Comments on: Just Another Country Moralist http://rightsfield.com/2007/10/17/just-another-country-moralist/ Holding Our Noses So You Don't Have To Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:14:32 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: David Dayen http://rightsfield.com/2007/10/17/just-another-country-moralist/comment-page-1/#comment-17614 David Dayen Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:58:52 +0000 http://rightsfield.com/2007/10/17/just-another-country-moralist/#comment-17614 Indeed, I believe Norquist and Reed were in the College Republicans together. I change my opinion on Huckabee's chances every day. It is interesting that the Dobsonites haven't taken him on. Maybe they know he can't win for some unexplained reason. Indeed, I believe Norquist and Reed were in the College Republicans together.

I change my opinion on Huckabee’s chances every day. It is interesting that the Dobsonites haven’t taken him on. Maybe they know he can’t win for some unexplained reason.

]]> By: The Sleep Thief http://rightsfield.com/2007/10/17/just-another-country-moralist/comment-page-1/#comment-17575 The Sleep Thief Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:19:14 +0000 http://rightsfield.com/2007/10/17/just-another-country-moralist/#comment-17575 Why are Dobson and co out talking up a third party spoiler rather than supporting Huckabee? I don't mean that question rhetorically, it honestly puzzles me. My own theory is that the fiscal conservatives (like ClubforGrowth.net) hate him for raising taxes and talking about public funding for health care, and the two movements, fiscal and moral conservatism, are not really separate at the leadership level (Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed are not known for their mutual animosity). If that's right, Huckabee's million-dollar question is, are they separate, or separable, at the grass roots? This post provides a really excellent analysis of his combination of economic populism and moral conservativism, but I just wonder whether working-class Republicans are on balance susceptible to it. Some are, but enough to carry him to the nomination? Incidentally, I think Huckabee would be a tough nominee but not an invincible one, as some seem to believe. His problems with fundraising and outreach would continue to plague him in the general, and I have to say for all his charm I think he seems small somehow (not just after losing the weight) as the governor of a small state with no foreign policy experience. I know that's what Republicans said about Clinton, but I do buy the conventional-wisdom view that the world has changed enough that people perceive qualifications at least subtly differently now. Why are Dobson and co out talking up a third party spoiler rather than supporting Huckabee? I don’t mean that question rhetorically, it honestly puzzles me. My own theory is that the fiscal conservatives (like ClubforGrowth.net) hate him for raising taxes and talking about public funding for health care, and the two movements, fiscal and moral conservatism, are not really separate at the leadership level (Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed are not known for their mutual animosity). If that’s right, Huckabee’s million-dollar question is, are they separate, or separable, at the grass roots? This post provides a really excellent analysis of his combination of economic populism and moral conservativism, but I just wonder whether working-class Republicans are on balance susceptible to it. Some are, but enough to carry him to the nomination? Incidentally, I think Huckabee would be a tough nominee but not an invincible one, as some seem to believe. His problems with fundraising and outreach would continue to plague him in the general, and I have to say for all his charm I think he seems small somehow (not just after losing the weight) as the governor of a small state with no foreign policy experience. I know that’s what Republicans said about Clinton, but I do buy the conventional-wisdom view that the world has changed enough that people perceive qualifications at least subtly differently now.

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