Mike Huckabee Stands Up for Barack Obama

Barack Obama has gotten in some trouble due to the comments of his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Video of Reverend Wright emerged last week that showed him making what could be construed as anti-white and anti-American remarks. While I disagree with some of Reverend Wright's sweeping statements, Mike Huckabee has placed Reverend Jeremiah Wright's comments in some historical context. Here is a quote from Huckabee:

And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..."

And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

Operation Hail Mary

"Saturday Night Live" dropped a bombshell last night, coincidentally a Saturday, when they reported that former Governor Mike Huckabee was launching a top secret and last-ditch effort to overtake John McCain to win the Republican presidential nomination. Huckabee's plan, codenamed Operation Hail Mary, was to steal superdelegates out from underneath Senator Barack Obama. Governor Huckabee has reportedly promised some sort of quid pro quo if a superdelegate was willing to switch his or her vote from Obama to Huckabee. What is Governor Huckabee promising in return for this? His band will cover Bob Dylan songs at your wedding, kid's birthday party, or whatever office parties you have coming up.

If all this fails, Governor Huckabee has promised to implement a sinister and insidious Plan B, codenamed Operation Chuck Norris Will Whip Your Ass, All While Not Even Breaking a Sweat.

And in the unlikely event that even Chuck Norris fails, Governor Huckabee will implement a much more moderate, and potentially much more entertaining, Plan C - he will star in the movie version of Bill Clinton's autobiography "My Life" in the title role of "Bill Clinton." Emma Thompson is slated to play a character named "Hillary Clinton." Hollywood Liberal Rob Reiner will direct.

Chuck Norris will play all the rest of the roles (Al Gore, Tipper Gore, Madeline Albright, Janet Reno, George Stephanopoulos) because, well, he wanted to.

The Patriot That is Rush Limbaugh

This is a post that will summarize what I think of the state of the Republican race before tomorrow's Super Tuesday primaries. (To be followed by a post describing the Democratic race.) I am still waiting to be convinced that there is a good candidate out there for me. Though I have already ruled out a certain someone. (You know who you are, Mitt Romney.)

John McCain has emerged as the clear favorite to gain the nomination of the Republican Party. People are very surprised by this because at least two different issues arose last year that were supposed to have sunk McCain's campaign. The McCain candidacy almost ended when money was wasted on frivolities that didn't matter and when McCain supported George W. Bush's comprehensive immigration reform plan. I am not President Bush's biggest fan by any means but I think one of the things he has done right is to treat immigrants with a great sense of fairness. I was born and raised in Texas and President Bush has lived most of his life in Texas. Mexican immigrants are so part of the fabric of our lives in Texas that it would make it near impossible for a native Texan to join the hateful campaign against immigrants that is consuming a part of the Republican Party.

McCain was able to overcome his early disasters for one simple reason - the other candidates he was running against turned out to be a true conservative but a mediocre campaigner (Fred D. Thompson), a niche social conservative but economic populist (Mike Huckabee), a liberal mayor of New York with lots of skeletons in his closet who also happened to be truly unlikeable (Rudy Giuliani), and a phony conservative who alienated all the other candidates because he accused the others of positions he held just a year or two earlier (Mitt Romney.)

A mediocre conservative candidate would have had this nomination wrapped up by now but there was no such candidate this year. Of course, Mitt Romney is trying to be the candidate that speaks to the traditional three prongs of Republican conservatism - the social conservatives, the national security conservatives and the tax-cutting conservatives. Romney has been harmed by a lack of a magnetic personality and his flip-flopping on issues important to Republicans. Still he continues to try to push on us the idea that he is Ronald Reagan Jr. (Sorry, Mitt, but such a person already exists.)

What is emerging from the Republican race is the fact that only one prong of the so-called "three prongs of the conservative stool" built by Reagan actually matters. John McCain has spent much of his career in the United States Senate focused on national security matters and is a genuine war hero. ("We will stay in Iraq for 100 years if that is what's needed.") Mike Huckabee has advertised himself as a "Christian leader" in his political ads. He is on the right side of all the issues important to social conservatives. Huckabee is a former Baptist minister who speaks in terms that show he is an ordinary person, not a person pretending to be an ordinary person. This attribute helps Huckabee conform with Republican voters' anti-elitism beliefs. These two men should be embraced by Republicans because of their respective life stories.

The thing is...they have not been. The reason for this is simple. McCain and Huckabee see there are things more important than tax cuts. McCain thinks that we need a strong military and that veterans need to be cared for after their service to our country is over. Huckabee says that children need to be cared for even after they have been born as opposed to those people who thinks life begins at conception and ends at birth. ("No health insurance for you!") These two men probably feel taxes can be cut but only after their agendas have been addressed.

This is the wrong answer according the Republican establishment led by Rush Limbaugh. Of course, Rush will pay lip service to the social issues and a strong military. But what exactly has Rush ever done to prove he cares about social issues and a strong military? Did he serve in the military? No. When it comes to discussing people with drug abuse problems, Rush says, "Don't ask, don't tell." Which leaves us with the one thing Rush Limbaugh truly cares about - tax cuts.

I can understand tax cuts. I really do. Heck, I am about to become a small-business owner. I am going to love tax cuts. It is common knowledge that Rush is struggling by on an average salary of about $20,000,000 a year. According to Rush, charity begins in the homes of people making $20,ooo,ooo a year or more.

John McCain and Mike Huckabee don't believe in this principle. Therefore, they officially suck!

Give Me Some of That Old-Time Division

I just read Josh's first post on this blog. He knows of my intense dislike for Mitt Romney. Yet Josh was excited about Romney winning the Republican nomination because he would easily be the weakest candidate to face Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. You know what, Josh? I think you may be on to something. And would I enjoy having Mitt to kick around for another ten months? Hell ya!

Much is made of Mitt Romney being a viable candidate because he can self-fund his candidacy. The man is worth $250,000,000. Or he was when the race was started. If Josh gets what he wants, Romney will get the Republican nomination but lose big in November and perhaps be $100,000,000 poorer. Those would be results I could live with too.

Being a bit of a contrarian by nature, I think the fact that Romney is spending his own money proves just how weak a candidate he is. He is spending his own money out of necessity, not by choice because nobody likes him. (I am betting that Mitt's wife Ann wishes he would just quit already.) If there was a wave of "Mitt-o-mania" sweeping the land, Mitt wouldn't have to rely on his own "bling-bling." But no one is donating to his campaign except a few of his rich buddies. His campaign is not built on support from people in the heartland or from the South, the supposed Republican base. You know what these people are seeing? A flip-flopper from Massachusetts, that is what.

There are bigger problems for the Republican Party out there in the ether as well. Mike Huckabee is running a quixotic and endearing campaign for president. He is representing himself as a "Christian leader." I personally like the guy. But Huckabee is hated by the Republican establishment because he talks about the government's role in making the lives better for the average person and not for the average corporation. If you listen to Rush Limbaugh talk about Mike Huckabee, you would think that Huckabee was Bill Clinton's long-lost cousin from Arkansas. I wonder what social conservatives will think when they reflect on the drubbing a true social conservative candidate (the dude is a Baptist preacher) received from the supposed party of "family values."

On election night 2004, I watched the results with my friend Leona and her husband Ian. They were both very distressed. I was distressed too but only about 75% or so. 25% of me was happy because I didn't think President Bush wouldn't be any great shakes in his second term. Turns out he hasn't even been any mediocre shakes. If John Kerry had won the presidency, everything in Iraq would have been blamed on him. President Bush would have become a martyr. The Republican Party would be able to label themselves victims of liberal elites again.

But today, we are able to call a spade a spade.