huckabee

This is Huckabee’s chapter in Do the Right Thing is on Health Care which he’d hoped to make a major focus of the campaign, but found his efforts were stymied by game show hosts debate moderators who kept questions on health care out in favor of what interested them.

Huckabee writes, “Frankly, it never occurred to me that any American family was sitting around their dinner table having a discussion about whether the next President might consider a pardon for Scooter Libby. But I was dead certain that most families were talking about the runaway costs of their health care expenses.”

Huckabee took flak from some libertarians for a statement that Congress would solve the problem if they were told either to give th American people the Health Care Congress has or to accept the type of health insurance many Americans had. Huckabee was not calling for government control of health care, only point to the fact that Washington was insulated from dealing with the health care system.

The Huckabees were not. When leaving the Governor’s Mansion, Huckabee had to purchase more expensive insurance policy that increased when his wife took a leave of absence from her job with the Red Cross and had to be added. His daughter faced $12,000 in medical bills over a relatively minor procedure.

Huckabee gets to a point that many Libertarians will nod their head at. Access isn’t the problem. First of all, the 47 million uninsured cited by Democrats, only 15 million are truly unable to afford health insurance or the bills that will follow.

Huckabee argues the problem is systemic and finds the Democrats’ solution of adding more people problematic in light of what he sees as the underlying problem. Huckabee writes, “simply giving an unhealthy population access to our current health care system and not addressing the underlying crisis only makes problems worse. Our current system is upside down, built entirely on the notion that we should interven when catastrophic illness hits, rather than aim to prevent illnesses in the first place.”

 Huckabee is vitally concerned with chronic disease which is rattling our healthcare system. Chronic disease is generally caused by activities such as overeating, smoking, or lack of excercise.  Huckabee finds prevention to be key.

He’s clear that he doesn’t think government’s role is to lay down harsh rules, to the “sugar sheriff” or the “grease police.”  But that there needs to be fundamental culture changes beginning with the way doctors are trained (for example lack of training in treating diabetes as well as a focus on prevention.

Huckabee throws innovative ideas out. Huckabee’s own efforts to offer incentives to health and provide greater opportunities for state employees to excercise (by offering mid-day excercise breaks) and creating a points system that allowed employees to earn points for losing weight, taking walks, and not smoking in order to earn personal leave time.

Huckabee had the policies evaluated by outside company that found the polices led to $3400 per  year in extra productivity from the employees who took part in them.

Huckabee explains why real solutions to health care don’t really happen politically. Most politicians want to focus on things they can get fixed within their term of office, and health care isn’t one of them. Democrats promise health care plans that create programs as if a program is going to fix the problem. Real solutions require more innovation and more than just government.

Huckabee has often mused as to why health insurance companies don’t cover preventive measures. In Doing the Right Thing, he explains the reason as told him by Insurance Company Presidents. With people changing jobs so often and changing insurance companies every time they switch jobs, it doesn’t make sense for insurance companies to cover prevention because the benefits of prevention will be reaped by another insurance company. Huckabee says that it’s time to move away from the employer based policy to a consumer-driven one.

Huckabee writes, ” Think about it: we don’t expect our employer to ensure our cars or homes, so why should employers insure our bodies. If we bought the insurance and were likely to keep the same carrier as we transitioned to other employers, the carriers would then have a clear incentive to take extraordinary measures to keep us healthy.”

Chapter 11 is incredibly outside the box and it brings a very interesting perspective to the health care debate.

Eric Kohn writes:

Right now, if the Democrats proposed a bill to burn down the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, the Republicans would compromise and agree to phase it in over 5 years. Is there any doubt this would have been the paradigm under John McCain? 

If Republicans ever hope to win back the libertarian bloc and reengage activism among fiscal conservatives, they need to take a look at some some potential leaders and possible presidential candidates they've been ignoring for the most part.

At this moment, Mike Huckabee is suggesting the purging of believers in small government from the party, calling libertarianism "a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism."

If some in the party get their way, Huckabee won't have to worry about internal competition from what he calls the  “real threat” to the Republican Party: “libertarianism masked as conservatism.”

Then there is Georgia's Saxby Chambliss, who is in the midst of a major fight to retain his Senate seat.  Things might have gone fairly well for Saxby if he hadn't voted for the bailout, opening the door for his opponent to be able to make this statement:

It's classic Saxby Economics - $700 billion for Wall Street, while Georgia families get stuck with the bill. That's just wrong.

While Saxby was busy justifying his bailout vote to unsympathetic Georgia voters, Libertarian Allen Buckley was placing signs around the state billing himself as the only fiscal conservative in the race.  If the DSCC hadn't made the mistake of going after Saxby on the Fair Tax in the heart of Neal Boortz territory, it's possible that Martin (who distanced himself from the ads) might have won.  As it turned out, the Libertarian forced a runoff which now has significant national implications.

Now comes the really laughable part.  Up until Election Day, media and local conversation (I was working in Atlanta until a week after the general election) about the race was centered around fiscal issues -- and primarily about the bailout.  So who does Saxby bring into the state to help him campaign? "Tax Hike Mike" Huckabee and bailout enthusiast John McCain.

It's not just the people, either. One also needs to look at the organizations closely affiliated with the GOP.  As one example, the NRA just joined in the flap over the Obama transition team asking potential appointees about their gun ownership and registration habits.  This is the same NRA who turned their back on one of their own board members to endorse someone with an abysmal Second Amendment record and an adversarial relationship to the NRA. How are people to trust an organization like this when they just chose politics over principle with respect to McCain?

If the GOP ever hopes to regain the trust of conservatives and the votes of libertarians, they need to be looking at people like Mark Sanford, Jeff Flake or even Gary Johnson -- as opposed to Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Saxby Chambliss.

Promoted. -Patrick

Let me begin by thanking Patrick, Soren, Jon, and the guys at the Next Right for understanding the importance that the internet can play in shaping the future of our party. As Republicans, we should be using forums such as blogs to shape and mold policy.

I have had a front-row seat to the Republican Party over the past several years. I've been a volunteer, a grass-roots candidate for governor, a lieutenant-governor nominee, chaired Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign in Iowa and was an elected delegate to this year's National Convention.

This has provided me a unique perspective of the status of the Republican Party. Paraphrasing Jerry McGuire, "I've been to the puppet show, and I've seen the strings.

There are many fingers being pointed and many excuses being offered in the Republican locker room after the staggering 2008 losses. As a result, we are searching for leaders in the Iowa Senate, the Iowa House and for Iowa's Republican Party. In addition, nonelected leaders are giving explanations for the party's demise and offering prescriptions for the future. So, please permit me to offer mine.

Jesus Christ, whom many Republicans claim to follow, summoned his followers to be either hot or cold toward Him, because a "lukewarm" commitment makes Him want to vomit. I believe this accurately reflects the mood of voters in the past several elections where Republicans have witnessed consecutive defeats.

We have followed the misguided advice of "experts" to abandon our principles and move to the middle so we can supposedly win. In essence, we have become "lukewarm" on life, on marriage, on the Second Amendment, on limited government, on balanced budgets, on lower taxes, on parental rights in educating and raising children, on faith, on family and on freedom. The net result is that voters have spit us out of their mouths.

Republicans are losing because the voters don't trust them. The first key to any leadership position is trust. No one cares how competent someone is if they can't be trusted. The last thing any state or entity needs is a competent liar.

The party's platform is clearly pro-life, but we fill out surveys and use focus-tested words to validate our overriding interest in winning versus a sincere commitment to core principles. Republicans rev up their base by declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman only to walk away from the issue when it poses a threat to personal ambition. The result is no trust ... no vote.

Republicans promise to balance budgets, but citizens are strapped with the largest deficit in history. Republicans passionately discuss limited government but deliver Medicare D, No Child Left Behind, stimulus plans and state value funds. The result is no trust ... no vote.

Some in the GOP are bold enough to refer to their party as "God's Own Party," indicating unswerving commitment to faith, family and freedom. Even so, voters witness disgusting text messages to young pages, solicitation of prostitutes, adulterous affairs, improper advances in airport restrooms and acceptance of money in exchange for power. The result is no trust ... no vote.

The "elite" politicos and Iowa's dwindling Republican establishment are now convening committees and strategy sessions to advise their "flock" to abandon the party's principles and move even further to the middle if they hope to win again. The voter sees and tastes the "lukewarm" and compromising attempts to gain positions and power. The result is no trust, and the voter, like Christ, wants to throw up.

If Republicans are to win again, they must authentically embrace their core principles and effectively communicate a compelling message of bold-color conservatism that inspires faith, family and freedom.

Each year, we hear more and more praise for President Ronald Reagan. So, let's embrace the unyielding words of our party's icon when he said, "Let us raise our bold colors high." And, for those who are willing to exchange their values for shallow victories, as Reagan said, "let them go their way!"

That's not a hypothetical matchup folks, it happened this week on Monday night.

It didn't leave much of a paper trail in the MSM, But Huckabee and Huffington engaged in a vigorous debate as surrogates for McCain and Obama in Pennsylvania on the night before the second presidential debate.

On paper, given the clearly polar opposite natures of the worldviews these folks represent , this debate could have resulted in some serious fireworks, (which I'm sure was the intended appeal of the event) but Huckabee and Huffington rose to the occasion with a civil but vigourous debate on the issues. To be honest, there were more on target, real honest to God townhall style questions answered in this debate than in the presidential one which followed Tuesday night

The debate took place before a dinner for business owners and was telecast on t.v. and radio across the state. Live feedback from phone in commentators after the debate revealed an appreciation for the civil nature of the debate, and showcased a number of undecideds who now lean McCain after Huckabee's sterling performance as a surrogate in this context.

Click on the 'Election 08' tab on the following link to view the video of the debate in its entirity. You will need quicktime to view it.

http://www.pcntv.com/pcn_online.html

There is no doubt in my mind that Huckabee could have gone toe to toe with Obama in these presidential debates, wiped the floor and sqeezed out the rag. As it is, McCain is well advised to continue to use him in a surrogate capacity in those blue collar swing states.

If anyone out there knows how to get this debate recorded in a format that can be loaded to You Tube... Do it!! I'd love to be able to email links that may be more user friendly.

Crossposted at Right Minds

Crossposted with authors permission from:

http://thevaluesvoter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F3D4C1BC1D8B0D91!1171.entry

I don't get how people don't get it. Hopefully Mccain will.

 

It was reported last year that the Republican candidate who most worried the Democrats was Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The Democratic Strategists must be relieved that his name hasn't been mentioned on McCain's short lists. But let's take a look at the type of thing that the Democratic consultants are probably very afraid of.

 

Friday, August 29th 4:30 AM

Dear Diary,

I just woke up from the scariest dream ...

 

When I went to bed last night, I was in a great mood. Our conference was awesome and the party was starting to come together. Barack gave an incredible speech. And the polls showed we were getting a good bump out of the convention.

 

And then I went back to the hotel and fell asleep. And I dreamed that I was watching television and watching McCain announce his running mate. We had been preparing for Romney (we put together the coolest ad). But we also were ready for the other members of the short list. For each of those people, we had talking points about why they were horrible picks and would continue the Bush tradition. I dreamed I was staring straight at the screen when they unveiled McCain's Veep.

 

And then I saw MIKE HUCKABEE with John McCain. Aw, shucks. The guy we weren't expecting. And I screamed for a minute like I was Howard Dean. I was really scared.

 

But then I thought to myself - "yes we can." We can deal with this. And so I went to the office to prepare some talking points on Huckabee. But that was even scarier.

 

I searched through all of Huckabee's comments to find something bad he said about McCain so that we could put out our own ad just like the Republicans did to us last week. But I came up empty. He never said anything bad about McCain.

 

Then we tried to connect him to the Bush Administration so that we could show why he'd be part of a second Bush term. But that was even more frustrating. He ran a state and didn't have anything to do with Iraq, the deficit, the national debt, or our image abroad. We looked around for how much he voted with Bush. But because he was the only person running who wasn't in the Senate, he didn't even have the opportunity to vote with or against Bush. Arrggh.

 

We tried to make some arguments about how McCain/Huckabee would not help Americans with health care. But even that didn't work. Huckabee created a program that offered health insurance to poor children. He cut the number of uninsured Arkansans so that it was a quarter less than the national average. He even lost a hundred pounds and saved money on drugs himself because he didn't need diabetes medication anymore. This dream kept getting worse by the minute.

 

We were going to make an ad to attack all Republicans because of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But even that didn't work because Huckabee took money out of his own state's treasury to help house the evacuees from neighboring Louisiana. He even gave free dialysis machines to the evacuees who were sick.

 

We tried to point out how the Republicans haven't reached out to black voters. But we couldn't even do that because Huckabee got half the black vote in Arkansas, even with Bill and Hillary Clinton helping his opponent. And then a bunch of black Pastors and church groups got together and (tremble) said they were going to vote for him.

 

Since Joe Biden has been in politics for so long, we wanted to compare our Veep against their Veep and show how much experience our guy has. But then someone pointed out that Huckabee was the only person who had actually run a government and has a longer tenure than any governor of either party. We were hoping Biden would be able to beat the Pub's Veep in a debate. But Huck won the debates easily. He even told funnier jokes.

 

We tried to talk about all the personal scandals that Republicans have been involved in over the past couple of years. But when we tried to pull up dirt on Huckabee, we came up ... empty. EMPTY!? He's been married to the same woman for 34 years, his kids love him and he's stayed out of trouble.

 

Our last hope was that those talk show radio hosts would help us out, the way they did during the primaries. But it turned out that even though their guy didn't get picked, they still disliked our nominee so much that they started being fair to Huckabee.

 

And because McCain and Huckabee seemed to have so much fun campaigning together, McCain started looking happier and more relaxed on the stump.

 

I started to cry. I knew we were probably going to lose the election. And then I woke up.

 

Gosh! I'm still shaking. I'm just glad they haven't realized that they've been ignoring the best candidate. That was TOO close. I'm just glad it was just a dream.

Crossposted with permission of author, from a forum comment at hucksarmy.com. ‘Justgrace’ speaks for us all. It’s about more than a man, it’s about our concerns for our country and its future.

We are not 'self righteous,' fanatics, or bigoted.  We have just learned the lessons of history. When America moves away from the moral boundary stones set by our spiritual heritage, we get deeply and tragically lost. Mike Huckabee has awoken in us a desire to be the somebody, who does the something to make a difference in getting our county back on track. I hope John McCain will give him the chance to influence that many more lives.

I know we Huckabee supporters can get a little upset over the mistreatment of our candidate, and it is important to ask “why?”

Is it because he is such a nice guy, and we do not want him to be mistreated?

Is it because we have spent many of our hours and dollars trying to boost him in the polls, trying to get the word out about why Gov. Huckabee would be a great leader for our country, and so we are upset that our time might have been wasted and our sacrifices have been in vain?

Is it because we see the unfairness of how Mike Huckabee was overlooked by the Christian Right, and scoffed by the left, ignored by the media, and forsaken by the talk-show hosts?

I think the reason needs to be deeper for our support, and I believe in most cases it is. I also think that our disquiet is not motivated so much by anger at mistreatment as it is by anxiety for the future of our country. We are concerned about our children and grandchilden’s future.

Huckabee supporters are deeply concerned with the changes in the United States of America we see, statistics that reveal a decline in almost every area: our schools, our children’s moral training, (rises in) juvenile delinquency, our social problems among the black population where the father is largely absent and the little boys with no father presence in their lives eventually end up in prison. We see the decline, where little girls grow up to be abused and not honored as ladies, where husbands forsake marriage vows, and where now wives are doing the same. Most of the time, it seems no one is home, keeping the “home fires” burning, since we have to (or choose to be) absent as parents. The family is in shambles, the schools often are also, the burden of taxation is almost unbearable, and atop that we wonder just how secure we are from terrorists threats. We see too-little and too-slow a turn-around in abortions and practices where human life is allowed to be cheapened.

Along came a remarkable candidate, a governor from Arkansas, who we saw had been successful in addressing and changing many social and economic issues in his own state. He brought hope to the people of his state through honest, responsible government and an “I care” and “We can do” attitude. He was able to procure our faith in his words, and reawaken our dreams for the America we used to be so proud of. While we still love our country, there is also a regret and deep sense of loss that conservatives see in looking at how our country is declining in many areas.

I think one of the most basic reasons we “Huckabeans” have been captured by the message and the man called Mike Huckabee is because we have been so frustrated and deeply concerned with the direction politics in this country has gone. Now that we have gotten acquainted with this unusually fresh, honest, self-sacrificial, caring candidate, we are not ready to let go of the idea that “he is the man our country needs. He is the man for the season!”

If you will, we see in him the “real change” in politics everyone is talking about; he is the one who understands the wrong direction in which our nation is headed, left vs. right, downhill verses up, and he wants to head it in a new direction: “vertically.”

So when people say, “You Huckabee fans are just disgruntled fanatics,” we know better. Yes, we are frustrated. The path that Gov. Huckabee has taken has not been the easiest, not paved with streets of gold or the accolades of the GOP or much of the press, but it is still a positive, hopeful race. We just don’t know how God in His sovereignty will allow turns of events, but we pray that the time will come soon for Gov. Mike Huckabee to lead this nation forward. We want to give him the chance to lead and put his ideals in place. We want him to follow his dream, and we want to be right there, cheering him on and helping make a change for the good of America and the world.

We conservatives are often people of faith, who are quite distressed to see a nation built on Judeo-Christian principles turning its back on the very things that made this nation great — “faith, family, and freedom.”

These are the standard American principles for which we were historically known, the things for which the Pilgrims, the Puritans, the original thirteen colonies stood and died. These were the principles our country grappled with and rediscovered, even through the dark blotches on our character, for which we have had to make amends — such things as the Salem witch trials, the mistreatment of the Native Americans, and the toleration of slavery in certain states of our country. Even during these dark times of our history, there were good people who did not lose sight of the vision of America as the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Deeper than momentary disappointments of “party” or efforts lost, we have a greater reason for our urgency in praying that our man wins. For the “sake of our country,” we want Mike Huckabee to win the nomination for Vice President and later for President.

To this end we pray often. For the country we love. For our families whom we cherish. For true freedom with responsibility. For the beacon of light America can be to the world.

 

In a recent 45 minute podcast interview with CATALYST, the former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee chatted about a wide range of subjects from his experiences in pastoring and politics, to his plans for the immidiate future. The full interview can be heard at the link, and plays on Windows media.

http://catalyst.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=365878

Of particular interest to fans and foes alike, should be the innovative format of his new show on Fox, scheduled to begin airing at the end of September, (just in time for the start of the general election campaign)

According to Huckabee in the interview, the show will feature a live studio audience, and a format that allows for participation on the internet as well.

Huckabee has relaunched his personal website www.mikehuckabee.com with a new look and format, completely separate from the site that his PAC operates, HuckPAC. It appears that this site will play some role in the interactive net component of his show.

The news of these plans may come as a bittersweet pill for many to swallow. It would seem to indicate that Huckabee REALLY isn't waiting around for that veep phonecall, a dissapointment to many of his hardcore supporters. But one could argue that a show with such an unprescedented format in our reality tv. obsessed nation, at the height of the political silly season, has explosive potential.

Huckabee promises that the show will not showcase the usual punditry of the talking heads, but rather an open an honest discussion with and about the concerns of the American people. Essentially, a live town hall meeting once a week for as long as the show is a Fox staple.

I would suggest that those waiting for Mike Huckabee to fade quietly into the long, dark political night, have a long wait on their hands. Huckabee's light is just starting to shine.

In Huckabee's own words on his future in politics, from the interview, " I think there's some fight left in me!"

You go Gov!

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.