Mike Huckabee nukes the fridge

So you’re a former presidential candidate who surprised a lot of people and led them to think you have something new on the horizon.  Better than that, you’re a Republican, and call yourself a conservative, putting you in the perfect position to redefine what both mean to win elections, inspire people, and show the nation that the GOP is moving in a fresh, new direction.  You even start-up a PAC to keep your name in the spotlight and advance your vision.

How can you completely demolish everything you have built up and make yourself a complete laughingstock in one day?

If you’re Mike Huckabee, the answer is simple - endorse Don Young (link via NRO - The Corner):

Don is one of the few members of Congress to totally understand the critical state of our nation’s infrastructure and when I was a Governor and Chairman of the National Governors Association, he was one of the few members of Congress who fully recognized the direct link between infrastructure and job creation and economic development.

Read that again.  Not only does the Huckster endorse the man behind the Bridge to Nowhere, he actually praises Young’s record on infrastructure.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Mike Huckabee insults all limited government supporters

The man’s ignorance knows no bounds (NRO - The Corner, emphasis added):

More from that Huckabee Interview   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

The former governor and presidential candidate also says:

The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don’t get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.” Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it’s not an American message. It doesn’t fly. People aren’t going to buy that, because that’s not the way we are as a people. That’s not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it’s just there to be as little of it as there can be. But they also recognize that government has to be paid for.

He goes on for a while in this vein . . .

For us locals, the Huckster is just an Arkansan Emmett Hanger, but I’m curious to see what John McCain thinks of his rival bashing the best decision he ever made (his opposition to Medicare Part D).

If McCain notices this, we can rest assured that Huckabee will never become McCain’s running mate.

Cross-posted to Virginia Bloggers Against Mike Huckabee

Stay classy, Huck; stay classy

Just as people who should know better were seriously considering giving the Huckster the number two spot on the GOP ticket, Dukakabee himself removes all doubt about the tremendous stupidity of the idea (via Tim Watson - I’m Surrounded By Idiots - from whom I basically lifted that last phrase):

AP:

Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.

Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he—he dove for the floor.”

There were only a few murmurs in the crowd after the remark.

Ace of Spades put it well, “it’s bad enough to probably keep him off the ticket. Fortunately.”  Indeed.

Cross-posted to Virginia Bloggers Against Mike Huckabee

While we’re on the subject of unacceptable running mates . . .

One of Mike Dukakabee’s PACs is warning John McCain not to make Mitt Romney his running mate (Leslie Carbone):

Some supporters of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s failed presidential bid are taking out ads threatening Sen. John McCain not to pick Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate. The Government is Not God PAC insists, “Governor Romney['s] recent ‘conversion’ to conservative and pro-life principles is not credible.” And, yes, they have a point: Gov. Romney’s recognition of the sanctity of life is recent and convenient.

Actually, the problems with Mitt Romney as a running mate run deeper than that.  I may be one of the very few who still remembers what Mitt actually said about timetables, but he said it all the same.  I, like the GiNG PAC, would be very unhappy with Mitt Romney as the Vice Presidential nominee.

However, Romney is far from the only person on my Do-Not-Make-Vice-President list, and since the Huckabee folks raised the question . . .

Leslie herself makes the point so well that I’ll just excerpt her final two paragraphs:

But Gov. Huckabee is far more liberal. And while many are justifiably suspicious of Gov. Romney’s fledgling pro-life conviction, Gov. Huckabee has stubbornly rationalized his liberal record. Blurring the roles of the state and of the Christian, he undermines the civil government’s function of enforcing justice. The tax-and-spend Governor slurs the pro-freedom Club for Growth as the “Club for Greed”. He touts tax-paid tuition breaks for the children of illegal aliens, insisting, “You don’t punish a child because a parent committed a crime or committed a sin.” He supports parole and pardons for violent felons, citing “the concept of Christian forgeiveness”. If he isn’t trying to remake civil government into God, he’s at least trying to make it a Christian nanny. And he shows no evidence that he’s intellectual enough ever to grasp the tremendous harm that this misuse of the state causes.

A Vice President Huckabee would be disastrous for the Republican Party and for the United States of America.

Indeed, it would.

Cross-posted to the resurrected Virginians Against Mike Huckabee

More predictions

Maryland, Virginia, and DC are all up tomorrow, in both parties.

For the Democrats: I see another Obama sweep.

For the Republicans: McCain wins Maryland and DC.  As for Virginia, it’s a much harder call.  McCain still has an 11-point lead, but it was 32 points three days ago.  Huckabee clearly has the momentum, but has he run out of time?

As much as I hate to say this, my answer is no.  Maybe this will wake up the McCain folks (or just blow up the race), but I’m calling Virginia for Huckabee - meaning this venture will have failed.

I hope and pray I’m wrong.

The case against a brokered convention

I had addressed this issue briefly here, but with my sparring partner STD and my good friend Jim Beck calling for a brokered convention, I feel I need to devote a post exclusively to explaining why this is such a bad idea.

For starters, both STD and Jim seem to be of the opinion that anyone can be nominated in a brokered convention.  While theoretically it is possible, the likelihood of that happening is practically nil.  First of all, no one can agree on just who the anonymous nominee should be.  I’ve seen Newt Gingrich, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and a whole slew of names bandied about.  The trouble is, just those three names by themselves would set off factional disputes among the delegates at the convention.  Then there are the names folks on the rightospehere don’t want to hear, but who would have an equal chance at snagging the nomination (Condoleezza Rice, Rudy Giuliani, Jeb Bush, etc.).  The odds that any of them would garner enough delegates just to take on the established candidates (McCain and Huckabee) are slim to none.

Additionally, there is no way either aforementioned candidate will willingly back away from the prize in favor of someone who hasn’t gone through the laborious campaign.  Nor should they.  The presidential race reveals a number of things; chief among them is the ambition for the job and the willingness to work in order to get it.  The previously failed candidates have made it clear they lack the wisdom, drive, or popular support to succeed.  Those who chose not to run, for whatever reason, have revealed a lack of drive that could prove fatal in a general election campaign.

Finally, the only way we get to a brokered convention is for Huckabee to garner enough delegates to block McCain.  Does anyone seriously think that Huckabee (who would need to win more than 700 more delegates to pull this off) will simply stand aside?  Of course not; he will claim (and not without reason) that he has as much a claim to the nomination as McCain, and certainly more of a claim than anyone else in the Republican Party. 

So, a brokered convention will still lead to one of only two people being the nominee: John McCain or Mike Huckabee.  Either McCain will make a deal with Romney or Huck, or Huck will make a deal with Romney to freeze out McCain and take the nomination.

Therefore, the choice is not among McCain, Huckabee, and the Anonymous White Knight.  It is between McCain and Hucakbee, period, and for reasons I have discusses again and again, the better choice is John McCain.

Comparing John McCain and Mike Huckabee

After the results of this weekend (and a new poll showing Virginia to be more competitive - ), it is clearly apparent that many voters consider Mike Huckabee the “conservative” choice.  I find that surprising, but then again, I have to remember that not everyone in America is the political geek I am.

 Therefore, I figured a comparison of the two gentlemen would be a good idea, similar to my McCain-Bush comparison of Saturday.  Here we go.

Foreign Policy and the WBK War: The two candidates are nearly identical on the issues.  Both support the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters; and both believe Guantanamo should be shut down.  Huckabee has publicly stated his opinion that transiting the enemy combatants would not automatically give them habeas corpus rights, while McCain has not stated where he would house the enemy combatants.

What separates them is experience: McCain has it in spades, while Huckabee is so green he didn’t even know what the Iran National Intelligence Estimate was until the media told him about it.  On this issue, McCain has the edge.

Political speech: Yes, yes, McCain-Feingold, I understand that.  How many times has Huckabee promised to repeal it?  What was that?  Zero.  For that reason alone, I’d call this a wash.

Energy: McCain’s support for a cap-and-trade greenhouse policy certainly puts him to to the  left of every Republican who has run for President - except Huckabee, who also backs cap-and-trade (Bloomberg).  Another wash.

Gun rights:Again, McCain has voted against the “assault weapons ban” twice: 1994 and 2004.  The only difference between the two is the “gun-show loophole” issue, where McCain favors closing it and Huck doesn’t.  Still, it’s a difference, so Huck has the edge here.

Abortion (and embryonic stem cell research): On the broader issue, both men are terrific; but I’ll admit Huck is better on ESCR that McCain.  I would say the issue is rapidly becoming moot with the progress being made in other SCR research, but a difference is a difference.  Huck has the edge here, too.

Judges: This is the biggest social issue battlefield, and surprisingly, McCain is stronger here.  He seems to have a far better definition of a good justice (Roberts and Alito) than Huckabee (Lavenski Smith).

Crime and punishment: McCain, as a Senator, doesn’t have much to go on either way.  However, compared to Huckabee’s appalling history with granting clemency to hardened criminals, McCain comes off smelling like a rose.  McCain by a country mile.

Government Spending: This is a no-brainer. McCain has Tom Coburn’s upport, his oppositon to the disastrously huge Medicare Part D, and his crusade against earmarks.  Huckabee?  He supported Medicare Part D (Club for Growth), and even kept the door open for the Democrats’ SCHIP debalce (Wall Street Journal), a plan so onerous and costly it couldn’t even win the approval of voters in Oregon.  McCain is head and shoulders above Huck here.

Taxes: Yes, McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, but he has rightly concluded that to let them expire would be a de facto mammoth tax increase.  He also supports eliminating the Alternate Minimum Tax and cutting the corporate income tax.  Huckabee, meanwhile, has had a terrible history of tax hiking as Governor (he actually out tax-hiked Bill Clinton - Arkansas Leader).  Meanwhile, his “Fair Tax” would include a de facto entitlement to every single American - hardly the stuff of limited government.  McCain again.

 Trade: McCain’s record on free trade is one of the best.  Huck, by contrast, waxes on about “fair trade,” an economically ludicrous bottle of political snake oil.  Huck’s comments on Red China (which I couldn’t help but notice) are belied by his unabashed support for PNTR in 2000, while McCain was at least willing to support conditions that the Commies stop selling arms to terrorists.  McCain takes this issue, too.

Illegal Immigration: This issue comes down to this question: should we believe Huckabee now?  Or when he was governor?  I’ll be charitable and split the difference, which still gives Huck the edge.

In summation, Huckabee is better (we think) on immigration, while McCain is far, far superior on the economic issues and better on foreign policy.  Surprisingly (for some), the other social issues are a wash.  It depends on priorities, of course, but I would say McCain is far closer to what a right-winger would want from a President than Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee took a big step back in the expectations game

Last night was quite the switcheroo; I hit the perfect score on the Democratic races, but got the GOP races all wrong.  As of 1 AM, McCain is leading in the one state I thought he’d lose (Washington), and he lost the two states I’d thought he would win (Louisiana and Kansas).

So it was a good night for Huckabee, but one hour in, it looks like a terrible morning for him.

Why do I say that?  Well, the folks at Fox News were already looking to Virginia as the next step for Huckabee’s “miracle.”  The only problem with that is the fact that McCain is beating Huckabee by better than two to one here (Below the Beltway).  So the Huckster may be saddled with overblown expectations about Virginia, only to have them badly dashed.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s GOP delegates are winner-take-all, as are the Washington, DC delegates.  Maryland’s are winner-take-all by Congressional district, but McCain led Huckabee by better than three to one there (WJLA), a margin that could lead to him sweeping all eight districts.

In other words, Huckabee could and likely will go from a surprisingly good Saturday to a complete zero on Tuesday.

Huckabee and his supporters are likely very happy tonight, and they should be.  They had a good night.  If they’re expecting a repeat on Tuesday, however, they’re in for a big disappointment.

Mike Huckabee is no man of the right

Now that Dr. James Dobson has thrown in with Mike Huckabee (Virginia Virtucon), it looks like we’ll have a spirited two-man-plus-Paul contest after all (I told you this wasn’t over yet).  Sadly, a lot of right-wingers will take this, add it to their own animus toward McCain, and declare Huckabee the “conservative alternative” in the race.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

McCain’s departures from orthodox Republicanism are well known - partly because some of them are big issues, partly because MSM has been building the division-within-the-party angle for decades, and partly because McCain, a very principled man, is never shy about what he thinks.  However, Huckabee has far more serious problems with the right, problems that have been highlighted often in this space but bear repeating.

Mike Huckabee (or as he’s better known around here, Mike Dukakabee), had a history of big spending and higher taxes during his decade in power in Arkansas - to the point of accusing critics of wanting “to rip the feeding tubes out of an 8-year-old or an elderly person on Medicaid.”  During another argument over taxes, he referred to limited-government supporters within his own party as “Shiites” - insulting hundreds of thousands of Muslims and dismissing the party’s base in one fell swoop.  While McCain did oppose the Bush tax cuts when they were initially proposed, he has always been firmly against higher government spending, and the tax argument was never this personal with him.  The Huckster has also threatened to regulate corporate salaries.

If that wasn’t bad enough, there was his appalling history with granting clemency to hardened criminals, which coud be an even greater problem given the number of enemy combatants we still have in custody.  That reminds me; for those of you upset about McCain’s call to close Guantanamo’s detention center (I also prefer it remain operational), Huckabee also wants it shut down.

This brings us to foriegn policy, a subject on which Huckabee boasted of his ignorance by borrowing the old Holiday Inn punchline.  How ignorant is Huckabee?  Shall I remind you all of the time when he never heard of the Iran NIE?  And then claimed it was published years, rather than days, before his gaffe?  This was while the Huckster tried to make himself relevant by blasting the Bush Adminstration and its “arrogant bunker mentality.”

Of course, Huckabee’s main claims to fame are his views on social-issues.  Naturally, most folks thus assume that he would at least be reliable on the most important role a President plays in social issues - the appointment of judges.  As it turns out, that assumption is - at the very least - in question.

As, I’ve said before, I can understand why so many right-wingers are less than happy with John McCain, but he is still the best candidate in the field, even before Romney suspended his campaign.  Either way, the notion of Huckabee as a decent alternative is out of the question.

Cross-posted to Virginia Bloggers Against Mike Huckabee 

Thank you, Mike Huckabee, for destroying your credibility

Those of us who have chosen John McCain as our candidate have several theories behind the mass hysteria gripping those who do not support him, and have chosen Mitt Romney instead.  Well, Mike Huckabee has come up with his own theory, just in time to remind Romney and McCain supporters why he did not choose the former Arkansas Governor.

When asked why folks such as Sean Hannity are supporting Romney, Huckabee - using the “some folks are saying” method of putting forth an accusation - claimed Bain Capital (the firm Romney ran in his private sector days) was pushing Sean because of its ownership of Clear Channel (Video here - Fox News via Mark Levin, who effortlessly debunks this nonsense on the Corner).

Thanks, Huck; just when I was worried that McCain (or Romney, for that matter) would consider picking you for the Veep slot, you remind everyone why you can’t be allowed anywhere near the Washington, DC zip code.

Cross-posted to Virginia Bloggers Against Mike Huckabee