Mike Huckabee – The Message: Stick to One’s Principles

(Nice Guys Finish First – How Refreshing Would That Be?)

Former Arkansas Governor and 2008 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has defended Hillary Clinton’s decision to stay in the race for the DNC nomination, (Log Cabin Democrat) in spite of pressure from those within her party. For those of us who have supported Mike Huckabee, it is their personal message and governing or legislative expertise and experience they bring to the campaign, which keeps supporters engaged until the bitter end, and or in the case of Mike Huckabee, past the point where the candidate has ended their quest for the White House.



It is the people’s right to vote their conscious and send a clear message to the particular party that their candidate of choice has positions that are vitally important to millions of American’s. The effect may be looked upon as a nuisance (Politico – Nuisance Vote Eludes McCain) by some, however, 23-27% of the voters in both Indiana and North Carolina sent the message that they wanted a chance to choose a candidate as well as a political position. Isn’t this what the process is all about? When the nation became a two-party system, the RNC and the DNC backed by big business and special interests, little room was left for the “masses” to make an impact on this Republic. It is in the process of the election that there is still a chance for “we the people” to have a voice, albeit a small one.



Mike Huckabee understands of the process and the need for both the candidate and the people to have a choice is to be applauded. He is now working to bring conservative factions together in support of the eventual Republican nominee, John McCain. It should also be noted, that McCain and Huckabee were the two candidates in the entire field of candidates (both sides of the aisle) who have run campaigns that were civil, citing their differences and pushing a message. It is civility, combined with experience and a clear message that will bring McCain, with the help of Mike Huckabee, to the White House in 2008. It should also be noted that Mike’s understanding of Hillary Clinton’s position to stay in the race, despite a barrage of attacks from the media, special interests, and the party elite, is spot on. She has a duty to her supporters and to her country to stand firm until there is a clear nominee. Those American’s in states that have yet to cast a vote, should have an option to voice their opinion.

John McCain – Road to the White House

(Opinion)

Apparently the RNC had a point – push an independent, moderate candidate at conservatives in the hopes of picking up those independents and democrats who had hoped McCain would run against Bush as an Independent in 2004. Although the deep conservative base has misgivings (understatement) regarding McCain’s conversion to conservatism, should Barrack Obama clinch the nomination, they cannot conscionably “sit this one out”. The dinner table conversation in the deeply Democratic state of Massachusetts shows the clear confusion and resignation that has invaded the working-class, (or middle class), voters. In a choice between Obama and Clinton, Clinton is the choice – take Clinton off the table, and McCain is the “next best thing” to a Democrat.

As the only Republican in a family whose roots are deeply seated in the Democrat Party, it is with some surprise that this change has occurred. These are individuals who were strongly behind any candidate that the DNC put forth – “because we are democrats and they support the working-class”. John McCain’s appeal is two-fold – he’s against government waste and he’s leaned left enough times that he’s “almost one of us!”

As the media and DNC party elites muscle Hillary Clinton out of the race, the thoughts that John McCain can’t win the race, start to dissipate. Those democrats who the party feels will surely vote for Obama because he is the party’s nominee and “that’s the way they vote”, have miscalculated those middle-class, working-class, voters who cast their vote for Clinton – in this Massachusetts instance, it was not because they were voting for Clinton – it was a vote against Obama. Granted this is a small sample in a small state, but it gives rise to speculation that McCain’s age is less a handicap than Obama’s inexperience, associations, statements (bitterly clutching their guns and bibles), and what-ever else he may say or what may be discovered once his nomination is secure.

Clinton, the Clear Alternative

(In response to a Forum post on Masslive.com)

The New York Giants

Hillary Clinton

Poster: Yoda:
Heading: Hillary Finished
Post: She will announce by week end- she is out. The NC loss is one thing. The win in Indiana- was by so little she will opt out by Thursday. Marketing 101... Probaby will scream about Florida & Michigan...
Now the fun begins. It will be a LONG summer. Can Obama shake Wright and Ayers? I say no, but time will tell. (Editorial: Yes, Virginia, there are Republicans in Massachusetts!)

Response:

First, yesterdays results were somewhat as expected, Obama to take NC (and his polling margins held consistently) and Clinton to take Indiana, (granted those margins tightened up). This is what you might have to consider (sounds like you lean right): One of the candidates running will be our next president. Out of those three, pick two who are the least like to bring our country back to the days of Jimmy Carter (having lived through that, I'd prefer never to go back), that would be Clinton and McCain. Obama's lack of experience, coupled with a house and senate in concert does not bode well (very Carteresque). I'm one of those Reagan Democrats who over the last few weeks, started to look at Clinton seriously - I did the research, went to the senate site, checked voting records, as far back as possible, and frankly, she looked like the best alternative. I'm slightly right of center, do not agree with everything on her plate, but, and here's the but, I trust her more than I trust McCain (and it's not an anti-war issue, it is a protection issue (also one of those terror moms), it is an economic issue, and frankly, I could care less about who her husband is, it is who she is that would make the difference. This is what I see, an RNC who believes that Obama is an easy target; they also felt the same in other lost general elections, and that McCain will get the cross over vote. They know that Clinton will be harder to beat, and really Mickey Mouse at this point, might take McCain. So, ask yourself this all important question. Do you want the governor of Massachusetts running the country? Instead of DiMasi running the show, it will be Pelosi.

Yes we can, will become, this is how we're going to do it, go back to the white house and just sit it out, or go promote a new book.

The extreme right could not be happier with this scenario, because should the country go back to Carterlike conditions, it would, in their minds, insure a sweep of both houses as well as the white house in 2012. It doesn't take a mastermind to find out what these people are thinking, Google pat Buchanan, focus on the family, etc., and that paints the picture.

Of course, there are still some wild cards that are in play (for those New England Patriot Fans - from this Giants fan), count Florida and Michigan, round up the super delegates, finish the rounds of primary contests (this will go to June), and then the outcome will be different. Thought I would throw in the sports analogy.



Tim Russet may have handed the nomination to Obama, but, like the rest of those whose memories aren’t what they should be, or for that matter, their understanding of the DNC electoral process (loopholes and such), it’s not over, till it’s over. Hillary is the only one who would be able to pull those “Reagan Democrats”, those of us who have voted consistently on the RNC ticket for lack of a moderate candidate. Someone, somewhere has to think clearly about those millions of disenfranchised extreme right voters who are going to stay home, those are the same voters who put G.W. Bush over the top in the last election, without them, McCain is toast. So, again, seriously consider the alternatives.

Tuesday Tidbits

Oil



Hillary Clintons proposed gasoline tax holiday and her stance on Opec are being criticizedby those on both sides of the political spectrum. That said: to those of us paying at the pump, Ms. Clinton is making sense.

As oil prices continue to climb to $120 per barrel and oil companies are reaping what can only be viewed by those of us paying through the teeth for heating oil, at the pump, and the grocery store (where prices are being driven up due to high cost of trucking), as obscene. When one sees the headline: Chevron Profits first quarter, at 5.17 billion Yahoo Finance, the thoughts of a windfall profit tax on oil companies, as proposed by Hillary Clinton, makes a whole lot of sense. Although economists will argue that this type of corporate tax (a tax on the excess profits only), will cause shortages, and worse, the oil companies may not continue research, those of us in the real world might view the pain of a corporation giving up a percentage of 5 billion plus in profits, as just. Point of view, as a citizen of the State of Massachusetts, my payroll taxes on my meager salary are taxed at 30% (includes federal and state taxes, as well as Medicare and social security), is it not fair that as an American corporation, Chevron bear part of the burden as well?

Best line regarding Oil companies this past week: Hillary Clinton to Bill O’Reilly: “Well, they aren’t inventing anything new (paraphrased via memory).

It should be pointed out that John McCain and Hillary Clinton both support a gas tax holiday. Obama, does not.

John McCain – Possible Trouble with the Base

The GOP is comprised of a diverse demographic – independents, so-called Reagan Democrats, moderate Republicans, Conservatives and then, there is the “Right Wing” aspect of the party. The “Right Wing” are those conservatives, most often wrongly tagged as the “Religious Right”, that embrace zero-tolerance on immigration, and have a criteria that not one politician alive (or dead for that matter) can match. Power groups within the GOP, such as the Conservative Club for Growth, originally backed Mitt Romney (go figure), setting up a smear campaign against Mike Huckabee, and discounting John McCain entirely. Pundits, from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingram were firmly in the Romney camp, the big Christian Church leaders planned to sit this one out as they managed to find fault with every candidate. The combination of these three factors (GOP conservative pacs, television and radio pundits and the Christian Conservative Leaders) gave John McCain a boost. John McCain is the least conservative Republican available, but to his credit, makes no apologies for his left-of-center ideologies, and can be seen as a moderate conservative. The problem McCain now faces is a relentless campaign of apathy mixed with anger from those on the “right”. What are the numbers? It is estimated that the extreme right, those religious and conservatives who have made the difference for the GOP since the sweep of Congress and the Senate during the Clinton presidency, number upwards to 20 million voters. Should this group not come to terms with an imperfect McCain, there will be a Democrat in the White House in concert with a like-minded house and senate. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that Republicans either support McCain or pick the candidate that is the most moderate of the two remaining Democrats. Suggestion: Get over the fact that McCain is the least conservative Republican or get over the fact that Hillary Clinton happened to be married to Bill Clinton. In other words, choose the least frightening of the three remaining candidates and give that person the support.

Email excerpt received today from a Massachusetts conservative group showcasing an article by Pat Buchanan.

4. Will the Right Sit It Out?
by Patrick J. Buchanan

If John McCain wins the presidency, his comeback -- after the bankrupt
debacle his campaign had become in the summer of 2007 with his backing of
the amnesty bill -- will be the stuff of legend.

And as nominee, he is entitled to conduct his own campaign and be cut slack
by a party whose brand name is now Enron.

That said, McCain seems to have decided to win by love-bombing the Big Media
and putting miles between himself and the base. Continued

Consider his "Forgotten Places" tour of last week.

It began in Selma, Ala., where McCain went to Edmund Pettis Bridge to hail
John Lewis and the marchers night-sticked and hosed down by the Alabama
State Troopers on the Montgomery march for voting rights.

Now that was a seminal movement in the fight for civil rights.

But this is not 1965. Today, John Lewis is a big dog in the
"No-Whites-Need-Apply!" Black Caucus. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is
sermonizing White America. The Rev. Al Sharpton is trying to shut down the
Big Apple. And the fight for equal rights is being led by Ward Connerly.

With no help from McCain, Connerly is trying to put on five state ballots a
Civil Rights Initiative that declares white men are also equal and not to be
denied their civil rights because of the color of their skin.

And where does McCain stand?

From Selma, McCain went to the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective, where black
ladies make the famous blankets. The stop could not but call to mind the
hundreds of thousands of textile and apparel jobs in the Carolinas and
Georgia lost after NAFTA and Most-Favored Nation for China, both of which
McCain enthusiastically supported.

McCain's next stop was Inez, Ky., where LBJ declared war on poverty. But
LBJ's war was a politically motivated scheme to shift wealth and power to
government, which led to a pathological dependency among America's poor, his
own abdication and Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign against Big Government that
ushered in the Conservative Decade.

McCain then went to New Orleans to backhand Bush for failing to act swiftly
to rescue the victims of Katrina.

But the real failure of New Orleans was of the corrupt and incompetent
regime of Mayor Ray Nagin and the men of New Orleans, who left 30,000 women
and children stranded in a sea of stagnant water.

No doubt Bush hit the snooze button, but why the piling on?

Then McCain headed up to Youngstown, Ohio, to tell the folks their jobs are
never coming back and NAFTA was a sweet deal.

But why, when America's mini-mills and steel mills are among the most
efficient on earth -- in terms of man hours needed to produce a ton of steel
-- aren't those jobs coming back?

Answer: It is due to the free-trade policies of Bush and McCain, which
permit trade rivals to impose value-added taxes of 15 percent to 20 percent
on steel imports from the United States while rebating those taxes on steel
exports to the United States. We are getting it in the neck coming and
going.

An America First trade and tax policy could have U.S. steel mills rising
again, while those in Japan, China, Russia and Brazil would be shutting down
as uncompetitive in the U.S. market.

But we no longer put America first.

The U.S. government burns its incense at the altar of the Global Economy.
The losers are those guys in Youngstown McCain was lecturing on the beauty
of NAFTA. And the winners are the CEOs who pull down seven-, eight- and even
nine-figure annual packages selling out their country for the corporation.

Does McCain think $6 trillion in trade deficits since NAFTA, a dollar
rotting away and 3.5 million manufacturing jobs lost under Bush was all
inevitable? Does he think we can do nothing to stop the deindustrialization
of a country that used to produce 96 percent of all it consumed?

Why should those guys in Youngstown vote for McCain?

So the feds can teach them how to shovel snow?

Even Hillary, whose husband did NAFTA with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole's
help, now gets it.

Then McCain took a time out to denounce the North Carolina GOP for ads tying
the Rev. Wright to Obama, and the pair to two Democratic congressional
candidates. To their credit, the North Carolinians told McCain where to get
off and are running the ads.

What does a McCain victory mean for conservatives?

Probably a veto on tax hikes and perhaps a fifth justice like Antonin
Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito or John Roberts, to turn two pair into
a full house. Fifty years after Warren, it could be game, set, match for the
right.

But McCain may also mean more Middle East wars, more bellicosity, more
manufacturing jobs lost, malingering in the culture wars, and more illegal
aliens and amnesty.

In Pennsylvania, thousands of Republicans re-registered to vote Democratic,
and 27 percent of the GOP votes went to Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul. McCain
may just stretch this rubber band so far it snaps back in his face.

- end msg –

Hillary Clinton is asking that the delegates from Michigan and Florida be seated at the DNC Convention form here. Should those delegates be counted, as well as the popular vote be counted, she would stand a better chance of becoming the DNC nominee. Suggestion: Ask!