Tag: election

Don't Waver on Your Vote for Huckabee

~ fundyreformed ~ 6 Comments

Huckabee won the first state of this Super Tuesday. West Virginia gave its 18 delegates to him.**

He upset heavily favored Romney to do so, and that may be a harbinger of things to come later tonight.

Romney, and his supporters have everywhere trumpeted the notion that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain. Someone recently claimed this on one of my old posts. But that is not the truth.

Huckabee is not splitting the conservative vote between himself and Romney. The facts, from polling data, are that a majority of Huckabee supporters would actually go with McCain over Romney. I’d probably find myself in that category, even though I have serious reservations with McCain.

Plus Huckabee is only getting 24% of the Republicans who attend church regularly — only 1 point better than Romney. And both of them are getting a smaller support than McCain. [For proof see this post citing recent USA/Gallop polling numbers.]

So a vote for Huckabee is really a vote for Huckabee. It actually helps prevent a landslide McCain victory. That may not be preventable after today, we shall see. But today, you’ve got to get out and vote for Huckabee!

**Note while McCain’s supporters helped in Huckabee’s WV win, the rules of WV’s convention required a majority support for 1 candidate. It’s just simple politics, that’s all. No backhanded deal between Huckabee and McCain, like Romney’s insinuating.

Don't Give Up on Huckabee!

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

McCain is not a foregone conclusion. And it certainly isn’t a 2 man race. While the polling numbers aren’t great for Huckabee, he’s quite close to Romney, statistically sharing the number 2 slot. He’s come from behind in the past, so don’t count him out.

Vote for the candidate with the best message, not the most pragmatic choice available. When its the general election, then we might have to settle for who the party has nominated, but let’s not back down now!

All Huckabee needs is the conservative base of the party to coalesce around him in the sourthern states up for grabs on Tuesday. He may need your vote!

With this in mind, read Kevin Tracy’s excellent post using California’s recent special gubernatorial race as an example of why we should not waver on supporting Huckabee as the race comes down to the wire.

Jay Leno, Jon Stewart — Why Mike Huckabee Can Win It All

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Mike Huckabee has an outside chance of winning the Republican nomination. It all starts today with the Iowa Caucus. Perhaps his biggest negative is a common assumption that he can’t win it all. He’s too conservative and too Baptist.

In a brilliant move, Huckabee landed an appearance on the Tonight show with Jay Leno last night — the night before the Iowa caucus. What thousands of Iowans saw last night is a charming personable guy. His humor and wit disarms you, and he lives up to his billing as a conservative who isn’t mad at everyone.

Huckabee was wonderfully received by both Leno and his crowd. And it is this ability to portray himself positively and amiably in venues typically unfriendly to Republicans which sets Huckabee apart. In early 2007, he made an appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he impressed Stewart and his crowd as well.

Jay Leno and Jon Stewart treat Huckabee with respect and give him the time of day. Their audiences give him their ear. One can’t imagine the typical Republican being so well received on these shows. So it stands to reason, that Huckabee really can win it all. He really has crossover appeal.

If the video clips below don’t convince you, check out my list of reasons why Huckabee can win the general election. And better yet read a joint endorsement from Joe Carter (Evangelical Outpost), Justin Taylor (Between Two Worlds) and Matthew Anderson (Mere Orthodoxy) which really lays out the case for Huckabee.

See the Daily Show with Jon Stewart interview here.

Mitt Romney: A Smooth, Fast-Talking Politician

~ fundyreformed ~ 10 Comments

Okay, I have to vent here about Romney. From the get go, he’s struck me as smooth, fast-talking and the quintessential politician. He says what we want to hear, and he says different things to please different groups of people. I’m sure there is more to him than this, and I’d probably even vote for him if he won the nomination, but my suspicions endure.

Before I air out the dirty laundry here, let me make one thing clear. Huckabee is not my choice because I’m a fundamental Christian. Videos like this one, make me cringe. America is not the Christian land the Bible speaks of. We are wrong to spiritualize politics and I disliked Bush’s many attempts to do just that.

Huckabee, in my view, doesn’t do this. He takes his faith and its morals and applies them to big issues like poverty, health and education. He aims to do what is right, but he isn’t out trying to spiritualize America as the last Christian nation on earth. He may use Biblical tales as metaphors and figures of speech, but he is not trying to win America for the hard Religious right. (They don’t even support him fully.) Sure he is pro-life, and he is a former pastor. But with 10 years of gubernatorial experience, and a record of accomplishing important things in a highly democratic state, Huckabee’s record proves that he aims to bring America up, not into the grips of one particular ideology.

Okay back to Romney. You’re ready to hear me say “flip-flop” right? And Romney supporters roll their eyes.

But wait, let me stress, I welcome conversions to pro-life views and other conservative positions. I genuinely give Romney some benefit of the doubt. But upon looking more closely at other issues, it becomes clear that this conversion may well be a little too politically motivated.

Convenient Exaggerations

In the news recently, Romney has taken flack for claiming to have seen his father march with Martin Luther King, when in fact the evidence strongly points to the contrary. Worse, Romney then tried to spin his former clear statements into literary devices quibbling over the definition of the word “saw” (in Clintonesque fashion).

This reminds us of Romney’s past statements that he was a lifelong hunter, which turned out to be false. And his more recent claim that the NRA endorsed him as a candidate for Governor, when in fact they didn’t.

Converted to the Pro-Life Cause, Or Not?

In light of these convenient mistakes — convenient in that the statements scored points for him at the time, even though they were doubtful in veracity — this excerpt from a Washington Post blog entitled “Mitt Romney’s Flip Flop Flip” should alarm you.

Romney announced his conversion to “pro-life” views in an editorial in the Boston Globe on July 25, 2005, the day after vetoing a bill expanding access to the so-called “morning after” pill, which required that it be made available to rape victims….

That was not the end of the story, however. The controversy over “emergency contraception” continued to haunt Romney. In October 2005, another bill came to his desk, seeking a federal waiver to expand the number of Massachusetts citizens eligible for family planning services, including the “morning after” pill. Romney signed that bill over the objections of his new anti-abortion allies. On this occasion, he was applauded by “pro-choice” advocates.

The issue came up yet again in December 2005. After weeks of agonizing, Romney instructed all hospitals in the state to comply with the terms of the emergency contraception law, and make the morning-after pill available to rape victims. He acted on the advice of his legal counsel, over the objections of half a dozen Catholic hospitals, which had previously refused to provide emergency contraception on the grounds that it conflicted with their religious views.

“Flip,flop,flip,” editorialized the Boston Herald, on December 9, 2005. “Yes, Gov. Mitt Romney has now executed an Olympic-caliber double flip-flop with a gold medal-performance twist-and-a-half on the issue of emergency contraception.”

This raised my eyebrows because it shows that Romney was flip-flopping on the pro-life issue even before he was seriously running for president. And it should cause even more concern in light of his recent and repeated claims that on every bill that came across his desk concerning abortion, he came down firmly on the side of life. “Abortion” maybe, but “pro life issues” not necessarily, or so it seems.

Yet even on abortion, there is cause for concern. On the campaign trail, Romney has repeatedly traced his conversion to a November 2004 meeting with a doctor regarding stem cell embryos. But this ABC News article points out that:

Within two months of his epiphany on this issue, Romney appointed to a judgeship a Democrat who was an avowed supporter of abortion rights.

Notice this wasn’t a “bill” so Romney may be technically correct, yet this is not what a genuinely pro-life governor does. And to add another twist to that story, the doctor involved has publicly disputed Romney’s version of the facts.

Other Flip-Flops

Hold onto your seat, because there are even more evidences of flip-flopping for good ol’ Mitt.

On Reagan

  • In 1994, when running for political office in liberal Massachussetts, he said: “I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.” — Boston Herald — 10/27/94
  • Now when running for the Republican presidential nomination, he says: “Ronald Reagan is … my hero. … I believe that our party’s ascendancy began with Ronald Reagan’s brand of visionary and courageous leadership.” — Boston Globe — 1/19/07 [HT: Politics & Christianity, drawing from this source, I believe.]

 

On His Desire to Serve in Vietnam

  • “I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam…” — Boston Herald, 5/2/94
  • “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.” — Boston Globe, 6/24/07 [HT: Politics & Christianity, drawing from this source, I believe.]

 

On SCHIP

  • Romney helped expand the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in Massachusetts by signing a state health care plan depending on SCHIP in 2006.
  • In September 2007, Mitt Romney said he would veto expansions to SCHIP, which Congress passed and President Bush promised to veto. [HT: Politics & Christianity. See also this article for documentation.]

 

Other instances could be given, but many of those could properly be credited to legitimate growing and changing his mind. But all in all, when you add all of this up, the picture becomes fairly convincing that Romney is all talk. Especially when you consider his underhanded (our outright dishonest) campaigning.

So, there you have it. Romney’s Mormonism in no way prejudices me against him. The above mentioned history of political pandering does. And his record on judicial nominations seals the deal.

Mike Huckabee, Christianity and Racial Harmony

~ fundyreformed ~ 16 Comments

Everybody knows Mike Huckabee is a Christian. Most know he was a former pastor. And since he is a Southern Baptist and he is white, the assumption might be he doesn’t care about racial issues.

However, what most people don’t know, is that Mike Huckabee won 48% of the black vote in his bid for governor in Arkansas (a highly democratic state) in 1998. While some dispute that number, they agree that Huckabee still had at least 20% or more of the black vote in his state.

Mike Huckabee is actually one of the few Republican candidates for president who really is seeking the black vote. When Guliani, Romney, Thompson & McCain found excuses to miss a nationally televised Republican candidates forum on black issues this September, Huckabee shined. Many pundits legitimately questioned the Republican front-runners absence in the debate. Newt Gingrich said, “I think it is a terrible mistake….I did everything I could to convince them it was the right thing to do, [but] we are in this cycle where Republicans don’t talk to minority groups”. The Boston Globe article linked above went on to say “Gingrich added Republicans cannot afford to ignore black voters during the primaries because the GOP will need their support if they hope to win the general election.”

Now, Huckabee’s presence in the debate aimed at black voters certainly helped him politically. He was the only top-tier candidate in the debate. BlackRepublican at RedState even wonders if that debate was the next step (after his 2nd place finish in the Ames Straw Poll) up in his surge to the front of the polls.

So the charge could certainly be made that Huckabee is just playing politics in pandering to the black vote, and earning some union endorsements as he has done. But is it just politics? Or do Huckabee’s Christian values impact his view of racial issues?

The charge can legitimately be made, unfortunately, that conservative Christians were instrumental in hindering the civil rights movement. But don’t let our sad history influence your view of the Bible and this issue. In Christ, there is to be no class or racial distinctions. We are all one in Christ. And we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. These truths very practically intersect with the racial debate in this country. Indeed, these truths convinced William Wilberforce, a thoroughly evangelical Christian and member of England’s parliament, to dedicate his life to the abolition of the slave trade in England (see this post for more on this wonderful story). Today, more and more, conservative Christians are beginning to promote racial harmony in their churches and communities.

Huckabee reflects this evangelical movement. Listen to his words in the recent Hispanic presidential debate broadcast on Univision.

MODERATOR: Governor Huckabee, is there a risk standing up here (inaudible)?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think the great risk is not so much that we would come. The far greater risk is if we didn’t. And it’s not just that we would offend or perhaps insult the Hispanic audience of this country. I think it would insult our own party. It would insult every voter in this country.

To act like that somehow we’ve become so arrogant that there’s any segment of our population that we’re either afraid to speak to, hear their questions, or somehow that we don’t think that they’re as important as another group. And it’s why I think whether it’s an African American audience, a Hispanic audience, a union audience, as Republicans, we ought to be more than willing to sit down, even with people with whom we might know there are disagreements. And I think, frankly, it’s important for us to be here. It’s important that you gave us this opportunity. And I want to say thanks for letting us have this audience on Univision.

(APPLAUSE)

He basically is saying it would be wrong if Republicans didn’t interact with Hispanics and other minority groups.

Consider also the following quotes from “A Pastor’s True Calling“, one of the articles on Huckabee in this week’s Newsweek.

Alone among the GOP candidates, he speaks emotionally about the legacy of Jim Crow and the dangers of ignoring lingering racism. It is wrong, he says, that inner-city blacks routinely receive harsher sentences than affluent whites arrested for the same crime. [page 2, online]

The Immanuel Baptist Church was an all-white congregation when Huckabee took over the pulpit. One day he announced that a young black man, who heard his sermon on the radio, had asked to worship with them. Huckabee welcomed him to their pews. Some church elders were furious and refused to let the man sit with them. Huckabee threatened to quit unless his guest was greeted warmly. A few members quit in protest, but the rest of the congregation went along. (The church is now integrated.) [page 4, online]

As a boy in segregated Arkansas, Huckabee says he was deeply ashamed of Jim Crow laws. Caldwell, his friend from Boys State, recalls his friend “cringing” whenever someone told a racist joke. As a pastor, Huckabee sermonized about the failure of Christians to speak out forcefully against racism. In 1997, President Clinton and Governor Huckabee both gave emotional speeches in Little Rock at an event marking the 40th anniversary of Central High School’s desegregation. Clinton, slipping into a preacherly cadence, moved the audience. But Huckabee moved many to tears: “Today we come to renounce … the fact that in many parts of the South, it was the white churches that helped not only ignore the problem of racism, but in many cases actually fostered those feelings and sentiments.” He called on people of all faiths “to say never, never, never, never again will we be silent when people’s rights are at stake.” [page 5, online]

Democrats expected the worst of their new evangelical, Republican governor, who welcomed anti-abortion activists to the mansion and tried to pass a law outlawing gays and lesbians from adopting children. But they discovered that Huckabee’s “do unto others” world view also led him to push for more money for schools and a health-care program for poor children that became a model for other states. When he took office, he found that the state’s roadways were falling apart. Huckabee supported controversial legislation that would raise gas taxes to fix them. Some of his fellow Republicans were furious, but voters went along. Huckabee served out his first term and was re-elected twice by wide margins. Even as a Republican in fractious Democratic Arkansas, he maintained approval ratings in the high 50s. [page 5, online]

I found these quotes helpful and exciting. It is wonderful that Huckabee shares a Scriptural approach to racial issues. For those interested, my church promotes racial harmony, and here is a list of online sermons, articles and resources on that topic addressed from a Biblical perspective.

Oh, and click here for links to all the Huckabee articles in this week’s Newsweek, where he’s on the front cover.

Keep up on the latest Huckabee news by checking out my tumble blog: Go Huckabee!