Congratulations to Huckabee! He won Iowa by 9 points, 34% to 25% over Romney (with 95% reporting).
You will want to listen to his victory speech. It’s good, and only about 5 minutes long.
Plus this is a good bonus 5 minute interview clip from FoxNews.
Way to go, Huckabee! May the momentum continue.
Before I go, let me provide an excerpt from David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times and regular commenter for PBS’ The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In a column entitled The Two Earthquakes, Brooks has this to say of Huckabee’s win.
On the Republican side, my message is: Be not afraid. Some people are going to tell you that Mike Huckabee’s victory last night in Iowa represents a triumph for the creationist crusaders. Wrong.
Huckabee won because he tapped into realities that other Republicans have been slow to recognize. First, evangelicals have changed. Huckabee is the first ironic evangelical on the national stage. He’s funny, campy (see his Chuck Norris fixation) and he’s not at war with modern culture.
Second, Huckabee understands much better than Mitt Romney that we have a crisis of authority in this country. People have lost faith in their leaders’ ability to respond to problems. While Romney embodies the leadership class, Huckabee went after it. He criticized Wall Street and K Street. Most importantly, he sensed that conservatives do not believe their own movement is well led. He took on Rush Limbaugh, the Club for Growth and even President Bush. The old guard threw everything they had at him, and their diminished power is now exposed.
Third, Huckabee understands how middle-class anxiety is really lived. Democrats talk about wages. But real middle-class families have more to fear economically from divorce than from a free trade pact. A person’s lifetime prospects will be threatened more by single parenting than by outsourcing. Huckabee understands that economic well-being is fused with social and moral well-being, and he talks about the inter-relationship in a way no other candidate has.
In that sense, Huckabee’s victory is not a step into the past. It opens up the way for a new coalition.
A conservatism that recognizes stable families as the foundation of economic growth is not hard to imagine. A conservatism that loves capitalism but distrusts capitalists is not hard to imagine either. Adam Smith felt this way. A conservatism that pays attention to people making less than $50,000 a year is the only conservatism worth defending.
Will Huckabee move on and lead this new conservatism? Highly doubtful. The past few weeks have exposed his serious flaws as a presidential candidate….
…
Huckabee probably won’t be the nominee, but starting last night in Iowa, an evangelical began the Republican Reformation.
One other worthy link is Michael Medved’s “Told You So” at Townhall.com.
Again, congratulations to Huckabee and his many supporters. We can pull this off! Go Huckabee!
Bob,
I see that my earlier post on the last thread was a bit premature regarding other candidates. At any rate, Huck’s win in the Hawkeye Caucii was very decisive. I think it stunned Mitt more than anyone else, and Fred’s third place (having not devoted much time to Iowa) was a surprise. Hopefully Huck can get some traction in New Hampshire and win that state as well.
Go Huck!
Being a brother from the Redest of all Red states, being the gun toten, card-carrying NRA member that I am, and having the picture of Ronald Reagan on my desk (a little context)… some of the complaints of Huck in Texas is that he reminds alot of folks of Jimmy Carter. Jimmy when he ran the first time was a hardline evangelical. He did a playboy magazine article where everyone laughed at him because he said he had committed adultery of the mind. Carter seemed like a legit evangelical. But it only took 2-3 years for the evangelicals to know that Carter duped them. Huck didn’t know some stuff about Pakistan…the whole video of Mitt thing seems like a sham… Is Huck foolin us?
That’s the worry from some in the Redest of all Red States… “TEXAS!”
Any Huck fans care to respond…
Gage Browning
Post Tenebras Lux
Gage,
Carter’s flirtation with evangelicalism, even conservative evangelicalism (and fundamentalism) was dubious from the start. Carter had some aberrant, unorthodox, even unevangelical views on different theological issues. Jimmy Carter’s theology has always been characterized by aberrant views, and he admits to following heterodoxists such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth and Soren Kirdegaard, and even “quotes them in his speeches” (The Miracle of Jimmy Carter, by Norton and Slosser, Logos 1976, page 11) [quoted from the Calvinist Flyswatter, see http://calvinistflyswatter.blogspot.com/2007/06/sbc-pres-frank-page-warns-of-jimmy.html). From this same article, released by the Baptist Press on May 30, 2007, Huckabee was to be present at a New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta, GA later this month (January 2008). Huckabee found out it was being organized by Jimmy Carter and that this ‘meeting’ was to discuss a liberal political agenda rather than meeting for spiritual matters and spreading the Gospel. The SBC president, Frank Page, denounced this meeting days after Huckabee turned down his invitation to Carter’s event.
It appears that Carter’s orthopraxy never has matched his orthodoxy, and pulled the wool over many conservative and orthodox Southern Baptists and other evangelicals. Huckabee’s theological stances have always proven to be orthodox and biblical, unlike Carter who is a heretic liberal and shows this through his fabricated ‘spiritual’ meetings to promote a liberal political agenda by coloring it with ‘spiritualality’ to give it cover. If you think Huckabee is another Jimmy Carter, you haven’t proven it.
Go Huckabee!
Huckabee has garnered the support of some folks in my family who had just about burned their voter registration card.
I think he’s going to take Georgia too…
Larry,
I appreciate that Huck is orthodox and the jimster isn’t…that wasn’t the point.
I also would like to make it clear that I didn’t say he was the jimster…I said that was the concern from tons of folks in my state…the concerns are …releasing more prisoners than Bill Clinton…not knowing about Pakistan and the video sham thing… he may be an orthodox Christian, but not an orthodox conservative…? That’s the concern from a bunch of conservatives in my state.
Gage Browning
Post Tenebras Lux
Gage,
I don’t think I misunderstood your earliest post, but apparently I did. I’m a bit baffled as to your intent since you clarified it in your last post, but your earliest post didn’t describe anything about comparing their political beliefs. In other words, I understood your intent as comparing Carter’s ‘evangelical’ beliefs (and promoting them to gain political support from evangelicals) to Huckabee’s religious beliefs, and alluding that Huckabee could be as liberal in his religious views which could make a “President Huckabee” like President Carter was. We agree that they are like comparing apples to oranges.
Now, pertaining to your comments about pardons in Arkansas (and I live in Florida, so I’m not terribly familiar with the pardons process in Arkansas), Huckabee’s website points out to an article in the Drudge Report last month. Here is Huckabee’s response to criticism about his ‘pardon’ activity during his term as governor:
“On December 10, the Drudge Report linked to an article in The Arkansas Leader titled, “Why parole a monster like Green.” Drudge links to the article as if it were a new story rather than an editorial 2004.
The editorial by Gary Feldman fails to mention:
–The Governor does not have the power to parole any prisoner. That responsibility lies with the parole board.
–The only action that Governor Huckabee took was to file a notice of intent to commute Glen Green’s sentence.
–The commutation would have reduced Green’s sentence to 181 years, 10 months, and 19 days.
–After the 30-day public hearing period ended, Governor Huckabee decided against commuting Green’s sentence.”
Another article from Huckabee’s website in regard to Wayne Dumond (I’m posting the link for brevity’s sake– it’s a long article): http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=TruthSquad.DumondRes
Another article from Huckabee’s website about the Dumond, and more important to discuss what actually transpired:
“November 09, 2007
It has been reported that Governor Huckabee released, pardoned, or granted parole to convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. That is not true. It’s interesting that Wayne Dumond’s name only surfaces during an election year for Governor Huckabee. In 2002, his Democrat opponent in the midst of the general election made a political issue out the entire thing. Arkansas voters didn’t buy this false attack from the Democrat in 2002 and re-elected Governor Huckabee to another term as Governor of Arkansas. Here are the facts of the Dumond case:
Governor Jim Guy Tucker gave executive clemency to Wayne DuMond, and commuted his sentence to 39.5 years. This action made Wayne DuMond immediately eligible for parole.
The parole board was made up entirely of Democrats appointed by Democrat Governors Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker (who was later convicted on federal charges and removed from office). Not one member of the board was appointed by Huckabee.
Governor Huckabee never took action in the DuMond case that made him parole eligible.
Governor Huckabee either denied Wayne DuMond’s clemency request, or took no action (which is the same as a denial) on four separate occasions.
Governor Huckabee did not parole Wayne Dumond. Governor Huckabee had no authority to do that. Governors in Arkansas don’t grant parole-the parole board does.
The fact remains that Governor Huckabee didn’t commutate, pardon, parole or grant any form of clemency to Wayne DuMond.”
As you can see, the parole of prisoners in Arkansas isn’t the Governor’s responsibility nor is the Governor able to ‘pardon’ prisoners on a whim. It is true that sixteen capital crime felons were executed while Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas. The stories you hear about are rather unsubstantiated.
Regarding the Pakistan ‘comments’ from Huckabee, I’m not familiar with it, so you will need to provide some links to what Huckabee said regarding Pakistan.
Sorry for the long post, but this should hopefully answer some of your questions (and provide some information to me regarding Huckabee’s comments on Pakistan).
Gage,
Sorry I haven’t responded sooner. Here are some quotes from your posts:
So it seems you are concerned with:
1) Whether Huckabee is just trying to use Evangelicals.
2) Huckabee’s misspeaks on Pakistan.
3) Huckabee’s negative ad about Romney which he decided not to run, but played for reporters anyway.
4) Huckabee’s record on releasing prisoners.
5) Whether Huckabee is really an orthodox conservative?
Now before I answer your questions, let me direct you to Huckabee’s statements on the issues, and his truth squad (which debunks some of the anti-Huck media spin).
Okay, about your points:
1) Huckabee is a true blue Evangelical and he is actually trying to gain support from a wider sector than just Evangelicals. He isn’t supported by the Evangelical bighots of the day, however. Sure he would love our votes, but he understands us and really is a true Evangelical. He was the president of the Arkansas SBC for several years. He pastored in a SBC church. He may not have been a true blue conservative resurgence SBC guy, but he has stood out supporting the SBC position on complementarity in marriage. And has been largely orthodox and conservative in his views.
2) I’m sure these were blown completely out of proportion. I saw Huckabee interviewed on Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press”, and Tim grilled him on Pakistan and other foreign policy issues and Huckabee did just fine. Huckabee’s article on foreign policy in Foreign Affairs is actually informed and well written. His policy is similar to Guliani’s from what I’ve heard. See also this good post on Huckabee’s policy.
3) Okay, Huckabee tells us he legitimitaley produced an ad against Romney to try to answer his charges, etc. But then at the last minute, Huckabee had a change of heart and didn’t want to air it. He already had a press conference scheduled. What should he do? Well he decided to announce he is not airing the negative ad. And since he has received a lot of heat from various media outlets, he decided to air it to the media only to convince them that the ad really had been made and this wasn’t all a hoax. Already they had sent some of the ads to some TV stations, but recalled them. Huckabee destroyed all the copies they had of it. But some TV station or other leaked their ad onto the web. Just like with the “floating cross”, Huckabee and his campaign is not well enough staffed or financed to have come up with a brilliant plan to gain publicity in this way. The Christmas ad thing was just a book shelf, and they ad libbed the ad. The Romney video thing was what it was. An attempt to pull the ad and stay positive. I take him at his face value.
4) Arkansas’ rules on commutations and pardons are much different than say Massachusetts. Huckabee was governor for 10 and a half years. He denied basically 90% or so of the requests for pardon. Romney went after him for his record on this. But the truth is, Romney only reviewed around 100 cases, not thousands of cases like Huckabee. And Romney never granted one pardon or commutation. Not even when an Iraq war veteran personally wrote his governor (Romney) to ask for a small non violent offense that was on his record from when he was 17 to be removed so that he could pursue a career in law enforcement. Huckabee said about this that if he was only worried about his own interests, he would never have pardoned or commuted a single prisoner/sentence. It is never popular to pardon someone. But as governor he felt he had the responsibility to personally review every application that came across his desk. The vast majority of cases that he did commute or pardon were similar to the Iraq war veteran’s case. People wanting to get a job in a nursing home or in public service or somewhere else that required no convictions on their record. Now in the post 911 world, such background checks and requirements are even more stringent. So for non violent offenses where the person went on to never commit another crime for decades and now wants a chance at a job, Gov. Huckabee felt he should pardon them. They had already served time, community service, or paid a fine. It didn’t change that. Again check out Huckabee’s truth squad on this point.
Larry did a good job explaining the Dumond case, but check out Huckabee’s own account of that matter.
5) I recommend looking at Huckabee’s positions. His tax record is questioned, but Romney raised fees even more than Huckabee raised taxes. Part of the problem was a Supreme Court order in his state to raise taxes for improving a sub-par state education system. Some of the taxes were approved in huge numbers in state-wide votes. Most of them were compromises with the Democratic controlled state congress. As a governor he had to balance the budget and ensure his state was able to function. He couldn’t just add to the federal debt or anything. So he didn’t have the convenience of refusing to budge. Now he also had over 90 tax cuts, including the first broad based tax cuts in his state’s history. He left the state with a budget surplus — even with it being a Democrat controlled state. That’s a pretty good record. Beside his record, he has signed the no-tax-increase pledge for when he is president. At the federal level he will not support any tax increases.
He also is for the Fair tax, a consumption tax which would replace the income tax.
On social issues he is a dyed in the wool conservative. But he also speaks of education and helping the poor, and being careful with our environment. While these may not be Republican issues, they should be. God calls us to steward the earth for him, and to help the poor.
Huckabee is not liked by some conservative media, because they think he is vulnerable in a general election to being defeated by the Dems. In all fairness, he is being attacked for things that Romney has done worse or that Guliani equally supports, yet the attack doesn’t go against Romney or Guliani? It’s all politics really.
The more I have examined his record, the more convinced I am that Huckabee is for real. He isn’t a cookie cutter Republican, but he is conservative. He is for limited government and a Constitutionally-controlled congress/court. He stands for pro-life and pro-family causes, but he is willing to cooperate with Democrats to do what government has to do: govern. He has a record of accomplishing many important things in his Dem-controlled state, and he has the right vision for our country which can unite it and move us forward.
Thanks for your concerns, Gage. My advice: dig a little deeper and you’ll be more impressed with Huckabee very soon!
One more thing, check out this post backing Huckabee by Justin Taylor (Between Two Worlds), Joe Carter (Evangelical Outpost) and Matt Anderson (Mere Orthodoxy) [note, sometimes evangelical outpost’s servers go down, but try later and it should work]. It is thorough and proves Huckabee really is a true conservative.
Thanks again, Gage.
Your pal, Bob.
Bob,
Many thanks sir. You being a Huck supporter did exactly what I was looking for. You answered my questions and it is greatly appreciated sir. I personally have not made up my mind. The nominee will probably be decided before the primaries in Texas. But I appreciate the links. I will dig. As O’Reilly says, “You are a true Patriot sir!”
Gage Browning
Post Tenebras Lux
Hey Huckabee supporters! Please take a minute to check this post out from the GA Republican. If you live in America and support Mike and the Fair Tax this is for you, especially those in SC. Thanks!
Read the Post Here
You’re welcome, Gage.
Blessings.
See my blog at http://www.commonsensibilities.blogspot.com
I have a blog on How the Race Breaks for Mike, and a blog on why the Talkers Will be Back. See what you think!
Fundies are liars;
I’m not gonna post a negative commercial here, but I’m gonna show it to you-
If I raised taxes as much as he I’d lie too.
Did he really say he’d give a ‘billion dollars to the company that created a 100mpg car’??!! nevermind they already exist. Forgiving that frailty, a standard gas car can’t. I mean who told him it could?? 50+% inneficiency?
I suppose it’s telling that he thinks he can hand out a billion here a billion there…No wonder he wants to change the constitution. He’s as ignorant that the Constitution derives of the Bible as he is that the Presidency actually derives of the Constitution!
we don’t need ammendment, we need amended constitutional governmental pracitce!
He’ll never outlaw abortion cuz he’s as feminist as the rest. Bush III