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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Seriously? Huckabee?


















Is this what the GOP looks like when it's stripped of independents? A serious overweighting towards these people?

posted by mikevotes at 8:32 PM

4 Comments:

  • They've created a monster.

    The tail is now wagging the dog. The Huckabees of the Party were supposed to blindly support The Money out of fear of a Democratic win, but they backed their own instead.

    You're looking at the Republican version of Mondale in that picture. As the primaries move into the South, he'll just get more inevitable.
    Haven't the independents had enough of "dopey but likeable" with Bush? If so, Huck is hosed in the GE.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 12:31 AM  

  • I realize Huckabee is ultra-wingnut on the social issues, but on the war, on the Bush administration foreign policy, on taxes, on education, and on the economy Huckabee is by far the most progressive GOP candidate since freaking Nelson Rockefeller.

    1. He rails against greed and corruption on Wall Street, thinks the Street needs more regulation, and says hedge fund managers should pay income tax rather capital gains taxes on their billions.

    2. Says we need to work with allies and called the Bush foreign policy arrogant and misguided (granted he doesn't know where Pakistan is, but how did the experience of Cheney work out?

    3. Thinks NCLB is problematic, doesn't like high-stakes testing as the sole means of accountability for schools, wants to add the arts back to schools

    4. Has shown willingness to raise taxes in order to balance the budget.

    On all the issues, he is a GOP establishment heretic, which is why they will ultimately destroy him and back the once odious but now acceptable McCain as nominee.

    But if you're watching closely, you'd see that Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, both very different Repubs from the ones we have gotten in the past, are the figures of excitement in the party. Which means the old Rove/Bush/Hastert/Delay coalition really is dead.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 5:51 AM  

  • I agree completely. On top that, he is "weak" on immigration, which is a huge hot-button issue for the GOP these days.

    Ultimately, though, it's not what Huckabee will say that will doom him, but what his supporters will say, IMHO. Evangelicals are only 25% of this country, they are strident, and they live in a bubble world all their own. The media will naturally seek out Huckabee supporters, and they will appear as crazies that speak the language of an alien subculture. Add the ramped-up hatred of the GOP Old Guard and their media outlet spew, and in a month or two Huckabee will look like a guy you wouldn't let walk your dog, at least to the conservative independents and conservative Democrats.

    The GOP can't voter-cage independents without shooting themselves in the foot, so they will need election fraud on a massive scale or an "emergency" that requires cancelling the election altogether.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 8:45 AM  

  • Todd, generally true. Iowa caucuses overrepresent the evangelicals relative to the nation, but if independents are stripped away, they are the largest bloc in the party.

    ....

    Reality, I'm going to do a megapost later which talks about where the energy is on both sides. (after lunch.)

    ....

    Todd again, I've been waiting to read the crazy Huckabee supporter quotes, too.

    You figure with the increased coverage that has to be coming. Evangelicals saying things that make normal people not want to be associated with them.

    And, I believe that some election tampering has gone on, but I don't think they could get away with it on a massive scale. I think they can tip precincts in key states, but nothing really bug without risking getting caught.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:56 AM  

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