstream of the conservative movement in his confusion of "growth" with "greed." Such ad hominem attacks are part of his intuitive response to criticism from the Club for Growth and the libertarian Cato Institute for his record as governor. On Fox News Sunday Nov. 18, he called the "tactics" of the Club for Growth "some of the most despicable in politics today. It's why I love to call them the Club for Greed because they won't tell you who gave their money." In fact, all contributors to the organization's political action committee (which produces campaign ads) are publicly revealed, as are most donors financing issue ads.

Quin Hillyer, a former Arkansas journalist writing in the conservative American Spectator, called Huckabee "a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak." Huckabee's retort was to attack Hillyer's journalistic procedures, fitting a mean-spirited image when he responds to conservative criticism.

Nevertheless, he is getting remarkably warm reviews in the news media as the most humorous, entertaining and interesting GOP presidential hopeful. Contrary to descriptions by old associates, he is now called "jovial" or "good-natured." Any Republican who does not sound much like a Republican is bound to benefit from friendly media support, as Sen. John McCain did in 2000 but not today with his return to being more like a conventional Republican.

An uncompromising foe of abortion can never enjoy full media backing. But Mike Huckabee is getting enough favorable buzz that, when combined with his evangelical base, it makes real conservatives shudder.

Copyright 2007, Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Brian

Patriot06,

The fact that we supposedly know where Huckabee stands on issues doesn't qualify him. You know where Rudy stands on issues too, but I don't hear you touting his candidacy. We know where most Democrats stand on issues, that doesn't mean we should vote for them, either.

As to your question, well that's a good one. I'd say Thompson probably has a fairly conservative record - although I question his ability/willingness to run hard enough and smart enough to win in a general. Romney is running on a conservative platform on social and economic issues. Say what you will about his change of positions, the fact is that most politicians have changed their positions on some issues over time.

Even if you call him an opportunist, I'd rather have a politician who has come to embrace conservative policy viewpoints than one who is emphatically, and consistenly, NOT a conservative when it comes to a key plank (economic freedom and prosperity, fiscal responsibility, etc.) in the Republican platform.

Patriot06

Brian, I have no clue where Giuliani stands. He stands in whatever wind seems to be blowing that day. Giuliani is a good crisis manager, and maybe a good day to day manager, but he doesn't have a vision. Take his claim to be pro-choice but his promise to appoint strict constructionist judges. That is nothing more than an attempt to play both sides.

Same for Romney. I just can't support someone who has no personal backbone.

The only person I agree with 100% is me. Beyond that I like Huckabee far more than anyone else. From his recent surge, it seems I am not alone.

Jay

The Huckster is a RINO.. And doesn't have it in him to beat HRC. She will tear his chestnuts out.

Boatswain Mate

It says a lot about the state of the Republic that Hucklebee is even a "serious" contender for POTUS. And even more that HRC is in the running.

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