The Obama/Hilary Spectacle – Good or Bad for McCain?

Now that Mike Huckabee is out of the race John McCain seems to be loosing his media attention. Many gave Mike Huckabee a hard time for staying in the race so long, but I think now it is clear that John McCain is going to have a difficult time in the next eight months.

It looks as if the Obama Hilary contest will either go to convention or will be decided in the later months of the election. The question is is this good or bad for Republicans. Obama and Hilary being at each others throats make both of them, especially Obama, more seasoned politicians. In my opinion Obama will be the Democratic nominee, and when that happens Hilary will have already gone at him with everything she’s got. This is a bad scenario for John McCain.

Republicans only chance is if the majority of Americans are for Lower taxes and a stable presence in Iraq, and that they know that this is where McCain and Obama differ. Republicans are going to have to make this an issues election and hope for the best. McCain does not have the core support that Obama has, so he will have to rely heavily on independents.

McCain can win, but only if we talk about issues and not about the ability to lead.

So It's McCain Huh?

So, John McCain is the Republican Nominee. Whether we like it or not John McCain is the Republican Nominee. I would like to first give credit to Governor Huckabee. Mike Huckabee really ran a wonderful campaign. He remained positive and went out with dignity. Good luck to him in the future. We now have John McCain against whoever the democrat is.

The media seems to be projecting that whoever the Democratic Nominee is; he/she will have the advantage. I don’t buy it. I understand that the Democrats are turning out to the polls in force, but the general election is always another animal.

A Republican Nominee in the general election must do two things, and many times they conflict. He must attract independents and turnout evangelicals. Bush relied more on the latter and McCain will most likely rely on the former. Although an evangelical VP could help.

A Democratic Nominee in the General election must also attract independents and must project hope. Now while Obama does project hope, I don’t think that any candidate will do a great job of attracting Independents. Many would disagree with me, but their records are simply too liberal. Americans do not want to be socialist. This is where Senator McCain has a clear advantage.

We have eight months to see how it plays out. We will see what happens.

A Hawk and a Dove

Mary Sammons

I am going to say it, get it out in the open. I am a Christian, a born again, evangelical Christian. So it might not surprise you to know that I support Mike Huckabee for President. I support even amidst all the pundits and even people I know saying he has no chance. But what might surprise you is to know why I support him. Of course I support him because he is pro-life and supports traditional marriage. But I also support him because of his ideas on immigration, the economy, border security and becoming energy independent.
The focus has been so much on his faith and issues like abortion and gay marriage that some fail to see because they cannot get past those two issues and the fact that he has been a pastor, a Southern Baptist one at that. He has a solid plan to help us become energy independent and he wants to eliminate the IRS and institute a Fair Tax. Frankly, anyone who wants to get rid of the IRS has my vote. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep more of what we make? Wouldn’t it be nice to get away from being so dependent on foreign oil and leave behind $3.00+ a gallon for gas? These plans would take time, as all things do but who else has such an aggressive approach? Huck also has an aggressive approach for securing our boarders and dealing with the illegal immigrant population. This is where McCain loses me and Huck wins me over. I admit to being much more liberal in my younger college days and thought Bill and Hillary were the best thing since sliced bread but in a post-911 world we don’t need to play around with national security. I thought Pat Buchannan was crazy to want to completely seal off the border years ago. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all. All the bleeding heart liberals who want to grant these folks amnesty and a path to citizenship fail to see they are just rewarding them for committing a crime. Huck wants to secure the border and get the illegals documented within 120 days or they are sent back.
No candidate is perfect and there are probably areas where I would disagree with Huck. I am for strict gun control, one way this conservative is still a leftie, and he is very pro second amendment. But when I look at his platform overall, he is a man I can get behind and be proud to see in the White House. This in a nutshell is why I heart Huckabee.

Huckabee's Last Stand

Mike Huckabee has won the hearts of so many Americans. Time and time again he has been counted out by so many including conservative pundits, and the national news media, but he is still here. The state of Texas is known for its independent attitude and historic rebellions. Mike Huckabee is counting on the personality of the Texas people to carry him to convention. It is a daunting task, but if anyone can do it, it’s Texas and Huckabee as they both have done time and time again.

As of February 26^th the Real Clear Politics average for Texas is 52.5 to 33.8 in favor of John McCain, but there are a few things to take into account. First, Mike Huckabee has seen a surge in the polls prior to every debate. You can attribute this to both debates and his core support. Also, the recent accusations from the New York Times toward Senator McCain may contain a lack of information, but it did put doubt in the minds of Republican voters about McCain’s association to lobbyists. Lastly, it is Texas. Texas has a very large evangelical population who see Governor Huckabee very favorably.

Now, any comparison of the primary on Tuesday to “The Alamo” is valid is regards to a last stand, but is not a valid comparison in regards to the political atmosphere. Both Senator McCain and Governor Huckabee have run civil campaigns and would most likely support each other whoever the candidate is.

American will be watching Huckabee’s last stand on Tuesday, but even if March 4^th doesn’t go well for Governor Huckabee I don’t think this will be the last we see of the Southern Gentleman from Arkansas.

Why are Rush, Sean, Laura, and Ann Crying About McCain?

Townhall.com
By Gregg Jackson
2-19-08

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter and many others in the conservative media have been attacking Senator McCain relentlessly, assailing him as a liberal and referring to him as "Juan McCain." Limbaugh has claimed that a McCain (or Huckabee) nomination would "destroy the Republican Party."
Frankly, it is unfathomable to me and many others how any honest and responsible person could fail to say exactly that about Willard Mitt Romney -- if they've done the homework assignment Now that Romney has "suspended" his campaign and McCain looks like the inevitable nominee, many of the conservative elites continue to cavil and lambaste McCain. Ann Coulter stated on "Hannity & Colmes" that she would go work for Hillary before voting for McCain. Hmmm.
Not to be outdone, talk radio host Laura Ingraham stated "there is no way in hell" she could "pull the lever for John McCain."
I for one am getting a little sick and tired of listening to the relentless screeds and caterwauling of these conservative elites who are in many regards totally disconnected from the conservative base -- especially the evangelical Christian field slaves who bring in the harvest. Why are the spoiled elites complaining about McCain like a bunch of petulant children when the reality is that, collectively, they share considerable blame for the fact that McCain is our likely nominee?
You see for months these conservative elites have been whitewashing by far the most left wing GOP presidential candidate in American history, Mitt Romney.
Most left wing GOP candidate you say, Gregg? But all the conservative talkers told me he was the most able to unite the Reagan Coalition. I thought he was the most conservative candidate we had?
Let's review what the conservative pundit "Dream Team" ruthlessly covered up about their boy Mitt while inadvertently putting us on a one-stop railroad to McCain City. As I have written in numerous exposes here on Townhall.com, as governor, Willard Mitt Romney:- Signed into law a mandatory health insurance plan that established taxpayer-funded abortion at fifty dollars each as a healthcare "benefit" (after his supposed "pro-life conversion.) -- a healthcare plan enthusiastically endorsed by Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, and Planned Parenthood -- that the Wall St. Journal has recently reported is already in "intensive care." - Illegally instituted "same sex marriage" in the Cradle of Liberty to fulfill a campaign promise to the Log Cabin Republicans he made to them in 2002 not to oppose "same sex marriage" in the process violating at least 8 articles of the oldest functioning constitution in the world- the Massachusetts Constitution authored by John Adams. - Forced Catholic Charities, the state's largest and oldest adoption and foster care agency to place children with homosexual couples (or abandon all adoption and foster child work to non-Christian politically correct left-wing agencies -- which they eventually were forced to do). Romney lied to pretend he was under a legal obligation to do this, but even former Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis pointed out that with a stroke of his pen Romney could have canceled the administrative regulation that he was pretending was a "law." - Forced Catholic Hospitals to issue abortifacients ("morning after" abortion pills) even though they were not legally required to do so. Again, Romney lied about state law to cover his motive and was against caught doing so by liberal former governor Dukakis! (How does a supposedly "pro-life," "conservative" Republican keep getting caught sneaking to the left of Michael Dukakis?) - Supported homosexual Boy Scout Masters and state laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. - Raised taxes and government fees by over $700 million which decimated the Massachusetts economy. - Shifted state taxes to municipalities to appear to balance the budget (his "economic miracle") causing local property taxes to skyrocket and devastate many families. - Supported McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reform" and McCain-Kennedy "comprehensive immigration reform" (i.e. amnesty) and opposed the Bush Tax Cuts.
In establishing taxpayer-funded abortion on demand as a "healthcare benefit" and unconstitutionally ordering officials to perform "same-sex marriages," Mitt Romney was able to achieve what neither Hillary nor Barak nor any other Democrat has ever been able to.
Yet Ann Coulter, who was quick to accuse GOP primary voters in Iowa and New Hampshire who refused to vote for her cutie-pie Romney of "not doing their homework," ignored Romney's entire far left wing record and declared Romney to be "manifestly our best candidate?" What was that about "homework", Ann?
So what does all this have to do with McCain, you ask? Simple. The conservative talkers and pundits like Rush, Sean, Laura, and Ann flagrantly misled their listeners and readers by falsely portraying Romney as a conservative. Many who would likely have voted for Huckabee cast their ballot for Romney-- the guy who Rush, Sean, Laura, and Ann maintained was the true conservative that would unite "all three legs" of the Reagan Coalition.
And they weren't alone. Pseudo-conservative mercenaries like lawyers Jay Sekulow, Jim Bopp, David French, Hugh Hewitt, teamed with the now-discredited Richard Land, Gary Bauer, and Tony Perkins in deceiving their "flocks" by whitewashing Romney as an authentic social conservative whom pro-family "values voters" could support.Had these talkers, pundits, and conservative "leaders" told the truth about Romney's $50 subsidized abortions, failing government run healthcare plan, $700 million in tax increases, increased funding for homosexual indoctrination starting in kindergarten, illegal institution of same sex marriage by misrepresenting the Goodridge court opinion and lying about the Massachusetts Constitution, support for homosexual Scout Masters etc… voters interested in supporting a true conservative would have likely gravitated toward Governor Huckabee far sooner and in huge numbers. But that couldn't be allowed to happen. The social conservative voters are the field slaves in this party, not the decision-makers.
Romney's limousine-chasing lawyers and rent-a-pundits savaged Huckabee with gross misrepresentations of his record and sabotaged conservatives' chance to deny John McCain the nomination. Instead of having the author of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and McCain-Lieberman as our nominee, we could have had the most authentic across-the-board conservative candidate currently in the race (Huckabee) -- the only candidate who supports a Human Life Amendment and a Federal Marriage Amendment, who is credibly and unapologetically pro-second Amendment, in favor of securing our border and building the fence (he has been endorsed by Duncan Hunter), and who has proposed the most aggressive fiscal tax policy of any candidate -- the Fair Tax, which would abolish the IRS and federal income tax.
These are not what honest people smear as "Jimmy Carter positions." Yet that's who the radio talkers and pundits keep telling us Huckabee is. The truth was that their boy Mitt Romney is the GOP's closest counterpart to the Democrats' soulless Rorschach test, Barak Obama, a truly dangerous demagogue.
So, please, enough with the McCain-bashing, Rush, Sean, Laura, and Ann. We could have had an authentic conservative Mike Huckabee as our nominee. Had you and your fellow travelers not waterboarded conservative voters for about a year with falsehoods, Huckabee would have united the base (you know those 40 million conservative Christians who put Republicans in the White House election after election). Do you think thinking conservatives are any more happy than you are with McCain as the Republican nominee? Not on your life. But the difference between you and us is, this is your fault.

Gregg Jackson is a radio talk show host on WRKO in Boston and author of "Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies: Issue By Issue Responses to the Most Common Claims of the Left from A to Z."