Huckamania!

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Columnist Bob Novak, while insulting and patronizing Christians, granted Mike Huckabee a huge compliment in the pages of yesterday’s Washington Post.

In his column about Huckabee, Novak said, “The rise of evangelical Christians as the motive force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own.”

Novak is singling out Huckabee as the first time Christian Conservatives have a shot at nominating ’one of their own’.  Don’t let the beltway bullies and the punditocracy steal this opportunity from social conservatives! We’ve come so far.

To be sure, social Conservatives are right to be alarmed and outraged. I know I am. Could many of the accusations in Tempting Faith be true? Is there really a glass ceiling for social conservatives.?

I always suspected that the beltway took social conservatives for granted and that many in Washington weren’t truly sincere. The main stream media and academia made every attempt to make us appear neanderthal. But I never expected such a veteran journalist to be so blatant about the elites attitudes towards Christians and the grassroots. The fact is, many of those politicos that we’ve trusted think main stream and main street America is overrun with psychos.

Well, I know this. As Mike Huckabee said, “I don’t spell G-O-D G-O-P… Let us never sacrifice our principles for anybody’s politics.” If the Republican party takes our votes granted and abandons our values, there will be a hefty price to pay at the polls.

However, if you are a Christian Conservative, you can be comforted to know that finally one of us- the grassroots activists - is running for President. Finally, someone who believes as we do is a contendor to be the leader of the free world and our voice is being heard. This is a sign of the strength of our movement. Let’s stand strong for Mike Huckabee today. 

Huckamania! is usually skeptical of electability arguments, but for those of our readers who consider electability an important factor, you might want to consider this.

A new Zogby poll has all of the Republican candidates beating Hillary Clinton in the general election and Governor Mike Huckabee with the largest margin of victory. Interestingly, the two candidates with the smallest margins of victory (3 points) were the two frontrunners Giuliani and Romney. Both of these men frequently tout their electability.

There you have it - for the anybody but Hillary crowd. Huckabee is the best candidate that can strengthen the house that Reagan built, something we’ve been saying all along.

In light of this information, we may want to remember the thought processes of some of our Christian ‘leaders’ from just a few months ago, such as Richard Land.

“Nobody thinks [Huckabee] can beat Hillary, and a fear of another Clinton White House outweighs almost everything.”  - Richard Land

Land went on to write an article about the need for evangelicals to be practical and that even though he might like candidate A who agrees with him 100% of the time, he would settle for candidate B who agrees with him 80% of the time because they can defeat Hillary…

Apparently Richard Land was wrong. Now Land doesn’t have to make a sacrifice because Candidate A is the strongest candidate in the polls….

It’s official: Richard Land is going to be endorse Mike Huckabee next week. At least he should if he’s true to his word, his principles, his followers, and his own logic.

Unfortunately, there is a real elitism stemming from the conservative punditocracy that I am growing more and more skeptical of. Frankly, the establishment is terrified of Governor Huckabee because he is truly independent and he comes from the grassroots activists. There is a real divide between the grassroots activists and the Washington elite (more on this later). If Republicans listen to the elite and not the grassroots, we are bound to lose this election (do you really see middle America voting for Giuliani or someone with Romney’s history of changing positions. Do you see Fred Thompson exciting people.)?

It is clear Novak did not do his homework on several items. For example, Novak’s biggest offense is when noting that Huckabee refers to the Club for Growth as the Club for Greed. Huckabee is not making a critique of free market capitalism. What he is claiming is that the Club will attack anyone as long as someone is giving them money. He’s saying that their concern is not about the principles, but about who is bringing in the checks… Why does the Club not praise Governor Huckabee as one of the two candidates who has signed ATR’s pledge or the most outspoken proponent of the Fairtax? Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson have refused to promise the American people they will not raise taxes, something most Republican candidates in recent memory have done. Why do they not praise him for being one of the two candidates who have always supported the Bush tax cuts? Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain were all fighting against the tax cuts when Gov. Huckabee was fighting for them.

Another point that these attackers fail to make is that, unlike Congress, states have to balance budgets. Governor Huckabee was working with a legislature more Democratic that Massachusetts. Arkansas is a very poor state and had serious problems with infrastructure. Now they have some of the most improved roads in the country. One of the main taxes Huckabee is attacked for, he didn’t even sign. The fact is, if these ideologues were around during the time of Reagan, he would not have been their choice. As Governor of California, he supported and signed a tax increase of 1 billion dollars, or 10 billion in today’s dollars. Governing is tough and it involves getting the hard work done, something a lot different than being a legislator….

Huckabee did not say he didn’t support President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP expansion as Novak falsely states. Governor Huckabee said the SCHIP bill was a bad bill. He simply said that he wouldn’t have let it get to the point of the veto. Unlike this President, a President Huckabee would have communicated with the American people.

Having said all of that, I do disagree with Governor Huckabee on global warming, but that’s not exactly the deciding factor for my vote.

All in all, I think he is the best candidate, albeit imperfect, and we can take solace in the fact that he is truly ‘one of our own’.

Apparently Fred Thompson missed the six months of media hype claiming he was the savior of all conservatives and a southern-fried Reagan. Never have I seen or read about one candidate receiving such hype on behalf of the media.

Yet, in an interview with Chris Wallace, Fred Thompson suggested that Foxnews was intentionally trying to hurt his campaign by doing their job - reporting on polling (he is sixth in New Hampshire) and asking him to respond to the criticisms of two conservative pundits.

Fred Thompson should have answered these questions instead of attacking Fox News.

Mike Huckabee goes on interview after interview and is hounded about taxes, immigration, foreign policy credentials, electability, Wayne Dumond, and the list goes on and on. Yet, whenever Mike Huckabee is confronted with criticism, he responds. He is honest with the American people. His only complaint is that he doesn’t have MORE venues to answer these criticisms.

The fact is Fred Thompson is desperate. He’s so desperate that he’s going on television attacking one candidate instead of articulating to the American people why he should President. He may have some policy positions, but he’s doing a horrible job at selling them to the American people. Fred is so desperate that he is attacking one of the most fair and balanced networks on television (Fox is right-of-center if you believe many).

Fred Thompson’s false accusations of bias undermine our efforts to expose real media bias that does exist. The Senator has done a great disservice to the conservative movement.

Note: A Fred Thompson supporter pointed out that Fred didn’t confuse the ‘term’ bias, rather the concept of bias. I also note that the supporter didn’t refute any of the major points of this article. I haven’t seen this much parsing since Bill Clinton debated the meaning of the word ‘is’. Nevertheless, we changed the headline so the main focus could be on Fred’s desperation as a candidate and not English Debate 101.

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Now you can declare your support for Mike Huckabee!

http://save08.org/join.php?referredby=470

I’m inviting you to Save08.org because I believe the fate of our nation is in peril, and a specific presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, can help us change course. He is a man of integrity, honor, and conviction, willing to speak truth to entrenched interests and fight for what is right, whether it be fair taxation, secured borders, strong families, preventative medicine, or personalized education. Please join me in committing to vote for him and finding two others to do the same.

To join now simply click (or copy and paste into your browser) the following link:
http://save08.org/join.php?referredby=470

TO MAKE A SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO MIKE HUCKABEE, CLICK BELOW:

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contribute.Home&r=166

HuckChuckFacts

Mike Huckabee’s first television ad, sure to bring in lots of earned media! Brilliant, hilarious, yet serious… what a combination!

There was an interesting piece on Redstate.org attacking our analysis of the National Right to Life Committee’s endorsement of Fred Thompson: “National Pro-life movement commits suicide“.

I want to start this entry by saying that I have nothing but the utmost respect for Erik Erickson and I am a regular visitor of Redstate.org. Our friends over at Redstate are simply wrong here.

Redstate Myth: Our blog and Mike Huckabee supporters have avoided answering the attacks on Mike Huckabee’s fiscal record.

Fact: Our Blog has been dedicated to combating the unfounded attacks on Mike Huckabee’s fiscal record.

Read Our Blog Posts on Fiscal Issues…

Mike Huckabee is the best Fiscal Conservative in the Top Tier

The Club’s Revenge…

The Mike Huckabee the Club for Growth Wants you to Forget

Other websites have offered their responses to the attacks on Governor Huckabee’s fiscal record.

Evangelical Outpost: Fiscally Flawed?

Rightsmart: Truthing about taxes and Huckabee

For RedState to say that we or other Huckabee supporters are dodging this issue is demonstrably false.

Redstate Myth: Our blog lied about or mislead about Fred Thompson’s abortion record. Fred Thompson does support the Republican Platform regarding abortion.

Fact: Our Blog is dedicated to providing readers with the truth and fair analysis. What we said on our blog is entirely accurate.

• Fred Thompson did score 86%, 77% and 33% on the National Right to Life Committee’s ratings. We were forthcoming and said that this was a result of his support for campaign finance reform, but nevertheless reiterated that this was an issue important to pro-lifers.
• Fred Thompson does not support the Republican Party’s platform on abortion. You can read the transcript from Tim Russert below.

“MR. RUSSERT: Let me ask you about an issue very important in your party’s primary process, and that’s abortion.MR. THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: This is the 2004 Republican Party platform, and here it is: “We say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution,” “we endorse legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions.” Could you run as a candidate on that platform, promising a human life amendment banning all abortions?
MR. THOMPSON: No.
MR. RUSSERT: You would not?
MR. THOMPSON: No. I have always—and that’s been my position the entire time I’ve been in politics…”

From Huck’s Army…

Attention Troops:

God bless,
Huck’s Army

The National Right to Life Committee has apparently decided to endorse the “Wesley Clark of 2008″ Fred Thompson, a candidate that has undeniably underwhelmed at every level since his entry into the race. With falling poll numbers and dim prospects, Fred Thompson’s less than stellar performance is indicative of how he will perform against Hillary Clinton. This new development makes it appear as if the NRLC wants conservatives to lose. After all, if we actually do win the abortion war, then the NRLC staff wouldn’t have jobs and worst of all, they might cease to be “insiders”…

If they actually wanted to win, the smart thing would be to go with a candidate who has risen at one point to third in National Polls, second in Iowa, double digits in New Hampshire and fourth in Florida without spending 60 million like Romney, 90% name recognition like Giuliani and McCain, or a political elite cajoling and forcing him to enter the race like Fred Thompson. Mike Huckabee is that candidate and his ability to overcome these odds proves he is the strongest candidate and best articulator of our values. He is the ONLY candidate who can unite our country and our only chance at beating Hillary Clinton. It’s too bad our Christian ‘leaders’ let this opportunity slip through our fingers, just because we doubted “one of our own”…

I got into politics because I believed that there were certain values worth fighting for. As I noted in a blog post yesterday, my heart couldn’t be more broken.

Below I examine Fred Thompson’s less than perfect record on abortion…

“My record is clear. 100% Pro-life voting record over 8 years at the national level. The proof is in the pudding there. Go back and look at all that record. My whole life I’ve said Roe V. Wade was wrongfully decided. I’ve been pro-life all my career and always will be.” - Fred Thompson

We accepted the Senator’s challenge and went back and reviewed his record.

Senator Fred Thompson does not have a 100% pro-life voting record in the United States Senate. This is a blatant lie. Let’s take a look at the ratings from the National Right to Life Committee.

2001-2002
Fred Thompson: 33% Bill Frist: 100%

1999-2000
Fred Thompson: 77% Bill Frist: 100%

1997-1998
Fred Thompson: 86% Bill Frist: 100%

His ratings from 1995-1996 were not readily available. Now, Fred’s supporters will argue that these low ratings from the National Right to Life Committee have to do with his strong support for the Mccain-Feingold legislation (which Huckabee opposes). While true, these ratings are given by the National Right to Life Committee and based on the issues most important to the pro-life community. Few pieces of legislation could have been more devastating to the long-term strength of the pro-life movement than McCain-Feingold. If one accepts the premise that the NRLC is not a good judge of pro-life candidates, let us not forget these parts of Thompson’s “100% pro-life record”.

• Fred Thompson opposed and opposes the Republican Party Platform regarding abortion and a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution
• Fred Thompson lobbied on behalf of abortion advocates

For Fred Thompson to say he has a 100% Pro-life record is absolutely false. Senator, the proof is in the pudding…