I really had not planned on writing more on this subject, but the sheer number of extreme reactions — ranging from oozing Obamamania on the Left to the unwise bashing of Huckabee supporters — has goaded me into it.
Well, that and Byron York, who seems to believe that Iowa “wasn’t about infrastructure at all,” somehow overlooking Huckabee’s organized networks of evangelical conservative Christians, home-schoolers, and gun-rights groups. You would think people would have learned this after the Rev. Pat Robertson’s second-place showing in 1988, but apparently not.
The Huckabee camp knows better. Ed Rollins was begging not just for volunteers, but professionals, about 1:15 or so into the video of his Huckabee victory lap.
The Huckmentum likely will be blunted in New Hampshire, but he should be able to get to Super-Duper Tuesday. He leads in South Carolina and is already within striking distance in Florida (even though that RCP average is not right, based on the underlying data). Florida has plenty of Baptists for Huckabee to court.
But to move beyond Deep South states on Super-Duper Tuesday, Huckabee will need to be organized in states where the informal networks of churches, home-schoolers and gun-rights groups are weak. So Huckabee’s race is as much against time as it is the rest of the GOP field. He has to hope that Republican voters do not coalesce around a single NotHuckabee by then, as the compressed schedule does not favor an under-funded, under-organized campaign, even in the Internet age.
BTW, one reason Giuliani’s Florida-based strategy is so risky is that it puts him at a disadvantage in the NotHuckabee race. Things might have been different for Rudy if he had been better organized in New Hampshire.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 3:21 pm #
Like you wouldn’t rather hang with Vodkapundit than those prissy Hot Air wankers any day of the week. VP ought to be ashamed of himself for this post. Oh whatever. Bryan wants us all to love teh peasants, probably in Christ or whatever. Blow me. They’re stupid and tacky white trashy peasants, and themselves about as intolerant as a corn weevil in a field of barley.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 3:25 pm #
If a goddamn one of those peasants was on teh freaking Internet anyway they would never have pissed all over themselves in front of Lord, God and everyone like drunks at the county goddamn fair.
Comment by JD on 1/4 @ 3:31 pm #
happyfeet – Want to go on a roadtrip to Iowa with me?
FWIW – The “freaky heehawing little Malachai’s” has produced countless new visitors to my cubicle. People are stopping by just to see my computer.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 3:45 pm #
Absolutely. Actually I have people there… I’ve spent a lot of time in Iowa over the years and I’ll probably be doing Christmas there next year, so since I’ll have a chance to reconcile with them later, you know, in Christ and all, I figure I better have something to reconcile with them about. Not a whole lot else to do there but reconcile and drink really. Also, eat. One of my people makes these thingers where she slices a pickle and then spreads cream cheese on pastrami and then wraps the pastrami around the pickle. You just can’t get that in L.A.
Comment by dicentra on 1/4 @ 4:05 pm #
Two-thirds of all Iowan Evangelicals voted for someone other than Huckabaloo.
So it’s not that they all glommed onto Their Man, it’s that the non-Huckabaloo vote is split up five ways or more.
Kinda how Bill Clinton got elected, ain’t it? It wasn’t the vaunted Clinton Machine, ya moronic pundits, it was Perot.
As for Obama winning, I can see how people would totally rebel against pronouncements of Hillary’s Inevitability. People don’t like the idea that some Juggernaut of a machine can just sweep through and make everyone vote a particular way.
Besides, the Hill doesn’t offer anything except smug certainty about Her Inevitability. No wonder people get the heebie-jeebies.
Comment by Karl on 1/4 @ 4:19 pm #
One of my IA college friends is all about the pastrami.
As for Vodkapundit, I’ve long been a fan, but he really should know better. Even if I was in full agreement with him, that kind of post is counter-productive. As others have noted, it’s like when the Dobsonites threaten to leave if Rudy is the nominee. Except more dumb, given that we’re talking about one caucus, not the nomination. Alienating folks in your tent doesn’t win elections — and that cuts both ways. As Ric Locke has commented here before, Huck’s core feels like they have been cheated by the GOP for years, so why kick ‘em in the teeth over a likely meaningless victory?
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 4:24 pm #
Kicking them in the teeth, which is generous of you by the way, will help our friends in South Carolina make a more informed decision I think.
Comment by Radish on 1/4 @ 4:31 pm #
There’s really no need for the racist vitriol spewed by VP and happyfeet, but it’s kind of entertaining how closely their disgusting blatherings resemble Daily Kos postings.
Comment by Karl on 1/4 @ 4:41 pm #
I’m not sure how either is racist. And I’m pretty sure happyfeet is exaggerating for humor, which can be risky on the ‘net.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 4:51 pm #
I’m sorry. I’m just mad cause Fred didn’t win.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 4:53 pm #
I think it’s called displacing.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 1/4 @ 6:37 pm #
“I think it’s called displacing.”
Like taking a 427 over a 396? I’m just happy for
HusseinBarak. I sure hope he realizes that the horse’s head was just that funny Clinton sense of humor. Ron Brown sure used to get a kick out of it.Karl,
I really enjoy your posts – my compliments.
Comment by Karl on 1/4 @ 6:46 pm #
Thanks, Rick!
Comment by jdm on 1/4 @ 8:52 pm #
Karl, you’re much too nice of a guy.
I would note that while VP was demeaning to Iowa Republicans as a whole, that’s as far as he got. The rest of the various group criticisms have been inferred by others. Personally, I think VP was dead on (OK, maybe he did imply certain things a little bit).
And happyfeet, as much as I want Fred or someone like Fred. To. Go. All. The. Way. It ain’t gonna happen.
RB mentions RB. Heh. I wish the Clintons were able to be elected or appointed or something to lead some other country than ours. Canada perhaps. There’s always something happening when they’re around.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 8:54 pm #
I believe in Fred. You’ll see. You’ll all see.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 9:11 pm #
I truly don’t understand the dyspepsia with Huckabee. Granted, I have not been closely following his positions as I haven’t with any of the candidates (too early), but he seems like a nice heartland Christian conservatived who can kick it with the locals. That seems like a decent pedigree. Not much of an opinion on Romney, but he seems to me like another rich, insulated Mormon, and given my background, probably related to me. No offense to any Mormons. So why the gnashing of teeth?
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 9:19 pm #
Mostly cause he’s the Antichrist AND he’s from Arkansas both.
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:22 pm #
Yes, I’ve a Fred sticker on my minivan, right next to the NRA sticker, as well as Frank J’s “Kill the Terrorists, Protect the Borders, Punch the Hippies” t-shirt.
Fred did merit an “A” rating; I’m having problems validating Huckabee’s rating. Your link, Karl, didn’t help much, but this comment is worth displacing…
Worth purloining, perhaps…
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 9:29 pm #
Exactly. It’s hugely important that he goes down hard and fast and definitively. You’ll be able to measure this by whether he gets a primetime slot at the convention. The conventional wisdom will be that not letting him speak in prime will alienate his tribe. The happyfeet wisdom though is that you let him speak in prime and the media will define the entire convention by it.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 1/4 @ 9:30 pm #
“I truly don’t understand the dyspepsia with Huckabee”
Some of us actually remember Jimmy Carter. While the second Dope from Hope does not appear to have the acumen or savoir faire of the peanut farmer from Plains, he does appear to have imbibed a life supply of whatever it was that made the first Dope synonomous with sleaze.
Happy has excellent instincts.
Comment by jdm on 1/4 @ 9:32 pm #
You know, cynn, you’ve already stated it’s too early to closely follow any positions and you’ve apparently neglected to follow that “unwise bashing of Huckabee supporters” link up top and read for yourself, so what exactly do you expect for an answer?
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 9:32 pm #
“…he seems like a nice heartland Christian conservatived who can kick it with the locals. That seems like a decent pedigree… So why the gnashing of teeth?”
You know Huck’s latest big applause line? The one about being like the guys I work with instead of the guy that laid me off? Well I don’t want any of the dudes I work with to be President of the United States. And I don’t want some smarmy ass ex-televangelist up there either. “Kicking it with the locals” ain’t what I am looking for, the locals I can handle myself.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 9:34 pm #
I still don’t understand. So you’re anti-religionists now? Is this the Haggard blowback? Wow, I might just change parties and vote for your folk.
If I even vote. I have, since I was eligible, considered it a duty to vote. But this is a spit-up year, and I may ride it out in favor of a military coup.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 9:36 pm #
I think the consensus here was that Romney’s speech was pretty darn eloquent mostly. Start there, cynn.
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 9:38 pm #
“So you’re anti-religionists now?”
You really should start paying more attention to what people post here, cynn.
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:38 pm #
Well, this helps. And this.
Not that serialized handgun bullet legislation had any chance of getting passed.
Because of teh fragmentation…a good thing, for reducing ricochets. Dum Dum loads, preferably. A nice Hydra-Shok?
Comment by jdm on 1/4 @ 9:38 pm #
serr8d, the Democrats are so wanting Huckabee to win.
Comment by jdm on 1/4 @ 9:41 pm #
You really should start paying more attention to what people post here, cynn.
Advice? Or just a hope?
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:41 pm #
It’s just Huckabee isn’t worthy, Cynn.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 9:43 pm #
Interesting that nobody has addressed the objections to Huckabee.
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:44 pm #
If it comes right down to it, Hillary-Obama vs. Huckabee-Thompson (or reversals of either) there’s an anchor on both tickets. Heaviest anchor would be on ours, I’m afraid.
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:47 pm #
From the comments on Karl’s TimesOnline link…
Huckabee inherits BDS!
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 9:50 pm #
I addressed it in comment 22, cynn, for starters. Do you think the blue collar stiff working next to you has more leadership qualities than the dude who runs the company? By what logic can you call that anything but bullshit pandering?
Comment by serr8d on 1/4 @ 9:52 pm #
All politicians pander. It’s their ‘common’ denominator. Thompson doesn’t pander; that’s why he’s having trouble getting traction.
And he’s terrible at the 30-second sound bite…
Comment by jdm on 1/4 @ 9:53 pm #
You’re a saint, B Moe. And make it shorter. And less complicated.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:00 pm #
OK, BMoe. It’s the ex-televanelist taint. That would also exclude Romney, who was a missionary, unless you want to impose a godfactor overlay on every campaign. Time consuming, but possibly interesting.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 1/4 @ 10:06 pm #
“Interesting that nobody has addressed the objections to Huckabee.”
Crayons and butcher paper, eh?
Huckabee’s record as governor of the great state of Arkansas was substantially more liberal than Jimmy Carter’s (a man of the same denomination and roughly the same understanding of the “social” gospel”) was in Georgia. He did nothing during his tenure as governor that would lead one to think that he is overburdened by principle to even the extent of his immediate predecessor (has he been released yet?) or the first elected President to ever be impeached.
IOW – he would fit in better on the other side of the aisle.
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 10:15 pm #
Do you think the blue collar stiff working next to you has more leadership qualities than the dude who runs the company? By what logic can you call that anything but bullshit pandering?
That has nothing to do with religion, cynn. You really need to learn to focus.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:17 pm #
You righties better whip your rapturists into shape stat.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:20 pm #
BMoe — I am sorry I conflated that with religion, but I don’t see how what you said has anything to do with Huckabee.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 10:27 pm #
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 10:29 pm #
Huckabee is the one who said it, cynn. I am repeating one of the big hooks from his stump speech. He says something about people identifying with the guy the work with more than the guy who laid them off. I am calling bullshit on him. And frankly, comparing a Mormon kid on his mission to a televangelist is over the top even for you.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:33 pm #
OK — I just reviewed BMoes statement on its face and I take it to mean that nobody in the daily grind can ascend to the top. I call bullshit. To further the analogy, nobody at the bottom can become the leader of the erstwhile free world. Sadly, have to agree.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:45 pm #
BMoe: You have it fixed the way you want it. Cast all the aspersions you can sling.
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 10:46 pm #
“I take it to mean that nobody in the daily grind can ascend to the top.”
Well then there is really no point in talking to you, I suppose.
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 10:55 pm #
It’s up to you, and we might have a lot of useful things to say to each other, but it’s a butthead thing.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/4 @ 10:59 pm #
“Have you talked to cynn lately? She seemed pretty down.”
“Really? We should try and… cheer her up.”
“Well, does she like butter tarts?”
Comment by McGehee on 1/4 @ 11:08 pm #
Cynn, the problem with Huckabee is that his policy prescriptions would meet more with your approval than with that of anyone in his own party. As far as most mainstream Republicans are concerned, he talks a good game against abortion and same-sex marriage and the FairTax — but he also attacks the small-government, lower-taxes philosophy of Ronald Reagan.
If Huckabee were to be elected president, the odds are he would have a Democrat-majority Congress. Therefore, of all the things he’s talked about in his campaign, the ones most likely to be enacted are the ones mainstream Republicans OPPOSE.
All caught up now?
Comment by cynn on 1/4 @ 11:22 pm #
Thank you McGhee for your courteous response. Excuse me, I may be a Democrat, but I am not braindamaged. I’ll see your Christiainist and raise you a Samboist and may the best category win.
Comment by B Moe on 1/4 @ 11:25 pm #
I have no problem with people ascending, cynn, but to do that they have to, you know, like rise up. Huckabee is just putting a different spin on Edward’s Two Americas deal, and it ain’t right.
Comment by daleyrocks on 1/4 @ 11:43 pm #
Did Huckabee skim enough from the people of Arkansas to be as rich as Edwards? If not, he’s just not AUTHENTIC like Princess John in talking about two Americas. He just doesn’t KNOW things like Edwards, plus he doesn’t have the foreign policy experience of living in a foreign country when he was a kid and he’s got all that extra skin from when he was morbidly obese.
Comment by dicentra on 1/4 @ 11:59 pm #
“I take it to mean that nobody in the daily grind can ascend to the top.”
No, some folks in the daily grind can and will ascend to the top. Some of them will on merit. Others on smarm, charm, or knowing the right people.
But most of the people in the daily grind don’t have the chops to be the Leader of the Free World, and the Huckster is one of them.
Me, I’m against him because the man is a snake, and a transparent one at that.
[Pauses to reflect on how cool a see-through snake would be.]
Huck tells lies [John Bolton is my advisor, I don't know much about those damnedMormonsWhoWorshipSatansBrother, I have qualms about running negative ads] then when he’s caught, feigns such smarmy innocence that it makes me want to puke.
“Why, did I say that? Oh my goodness, I certainly didn’t mean to offend. I certainly thought it was true when I said it.”
Look at this little tête-a-tête that Glenn Beck had with him the day after Glenn went ballistic on Huck-up for “innocently” dropping a famous anti-Mormon line to the NYT reporter.
Not to mention the man is a total imbecile when it comes to foreign policy, saying that Afghanistan lies to the east of Pakistan or thinking that if we just talk to Iran’s Mullahs nicely they’ll see reason and stop building nukes.
Plus:
He let dangerous felons out of prison on the say-so of his pastor friends, because the felons had “found Jesus.”
He confuses compassion with spinelessness, which is the dictionary definition of an enabler.
He wants to spread compassion the world over, using the levers of government. Exsqueek me? Since when can a bureaucracy care about anything except expanding its powers and resisting reform?
I’d go on, but cynn is being deliberately obtuse, as usual, so I’ll let it go at that.
Comment by Sean M. on 1/5 @ 12:42 am #
This might be a good place to start if you’re interested in that particular issue, cynn.
Comment by Pablo on 1/5 @ 1:34 am #
“Why don’t you love the Huckabee? He’s a rapturist and everything. You’re supposed to love him, goddamn you!”
Something like that. So vote early and often.
Comment by Pablo on 1/5 @ 1:37 am #
You don’t see any objections to Clarence Thomas, do you?
Pingback by Dems 2008: A glance ahead [Karl] on 1/5 @ 2:07 am #
[...] glanced at the horizon of the GOP race, I have some follow-up thoughts about the Dems. Actually, they [...]
Comment by alppuccino on 1/5 @ 5:54 am #
“If a goddamn one of those peasants was on teh freaking Internet anyway they would never have pissed all over themselves in front of Lord, God and everyone like drunks at the county goddamn fair.”
My progenitors walked to Iowa and cut their farms out of the raw land and raised my Father and Mother to be exceptional individuals.
I couldn’t agree more with happyfeet’s haranguing of Iowans for their most embarrassing display of gullibility since the Professor Harold Hill incident.
That being said, happy, I think your heightened vitriol is probably the vegetable soup diet talking and I urge you to eat some meat ASAP. A bite of hamburger, Hickory Farms, a bug. Just do it man. Before the veggie soup diet claims another victim.
Comment by Percy Dovetonsils on 1/5 @ 9:52 am #
“I truly don’t understand the dyspepsia with Huckabeeâ€Â
Not that cynn has any interest other than making funny faces at the tigers in the pit (I hear that’s somewhat risky, BTW), but may I just add the two words “Nanny Statist?” I don’t like Huckabee for the same reason that I don’t like Hillary.
That said, the whole gang-up-on-the-fundies pileup is very disturbing. A) it’s impolite, b) it’s bad politics, and c), it reminds me of why identity politics is so seductive. Deep down, our various tribal groups loathe each other. All we need for it to get really ugly is a decline in a national unifying identity (oops, we got that already) and a little push.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/5 @ 9:58 am #
Today is Grape Nuts day and then after I lift the heavy things sort of repetitiously I get to have plain boiled shrimps. Um… I think if I were honest maybe yeah I’m not really fit for the human contact. And also the vegetable soup no one said it was sort of side-effecty kind of in a climate-changey way. Merciful God.
Comment by daleyrocks on 1/5 @ 10:48 am #
HF – That’s why I try to avoid long car rides with vegetarians whenever possible. Dee winde. Deee winde.
Comment by maggie katzen on 1/5 @ 1:37 pm #
it really hasn’t been a problem daleyrocks. ;D and there’s usually some meat in there, just not as much as we normally eat. cause really for us, we weren’t eating many veggies before. I’m very meat and potatoes. and bread, I lu-u-uv bread.
Pingback by What do you do with a candidate like Huckabee? [Karl] on 1/6 @ 1:34 pm #
[...] — within striking distance in Michigan and leading in South Carolina. Inasmuch as I have previously suggested Huckabee can get at least as far as Super-Duper Tuesday — and folks seem to enjoy [...]
Comment by happyfeet on 1/6 @ 2:01 pm #
Oh. I did tofu for my first “protein source” so I could start out super hard core and then the next batch will be better for sure and that could be sort of a factor.
Pingback by GOP 2008: McCain's ground game and a glance ahead [Karl] on 1/22 @ 7:33 am #
[...] be as broke as Rudy Giuliani. Nevertheless, as previously noted, Huckabee’s organization is non-traditional and may not be obvious to the party apparatus in the Sunshine State. Having started with nothing, [...]
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