Posted by
Steve on Friday, December 14, 2007 11:34:37 AM
Listening to the Laura Ingraham show on the way to work today, I heard her say that a friend of hers said that voters are moving to Huckabee because he is a reliable social conservative. A couple of her callers made exactly the same point. There is some merit to that opinion. Mike Huckabee has always been pro-life. He has never wavered from that position. Mitt Romney flirted with being pro-choice for a time when he was running for Senate and Governor of Massachusetts. Romney states that he had a conversion and tells how that came to be. He has been reliable in his comments this campaign season.
Using the logic that Huckabee is a reliable social conservative and that makes him a good candidate would also make Jimmy Carter a good candidate. He also is Southern Baptist and was a social conservative governor of a southern state. When he ran for President, he was a reliable social conservative candidate. I think by almost any standard, Jimmy Carter was a lousy President. The reason is that he may have been socially conservative; he was not conservative in other areas. Mike Huckabee is socially conservative. He is liberal when it comes to taxes. He is for bigger government. Bigger government has been the death of religion in Europe. Maybe the socially conservative crowd wants religion to be reduced in America as well.
You have to look at the entire candidate when picking one to back. You cannot look at one part and say that is good, I will support this candidate. You may be getting a pig in a poke. You might get a repeat of Jimmy Carter. You have to make sure that the entire candidate generally agrees with you on the positions. Will you find one that agrees with you on all positions? No. You can only hope to find one that agrees with you most of the time.
There is heartening news out of Florida. Rudy Giuliani is no longer the leading candidate in Florida. That means he will have to start attacking Mike Huckabee, the current front runner. Rudy has given up Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He cannot afford to lose Florida. If he loses Florida, it is back to being Mr. Giuliani and not Mr. President. For the past few weeks, Rudy has not said anything about Mike Huckabee as Huckabee was hurting Romney more than he was hurting Rudy. Now that is not the case so he better get the knives out if he wants to be President.
Huckabee is already showing that he is not ready for prime time. If Rudy gets his long knives out and carves Huckabee a new one, Huckabee would be finished. Huckabee has a lot of potential negatives. He was indicted on a number of shady financial deals. After he left the Governor’s office in Arkansas, he took over $100,000 in gifts and things. That was illegal under Arkansas law. There was another one for $50,000. All of this comes from the fact that Huckabee is not wealthy and saw that as a chance to increase his wealth. There must be something in the water in Arkansas that has them elect people that are in their hearts, thieves. There are also shady dealings with Rudy and Rudy’s associates. You do not find that sort of thing with Mitt Romney or those he has as friends and associates.
When it all boils down to the basics, you have to choose the whole candidate. Mike Huckabee is a nice guy. He is right on the main social issues, particularly abortion. He also has always has been right about those things. BUT, he is wrong about the size of government. He has some moral problems that will be exposed when he runs against a Democrat. Huckabee is also extremely weak on foreign affairs. Rudy is great on the war. Rudy is wrong on just about all of the other issues that are important to Republicans. Mitt Romney is right on all the issues and is no more than mildly weak on any. Rudy is better on the war than Mitt. But, Mitt would be second in the Republican ranks. Huckabee would probably be first on social issues. Romney would be a very close second, only because he came late to the table. When you put it all together, Mitt Romney is the best candidate to represent the Republican Party in November 2008.