I have been saying for about a year now that the man best positioned to become the next President of the United States is Mike Huckabee. To this day, the Republican voter is desperately in search for the anti-Romney. Even seven out of ten Romney voters say they could switch their vote to someone else. There is no brand loyalty there at all.
In fact, seven out of ten Republican voters say holding the right positions is more important than electability -- which goes to show Romney's main argument on the importance of electability is not working. The bad numbers keep piling up, as 20% of conservative voters say they are less likely to vote for Romney because of his religion. It's even worse among very conservative voters, 32% of whom have no qualms about discriminating against him because of his faith. Those are shockingly high numbers of people who have already eliminated him (unjustly), and those are just the ones admitting it.
But conservative voters are right about their central arguments against Romney -- he is a flip-flopper, he is a slimy politician and he will say anything to get elected. These Republicans are thirsting for a real conservative to vote for. Meanwhile, there has been an absolute implosion of the other conservative candidates. Bachmann lasted about five seconds. Herman Cain is in a tailspin now, but was obviously never qualified to begin with. And Rick Perry might as well have screamed "Allahu Akbar!" as he blew himself up in last night's debate.
Huckabee is an unquestioned social conservative, so I think he would win Iowa and South Carolina with relative ease. But more importantly, he is an excellent fake populist. I'm confident that in the end, like all Republicans, he would do whatever the big banks want him to do. But he talks a good game about feeling your pain and being against the powerful that are screwing you. He is the definition of folksy. And the country is in desperate search of folksy as opposed to slimy.
In fact, I think he is far more electable than Romney is when it comes to taking on Obama. President Obama struggles mightily at faking populism. And in reality, he has an enormous track record of helping the big banks in getting almost everything they ever wanted (he made the fatal mistake of once hurting their feelings though by calling them "fat cats"). Romney is the most obviously pro-Wall Street candidate in history, when the country is in a massively anti-Wall Street mood. I think Huckabee stands an excellent chance of cleaning both of their clocks.
But apparently, he would prefer not to. Who stands this good a chance of being the next president -- and doesn't take it? Jesus, how good is that Fox News salary? I know that people think he has grown too fat and comfortable, but now that there isn't even that much time before the first caucus he wouldn't even have to discomfort himself that much. If he doesn't get in, he will go down in history as Huckabee the Scrivener - the man who could have been president and preferred not to.
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The Republican party failed to take stock in 2008 (both from their historic defeat and from the collapse of their economic ideology) and course-correct, modernize, update their ideas, toss the social conservatism smoke screens, and concentrate on actual real-deal conservatism, the pre-Reagan pre-NeoCon type, when conservatives did not use to be the biggest spenders and biggest deficit and debt builders like they are today. When they were at least somewhat looking after the finances of the nation, rather than the finances of the wealthiest private individuals, like they are today.
The GOP failed to make their transition when they had the opportunity to make it. They're in trouble.
Go figure.
The only reason why Romney has a chance of getting the GOP nomination (but not the presidency) is precisely because deep down he is less of an extremist on the social front. Which makes him look less loony than the others in the field. Huckabee maybe folksy, but he is as far right as Ron Paul and a sellout to top it all.
So, in the end, your analysis is wrong. Huckabee could not win over Obama anymore than Romney, who can't win either. But, again, you sound like you want them to. Too bad for you!
Huckabee seriously went away about the time it was disclosed that all of the records from all those years he had served as Governor had been scrubbed, hard drives removed, no records exist anywhere. There is no way to look at what he was doing as governor.
How about that. He will never be president. Nothing that was done on a computer in the governor's office has survived. Not a thing. Nada.
Next.
Are you kidding me?
I mean, hey, we said the same thing about a certain affirmative action candidate, but here we are.
You read and comprehended poorly what I specifically stated. No records from the Governor's Office during Huckabee's tenure remain. Every hard drive was removed. Every computer scrubbed. None of the computer materials and files survived this scrubbing.
I can write a story about your silliness. That is not the same thing as having your computer, which documents moment by moment the ways you are not in possession of your faculties.
Democrats disagree all the time but in the end they tend to work together to get things done. Republicans do not seem to be able to do this... it is all or nothing with them.
As the unsubstantiated ideology is proffered in place of actual ideas, progressively weaker intellects are required to stomach it. This means incuriousity, disdain for education, concrete literalism, and religiousity become attracted to the tent. How else can concepts like unvarying support for Israel because of the coming apocalypse, or the "falsity" of global warming ever gain traction?
Eventually we wind up with all the used motor oil in the sump.
The price to pay is the attendant loss of competence.
You think that Huck would "clean Obamas clock" huh?
Maybe the Guine grandfather clock in his Chicago house, if he promised not to pull any of the chains or touch any moving parts.