If these are our choices...

...then God have mercy on our souls!

Comments

[peter]

You really suck at predictions, ie December 21, 2007 "Huckabee will freefall". Looks like to me we have a Huckaboom while Sleepy Thomason didn't even show up.

[Gullyborg]

I do admit that surprised me.

But I still stand by my prediction that Huckabee will fall.

Just not tonight.

Huckabee had a good night against a very split electorate with seven candidates. But he is far short of a clear majority.

When 34% support you, that means 66% wanted someone else.

That's not consensus. Duncan Hunter will drop out tomorrow. The deluded Ron Paul fanatics will wake up, see a 5th place showing, and realize that maybe all those "rigged" polls showing him not winning maybe, just maybe, were right. Some of Romney's supporters will be shaken and look at alternatives. Meanwhile, Giuliani is the sleeping giant not even factored in to this equation. Numbers will change - and probably not in Huckabee's favor.

Huck has also dodged a lot of early attacks, mostly because people weren't taking him seriously. Now, the gloves are off. You think the last few episodes of Rush Limbaugh were brutal? Now that the establishment has reason to worry, expect attacks the like of which you have never seen.

I think Huckabee did a great job in Iowa. And, I think he will go on to do great things like previous winners of the Iowa caucus, such as Tom Harkin, Dick Gephardt, Bob Dole 1988, Bush 1980, and "undecided" 1976.

[Sakaki]

Hey, Peter,

Why do you want another failure from Arkansas as your president?

If Huckabee is the nominee, mark my words, I will vote for the Democrat. Because at LEAST the Democrat will be much better on foreign policy.

[Gullyborg]

I dunno... looks like the democrat might be "bomb Pakistan" Obama, or "who's running in Pakistan?" Clinton.

If I HAD to have a democrat out of this bunch, I'd pick Edwards. And I think Edwards is a real idiot, so that's saying a lot.

[Patrick Joubert Conlon]

If Huck wins, I'll vote for Obama. If we are going to have socialism, I would prefer to see it introduced by the Dems rather than the GOP.

[Gullyborg]

I won't vote for Obama. If I am not going to support the GOP, I'll support the Libertarians instead. A protest vote is better spend building up opposition to the lame 2 party system.

[SpreadWord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE6Kdo1AQmY

Helping spreading the word, to save the world.

How does Romney, Mccain, Giuliani or Huckabee feel about this?

[HMIL]

Yet another comparison between this "man from Hope" and the last one ... the inability to resist playing his instrument in front of a crowd. I don't think it's even possible for the Huckster to have a "hip" factor (at least the sax is jazzy), so his playing the guitar looks to me more like a teenager playing the air guitar ... or maybe he's been practicing on Guitar Hero ... do you see any colored buttons on the neck of that guitar?

[JustaDog]

Hmm - let's see...

On one side we have a 1/2 ebony wanna-be that's well connected to the mob.

On the other side we have another Arkansasian that thinks we all gotta get back with God. The problem with that is government must not be in the business of dictating religion or morals. Besides, he's been too easy on illegals.

BTW, it's a bass guitar he's playing. Doesn't take as much talent to play bass compared to 6+ string guitar.

Both are wieners and the choice made by those in Iowa makes me doubt about the intelligence of the residents of that state.

Go Ron Paul!

[John D.]

God help us indeed. I'm tired of the current establishment...I am going to be voting Libertarian come November. Maybe we'll get some real change then.

[Jack Roberts]

Yes, you could vote libertarian or you could just take your mail-in ballot, wad it up, and throw it in the garbage. It will have the same effect and save the cost of a first class stamp.

Either way, the best way to effect change is definitely to let other people make the decisions. That also has the advantage of avoiding any responsibility for the decision that is actually made.

Applying this same principle, I would suggest that the next time you go into a restaurant, make a point of ordering something that you know is not on the menu, then when they tell you they don't have it, say, "Okay, just bring me whatever most of your other customers are ordering."

[RinoWatch]

Jack, Your example is lame.

You would have had a better chance as the GOP candidate for gov if you hadn't signed Kitshaber's letter against McInitire's spending cap.

Yes, you were still on the primary "menu" as was Kevin, but my undervote (deciding not to order off the menu) must've meant something. (I did support you for the Supremes, however)....

[Gullyborg]

Jack, I am looking at the menu now and seeing several good looking entrees in Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney. Even McCain would be a good choice. But if November comes and the waiter tells me all they have left is Huckabee... well, then I may as well change restaurants.

On nearly every issue I care about: taxes, spending, immigration, crime, defense - Huckabee is as bad as Hillary Clinton. Sure, Huck would be "better" on some social issues; but frankly, and much to the chagrim of certain religious values voters, I don't care too much about such matters (at least, not in a Presidential race where the President isn't in much of a position to do things like outlaw abortion). If we are going to have a screw up in charge, I'd rather it be a democrat, so that party can take some blame.

And before people start telling me about SCOTUS - in the long term, a liberal democrat President will do less harm than a stupid Republican.

YES. I said that. If Hillary or Barack gets to pick the next Justice, what we will have is status quo. Nothing will change. Stephens will retire. He would be replaced with a younger liberal clone. No change. Sure, it delays the inevitable shift back to the right. But I am young. I can wait. A Hillary or Obama Presidency would end abruptly in 2012 and the next President would get to replace at least 2 members of the court. That could be the tipping point.

Now imagine Huckabee. He would replace Stephens with... who? A Sandra Day O'Connor type? A Souter type? Sure, he might have an abortion litmus-test... but what about the 99.9% of the time SCOTUS is NOT ruling on abortion? Would the new justice be just another big government let Congress do anything hack? That could be terrible. And... Huck would be so bad as President that Obama would sweep in to power in 2012 and appoint two more liberals.

Yeah... I could live with the democrats in charge IF the only alternative was Huckabee.

Or Ron Paul.

So right now, I am enjoying my menu options. I like most of the dishes. But that Huckabee "blue" plate special is ruining my appetite. If that's all they have left when I get to order, I'm hitting Subway for the alternative to overprocessed grease.

[Jack Roberts]

I'm not a Huckabee guy, but I can't believe you honestly think that on "taxes, spending, immigration, crime, defense - Huckabee is as bad as Hillary Clinton."

You're sounding like the Naderites in 2000 who (thank God) were thought electing Gore was basically the same as electing Bush.

I don't expect Huckabee to get the nomination, but right now I'm thinking a McCain/Huckabee ticket looks pretty strong against Clinton/Bayh (or whomever Bill chooses as her running mate).

And there is almost no one I wouldn't vote for to keep from listening to Hillary for the next 4 (or 8) years.

[Gullyborg]

(or whomever Bill chooses as her running mate).

You don't really think Bill wears the penis in that family, do you?

If the ticket is McCain on top with Huckabee as VP, then I will have some serious thinking to do. After all, as VP, Huck wouldn't actually be in charge and I don't think McCain is the type to share power. But, Huck could be set up as the next GOP nominee in 2016 or even 2012 if McCain starts to feel too old to run for re-election. That's not a comforting thought.

Now, on those issues, yes I absolutely do think Huck would be just like Clinton. And it's not because I want to demonize Huck so much as recognize the reality that, as much as I dislike Hillary, she is not nearly as extreme left as most Republicans want to believe.

But let's look at some of these issues:

Taxes - raised taxes in AR more than Bill Clinton did.

Spending - sought to balance a budget by increasing taxes instead of spending cuts.

Immigration - supports the McCain plan, as does Hillary.

Crime - issued more pardons than Clinton and Tucker combined; also more than the governors of all surrounding states combined.

Defense - talks about the arrogant bunker mentality in the same terms as Clinton; and Clinton, to her credit, did vote for war in Iraq and (despite whatever pandering she says during the primary) is not about to pull troops out any time soon.

Now you can argue that Huckabee would be far better than Obama, and I wouldn't argue. But then, in a hypothetical match up, Obama beats Huckabee by 20 points, so my theoretical protest vote wouldn't change the outcome. It might help the libertarian movement, though, and I'm ok with that.

And this is all, of course, a moot point if Huckabee is neither nominee nor VP pick. Hopefully enough conservatives will do just as I am and making their voices heard loud and clear that Huckabee is NOT representative of our values and beliefs. I feel like we are under too much pressure to support the GOP "no matter what" and just keep quiet when someone like Huckabee (or McCain for that matter) emerges as a front runner. That's how parties go downhill.

Back in the 1950's, the democrat party after Truman took a sharp left turn. Some in the party felt uncomfortable and voiced opposition. They were told to just support the party, because any democrat was better than any Republican. Well, some wouldn't accept that, and gave up on the democrats.

One of them was Ronald Reagan.

It can go both ways.

If the Party of Reagan stops being the Party of Conservatism, then the party has lost me. Right now, the GOP is teetering on the edge. For years we have seen government grow, spending increase, and the nation progress closer to a welfare state - under the care of the GOP. That's the reason we got clobbered in 2006. Not because people didn't like conservative ideas, but because the GOP wasn't living up to them.

2008 is a critical year. If the GOP can't rally around someone to actually carry the mantle of conservatism, we are done as a party. The democrats will win, and it won't be because they earned it. It will be because the GOP stopped listening to conservatives.

I'd rather not see that happen. That's why it is imperative that we stop the people like Huckabee and McCain, candidates who have never had majority support within the party, but who succeed in getting the mainstream media to label them "front runners" because they can muster 34% of the primary voters against five competitors in tiny liberal states, from taking over.

How do we do that?

By making it perfectly clear that they are unacceptable and will result in a repeat of 2006.

14 months ago, I held my nose and voted a straight GOP ticket. I'm not falling for it again. Neither should any other conservative.