Huckabee On The Cusp Of Victory. Add To The Momentum, NOW!

From the Huckabee web site: "Our Conservative Choice"

“This morning, three bloggers Justin Taylor (Between Two Worlds), Joe Carter (Evangelical Outpost) and Matthew Anderson (Mere Orthodoxy) jointly endorsed Governor Huckabee. We encourage you to read their endorsement here.”

They comment on Huckabee’s fidelity to the three lines of conservatism: social, fiscal, and defense. Relative to the fiscal issue, they address questions that have been raised by such as The Club For Growth, accounting their opposition to Huckabee entirely to flawed analysis, though acknowledging that the animus may have driven them to misrepresent some of the facts. Myself, especially given the silence about the other less scrupulous conservative candidates, I am inclined to suspect an external political or financial motive on the part of the Club For Growth. (by the way, that is CFG, not “CFC.”

They also cite comments about Huckabee’s character and distinctiveness in popular media, even from non-conservative sources (you will find the same sort of admiration on the web, even among more resolute and less decorous bloggers and commenters). One citation is the recent Newsweek article by Jonathan Alter, who is no conservative or Republican of any stripe. Alter’s article included this line: “…his support for large-scale federal support of art and music programs to improve creativity…” This comment of Alter’s, which sees (and projects upon Huckabee) the support of federal expansion and activism as a positive thing, is the flip-side of conservatives who recoil at the mention of ordinary decency when in any way connected with government officials or campaigns.

Huckabee never said a word about “large scale federal support…” though he would encourage and help facilitate private and local efforts. Huckabee well understands the constitutional constraints and practical limits of federal power. Some criticism from conservative groups seems to be the result of an inculcated and now reflexive fear about certain patterns of language. Though in abstraction from such fears it is strictly common-sense and biblical ethics, calling greed a bad thing or expressing concern for needy or average people as much as for Wall Street and corporate managers, conjures nightmares of liberal government intrusion into the operation of private interests, for some conservatives. As I have said, this is similar to the cringing of an abused dog when one picks up a rolled-up newspaper. I’m pretty confident that few of these jumpy people are more historically or philosophically conservative than I am.

Anyway, Huckabee’s constant climb continues. Fence-sitting “he can’t win” paralysis is teetering and I believe many notable endorsements are on the doorstep. In fact, the progress is at or past the point where the so-called “frontrunners” will be hearing footsteps. I would expect Giuliani, McCain, and maybe Thompson if her can’t make some magic happen soon (and I see no sign of it) to begin to and ultimately assertively discount the importance of the Iowa Caucuses, just as they have discounted other forums that posed the risk of being outshone.

But Romney can’t do that. He has banked everything on winning Iowa and hopefully New Hampshire, and still leads those states in recent polls, though by diminishing margins. And, when I say banked, I mean B-A-N-K-E-D – Romney has spent nearly 50 million dollars on this campaign. So, what is he going to do? If he has so much effort and resources invested, do you think he’s going to give up? – a rhetorical question. And, he can’t discount the importance of Iowa.

So, the only remaining avenue is to ATTACK! And the attack will make other “conservative attacks like The Club For Growth’s look like a tea party. And this will highlight the incongruity of Romney’s statements only a few years ago in Massachusetts. But, he has no choice. This could come at any time. In fact, I won’t be surprised to see the beginning after I post this writing and return to the web.

What does that say to us? Same ol’ story. SEND MONEY to the Huckabee campaign: it costs money to get your message out, and it costs money to respond and disarm attacks. And, give WHATEVER you can, whether $10, the $2300 maximum, or anything in-between. Remember, there are tens of thousands of potential ten dollar donors (hundreds of thousands of dollars) for every twenty-three hundred dollar donor. Give SOMETHING, NOW! Make a donation to the Huckabee campaign.

Incidentally, even the financial momentum is REAL! The campaign set a goal of $200,00o raised online in 15 days. Well past it, they yesterday raised the goal to $450, 000, which they reached, last night. This morning they raised the online target alone, to last quarter’s TOTAL of just over one million dollars. This afternoon, they are ¾ there, and at this rate will hit the target TONIGHT! And, with six days to go! That will be one million in 25 days and HALF OF IT IN ONE DAY!

That kind of momentum will WORK, and end the “no money” line. With momentum AND money, even if I put aside my convictions like others have, there’s no safer boat to be in. I’ve been tweaking my predictions with the ongoing changes in the campaign. Today, I finally fear that we might peal too early. Outside of a successful attack, Huckabee will WIN Iowa. Surely, there’s someone with the Romney campaign watching what’s happening. The Huckabee campaign needs to don its PR flak jacket.