Rensen's blog

Just thought I'd pop by to share that today is vertical day on Huckpac.

Mike continues to stay on the cutting edge of growing and using the conservative netroots to impact races at the local and national levels around the country.

Huckabee is allowing the platform of his website to be used today by several of the GOP candidates endorsed by his pac, to blog and interact with members of the base of the party. It's a model that could be adopted and improved upon by the right's netroots as we attempt to make up ground  with the left.

Here's a sample of what's going on, if you're interested in participating, head on over to www.huckpac.com

From Senator Elizabeth Dole:

In the future, we may have sources of alternative energy that will power all our needs, burn cleanly and render gasoline obsolete.  However, we are years, if not decades, away from a solution of this magnitude.  The reality of today's world is that we rely on oil in this country to drive to work, harvest crops, transport goods, fly planes, build roads and heat our homes.  We must take serious and responsible actions that provide families and businesses with some near-term relief.  That is why I have called on the president to immediately release one third of the supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which will immediately provide relief at the pump because of an increased supply of oil available for refinement and will punish the oil speculators who are betting against America.  This will not jeopardize national security because the reserve would still contain a 60 day supply.

In addition, I have called on the president to create an Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force, which will ensure that energy markets are free from illegal manipulation and corporate corruption. This new Task Force can help restore the confidence of Americans in our oil and gas markets and prevent further harm to our economy.

From Bill Frist

As a doctor and a Senator I have had an opportunity that few people ever have - to see how helping the poorest and most needy third world countries can actually help us win the global war on terror. Nowhere is this more evident than it is in Africa.

Africa is home to many of the world's poorest countries -- states in crisis-- and it is in these countries and regions that we find Al Qaeda and other equally dangerous groups sending representatives to recruit and train. We must get ahead of this deadly growing web of evil by standing firm in Africa.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell recognized this when he said "The United States cannot win the war on terrorism unless we confront the social and political roots of poverty." He is right. In Africa, it is into regions wracked by drought, extreme poverty and crippling diseases that we have seen the spreading influence of Al Qaeda.  In places like Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.  

 

From Missouri state senator Brad Lager

The courts, from Massachusetts to California, are working to redefine
marriage out of existence. Our government is spending too much, making
it harder for families to afford the necessities, like gas and food, and
burdening our children with debt. In an era of tremendous
challenges-from international terrorism, to a weakening economy, to
skyrocketing oil prices- we need to make sure we get the fundamentals
right.

We must begin by strengthening the family, not tearing it down.

The November election will be a defining election for our children's
future. Let us not forget who we are fighting for

From rep John Linder on the Fair Tax.

Our nation has coped with this tax code for 95 years and it has failed.  Our tax code has driven $2 trillion into the underground economy costing us about $50 billion in tax collections.  Our tax code has driven $12 trillion into offshore financial centers that should be parked in our markets and banks.   We are spending between $400 and $500 billion each year just complying with the code.  That is like paying for a dead horse.  We get nothing for that expenditure but a headache.

 

Getting rid of the IRS fixes everything.  Keeping it in place and nibbling around the edges of the current system fixes nothing.  As former Secretary of the Treasury told me, “You have just proposed the largest magnet for capital and jobs in history.”  Why wouldn’t we want the United States to be the outsource destination for jobs?  Why wouldn’t we want our nation to be the world’s safest and most stable tax haven?  The FairTax will give us these results as well as create an environment that will expand freedom. 

 

From Rep Sam Greaves: 

Illegal immigration is a clear threat to our country.  Terrorists who want to do our country harm can enter virtually unchecked through our porous borders-both southern and northern. And they can smuggle in dangerous materials capable of causing great destruction. Simply put, our unsecured borders are a national security threat.

But more than just terrorism, our unsecured borders are allowing many violent criminals to enter our country illegally. Violent gangs come
here to commit violent crimes and smuggle millions of pounds of cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, all brought through our unsecured southern border.

 People just can't understand why Congress can't get its act together and secure our borders.  To me it is just plain commonsense. We need to secure our borders so we know who is coming into the country.

Many other candidates have submitted blog contributions to open to comments from the conservative community, including: Senator John Cornyn, Bob Clegg, Indiana's GOP candidate for congress Luke Puckett and senator Jim Inhofe.

The Pac is also publishing blogs that were submitted beforehand by the general public for the day's activities as well.

Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Huckabee has been quite successful at not committing 'web suicide' at the conclusion of his campaign. His innovation in harvesting the power of the internet to drive the conservative agenda is one that should be immitated.

I'm surprised it has taken this long for news of Huckabee's endorsement of Rep. Young  to be dissected and critiqued across the rightosphere. It caused quite a stir in our own neck of the woods last week.

We're still not happy about the endorsement, but can uderstand and even 'appreciate' why it was given.

This was Mike's response when we expressed our deep concern about the endorsement over on the huckpac blog.

I have been following the comments regarding Don Young today with interest. Your opinions are important to me and our team, so having read another comment just now asking for an explanation of our endorsement, I wanted to make sure you heard from me directly. 

Don Young has been a consistent pro-family, pro-life vote in the Congress. Don also endorsed my campaign and stood by me in the public arena defending my record from false attacks when other members of Congress wouldn't be seen with me. I don't expect everyone to agree with each endorsement we make. I am thankful that we are able to talk about our differences openly and respectfully (emphasis mine) 

McCain and Obama both this season have repeatedly thrown friends, supporters and endorsers under the bus when it became politically expedient to do so in facing the heat of controversy.

Mike Huckabee is very politically astute, he knows, given the challenges that were posed to his record during the campaign, that going on the record with support of Young would be the equivelent of shooting himself in the foot.

He knew that he may even lose supporters or disillusion some of his base in making the choice.

BUT.. he also knew that stabbing a faithful supporter in the back, (especially one who took a chance advocating with congressmen on his behalf during the campaign) , was never going to be an option he could exercise in good conscience.

Mike Huckabee has always advised his supporters, " Never sacrifice your principles for anybody's politics"  With this risky endorsement, Huckabee proved to us that he is a man of integrity who keeps his word. Politically, the most benificial thing he could have done was stay neutral, but he chose to do the hard thing.

Mike's supporters, contrary to popular belief, do not believe in the type of big government that Young represents, so we are not going to flock to embrace his candidacy. In the end, this endorsement will net Young few votes that he does not already have. But we can appreciate the character of a politician making a difficult choice.

Mike will probably be savaged for this... I hope having a clean conscience is worth it.

In the end, we his base of support are not worried that this endorsement may reflect on Mike's own fiscal policy stances. His Pac has endorsed GOP candidates to this point who have satisfied our preferences for fiscal and social conservatism. This is considered an outlier endorsement, generated out of a unique set of circumstances.

If a pattern of questionable endorsements surfaces, then we will of course revisit the question of assessing Mike's judgement and what it may mean regarding future support.

For now, he has earned the benifit of the doubt.

Crossposted with author's permission from

http://thevaluesvoter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F3D4C1BC1D8B0D91!969.entry

I pray God gives McCain the wisdom to make the best choices, whatever they may be, for our  nation's sake. So much is at stake. (Full disclosure, this was written by an African American Huckabee supporter, but much of what it points out is 'candidate neutral')

June 30

Obama's Prayer

Obama considers himself to be a spiritual person and though I don't at all understand how he can have some of his positions, I don't make it a point to question anyone else's faith. In fact, if I were Obama, I can imagine what I'd be praying right now. I'd be praying for my opposition to listen to the suggestions of the pundits who have been influencing the Republican process up to this point in time. Here's a snippet of what I can imagine Obama is praying:

 

Grant me this year the serenity to have my message of "change" accepted. Grant not my opponents the courage to change from bad tactics to good ones - or the wisdom to know the difference.

I pray that many of those who oppose me will waste the next four months making fun of my middle name and taking personal shots at my wife. This way I shall be spared from having to give answers for my positions on late-term abortion, domestic oil drilling, and tax increases. In this I take comfort.

May my opponents become so blinded in their dislike of me that they do nothing but verbally attack me - from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. Let them play rhyming games with my last name. Talk about my former church. Spread unproven rumors. Voice various insults. May they become so focused on attacking me the person that they both lose favor with the public and also forget to challenge me on the issues. Lest the manifold problems with some of my positions be laid bare before all.

I pray that the other side will forsake their first love - the Evangelicals. May they forget them who helped their party to win five of the last seven elections. May they assume that these voters will vote for them no matter what. And if they should ignore this great multitude, may enough of them stay home that I might prevail. Or even, if possible, I pray, may my refusal to ignore these same voters convince some of them to vote for me instead.

May the desires of the other side to win new territory grow so strong that they should forget to protect their own. May their dreams of turning Michigan red be so great that they forget about keeping Georgia and Mississippi from going blue.

I also request that they assume that all black voters will vote for me. May they act on this false belief so that they refuse to even ask for their votes. And may this not only become a self-fulfilling prophecy, but may the perception it causes also alienate many white voters as well.

May they give heed to the advice of the conservative media establishment, whose abode is in states that I shall win handily. May they follow all of their advice in how they choose to engage me, how they choose to campaign and how they choose to complete the other ticket.

And I give many thanks for those in the other side's establishment and media. Their actions have filled my heart with gladness. They have spared me from facing an opponent who could easily beat me in a debate, who is less than six years older than me but has four times the experience, and who is every bit as charismatic as me but carries less baggage. Yes, they sheltered me from someone who could have given me a serious run for my money in every demographic category. They treated him with spite and even now hurl insults at him. I pray that they are successful in keeping him off the ticket as he makes the other side look pleasing to the eyes of the voters who will decide this election. (Amen!)

May they become so eager to please their media pundits that they pair my honorable opponent with someone with no more experience in government than I. Or someone unknown. Or someone who shall not win in the south. Or a "safe" pick - someone who is beloved by their media and establishment. I pray that my opponent shall pick a partner who will be highly favored by the National Review, the Washington establishment and others who spend less time with their voters than even I do.

And, lastly, I pray that the voters - all voters - trust not in their own research but in what the media suggests. Let them trust what the liberal media says about me and what the conservative media says about how to defeat me. If this happens, I will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

Amen!

2:05 AM |

K,

So everybody knows I'm a Huckaholic and still hold out hope for the veep nod, but I'm also a pragmatist and can see the odds.. so I've been thinking about who else could satisfy and 'energize' me.

Honestly, it won't be Mitt, there's just too much history there, and Pawlenty puts me to sleep. (He's just an immitation Huckabee anyways.. seriously, he's almost a replica, why do you want an immitation when the original is available. I'd like him, except I feel that he's about 'ME' playing both sides against the middle. He hasn't staked a passionate claim on either socon or fiscon issues. If I want a blue collar populist, I'll stick with Huck)

So who's left? Palin or Jindal.

Lets be real.. most of us want McCain to hold the whitehouse, but we're waiting with bated breath for the ressurection of 'traditional' conservatism a ways down the road. Everybody has their fighter in the ring, and nobody wants the opposition to get on a headstart in that contest..

The pragmatist in me says, we need someone on the ticket that could energize socons and fiscons, appeal to dems and indies, and NOT give anybody a headstart down the road, (if one is interested in a fair fight of ideas later on)

I like Jindal, but I'm selfish.. a win would put him in a very sweet spot to cause too much trouble for my guy down the road.

But I really like Sarah.. it must me the woman in me..lol.. She's demonstrably left her mark on socon and fiscon issues.. and if I'm brutally honest, I don't think the GOP elite is anywhere near willing for a woman to be hier apparent, so she is less likely to be a threat to Mike down the road in the short term. (Is that sexist? I'm just considering the party's track record. How many female GOP elected officials do we even have compared to the dems?.. )

After Huck, and for Mitt's folks, Romney, I think she's our best bet at  a veep that would energize and unite the base and keep everybody in a holding pattern for the next round.

Again, I have not ceded that Mike won't make the grade, or even that Mitt won't, *wince* Just thinking about who could keep us all happy in the event that none of us gets what we want.

Are you guys feeling Palin?

Over in camp Huck we keep an eye on polls.

Not so much on the unscientific internet kind, (although those are fun too) as much as on the national polling done on the state of the race between the two presumptive nominees.

We're not so blind in our support of Huckabee and our platform, as to not realize that McCain's eventual pick for veep will be the one who can help him win, based on the strategic play for state flips between the two.

We were, as a result, pretty bummed to read after Ted Strickland announced he was taking himself off the table for democratic vp, that Obama seemed to be ceding the rustbelt to McCain and had started to float the idea of a strategy of trying to flip Nevada, New Mexico,Colorado, and other mountain west states. http://patriotroom.com/?p=432

Anybody with a political brain knows that's advantage Mitt territory.

(And Nooo I'm not hating on Mitt, I'm just saying Mike's my guy, so it didn't feel great to see his chances appearing to slip away.)

Some may well say that the rustbelt blue states also play to Mitt's strengths, and that may be true, but only if he runs in them as a 'populist,' fairly similar to how he ran in MI, and that didn't go over so well with the fiscon wing of the base. And I don't think he'd want to 'sully' his conservative credentials for the future in taking that rout, but that's just my opinion.

We think Mike is actually the stonger veep pick for the Penn/Ohio heartland pickups because of his significant appeal to Hillary's blue collar crowd. (Mike's true base was always more working class than 'evangelical'.. class was the lowest common denominator across all of his support groups)

In fact, you could almost lay John King's democratic and republican big boards over one another on primary nights and find an exact match between Mike and Hillary and Obama and McCain. There is no doubt that Hillary's rural vote is going to be a serious game changer here.

But I digress..

Word was, McCain was holding the rustbelt on his own without veep help and Obama was turning his eyes west. It looked like Mike would get to keep his new day job at Fox after all.

And then came the latest round of polls: Former congresman John Leboutellier on his blog comments: http://leboutillier.blogspot.com/

The new spate of Quinnipiac polls from Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania have rocked the GOP political establishment.

Here is the brief overview from Quinnipiac:

This is the first time Sen. Obama has led in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University polls show:

Florida: Obama edges McCain 47 - 43 percent;

Ohio: Obama tops McCain 48 - 42 percent;

Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain 52 - 40 percent.

In the three states, Obama leads McCain 10 to 23 percentage points among women, while men are too close to call. The Democrat trails among white voters in Florida and Ohio, but gets more than 90 percent of black voters in each state. He also has double-digit leads among young voters in each state. "Finally getting Sen. Hillary Clinton out of the race has been a big boost for Sen. Barack Obama. He now leads in all three of the major swing states, although his margins in Florida and Ohio are small," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Believe me: these results - especially in Florida (thought to be secure for McCain) and Ohio (very winnable for the GOP - especially with Governor Ted Strickland stating he would not accept the Veep slot from Obama) - have shaken the McCain campaign and renewed the fear that an anti-GOP, anti-Bush tsunami is rolling in this fall - and it may take not only McCain along with it but dozens of GOP House and Senate hopefuls, as well.
 

It appears that Obama may be neutralizing some of McCain's opportunities to pick up blue states. That leaves us status quo until you discover the progress that Obama is making towards flipping some states that went red in the last general election.

First, Iowa. Mccain didn't really campaign there during the primaries, focusing his energies on NH. But it was unlikely,'white as the driven snow' Iowa, that gave Obama his first big win and set him on the path to the nomination. They 'know' him, and like him there, a lot.

James Barnes in a National Journal article today reports:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/pi_20080621_5575.php
 

“Because Iowans have a relationship [with Obama] they’re less likely to buy into the negative imaging attacks that McCain and, especially, the [independent] ‘527s’ will do in Iowa,” Norris said. “Iowans are going to say, ‘This guy is not that; he won the caucuses.’ ”
 

And on Mccain's chances:

If his campaign has sometimes created the impression that McCain is indifferent to Iowa, his opposition to popular subsidies at times has made him seem downright hostile to the state’s interests.

In opening a town hall meeting in Des Moines last month, McCain attacked another economic boon to the state, the farm bill with its many crop supports. Playing his favorite role of maverick, the Arizonan told Iowans that if he were president he’d veto the measure.
 

Iowa, is one reason McCain should give Huckabee a secod look for veep. The only way he is going to hold Iowa red, is if he can maximise the turnout in Iowa's rural conservative base, and Huckabee has proven that he can do that on a dime.

Another recent polling indicator that may shift the veep winds Huckabee's way, is bad news out of the south. Obama is now in a polling dead heat with McCain in Georgia, and showing signs of strengthening his positions in other swing states like Missouri.

From Insider Advantage 6/19: http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_619_444.aspx

June 19, 2008 — A New InsiderAdvantage / PollPositionsurvey conducted June 18 of registered likely voters in the November presidential contest shows Sen. John McCain leading Sen. Barack Obama by a single point in Georgia, making the race in Georgia a statistical tie. Libertarian Bob Barr, a former Republican Congressman from Georgia, received 6 percent of the vote.  The telephone survey of 408 registered likely voters is weighted for age, race, gender, and political affiliation. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 5%. It was conducted with InsiderAdvantage’s research partner Majority Opinion Research. PollPosition is InsiderAdvantage’s new branding name (look for additional information and expansion of PollPosition in the coming months). 

The Results:

McCain: 44%

Obama: 43%

Barr: 6%

Undecided: 7%

My view is that Georgia, the 9^th largest state in the nation with 15 electoral votes, will remain a major new battleground state through November. This changes the landscape of electoral politics as Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and perhaps another surprise southern state, join Florida as potential “swing states,” that cannot be presumed to vote Republican in 2008.”

Now granted, earlier polling did not reveal as much strength for Obama on the southern front, but as they say, time heals all wounds, and some of Hillary's voters may be going home.

There is a chance that the winds of change may blow through the polls once again, but as emotions stabalize after the bitter democratic primaries, I think the trends we are seeing will hold fast and expand.

That means, as of now, Mccain needs a vice presidential pick who can help him hold Iowa, as well as southern states that are trending Obama, he also needs someone with enough blue colar appeal to stengthen his chance of taking the rustbelt to counter any losses that he may absorb in the south/mountain west, (although, for the record USA Survey polling showed that Huckabee polled extremely well in many swing states not traditionally considered his forte. ) http://www.teamhuck.com/

SurveyUSA Polling Strongly Indicates that Voters Prefer Huckabee
6/3: Massachusetts Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Lieberman & Romney, 4th: Pawlenty

6/3: New York Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Lieberman, 2nd: Huckabee, 3rd: Romney, 4th: Pawlenty

6/3: Iowa Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

6/3: Kentucky Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

6/3: Alabama Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Lieberman & Pawlenty, 4th: Romney

6/2: Minnesota Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Pawlenty, 2nd: Huckabee & Romney, 4th: Lieberman

6/2: Oregon Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

6/2: Washington State Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Romney, 2nd: Huckabee, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

6/1: Nebraska Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

5/30: Wisconsin Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee & Lieberman, 3rd: Romney, 4th: Pawlenty

5/29: Kansas Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd:Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

5/23: Ohio Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Lieberman, 3rd: Romney, 4th: Pawlenty

5/21: California Polling vs. Obama (see how results were calculated)
Best: Huckabee, 2nd: Romney, 3rd: Lieberman, 4th: Pawlenty

There are many conservatives who do not like Huckabee on a personal or political level. But I think those seeking to put forward the argument that he brings 'nothing' to the table as a vp pick are living in dreamland.

Huckabee supporters  are prepared to accept the outcome if the path to victory overlooks picking Mike as vp. We may not like it, but would embrace any clearly pro-life vp in a heartbeat. The question is, would the rest of the GOP base get on board if the path to victory included accepting Mike Huckabee as VP. Sadly, I'm not so sure of that.

Time will tell the tale.

I don't particularly like Townhall's Matt Lewis.

He is one columnist who milked the Huckabee/Romney camp rivalry for all it was worth, writing provoking commentary designed to earn him hundreds of hits and hundreds of comments.

I guess that made him feel good about himself.

He's at it again in his reaction to and 'analysis' of Huckabee's advice to the GOP that we not try to win the election by 'demonizing' Obama.

http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/1b348839-9530-4db1-99a9-9b1986f2a9bd?comments=true#comments

Hummm.. patronizing?

It's not patronizing if the republicans really need to hear the warning and apply it. We like to think we are above those types of obviously 'cross the line' tactics:

Try telling that to republicans forwarding emails that Obama is the Anti-Christ,

Or to talk show hosts who pretend that calling him Barack HUSSEIN Obama is not intended to produce a knee jerk negative response i a post 9/11 world.

Or to those same talkers doing everything in their power to imply that Obama hates America.

How about telling that to the Texas republicans at their convention who wore buttons saying 'If Obama wins the white house, will it still be called the white house?"

I could never vote for Obama in a million years but we HAVE to find a way to fight him on the Issues, and not on his 'patriotism, or try to play 'guilt by association'  or by saying the terrorists will be dancing in the street if he wins, or by asking, is Barack really a muslim?

I don't expect that McCain's campaign will fight that front, but we ALL know the 527's are going to find a way to go there, directly or indirectly.

Yes, these will evoke an emotional reaction, but it will happen on both sides of the isle. Sure you may convince a few republicans sitting on the fence to vote McCain, but at the same time you will convince millions more democrats who may be sitting on the fence that the GOP is playing true to its percieved fearmongering/bigoted form.

Obama will ALWAYS win if we try to battle him in the realm of emotion.. One soaring, 'Still I Stand' sppech will wipe away every doubt planted by 527's dirty work. We cannot win on his turf.

He has to be defeated in the realm of REASON. Hillary took him to school on policy, she waited too late to find the key, but we would do well to learn from her mistakes.

Matt Lewis's little dig at Mike produced the usual plethora of Huck Derangement Syndrome responses, including this little number:

The problem with what Huckabee said is that it reveals what he thinks of conservatives, that he believes that conservatives are racists that will resort to racist attacks on the first black presidential candidate, unless he staves them off with his pastoral wisdom.

So it's not that I think he supports Obama or anything. He's just once again revealing his contempt for conservatives, just like he did back in the primary.

Uhhh.. what?

Mike didn't  'reveal' his secret contempt for conservatives.

He made an observation based on tangible evidence of the direction that the GOP is thinking of taking in this election. He listen's to talk radio, he saw the GOP ads that were run in the Southern special elections, which the GOP LOST, because they tried to run a negative campaign based on emotional guilt by Obama association.

I cannot emphasize enough how right Huckabee is on this subject. The GOP will LOSE in a landslide if they try to make this a character defamation 'swift boat' campaign. Obama is no Kerry to take a hit laying down, and the backlash could propell him into the whitehouse.

And for the record, as once again Lewis's post intentionally tried to make Mike into an Obama sympathizer, here is a comment from Jarrod, on the site, to provide some context of the further development of Huckabee's thoughts on Obama.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Edit: I think we have come to the conclusion that the issue initially addressed in this post was a very, very, very stupid stunt intended to provoke Huckabee supporters.

It was a knee jerk reation to post it over here, and for that I apologize sincerely. It was in poor taste.We're doing the best we can on our end to kill any overreaction in the Huckabee base before it gets out of hand, but people are understandably upset.

As a show of good faith, I'm taking down the post. But I I think the observation in the comments that implies this was about us making Mitt look bad is unfair..

If anything, WE were the targets of some very offensive and borderline threatening bigotry from someone claiming claiming to support Mitt. (although it is difficult to prove that they are sincere supporters)

What good will it do us or the party to fume in the shadows when challenges occur. There is a good chance if we hadn't hashed this out together that some may have run with it to forums that could have done way more damage.

JMHO

Why is it that folks see what they want to see in a story?

Blogospheric buzz reveals the Huck Haters on both sides of the isle rubbing their hands in glee at the thought that Huck has thrown in the towel and 'moved on' with his contracted gig to 'contribute' to Fox news Election Headquarters program.

Does no one realize that clauses can be built into a contract that would provide legal ways for him to exit the arrangement without liability? There is no way Huck signed that contract without a clause that gets him released in the event that he is selected as VP. He's not stupid. Focused, ambitious..a political tactician..but not stupid.

In the meantime.. the naive drop their guard, thinking he is lost to the 'entertainment' element of the political game. In fact, with one brilliant move, he has positioned himself to get more involved than ever in this political cycle.

He gets free airtime to connect with a a faction of the GOP that was reluctant to embrace him, and his name recognition goes through the roof. The opportunity that Huckabee will get to peel away the layers of cricature that were painted onto his frame during the primaries is priceless. And by signing on with the network that could most easily disrupt his efforts to redeem his image, he has effectively silenced his biggest opposition. Fox has yet to eat one of its own.

With his natural ability to use the media to connect, Huck can use the summer months to make inroads with the GOP base that would make him priceless as a VP candidate for McCain, while providing him with a larger platform to continue his current PR surrogacy for McCain's candidacy. There are a LOT of social conservatives who stopped watching Fox during the primaries who will tune in again, and many of them have yet to be convinced to support him fully. Huckabee can help bring those folks to water, even if he cannot make them drink.

And if he doesn't get chosen.. he still has an open door into the homes of potential future voters.

The man is a political genius.. You don't think he knew that Fox has been the network most biased AGAINST his candidacy? He could have gone with MSNBC and be subject to the continued accusation that he is a closet liberal.

Instead he has gone into the lions den to reshapre the debate from the inside out. Just what his grassroots base is doing at the local level with the candidates endorsed and supported by his PAC

The establishment underestimates Huckabee at their peril. He is nobody's fool.

You don't get to the top without knowing how to the play the game, and Huckabee is proving to be one of the best at strategy. While some may sneer and call this 'opportunism' I can only shake my head in amazement. There is something in the water in Arkansas..lol

Good job Gov.

It was only a matter of time.

Mike Huckabee's willingness to support the GOP in his capacity as a surrogate for the McCain campaign, is beginning to hurt him with some elements of his base.

This would not be the case if McCain was making active and open efforts to reach out to the faith communities in a more tangible way, (in which case Huckabee could justify his advocacy.) But after the rejection of the endorsements of two mega pastors, and the rumor of the refusal to meet with Billy Graham surfaced earlier this week, some of the natives are getting restless.

As things stand, whether it is the case or not, it appears that McCain's strategy in the upcoming campaign will include significant outreach to moderates and independents, and less of a focus on consolodating the support of the faith communities that have traditionally propelled the GOP  to victory. This is not going over well with the far religious right, and this week there were the first open signs of rumbligs that Huckabee could feel some heat for his continued support of a candidate who appears not to be seriously considering the concerns of this particular segment of the base.

This weekend, Huckabee is headed off to the Iowa GOP convention for what should be, for all intents and purposes, a celebration of past triumphs and some solid speechifying in support of our presumtive nominee. Instead, his attendance at the convention has the potential to spark controversy iin some quarters.

Iowa's resident conservative talk radio champion, Steve Deace, whose open support of Huckabee during the primaries probably helped propel him to a win, sent Huckabee a letter in advance of his arrival in Iowa. A letter that he has posted on his website for all to see for the entire of this week.

I don't know how it will strike you, but the letter to me, smacked of emotional and political blackmail. I was left with the impression that if Huckabee continues to advocate for support of the party  nominee, that he has sold out, and is perhaps flushing his political credibility with the base, down the tubes.

But you decide for yourself. Here is the letter: The source link is mentioned in the letter.

Governor Huckabee,

It will be good to have you back in Iowa again, and I know many people who are looking forward to having you here. You can count me as one of them. Frankly, we have so few leaders in our state when it comes to issues of true moral conviction that your principled voice will be a welcome change from what we’ve typically had from our political class since the Caucuses concluded.

I’m writing you this note in advance of your return to Iowa for a couple of reasons: one would be encouragement and the other would be concern.

I was a great supporter of yours during the Caucuses, and still am. I still believe our country would be better off with you as president – especially compared with the choices we have now on both sides of the aisle. I have never once doubted my support of your candidacy and what it stood for since the Caucuses concluded, even though I haven't agreed with everything you've said and done since then. The amazing story of your victory here is something those that were involved in it will be talking about years from now.

And that amazing story, I would humbly suggest, gave rise to you as the national political figure you are now. But I don’t think the story is over. I think we haven’t reached the climax of the story, and we don’t yet know the ending. That ending, I believe, depends on the road you take from here.

As I see it, Governor, you have two options. Our country is undergoing a massive generational change that is long overdue, and it’s also one that is wrestling with whether or not to preserve the Old Magic (to borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis), or instead permanently replace it with a counterfeit that will eventually add our name to the ash-heap of history alongside the other "great" civilizations of the past that preceded us.

It is during your time of prominence that our nation, our culture, and our very civilization will either flunk this test or pass it. That response, through the grace of God, will likely be determined by the path the leaders we have chosen have chosen for us.

The question I have is are you one of those leaders? And if you are, are you a transitional leader or a transformative one?

The transitional leader will take the road paved to hell with the best of intentions. The transitional leader will try to make a faulty structure better, and will seek to rehabilitate as opposed to redeem. The transitional leader will try to just find the best in people, which is the faulty premise they rationalize their own cowardice with. The transitional leader can’t help but think of their own self preservation, but in doing so is really accelerating their own demise.

The transitional leader eventually gives way to the transformative leader.

The transformative leader is the one unafraid to speak to truth to power. The most worthy pursuit for the transformative leader is the pursuit of truth. The transformative leader puts truth above everything else, including the feelings of others who don’t agree. The transformative leader cares greatly for their neighbor and loves their neighbor as they love themselves, but that means he also loves his neighbor enough to sometimes tell him the truth he doesn’t want to hear but needs to.

The transformative leader is a man of conviction, not just beliefs, and those convictions transcend his circumstances.

What I, and many of those who supported you here in Iowa for the reasons I also did, would like to know is are you a transitional leader or transformative one?

In other words, as you watched John McCain on Ellen, his mishandling of relationships with several major evangelical figures, his support of embryonic stem cell research, and his opposition to a human life amendment and marriage amendment, are you absolutely sure that he’s the man whose basket we should be placing our eggs?

As his American Conservative Union rating in this decade has plummeted into the 60s, are you sure he shares your core principles?

As he’s advocated abuses of power like McCain-Feingold and sellouts of conservatives like the Gang of 14, do you really believe he’ll stand for our issues when the going gets tough, and while facing perhaps a 60-seat Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate will provoke that Democratic majority and their allies in the media by nominating conservative judges, including the fifth swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court?

As he flirts with a lying flip-flopper like Mitt Romney as his vice presidential candidate, are you sure that he’s really a man of great character?

As he systematically goes out of his way to disassociate the values voter base from the Republican Party leadership and reshape your party in its 1970s-era moderate image, do you really believe he will not continue to marginalize people like you in the party apparatus once he has complete control of it?

Frankly, Governor, “I don’t” would be my answer to every one of those questions. And while I am being frank, as someone that speaks to almost 200,000 people a week on the radio here in Iowa – several of whom supported you during the Caucuses – neither does a substantial block of your Caucus voters. As a result, I fear you risk alienating them in the future if they see you as essentially a mouthpiece or a mascot for John McCain, as opposed to an articulate, winsome, and gifted champion of their values.

The future is a vital component here because another thing a transformative leader has is vision. He has the ability to see beyond what is happening at the moment and anticipate what’s to come. Many in the media and many in the Christian conservative movement wonder if you have a future. With as much humility and admiration for you that I can muster, I honestly must tell you that you won’t have the future many of us are hoping for if you’re not a transformative leader. And our country so desperately needs as many of those as she can lay claim to right now.

To be a transformative leader for the future, Governor, you must replace the aging, corrupted, or ineffective Christian conservative structure that is currently in place. Are you willing to do that, because rebuilding the walls is often tough work that doesn’t always win friends. Just ask Nehemiah.

To be a transformative leader for the future, Governor, you must transcend street theater masquerading as partisanship and instead pursue the truth no matter where it leads. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a Republican and still be a good leader, but it does mean that sometimes you need to be willing to lead your own tribe where it’s not willing to go. Just ask Moses.

To be a transformative leader for the future, Governor, you need a small group of peers sold out to Christ who are willing to lovingly hold you accountable to God’s Word. If you don’t, you'l cross the line from insulation to isolation that has led to so many other great Godly leaders of the past that fell from grace. Just ask David.

To be a transformative leader for the future, Governor, you need to make our issues truth issues, not conservative ones. It’s time to unite again around the banner of truth with those who have a different skin color or cultural pedigree but believe in and worship the same God. Reaching out to them, however, may cause you to lose favor with old-school thinkers that were once your friends. Just ask Paul.

I want to encourage you not to assume that all the party hacks and flunkies on the Internet, talk radio and Fox News that went out of their way to discredit you and are now being nice to you and giving you an audience are doing so because they've been persuaded by your message. Quite the contrary, they're trying to co-opt you and are not on your team. They're trying to turn you into their next mouthpiece in place of the ones that have either died, retired, or been discredited because they no longer command the masses. You didn't need them to win, and you don't need them now. They'll need you, if you lead.

I also want to encourage you, Governor, that this can be a moment for you to step up and lead. Your speech here in Iowa this weekend is chance to do something memorable, beyond just cheer-leading for who is at best a very flawed standard bearer and at worst a Republican Trojan Horse.

Are you ready for such a time as this?

By the way, you should know that this open letter will be placed on our blog on website this week at <!-- w -->http://www.whoradio.com<!-- w -->.

God bless,

Steve Deace
 

I suspect that this is only the beginning... Mike Huckabee was propelled to his acknowleged leadership position in the Religious Right by the people, and the people likewise, have the power to knock him down from it, if they feel he is no longer holding true to the values and platforms he espoused, that drew them to him.

Mccain's reluctance to meet the religious right halfway, is beginning to put pressure on Huckabee, and endanger his own political future with his base.

This turn of events is particularly significant, because it is possible that McCain is thinking of Huckabee as his ace in the hole for direct access to the faith community vote. If this type of dissent gets 'legs,' even if Mccain eventually picks Huckabee as his VP, Huckabee may not be able to deliver as many votes as if he were in good standing with his grassroots community. How much would they trust someone who appears to all intents and purposes to be 'just another mouthpiece' for the establishment that doesn't care about their issues.

To be fair, this is the first instance of rebuke that has come to my attention, but given that it comes from someone in the media, with the power to influence the opinions of the electorate, it is indeed cause for concern.

I wait with baited breath to see how Huck fares in walking this precarious tightrope at the convention this weekend.

As for you establishment  and win 08 at any cost types, don't say Mike Huckabee never did you a favor or that he did not pay his dues. Supporting Senator McCain could come at a very high price.

Do your friend a favor Mac... Meet the faithful halfway.

Today the congressional caucus of the GOP unveiled their “bold new economic plan” for stealing some of the wind from the democratic sails as we move forward into preparations for the general election. These plans included agressive proposals for finally pushing forward with oil and gas exploration and extraction, and a move towards long overdue tax reform.

“To protect consumers, the House GOP plan would harness new technologies and unlock America’s energy resources in the Alaskan coastal plain, deep ocean energy zones, and elsewhere to lower gas prices, create jobs, and break America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy. To protect taxpayers from pork-barreling politicians and wasteful Washington spending, our plan would establish an immediate earmark moratorium and prohibit federal spending from growing faster than the overall economy. And to protect American families and small businesses, the Republican blueprint would stop the Democrats’ largest tax hike in history, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and give taxpayers the option of paying a flat tax and filing their taxes on a single page.”

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=93622

 

After taking a moment to give our people a mental clap on the back, frustration and to some extent despair reared it’s ugly head in my heart.

Our radical new plan, is in effect a watered down version of some of the platform issues that made Mike Huckabee so attractive to his supporters. The same Huckabee vision that was shot down by party elites as one that was not well thought out, or practically impossible to accomplish.

When I thought further of the tumultuous ride we have all been on in this econonomy and society in general these last crazy months of the political silly season, I found more and more examples of Huckabee’s foresight on issues that later came to be the talk of the day.

Let’s start with the economy. During one of the early debates, Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to answer a question about the state of the economy with a ‘non party line,’ but truthful answer. For the working class American, the economy was not doing very well at all; and he was right. Within a month of that debate, the sqeeze that the working class was feeling, had crept into the middle class sensibility, and the stock market was on the fritz. Now the struggling economy is “issue number one”.

On the war on terror, Huckabee wrote a comprehensive analysis of current strategy in the middle east, and proposed that we needed to be focusing more on Pakistan and holding them more accountable for helping us in the GWOT, given the amount of resources we are pouring into their coffers. He was ridiculed for suggesting that the Bush administration had a ‘bunker mentality’ to the war, and his position on Pakistan was laughed out of town. A few weeks later, Bhutto was assasinated, democracy took a few steps backward in Pakistan, and an environment of political unrest increased the chances that Pakistan would fall into the hands of the extremists in its midst. Who’s laughing now?

Anybody who ever watched a republican debate was sure to hear the mantra from Huckabee, ‘We need to be able to feed ourselves, fuel ourselves, and defend ourselves,” if we are to stay free.

He suggested, again to ridicule, that America needed to start exploring all options, alternative and fossil, to ensure our energy independence within ten years. He even went so far as to draw paralells with the pace of the progress that was made by Kennedy in the space race. He did not talk about long term planning, he talked about doing it NOW, and agressively. Now we are paying over four dollars a gallon for gas, and everybody wants to ‘Drill now” with the ultimate effect of possibly being energy independent within the decade.

Huckabee talked about the importance of being able to feed ourselves, and implementing policies that would insure that our food supply did not have to come from external sources. This may seem to be common sense, but he was the ONLY candidate, on either side of the isle to talk openly about food sustainability on the campaign trail. Now, the world is in the middle of a food crisis. Rice and flour are being rationed at Wal-Mart and Cost-Co. Food prices are going up in part because of poor policy implemented regarding biofuel mandates, and there are riots in the streets in developed and third world countries alike. why was Huckabee the only one with the vision to adress this critical subject as part of his policy platform?

Huckabee also talked about the danger inherant in outsourcing our self defense. Again, this was not part of ANY other candidates talking points on the stump. Along comes the scandal of the outsourcing of our fuel tanker pentagon contract to a European based company. Now ‘Outsourcing our defense’ is the latest buzzword on the talk circuit.

Huckabee was howled out of town for daring to suggest that our Tax system needs a massive overhaul. He was considered naieve for adopting a platform issue in the Fair Tax that ‘could never be passed.’ Well somebody needs to do something!! Tax reform MUST be on the agenda of one party or the other, and whoever latches on to it first will have a winning platform for years to come. It looks like the GOP is taking a step in the right direction with the disclosures in today’s statement.

Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to call the stimulus package the farce that it is, pointing out that it only stimulates the economies of the very countries with whom we have a terrible trade deficit imbalance. Many lauded, and some decried his suggestion that working on restoring our infrastructure would  stimulate our local economies, while providing jobs and strengthening the foundations that ensure our transportation veins remain open for commerce. The tragedy of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. subsequently made the subject of our rotting infrastructure take center stage for weeks on end. Now many in congress on the left and the right are advocating for infrastructure development in their home states as a means of stimulating economic growth.

When all is said and done, time and time again, the wisdom and foresight that Huckabee has demonstrated in sensing what issues need to be highlighted and adressed is nothing short of astonishing. It shouldn’t be, he has governed for ten and a half years successfully, even if his detractors prefer the spin that he is a preacher on a political holiday.

It is high time that this man get some of the respect that he deserves for being a brilliant and visionary politician. If you’re going to adopt and implement his ideas, at least have the courage to admit that he’s not the ‘hick, knuckledragging, snake oil salesman, Huckabilly’ that so many of you, liberal and conservative alike, have deemed him to be.

America may never know the gem it lost by not having the courage to believe that somone so unorthodox, and yet so intimately connected with her heart, could make it all the way to the oval office. She may yet be lucky enough to benifit from his vision, if John McCain finds the courage in his heart to do the hard thing and offer him the veep spot.

I can only hope.