The funny thing about all this freaking out over Huckabee is that they wouldn’t care at all about his religious fervor if he had the “right” positions on economic and foreign policy. But he talks like a populist (even though his policies would be worse for the poor) and he thinks the Bushies have an arrogant bunker mentality abroad. So all of a sudden, his severe Jesusitude is a problem, where before the establishment would likely see it as an asset. E.J. Dionne explains this nicely.
Huckabee is no William Jennings Bryan, the great fundamentalist scourge of big business a century ago. But Bryan would have appreciated Huckabee’s attack on politics as a mere extension of economics. “If it was all about the money,” Huckabee said recently, “then we might as well put the presidency up on eBay.”
The former Arkansas governor has exposed a fault line within the Republican coalition. The old religious right is dying because it subordinated the views of its followers to short-term political calculations. The white evangelical electorate is tired of taking orders from politicians who care more about protecting the wealthy than ending abortion, more about deregulation than family values.
That’s why Washington-focused religious operatives tied to old GOP strategies are being outdone by new leaders with authentic grass-roots followings — people such as Michael Farris, who chairs the Home School Legal Defense Association and supports Huckabee.
What’s bizarre beyond belief, however, is that Dionne winds around to saying that a Huckabee win in Iowa could help Romney. I’ve also heard that a Huckabee win could help Giuliani, and a Huckabee win could help McCain. Nobody seems to want to admit that a Huckabee win would help Huckabee.
6 Responses to “Conservative Freak-Out, Continued”
Yeah matt, what happened to your die hard support for Rudy?
I listened to Huckabee on Face The Nation. Hearing him, I understood:
1. Why the GOP Establishment is going insane right now and are determined to kill him.
2. Why he was successful in Arkansas.
Huckabee is NOT a ‘ let them eat cake’ kind of conservative. HIS Christian belief system is one rooted in NOT being narrowly defined by Abortion and Homosexuals. Gov. Huckabee, gasp, has read the Bible, and taken to heart the passages about Jesus administering to the poor; helping the ‘least’ among us.
It’s the ‘ helping the least’ among us that has the conservatives going insane.
i am still with rudy, and i will cast my vote for rudy in the primary. but even i cant deny that mccain is doing better in head-to-head match ups against hillary, while rudy is doing almost as well. and with mccain likely only serving one term, a mccain/giuliani ticket might be the way to go. 4 years as vp to add more experience to his accomplished resume, serving with what is likely to be a popular president in mccain, and giving more time for the nonsense about his private life to wash away. bernie kerik or divorces wont have the effect 4 years from now that they do today. add to that the national platform to run a campaign from, more money, better organization from the position of vice president probably would all give rudy a better shot in 4 years then he would have today. and while i think he could still win it this time, i think it would be close, a 51-49 kind of race this cycle. but in 4 years, as VP,and with the clinton’s long gone, i think he could cruise. mccain was always my second choice, but if niether win, i will never vote for huckabee or romney, ever, wont even consider it, not even if you paid me. its rudy or mccain, and if this party is too stubborn to nominate one of them, then i’ll sit back and enjoy the crushing loss mitt the flip will endure.
A couple questions matt.
1) Why don’t you like Huckabee?
2)You’ve been saying for months that Rudy was going to “cruise” to the nomination and that he would destroy Hillary Clinton in a general election. Now you’re saying that it’s not assured that he will get the nomination and that in a general he would win in “a 51-49 kind of race this cycle.”
So were you *gasp* wrong before? Can you admit such a thing?
Something to say?
newest rasmussen has mccain pulling away from hillary. silly liberals, their congress caves left and right, and now their queen may have to face a war hero she can’t possibly defeat(as ever head-to-head poll confirms)!
Left by matt
December 24, 2007 at 1:43pm