Fred slipping in the polls

[Hazcat]

I just don’t see that happening nor do I believe that any true conservative candidate wants to institute a theocratic government. The idea of conservatism is based on freedom of the people. The freedom to worship whomever you please is your choice, the freedom not to is also your choice. I have to laugh when people say they fear the “religious right”. Are you afraid that someone might talk to you about their god? Every Christian religion’s purpose is to spread their gospel, whatever it may happen to be. Just tell them to get lost if you’re uncomfortable with it. I was raised in a Christian family but I’m not particularly religious; however these are not the people I fear in government. It’s the ones who want to limit my freedom, the same people that want to regulate how much water I can flush down my toilet at one time, what vehicle I can drive, if I can have trans fats in my food, where, if and when I’m allowed to smoke, those who want me to rely on them for health care and the people who will treat my rights like privileges they can legislate away and deny my right to self defense, tell me how many rounds I can have in a magazine and what firearms I can keep in my own home. These are the people I fear in government.

Well said.

[Teresa Heilevang]

Yep.. very well said.
Marshal and I watched Huckabee on the Glenn Beck show and the interview  was very very good. The man has precise strong grass roots answers and beliefs and is a 'to the point' person who pretty much says what I think.

We also watched the Republican candidates on Fox last night.
 Guiliani may impress some with his forked tongue lip service.. but I think Mike Huckabee is going to be a strong contender.
I wish Fred would act a bit more passionate about issues.. but............  haven't seen it yet.

Time will tell~~
 

[camacho]

Below is an article from the Washington Post. There have been many articles like that in the national media. It very well outlines why Mike is a great candidate and why he deserves our support. As far I as I am concerned he is the only chance we have. Fred, unfortunately, is not the savior we all thought he would be.

How Huckabee Could Rock the 2008 Vote

By Charles Mahtesian
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B03

"Southern political personalities, like sweet corn, travel badly," A.J. Liebling once famously noted. "They lose flavor with every hundred yards away from the patch." But in the case of Mike Huckabee, the opposite might be true.

The farther this Baptist preacher-turned-presidential candidate gets from Little Rock, the more appealing he becomes. From theManhattan studios of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" to the Values Voter Summit in Washington, from the straw poll in Ames, Iowa, to a jam session with a high school jazz band in Concord, N.H., Huckabee has blended his faith and social conservatism into an appealing package -- one that's true to his evangelical roots yet somehow unthreatening to more secular audiences.

He has even charmed the national media (no mean feat for an antiabortion Christian conservative and former president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention). More to the point, he has surged into second place among Republicans in Iowa, where his 19 percent support in the most recent American Research Group poll places him behind only the front-running Mitt Romney, who has 27 percent. In March, the former Arkansas governor's support was so low it registered as an asterisk. Not anymore.

Huckabee is for real -- a man poised to go further on the national stage than any other candidate produced by the Christian conservative movement. Sure, some pundits still write him off, and back home, detractors insist that he's just angling for a plum Cabinet post. But you can spot an awfully convincing blueprint for how the candidate once tagged as "the hillbilly Ronald Reagan" could win the Republican nomination -- or end up as the inevitable vice presidential pick on a GOP ticket led by Rudy Giuliani. That's more than you can say for some of Huckabee's rivals.

The story begins in Iowa, where the Huckabee boomlet took off in August after he came in a surprise second to the cash-laden Romney in the Ames straw poll. The state, which traditionally winnows the field rather than anointing a winner, has plenty of energetic and politically astute Christian conservatives, who helped the televangelist Pat Robertson stun the political world in 1988 with his 25 percent second-place finish in the caucuses. Huckabee doesn't have to win Iowa, though his standing in the polls suggests that it's not out of the question. All he has to do is place or show.

Then there's chilly New Hampshire, a place where Christian right candidates go to die. The state's far more secular-minded voters won't quickly warm to a Southern Baptist who began his preaching career in high school. But if Huckabee survives Iowa, chances are that one of the current top-tier candidates won't. If Romney is bloodied or bowed there, social conservatives will need another vehicle to block Giuliani, who supports abortion-rights. And Huckabee will again be campaigning in a state he doesn't need to win outright. He simply needs a solid showing in New Hampshire, one that establishes his viability going forward, when the campaign heads South. Remember, another Arkansan, Bill Clinton, didn't win New Hampshire either: He defied expectations and lived to fight another day.

Huckabee's mere survival through Iowa and New Hampshire would suddenly become a huge political story. Coasting on media attention, Michigan's Jan. 15 GOP primary would become less important to Huckabee as the Republicans' attention turns to South Carolina's Jan. 19 primary: the preacher's chance to shine. While he has yet to win over politically pragmatic Christian conservative leaders who wonder about his electability and worry about his weak fundraising, it's hard to imagine them turning their backs on one of their own at the very moment when Huckabee will be closer to the Oval Office than any other Republican Southern Baptist in history.

In South Carolina, the nerve center of the Christian right, Huckabee will have broad appeal, and all without the off-putting Bible-thumping baggage that could hurt him in the state's coastal Low Country. This will be where Huckabee sticks the dagger into Fred Thompson (assuming the slow-moving former senator is still around) and establishes himself as the conservative's conservative. Huckabee will move on to another good opportunity with Florida's contest 10 days later, then brace for the major primary payday on Feb. 5, when Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and several other heavily Southern Baptist states cast their votes. When the dust settles on Feb. 6, carrying the South would let Huckabee have a one-on-one duel, possibly with Giuliani, that enables him to showcase his greatest asset: his personality. Could that take him all the way? The abrasive Giuliani, or any other finalist, would rule that out at his peril.

Naturally, the Huckabee scenario depends on his ability to attract Republicans who have never cast their lot with an evangelical. But these voters haven't met a candidate quite like Huckabee. From the beginning of his political career at age 36, when he left his successful ministry at Texarkana's Beech Street First Baptist Church to embark on a long-shot 1992 Senate run, he has worked the margins of faith and politics to craft his own brand of "compassionate conservatism."

Huckabee, 52, has spent so much time in the public eye -- first as a minister, then as a pol -- that almost no audience can unnerve him. He's clearly a son of the South, but he works in themes with broad pop-culture appeal. He can cite Scripture in one venue, turn around, strap on his guitar and do a respectable cover of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" with his band. As he told a crowd in Clear Lake, Iowa, recently: "We want to show that conservatives, Republicans, Christian believers can have as much fun as anybody else in the whole world." He may not always seem presidential, but he doesn't seem scary either.

Huckabee's style is more Bill Clinton than Pat Robertson, forged in the pulpit and honed in the statehouse. Like Clinton, Huckabee was born in Hope. And like Clinton, he was elected governor of Arkansas Boys State, the leadership-training camp for civic-minded youths.

In Arkansas, Huckabee worked to enact broad-based tax cuts, but he also signed measures that increased the sales tax on gasoline and cigarettes. He persuaded voters to approve a $1 billion road-construction package and helped establish a much-lauded program to expand health-care coverage to children. In 2005, he won credit for his state's role in assisting more than 60,000 Hurricane Katrina refugees. Working with church leaders, Huckabee bypassed the feds and dispersed evacuees to the many Christian church camps that had closed at summer's end.

Huckabee has never been shy about discussing his beliefs. "My faith is my life," he says on his campaign Web site. "It defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them." At the same time, he avoids the lacerating rhetoric preferred by culture warriors -- a lesson learned from his maiden run for office in 1992, when his tough attacks on Democratic Sen. Dale Bumpers backfired. He has been at his best as a healer; in 1989-90, as head of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, he kept peace between warring moderate and conservative factions, and in 1996, he won widespread praise for deftly handling his awkward ascension to the governorship after the stunning conviction of Democratic Gov. Jim Guy Tucker on charges stemming from the Whitewater investigation.

The clearest testament to Huckabee's dexterity -- and the staying power of his faith-infused, soft-edged conservatism -- is the very makeup of the 2008 GOP field. In the mid-1990s, Huckabee was a frequently overlooked member of the celebrated corps of Republican Revolution-era governors. The talent pool ran so deep at the time that the party seemed stocked with viable presidential aspirants for decades to come.

But while one of those governors, George W. Bush, found his way to the White House, the others slowly faded. By late 2006, just three governors were in the hunt to succeed Bush -- Huckabee, New York's George Pataki and Wisconsin's Tommy Thompson. Pataki quickly learned that he had no constituency and never entered the race. Thompson did jump in, only to discover that his signature issue, welfare reform, had lost its political saliency.

That leaves Huckabee, the last 1990s-era Republican governor standing in the 2008 race. As his rise shows, religion never goes out of style in American politics. Huckabee's rivals may yet learn that the hard way.

cmahtesian@nationaljournal.com

Charles Mahtesian is the editor of The Almanac of American Politics.

[jaybet]

Sadly Fred doesn't seem to want it- he just doesn't perform, and that doesn't speak well of how he might approach the "big job" if he somehow won it. Huckabee has impressed me every time I see him. He's a guy who will be able to make friends with other world leaders. He also seems like a guy who will do what is right. The Republicans are going to need a strong and DISTINCTIVE candidate, I think, because it's most likely going to boil down to that person or the Hilary. We should not send an ambiguous, glad hander like Giuliani up against her. Huckabee, given the full exposure as the nominee, could give her a race I think.

All of the candidates have at least one position or belief that one can argue with. In this day and age I can't believe that someone would write off a candidate because of one issue (except, of course, the second amendment). You have to pick the person with the most positives because they all have negatives.

[camacho]

All of the candidates have at least one position or belief that one can argue with. In this day and age I can't believe that someone would write off a candidate because of one issue (except, of course, the second amendment). You have to pick the person with the most positives because they all have negatives.

Well said, sir!The issue with Mike's religion and beliefs that some folks might find uncomfortable can be easily negated with the fact that he clearly does not shove it in people's throats. I read in an article that actually because of his faith, he tailored some policies in AK towards rehabilitation not always punishment. He is compassionate and a lot of it comes from his faith. In case like this the only thing I can say is more power to his faith (even though I do not share it)!

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

It's an imperfect world....so that's what we're going to have as presidential candidates....imperfect people.  I'm laying back for now...waiting to see something that sparks me.  After the traitorous actions of not defending our borders.......the Republican Party is on my #@$% list...but then I've never voted party anyway...still, it hurts when "conservatives" sell you out...worse yet sell out the entire country.

Oh, I have my culls already...Hillary...O'bum bumma....the guy from NYC who was mayor, etc.  I just don't have a favorite to support yet...I was hoping for Fred..but I'd like to see Fred distance himself from senators Lindsey Graham (spelling) and Trent Lott and the other Rhino Repubs (conservative???  HA..) that preach the free border invasion message.

I'm afraid economics is going to sway the election...the dollar is becoming the world's junk currency and the smart money has already switched to other currencies to keep from losing value.  When Wal Mart soon raises prices to cover the dollar's fall against Chinese currency we'll see repercussions in the presidential campaign from Joe on the street.  The interest rate cut to prop up the big banks profits is throwing the $ for a loop...see the government (congress and White House) encouraged banks to be "diverse" and "politically correct" and loan money to the disadvantaged...laws/regulations were loosed....creditworthiness be damned...and it snowballed over the years (started around '98?) into really cheap across the board money.  We've always bounced back in the past...the $ was the world's currency...problem is the $ has lost serous ground as being the world's currency and the "bounce back" is not going to be as easy as the last 50 years since World War II.

At some point, to pay this debt the government is going to have to print more $'s...then the $ falls some more and maybe we see interest rates go sky high.  

Whoever it is...it's gotta be a strong 2nd ammendment supporter.  It would help to have someone who knows how to hold onto a dollar.