Gov. Mike Huckabee(R)

[SolarEnergy1]

You have continued to dodge my question like a coward.

Please answer the question asked previously.

Mr. Wartman no I am not. I am entitled to post about my candidate on a message board thats free for all. I have not attacked you or made any comments towards. I noticed you seem to like to make yourself look foolish with personal attack on others on this board. That's fine , you're free to do so, But I'm glad you do so many others here can see what you're all about. You're probably upset that your Ron Paul crashed and burned and proved that a campaign can't be made up of solely internet hackers and spammers.

 

[JeffWartman]

Mr. Wartman no I am not. I am entitled to post about my candidate on a message board thats free for all. I have not attacked you or made any comments towards. I noticed you seem to like to make yourself look foolish with personal attack on others on this board. That's fine , you're free to do so, But I'm glad you do so many others here can see what you're all about. You're probably upset that your Ron Paul crashed and burned and proved that a campaign can't be made up of solely internet hackers and spammers.

The way you post, as if you were in a cult, doesn't help your cause.

 

[SolarEnergy1]

Huckabee, Iowa Poll's Real Winner?
Arkansas Ex-Governor's Second-Place Finish
To Romney Could Shake Up Presidential Race

By JACKIE CALMES
August 13, 2007; Page A5

AMES, Iowa -- The biggest winner of Iowa Republicans' weekend straw poll of 11 presidential rivals may well turn out to be not Mitt Romney, whose first-place finish here was expected, but surprise runner-up Mike Huckabee, the guitar-picking former governor of Arkansas.

Should Mr. Huckabee capitalize on his second-place showing here Saturday to get a second look from demoralized Republicans unhappy with their choices -- and to get much-needed funding -- the repercussions could reshuffle the party's contest for its 2008 nomination. Social conservatives, who have come to dominate the Republican party, could decide the candidate they have been looking for has been in the race the whole time, languishing at the back of the pack with little money to promote himself.

That wouldn't be good news for Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who likewise has struggled to be that candidate, or for actor and former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee. Mr. Thompson's still-undeclared candidacy has been propelled by the argument that he could fill the perceived void of a true conservative, and a Southerner, among the field's front-runners of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mr. Romney, the former socially liberal Massachusetts governor now running as a social conservative. But Mr. Thompson has delayed entering the race, to some supporters' chagrin, and didn't compete in Saturday's straw poll.

"With every day that passes, Huckabee fills that void" for conservatives, argued South Carolina's former Republican Gov. David Beasley, a recent Huckabee convert who helped work the crowds for his candidate at Iowa State University. "I really believe now that the conservative voters will begin to coalesce behind Mike Huckabee...and it's going to be infectious in New Hampshire and South Carolina" -- states that, along with Iowa, hold the first presidential-nominating contests next winter.

Mr. Huckabee, ebullient after an outcome that surprised even him, said he offered experience and "a different kind of Republican, not a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street."

Messrs. Thompson and Brownback weren't the only ones to see trouble in the Iowa results and in Mr. Huckabee's high place in them. The nonbinding straw poll is a much-criticized event outside Iowa, since the wealthiest candidates not only pay the $35-a-ballot cost for supporters, but also provide food, lodging, transportation and entertainment. But Mr. Huckabee, nearly broke, was among several candidates with a shoestring operation who heavily relied on supporters to dig into their own pockets.

His showing -- what Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, variously characterized as a David-and-Goliath story or a miracle of the loaves and fishes -- somewhat overshadowed the news of Mr. Romney's victory.

Mr. Romney, a wealthy former venture capitalist, had spent huge sums for the straw poll: His $200,000 for a consultant to organize the effort was alone more than the $150,000 that Mr. Huckabee estimates he spent altogether. Mr. Romney rented buses; Mr. Huckabee's supporters had to find their own way. Where Mr. Romney hired bands to play Saturday at the huge hospitality space he rented, Mr. Huckabee entertained the older crowds himself with his band, Capitol Offense, jamming at one point to the 1970s hit "Free Bird."

With Messrs. Thompson, Giuliani and McCain opting not to compete actively, Mr. Romney was widely expected to win by more than 2-to-1 over the next-highest Republican. His 31.5% of the tally, to Mr. Huckabee's 18.1%, fell short of that.

Also disappointed was Mr. Brownback, who has based his candidacy on an appeal to the antiabortion and antigay marriage Christian conservatives in the party base. He and Mr. Huckabee have been vying to be their candidate. After coming in third with 15.3%, Mr. Brownback said he will campaign on. But, like Mr. Huckabee, he has gone into debt. And now he faces the possibility that conservatives, and their money, will now go to Mr. Huckabee.

That social conservatives have been conflicted was evident Saturday in Mr. Brownback's own tent for supporters in the searing heat on the ISU grounds. Arlyne Cornelson, 63 years old, of Des Moines, said she voted for Mr. Brownback on the recommendation of her friend Sara Morris, 56; the two, finishing the barbecue lunch provided by the Brownback campaign, showed their ink-stained fingers to attest to their having voted. But Mrs. Cornelson added, "Huckabee is a strong Christian man, so it's kind of a hard choice."

Later, as Mr. Huckabee rushed into a coliseum to meet reporters after the results were announced, two women in "Brownback" T-shirts separately stopped him. Both clearly recognized him and congratulated him as if he were their candidate -- and each suggested to him that soon he may be. Once they had gone, Mr. Huckabee explained that each woman had wanted to be for him, but for separate reasons felt they had to initially support Mr. Brownback.

The presidential straw poll, first held the summer before the 1980 election as a fund raiser for the Iowa Republican Party, has emerged as a traditional first test of candidates' appeal and organizational strength, bringing out the most-committed and -conservative partisans -- the type who also will turn out for Iowa's winter caucuses, when the votes really count. Mr. Giuliani and Sen. McCain, both suspect among social conservatives, decided not to compete, though their names were on Saturday's ballots, along with Mr. Thompson's.

Each got only about 1% of the 14,302 votes cast, a poor showing that surprised many, including Iowa Republican Party Chairman Ray Hoffman, despite their absence from recent months' courtship of state party voters. Perhaps most embarrassing was Mr. McCain's 10th place 101 votes, which put the one-time front-runner just 60 ahead of last-place John Cox, a businessman from Chicago. Mr. Thompson got twice as many as Mr. McCain, for seventh place, and 20 more votes than eighth-place Mr. Giuliani.

The Ames straw poll was certain to fulfill what has become a traditional role of winnowing the big early field. Tommy Thompson, the former three-term Wisconsin governor and Bush administration Health and Human Services Department secretary, had said he would end his campaign if he didn't come in first or second; he came in sixth. California Rep. Duncan Hunter's ninth-place finish had Republicans predicting he would exit soon.

Fourth place and fifth place went, respectively, to Reps. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ron Paul of Texas -- impressive showings for two men with narrowly defined candidacies.

Mr. Tancredo is running against illegal immigration and, secondarily, income taxes; with anti-immigration sentiment high among Iowa Republicans, some Republicans thought he might come in second in the straw poll.

Mr. Paul, meanwhile, has built a fanatical following that has embraced his libertarian message and antiwar, anti-interventionist views; supporters came at their own expense from as far as Washington state to help out, though only Iowans could vote.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118696092889395425.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[SolarEnergy1]

Huckabee: a Republican who can lead us back home
James P. Pinkerton
August 21, 2007


Let's compare Mike Huckabee to some of the other presidential candidates.

The former governor of Arkansas is not as rich or handsome as fellow Republican Mitt Romney, nor is he as heroic and tortured as John McCain. And he's certainly not as intense and operatic as Rudy Giuliani.

As for the top Democrats, Huckabee is not nearly as careful and calculating as Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nor is he as dashing and Bobby Kennedy-like as Barack Obama. And he's nowhere near as shiny and pretty as John Edwards. And he certainly doesn't talk as much as Joe Biden.



In an interview, Huckabee comes across as a nice guy, even after 15 years in politics, including 10 years as chief executive of the Razorback State. But don't just take my word for it: David Broder, the veteran columnist, calls him "friendly, down-home," and Steve Kornacki, writing in The New York Observer, describes him as "warm and personable."

Huckabee's warmth extends even to Bill and Hillary Clinton: "You know, I've never hated the Clintons," he told National Public Radio. Huckabee went on to say that Bill "made a lot of mistakes - a lot of personal ones," but noted that Clinton had risen up from a "dysfunctional family" to two terms in the White House.

OK, but what do they say about nice guys? That they finish last? Well, actually, in Huckabee's case, they finish second - and a strong second, at that, in the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames, Iowa. Now the Arkansan has that precious political commodity, buzz: The Boston Globe bannered, "Huckabee sees momentum building," and nothing in the story disputed that headline.

Republicans looking for a candidate to carry on George W. Bush's "democracy building" crusade overseas will have to look elsewhere - although as a front-page article in yesterday's Washington Post makes clear, if even Bush can't implement the signature Bush policy, despite years of effort, it's unlikely that the next president will gamble his or her presidency by pursuing the same grand but quixotic vision.

Even now, it's possible to see the future of Iraq. Five years hence, the Americans will be mostly or completely gone, and Iraq will have as much democracy as that country of jihadists and ex-dictators will allow.

For his part, Huckabee is naturally focused on domestic concerns, starting with the all-important issue of homeland security. So what to do about immigration? "Seal the border," he answers. Huckabee was not the first to see the danger of unlimited immigration in the age of transnational terror, but he sees it now, bringing a commonsense approach to the challenge of border-order: "If FedEx can track a package to within an inch of where it is, at every moment, then we can figure out who's here in this country."

Thinking further about the issues of security and disaster relief, Huckabee argues that it was a mistake to merge the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the larger Department of Homeland Security. FEMA and DHS are "totally different," he explains. DHS is about prevention and protection, which requires searching for clues and quarantining a crime scene, among other priorities. By contrast, FEMA is about getting immediate relief to people. Both functions are vital, but they are different.

Huckabee also praises the effectiveness of James Lee Witt, the Clinton appointee to FEMA in the '90s, back when the agency was independent and had its own Cabinet rank. "They did it right," concludes the Republican about the Democrats.

At a time when every American knows that more storms - natural and man-made - are coming our way, we can hope that a potential president is thinking about the best person for the job, not the right partisan resume.

Someone will be inaugurated early in 2009, charged with leading this country through four perilous years. If we're lucky, the next commander-in-chief will be nice, as well as competent and effective.

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-oppin215339883aug21,0,6847992.column

Also............

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/newsday/THHJOQEGREPQA3AEP#lastPost

 

[SolarEnergy1]

Mike Huckabee beats Ron Paul!!! what a debate tonight!!

way to go mike!!

 

[Annie]

I'm not for Ron Paul for those that have missed it, on the other hand, Huckabee?

http://junkyardblog.net/archives/2007/12/huckabees-forei.php

Huckabee's Foreign Policy Adviser: Michael Corleone?

Rick Moran pointed out this paragraph from Huckabee's Foreign Affairs article (It's at the top of page four, if you can get to it):

Sun-tzu's ancient wisdom is relevant today: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Yet we have not had diplomatic relations with Iran in almost 30 years; the U.S. government usually communicates with the Iranian government through the Swiss embassy in Tehran. When one stops talking to a parent or a friend, differences cannot be resolved and relationships cannot move forward. The same is true for countries.
​

At first I read that and thought, Sun Tzu said that? I always thought that quote was from...

Yep:

* Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
o This has often been attributed to Sun Tzu and sometimes to Niccolò Machiavelli, but there are no published sources yet found which predate its use by "Michael Corleone" in The Godfather Part II (1974), written by Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola: My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
​

It's a good line, and it's not the end of the world if he had just thrown that one off in the stump speech. And hey, the principle is certainly there in Machiavelli (I might find it later today) if not the exact wording.

But Governor? Foreign Affairs. Policy article. Time to impress the swells. Do a little fact checking.

After all, as de Tocqueville said, This is the business we have chosen. Or was that the Federalist Papers?

 

[actsnoblemartin]

I kinda like huckabee.

I'm not for Ron Paul for those that have missed it, on the other hand, Huckabee?

http://junkyardblog.net/archives/2007/12/huckabees-forei.php

 

[Annie]

Some financial problems for Huckabee and why he bears much closer look when it comes to ethics, the question is where there be time?