Iowa Caucuses Tomorrow/Moneybag And Flustered Critics Notwithstanding, Huckabee The "True" Fiscal Conservative/Blog On Romney's negatives

I want to do some more reading, but I want to put this up now, since the Iowa Caucuses are tomorrow. Here are a few blog exchanges that I have had in the past day or two. The first is with a fellow Huckabee blogger, the others are exchanges with expressed (and misguided) Huckabee detractors. At bottom is a blogger question about

Romney that I thought merited consideration.

I was referred to a post at Matt's Corner and read down to Thursday’s post:

Thursday, December 27, 2007
How Fiscal Conservatives Use Social Conservatives
In an article at bloomberg.com, columnist Matthew Benjamin succinctly describes the division of labor (and rewards) in the Republican Party:
In doing so, he [Huckabee] threatens the uneasy if effective coalition Republicans have counted on for three decades: abortion opponents and other social-issue activists supplying foot soldiers, proponents of tax cuts and business-friendly regulatory policies putting up the money and getting the biggest economic benefits.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aW4kA.Dle4BU&refer=politics

Fiscal conservatives have used social conservatives to do all the heavy lifting so that they (the fiscal conservatives) can make a sizeable return on their investments. However, while the fiscal conservatives are making money off of the efforts of social conservatives who labor for their selected candidates, the social conservatives end up getting stuck with the bag. Instead of having a truly pro-life, pro-family candidate who will go out on a limb and say, "Right is right, wrong is wrong," social conservatives are told to be pragmatic. "Would you rather have Hillary Clinton?" they are told.

Well enough!

Even though he may lack financial backing, Mike Huckabee is demonstrating that social conservatives can unite behind a viable cnadidate. In fact, he has demonstrated that money cannot buy elections; otherwise, Mitt Romney would already be picking curtains for the Oval Office.

Larry said:

I have written about so-called fiscal conservatives taking social conservatives for granted. I wrote that social conservatives have always been asked, "Do you want to see the Democrat elected?" And, social conservatives have usually gone along.

But I then asked, "If Huckabee is nominated and the shoe is on the other foot, will the fiscal conservatives go along? I'm not so sure. Democrats too, are up to their necks in corporate money and commitments. And socialistic tendencies favor established financial interest: they will take a tax hike with policies that restrict entry into markets, maintaining/expanding established market-share.

True conservative/free-market policy like Huckabee advocates is friendly to market entry and innovation for enterprises not yet established. That's why all of this so-called fiscal conservative criticism is nonsense. When he talks about being Main Street and/or small business friendly, and about things like the Fair Tax (which would fairly tax EVERYONE'S expenditures, that's what he's talking about. The established money have teams of accountants to make things tax-free and shift the tax burden downward to the middle class.

Now, which side do you think multi-millionaire investment counselor Mitt Romney, looking for sure investments in a less-dynamic and unpredictable economy would be on? You can almost see the hair of he and other big-money investors curling when the consider the Fair Tax. "Fair," means that they won't be special, anymore.

Here is one critical excerpt at Below The Beltway , John McCain’s New Hampshire Surge , and a response:

>So it looks like the Republican race in New Hampshire will be a battle between McCain and Romney, with the rest of the field battling it out for third place. If Huckabee wins in Iowa and McCain takes New Hampshire, we could see a quick end to Mitt Romney’s campaign. And, more distressingly, I may actually find myself rooting for McCain over the Huckster.

• Larry Perrault Says:
January 1st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I would like to ask, speaking as a lifelong conservative, who many have considered an extreme ideologue, especially after I left being a Republican activist to vote 3rd-party for 2 cycles, what at this point does one who spends a lot of time on the Internet where the truth can be uncovered (as opposed to misguided scuttlebutt), find offensive about Mike Huckabee? This seems especially ironic from someone who has found an appeal in Mitt Romney.
I have speculated about these objections from conservatives and only come up with a few possible explanations beyond the apparent absence of a PRIMARY concern about the sanctity of human life.
Many large money-movers, accustomed to writing off every luxury as a “business expense,” might find the Fair Tax that Huckabee supports, which would levy a tax on everything from paper clips to jets. Accustomed to special treatment, a “Fair” tax system might not be so appealing.
Also, among some “establishment” Republicans, an unshaded evangelical Christianity might be considered just culturally gauche: a little “creepy.” Speaking of that, it’s a little interesting to me to consider a man with his personal history a “cynical opportunist.” (as I began writing, I saw the reference to this post in the margin, which I’ll check out - again, and converesly(?), Romney is just the most genuine and straightforward guy in the race?
Lastly, I think for a lot of particularly aggravated conservatives, there may be some displeasure with Huckabee’s disposition: he often says, “I’m a conservative, but I’m not mad at anybody about it.”
Some conservatives might say, “I’m a conservative, AND I’M MAD AS HELL AT A LOT OF PEOPLE!” Would they find “cynical,” a conservative who is not perpetually angry?
--By the way, I’m a conservative who is working not to be mad about it.

One libertarian blogger at http://www.jasonpye.com/ wrote to Neil Boortz, the libertarian radio talk-show host, expressing dismay at Boortz endorsement of Huckabee. Boortz is a Fair Tax supporter who has actually co-authorerd a book with US Rep. John Linder. But, this blog lists the familiar laundry list of conservative (and inaccurate) objections to Huckabee.

I responded:
These points could be responded to one by one: perrault@sbcglobal.net , if you like. But, all of this dispairing about Huckabee is misguided. In the first place, the idea that Huckabee is a liberal spendthrift is nonsense. People believe that who believe other peoples' words without doing any study of their own. Money inflates and budgets grow. Over the course of Huckabee's governorship, his state's budget grew at about half the rate of the average American state.
In the second place, it is a CRASHING irony for these concerns to be stated over Huckabee, given the conservative/constitutional infidels who are the nearest competitors: Romney, Giuliani, McCain, Thompson? Philosophically clueless. At least Romney knows to pull any leg that sticks out in front of him. None of these are close to as constitutionally constrained as Huckabee. He constantly cites the appropriate state v. federal distinction of powers of the 10th Amendment. Anyone who was paying attention would know that.
The supposed "fiscal conservatives" that oppose Huckabee have ultrior motives, and opposition to The Fair Tax is one of them. People who write off nearly every luxury as a "business expense," effectively shifting the tax burden down to the middle class, don't want it "fair." They are used to being privileged.
The idea that Huckabee is cynically using The Fair Tax to gain power and will then ignore it and tax away is unmitigated paranoia. Huckabee has signed the Americans for Tax Reform "no new taxes " pledge and constantly says the federal government doesn't need more money. Again, pay attention.
And lastly: so-called "populist" rhetoric does not define liberal policy. Huckabee is a smart and honest man who grew up in a Democrat family, in a Democrat town, in a Democrat state, and BECAME a Republican. But not just because he doesn't care about middle and lower class people. He knows that true conservative free-market policy (like our current tax system ISN'T) provides the most opportunity for EVERYONE!
The sound of that rhetoric is the sound of the Democrats' most powerful emotional tool being cut right out from under them. It's the sound of general election victory for conservative principle. Take a muscle relaxer.

Another critical excerpt at http://hardstarboard.blogspot.com and a response comment

>…Nothing shocking or unusual about that (Romney’s) thirty-second spot. It just seeks to remind Republican voters that Mike xxxxx Huckabee is no conservative on foreign policy, national security, fiscal policy, or crime. And it does so very effectively
---I'm sure Mike Huckabee is a swell guy, but in my eyes, he's a mixture of everything I didn't like about Bill Clinton and George Bush.
A big government conservative with a history of accepting gifts from donors, a compulsion to legislate morality, and an "aw shucks," personality designed to catch you off guard, right before you find yourself taxed more to get less freedom.
If our friends in Iowa could give us a hand, we could Chuck Huck January 3rd.

Larry says:
Huckabee is well aware that success breeds criticism. He doesn't expect otherwise. He is just replying that the content misrepresents the facts.
He's not a big government conservative like a Bush. While he was governor, his state raised taxes to tend to state essentials, as state governments must (roads, education, parks, most notably) Huckabee is well aware of and outspoken about the 10th Amendment distinction between federal and state responsibilities, which some pupular culture-saturated "conservatives" evidently no longer are.

Romney’s negative campaigning: is Romney willing to take the party ...
By dotan
“MANCHESTER, NH - The battle between Mitt Romney and John McCain in New Hampshire’s Republican primary took a significant turn yesterday as Romney unveiled his first television advertisement attacking McCain’s record,” writes Michael ...
who is willard milton romney? - http://dotan.wordpress.com

It Looks Like It's Happening - Let Your Servant Depart In Peace

Of course, polls of the last few days have shown Huckabee to be within the margin of error of Mitt Romney’s lead in Iowa: first Wednesday’s CBS/New York Times pool with 27% for Romney to 21% for Huckabee, then Thursday’s American Research Group poll showing Romney – 26% and Huckabee - 24%. It’s two different polls and polls vary. But, the trend is consistent with tat of the last three months, including the accelerating pace of change. It means more notice on conventional media and on political web sites, including a quickly scheduled appearance Thursday night on FOX’s Hannity & Colmes, which will continue to increase the buzz and the movement.

We’ve been hearing that the level of commitment to favored candidates has been soft for months. As Huckabee shows his viability, the soft top of Romney and Thompson’s support should tumble to Huckabee which would feed itself. The only thing the move will tread through is an inevitable barrage of attacks from opponents, including Romney who has tens of millions of dollars vested in his lead. And old political opponents will be dug up to tell horror stories about Huckabee’s past.

The great news is that Mike Huckabee isn’t worried. He has nothing to hide. He will just continue to face the questions and leave it to the people to judge and for God to control. The touchiest thing is for Romney to calculate how to plant doubts without overstepping and being caught in an obvious and outrageous deception or becoming Mr. Negative, either of which of course would only make things worse for him with a faster fall. I’d rather be in Huckabee’s shoes, for sure. He has the message and the truth, and Romney has LOTS of money. That’s where we’ve been for 4 or 5 months. Result? About a twenty point increase in Romney has burned many millions in advertising to stand still, at best.

I’ve been keeping and tweaking predictions since June. I picked Romney and Huckabee’s 1,2 finish in the Aug. Ames, Iowa Straw Poll and almost picked Romney’s numbers dead on (32% while he finished with 31.5%) and missed Huckabee’s by 2 percentage points.

I’ve been doing the same since, and have projected Huckabee winning for a couple of weeks, now. It’s going to be an interesting holiday season with all the feathers flying. But, I’ve been praying for months and haven’t been so thankful since I got married and my kids were born!

By the way, today's Rasmussen national tracking poll has Huckabee tied for 2nd.

We had a Houston Huckabee MeetUp, Thursday evening. No big surprises there: just a bunch of people who are struck by an unprecedentedly promising prospect for America, and just kinda fired up about it and talking about what we can do. The MeetUp organizer picked me up as I no longer drive. As I told him, I’m 50 years old now, and have paid close attention to society, the world, and politics since JFK was assassinated when I was 6. I went to a Nixon rally in 1968. But I haven’t ridden with a winner through the primaries since Reagan in 1980, whom I had lost with against Ford in 1776. I think it would be fair enough to win twice in your life. I was excited in 1980, but this sentimental ol’ dude has way more emotion wrapped up in this one. It almost seems like after this victory I’d feel like Simeon, as my father always quoted from The King James Version when something good happened:

Luke 2:29 (King James Version)

29Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

Now THAT, was a bigger deal!

See This Short Video: What We Need/We Just Need To Do The Right Thing

This video was posted at the campaign blog, today: What We Need

One of the friends that I sent it to responded…” Thank you Larry, I agree completely! I truly hope he wins....I will forward this to friends...”

I answered with these comments about what forces were at work:

Thanks. I honestly think that the battle is in the early states. In Iowa, conservative Christians like Huckabee. In a vacuum, he would win, especially after he has aired some television ads. What’s working against Huckabee is ironically, the people that should be for him. The old guard social conservatives like him, but they are so tuned to the conventional media that they don’t have confidence in the work that Huckabee has done and what he has accomplished in the early states. How much will their neglect persuade people who like Huckabee to not vote for him? Prominent talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt has been declaring that it’s really a two-man race and any social conservative who votes for Huckabee or Thompson is taking a vote from Romney and in effect voting for Giuliani. He even went so far as to say that supporters of McCain and Giuliani are working for Huckabee and Thompson to derail Giuliani.

That’s an interesting thought, but it has crossed over into delusion when he says he thinks that’s what Giuliani and McCain did at the Ames Straw Poll in August to give Huckabee a strong showing. Giuliani and McCain passed on competing in the Ames Straw Poll and snubbed Iowa Republicans, obviously because they knew that they couldn’t win by trying. And, EVERONE knows that that didn’t sit too well with Iowa voters. Huckabee’s success at that straw poll was simple straight-up face-to-face engagement and persuasion.

Voters just need to ignore what they always thought were their “leaders,” which is now an especially inapt word because the “leaders” are really followers. And they aren’t even following their constituents but the faithless winds of the popular culture. People can now do all of their own investigation and should. You can access information in any form on the Internet and weight it and see what you like for yourself.

Anyway, if Huckabee does well in the early states, I’m sure he’ll do just fine in Texas.

Larry

The Republican To Unite And Win

Rudolf Giuliani can only win the Republican nomination if social conservative leaders remain divided and enough other candidates stay in the contest. He wins a plurality in polling among 8 candidates, but he will never win a majority among 2 or 3. Giuliani wants…Giuliani needs to have a lot of other candidates in the race. He relies on a profile of media celebrity and division of the great part of the vote that is not his. Plainly, social conservatives don’t want Giuliani to be the nominee. And, I am one that you can count on not to participate in The Republican Party’s abandonment of America’s first and most fundamental principle: the inalienable right to life. The most nefarious crime is not the abortion perpetrators. It is a society that assimilates the idea that any notion of personal convenience trumps the respect of human life, even our own offspring! That is a civilization in certain demise.

Mitt Romney has invested a considerable fortune into the campaign already, and he will invest more, more quickly even than he will tack on his issues positions, including a fierce attack on anyone other than himself whom social conservatives unite behind. So, if they unite behind someone else, they’d better be certain that person has enough money to defend himself against those inevitable attacks. I don’t believe social conservatives want to see a Romney nomination, either.

Fred Thompson is a lawyer and a lobbyist. He is not a dim man. But, he is not in possession of a clear blueprint of what is moral and proper for American government. If he lacks passion it’s because he lacks the clarity of conviction to drive assert it. He is unpredictable because he has no clear philosophy. Like McCain, he was a big booster for the so-called “campaign finance reform that has made a hash of The Republican campaign, today. Thompson and McCain meant well. They just didn’t have a clear picture of what had to be defended. Thompson and Romney are the vague conservatives that are embraced not out of conviction and passion, but out of a spirit of fear.

2 Timothy 1:7 (New King James Version)

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

John McCain is out of money and in the wilderness in Iowa, not to mention the ambiguity of principle that he shares with Thompson and which repeatedly rears its head with him. He doesn’t understand the full implications of the 1^st Amendment, and like Bush before him, despite his pro-life confession, he would accomplish nothing either in policy or rhetoric to restore the American respect for the sanctity of life. It’s not his fault! Yes, of course he’s a hero and I love the resolve with which he says, “I’d rather lose a war than a campaign…” But relative to American principle and The Constitution, he doesn’t get it! That’s not particularly unique, these days: after so many years in Washington, perhaps he’s gone native. He has a good heart and has run his course loyally. It’s time to put him out to pasture.

I’ll mention Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. They are good men who haven’t a broad enough focus or an appealing enough style. Sam Brownback finally ended his campaign. They will, too and, for the sake of essential American principle and the integrity of The Republican nominee, the sooner, the better.

Ron Paul isn’t going anywhere and neither is his 5-10% of followers…forward or backward.

Mike Huckabee is closing on Mitt Romney in Iowa and has always been on a rising curve in national polling. He’s clear on American values. He’s clear on the 10^th Amendment separation and propriety of powers. He’s clear that defense and security are the first responsibility of the federal government and the president. And, he’s clear on and attentive to the legitimate concerns of most American citizens. He may well be the target of that inevitable Romney attack…and be certain that he has the money to defend himself!

Huckabee Continues To Gain In Iowa, Dick Morris Sees "The Last Right-Wing Survivor"

I'm re-posting this, because I forgot to put labels on it.Thursday, October 18, 2007

Huckabee Continues To Gain In Iowa, Dick Morris Sees "The Last Right-Wing Survivor"

A new Rasmussen poll (the organization that was most accurate in the 2004 cycle) shows Mike Huckabee having passed Giuliani and McCain and in a statistical tie with Thompson’s 19%, with 18%, for second in Iowa. Here is the report . Incidentally, word is that Brownback will mercifully drop out, tomorrow. So you can give Huckabee a few more points. Romney still leads, but has dropped to 25%. So, it looks like we can see Huckabee at about 20%, and that’s just in “polls.” Among those who will actually get out to the caucuses, Huckabee would show higher and Giuliani and McCain would show lower.

Now, Huckabee is showing competitive with Romney in polls!

Remember, before the straw poll in Ames, Huckabee spent less than 5% of what Romney did and bussed in no supporters while Romney bought tickets and bussed hundreds of busses from every county in Iowa. Result? Romney didn’t quite double Huckabee’s second-place showing. It was just plain straight-up retail campaigning and personal appeal. And, there’s still over 2¹/₂ months to go before the caucuses! At the same pace of progress in what Huckabee has called “a marathon,” Huckabee can win!

At RealClearPolitics.com Dick Morris has posted an article about Huckabeer as “The Last Right Wing Survivor.”

Morris cites Romney’s “convenient” flip-flop-flip on abortion, with which social conservatives were not satisfied. Consequently, Fred Thompson was seduced and entered as the conservative savior. But close scrutiny made his personal record look less than appealing, along with his less than vigorous and inspiring campaign style and schedule.

Supporters of the media “frontrunners” like Romney protested Morris’ interference and questioning of their candidates and of course, dismissed “nice-guy” Huckabee as a “lightweight,” as “having no chance,” or in aping published shallow/misguided criticisms about taxes and immigration. It is true that Romney is an accomplished businessman (he’s injected millions of his own dollars into his campaign), if that is your only standard for gravitas. Before entering politics, Huckabee was unapologetically a pastor, calling it perfect preparation because he dealt personally with every social pathology, better bring him to empathize with ordinary Americans. And, he was elected as Arkansas’ Lieutenant Governor in 1993, became Governor in 1996, and was twice reelected. He served Arkansas for 13¹/₂ years, 10¹/₂ as governor.

As he always is, Morris is upfront that he once acted as a political consultant to Huckabee in Arkansas. But as for hawking Huckabee, Morris is only looking at social conservatives politically. He is not near one himself, having politically advised clients of both major parties, and being an enthusiastic Giuliani supporter. His positive comments about Huckabee are like most everyone else’s: that he is honest, sincere, and bright. I’ve been watching policy and politics and presidents for over 35 years, and watching Mike Huckabee intensely, this year. And, the idea that Mike Huckabee is not as or more familiar with and responsible to principle as have been most all of the candidates and elected presidents since I was a boy, is ridiculous!