From WOAI Radio comes an article claiming Mike Huckabee is placing his hopes on forcing a brokered convention by winning in Texas and Ohio, thus denying John McCain a walk-way victory for the primary.
Huckabee says with an upset win in Texas, and a win in the Ohio Republican primary the same day, Huckabee could deny front runner John McCain the nomination in the primaries.
“If we win Texas, I think it changes the dynamics of this race. It could well go all the way to the convention. If the convention delegates pick the president, chances are they would pick the most conservative. I would be the one they would end up picking, if that’s the criteria.”
Such a scenario would be better than we have now, as Huckabee would definitely be more conservative than McCain.
What I wonder is whether some of the candidates who have already pulled out of the race could throw their hats back in the ring. After all, even though Huckabee is better than McCain, he's far from a conservative.
It would be good to have some real conservative choices back in the game, like Tom Tancredo or even Duncan Hunter. Hunter has an unassailably conservative record across the board. He hasn't waffled on immigration, defense, marriage, pro-life issues, religious rights, crime, the war on terrorism, or anything.
Duncan Hunter is the man who should have been the GOP nominee. But in a choice of McCain or Huckabee, I'll take Huckabee.
8 comments:
Where on earth did you get the idea that Huckabee was "far from a conservative"? Oh right, listening to other folks that wanted the job or their surrogates. I like Duncan Hunter too, but when he dropped out he enthusiastically endorsed Huckabee. Huckabeee is more conservative than anyone we have elected as president since Reagan, perhaps longer. He took charge of AR with a 200M deficit and left with an 800M+ surplus while cutting taxes. I could go on, but check it out for yourself.
No, Rick, I figured out that Huckabee is a pro-life liberal by researching his record.
He bashes business like a Democrat, has a record of being soft on crime that makes Mike Dukakis look good, is soft on the war on terror, soft on illegal immigration and border control (I know he says he's tough now, but his record says otherwise), likes big-government solutions, and likes socialized medicine. All this in addition to his dubious record on taxes.
But as I said, he's still better than McCain. At least Huckabee isn't hostile to conservatives and Christians, and hasn't made an outright assault on the First Amendment like McCain. And Huckabee isn't in quite the same love-affair with the media that McCain is.
You are certainly entitled to your opinions and sound resolute enough in those opinions that you are unlikely to ever be convinced otherwise. However, I believe you are quite mistaken on many of them. I have trouble seeing how reducing the AR overall tax burden from 37th to 44th in the nation is anything but conservative. The institution of the FairTax liberates rather than "bashes" business while reducing the size of government by eliminating one of its most intrusive and oppressive agencies. Hardly a big government solution!
Imagine what Arkansas' tax burden might have looked like if Huckabee had worked hard to reduce taxes instead of instituting so many new ones on his watch, and even begging the legislature to tax anything, just tax something!
And when the pro-business Club for Growth pointed out his dubious record, he called them the "Club for Greed," engaging in the same class-envy rhetoric we hear from the Left.
Huckabee has also pushed a state version of SCHIP and refused to back Bush in his veto of the expanded SCHIP bill last year.
And this is on top of his soft-on-crime and soft-on-terrorism stances which are not only liberal, but downright dangerous to innocent Americans.
But I'll admit: Huckabee is less dangerous than the Democrats.
Well I am glad you realize that Huckabee is better than McCain and less dangerous than the Democrats. But you should realize that you don't run for president without making a few enemies. The same is true of being a republican governor in a overwhelmingly democratic state like Arkansas. The Club for Growth recieved major funding from both a presidential rival as well as a long-time Huckabee political rival from Little Rock. The rival from Little Rock stands to lose big bucks if Huckabee is able to enact the earmark reform he wants. To find out more about this check out: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=TruthSquad.ClubGrow
You obviously watched the Club for Growth's out of context little video clip, you might want to also take a look at this full clip from an NRA-ILA gathering: http://www.nraila.org/multimedia/mmplayer_set.aspx?ID=82
His recent CPAC talk is also worth a listen. My point is that a lot of misinformation has been put out there about Huckabee. No candidate is perfect, but we are left with only one significantly conservative candidate. Nonetheless, he is continuously skewered as a liberal by conservatives who have bought into the smear campaigns. This is a shame. As a result we may end up with McCain, or much worse as the next president. You said you researched Huckabee's record. I encourage you to research at least a little bit more. You may be surprised at what you find.
Huckabee's tax record is what I've hit him up for the least (and I'm not a "smear campaign conservative"--just a conservative). I don't think it's a very good record for a Republican, but not what I'd consider fully liberal, either.
But I notice you haven't tried to defend his pathetic record on crime and punishment, or his pathetic record on immigration and border control, or his appeasing comments about the war on terrorism. I don't see how anyone CAN defend those and remain intellectually honest. His record in these areas puts him in the company of the great liberals of our time.
I've researched Huckabee's record thoroughly over the course of the past 7 months, and while I wanted to support him initially, I've found his record to be seriously wanting.
But our choices are so pathetic at this point, he's actually the best one remaining.
Economic policies are what first attracted me to Huckabee. When he gets unfairly trashed there, I am particularly sensitive. As I said, I do not believe that he is a perfect candidate. However, I have listened to virtually everything on or from him I could find. I do not recall any appeasing comments on the war on terror. Quite the opposite, he wants to finish the job and keep our military second to none. His 9 point plan for immigration and border security is very strong -- creating the motivation for illegals to deport themselves and apply through the proper channels and from the back of the line if they want to return. I will admit he did pardon a number of people. He also signed a lot of execution orders. I have not researched this area as extensively as the others, but I have gone far enough to see that there has been a lot of distortion by his detractors here as well. Especially in the DuMond case where the man was actually paroled by the (controlled by the democrats) parole board. Again, my biggest complaint is that so many conservatives are shooting themselves in the foot(if not the head) by failing to recognize his conservative strengths.
Huckabee talks tough on immigration...now. A few short years ago and he was calling efforts to curtail illegal immigration and benefits to illegals "racist" and "bigoted." What someone says on the campaign trail is worthless if their record doesn't match it.
Similar with his appeasement on the war on terrorism. He's criticized Bush's resolve, and he's said he'd close Club Gitmo because, oh my, some countries don't like it.
Huckabee bucked hard for Dumond's release for a long time, and several on the parole board have said Huckabee lobbied them for his early release. If it was just one incident, I might cut him some slack (even if Dumond did go on to rape and murder one and probably two other women). But he granted more clemency than six other states COMBINED...and several of them were in a league similar to Dumond.
Huckabee doesn't understand the nature of evil. He doesn't understand that it must be dealt with firmly and decisively. That's dangerous in any person, but it's deadly in an elected official...as Dumond's victims families can attest to.
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