...of our man Mitt.

Labels: Jim Cramer

There’s been some play in the blogosphere over this article about Mike Huckabee. In it, John Fund essentially says that Huckabee is not all that conservative:

Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."

Of course you could probably find just about any politician with disillusioned former backers that now criticize the person they once backed. Unfortunately Fund doesn’t take the time to fully delve into Huckabee’s candidacy, relying more on accusations of inconsistent conservatism by critics. This is fairly typical of media types.

I say that it is unfortunate that Fund doesn’t spend more time analyzing Huckabee’s candidacy because there are legitimate concerns that run deeper than the name calling that the media relishes. Fund lists a few of these:

Many Huckabee supporters have told me their man should be judged by what he's saying on the campaign trail today. Fair enough. Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.

Certainly all these things should cause conservatives to pause at endorsing Mike Huckabee. The thing that strikes me most is how willing Huckabee is to deviate from principles of conservative economics. He apparently has few qualms about raising taxes and spending. Either one of these is dangerous enough for our economy and our freedoms. Both of them together spell immense trouble for our nation. It’s one of the biggest reasons we oppose Democrats, because of their tax and spend habits. Huckabee seems not to be much of an improvement in that area.

In many ways Huckabee is the bizarro-Giuliani: fiscally moderate to liberal, moderate on foreign policy, and staunchly conservative on social issues. In the same way that Giuliani’s stool fails for lack of a third leg, Huckabee’s stool also falls over for lack of a conservative fiscal leg. But don’t take my word for it, look at the immense amount of studying that the Club for Growth has put out on Huckabee. This, just out yesterday, is the latest article put out by Pat Toomey, President of CoG, on Huckabee:

During Huckabee’s tenure as governor, the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A dyed-in-blue tax hiker, Huckabee supported raising sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, even nursing home bed taxes. He virulently opposed a congressional moratorium on taxing Internet access, and sat on the sidelines while his Democratic legislature pushed the largest tax hike in Arkansas history into law. What’s more, on his watch, and frequently at his behest, state spending increased by 50 percent, more than double the rate of inflation, and the number of state government workers rose by 20 percent.

All the more reason to support Mitt Romney, the only complete candidate in the field.

Labels: mike huckabee

As Jason says, it's not the actual win, but the free press that counts. Thus, the Bismark Tribune reports that Romney won the North Dakota Republicans' straw poll:

The former Massachusetts governor carried 29 percent of the vote, while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani came in second with 22 percent, former senator and "Law and Order" actor Fred Thompson was third with 21 percent, and Sen. John McCain was fourth with 14 percent.

Labels: North Dakota

Said Representative McLain:

"Governor Romney has demonstrated unparalleled success in both the public and private sector," said Representative McLain. "He has proven his ability to serve as a turnaround specialist, both in Massachusetts and the Winter Olympics. Governor Romney is the only candidate in this race who can take Washington apart and put it back together and bring our nation back to the core conservative values that have made our nation so great. I am proud to join his team."

Rep McLain has served as a former President of both Colorado River Republican Women and the Victor Valley Republican Club and a former Treasurer of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. McLain currently resides with her husband in Bullhead City. She is also active in the Arizona Federation of Republican Women.

Other notable AZ endorsements include:

• Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio


• Arizona State Senator Chuck Gray


• Arizona State Representative Mark Anderson


• Arizona State Representative Rich Crandall


• Queen Creek Mayor Art Sanders


• Coolidge Mayor Tom Shope

According to a new Florida Chamber poll by Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research Romney has moved into 2nd place:

Guiliani – 33%
Romney – 17%
Thompson – 13%
McCain – 9%
No opinion – 17%.

Labels: Florida, poll

Non-race related, but I was reading through some emails tonight from my family email list. A lot of my siblings, immediate family and extended family live in the Southern California area. The fires seem to be affecting everybody. My sister is a dispatcher for the Orange County Fire Authority and is working 16 hour days, straight. Her husband of 4 months is a firefighter assigned to some of the fires near Lake Arrowhead. Some family members have been volunteering 12 hour days at the Sheriffs office .

I was talking to my mom this morning about the fires near Santiago Canyon. Santiago Canyon is due west about 20 miles or so from Laguna Beach. I grew up in Mission Viejo, and for a kid in the suburbs, Santiago Canyon was kind of like the one bit of country living in the middle of all the urban sprawl.

My dad had a whole collection of books on Santiago's history by a guy named Jim Creeper. He was a local historian and had some of the most amazing stories about South Orange County. You would think the OC was always the home of elite beautiful people, but it once used to be the home of indians, prospectors and wild grizzlies. Those were the stories I remember my dad telling me when when I was a kid. It was amazing to hear about the wars and battles fought between the Mexicans and the US troops on what later became my elementary school grounds.

Today Orange County is no longer the hiding place for outlaws and indians it once was. As a matter of fact it's barely recognizable. When I was born in 1976 Mission Viejo was much of nothing. As people moved in and stores were built the early Mexican was a part of life. The subdivisions had Hispanic names such as "the Madrids" and the "Castillas." My city (improper spanish- should be Mission Vieja) employed an old lady spanish lady who was in charge of naming all the streets. All the cities had Spanish themed names like El Toro, Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente, etc.

Around 1995 the city of El Toro decided that the name "El Toro" was a little too "bullish" and wanted something more exclusive, so they changed the name to Lake Forest. Soon the tides changed. You no longer have new cities named in honor of the original spaniards who settled the land. Now it's things like "Tuttle Ranch" and "Foothill Ranch." The new shopping centers are no longer built with the spanish themes they used to be, but rather stone and earth colors, something more likely to be found in Breckenridge. And frankly, I don't think I have met anyone in years who knows that Orange County got it's name because the guy who picked "Orange" won the poker game over the guys who picked Alvacado and Apple.

So, it's kind of sad to see something like Santiago go up in flames. It's still a piece of unchanged Orange County for the most part and from what I hear, the colony of inbreeders still live there.

Let's remember the people of California in our prayers. Especially those who lost their homes or family members. And the firefighters.

Romney is enjoying a Drudge Report Headline at the moment:

I think Tom Tancredo has the right idea:

Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo wants to put something important on the line -- his candidacy. His campaign called ABC News to issue this challenge: The Colorado congressman will drop out of the race if the Rockies lose the World Series -- if rival Mitt Romney agrees to pack it in if the Red Sox lose.

If only we could have gotten all of the candidates to do the same. We would no longer have such candidates as John McCain (Arizona Diamondbacks), Duncan Hunter (San Diego Padres), Dennis Kucinish (Cleveland Indians), Hillary Clinton (Cubs or Yankees, take your pick), or Rudy Giuliani (Yankees). Of course, Giuliani doesn't get to fudge by switching his affiliation to the Red Sox, as he is trying to do now. With the Red Sox just three games away from a championship, Mitt is looking like the safe bet to win this one.

This is an easy win for Romney:

"One of the ways that you help instill, if you will, family values is by having a White House be a place that demonstrates family values," the Massachusetts Republican said in a response to a question at a New Hampshire house party about how he would instill family values as president.

"And, you know, I think during the last Clinton presidency, the White House did not demonstrate that in a way that was helpful to our nation's culture," Romney added.

No serious person would dispute this notion. The personal behavior of White House occupants directly affects the nation. Indeed, I think we can easily trace the "my private life is private" syndrome of public officials trying to hide unseemly behavior to Bill Clinton. Of course not all people are serious, which is why the CNN article quotes a response from the Clinton campaign that tries to shift the focus from family values to character:

Responding to Romney's comments, top Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said, "Hillary Clinton needs no lessons on character from a man who switches his positions on a daily basis."

Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.

Labels: Hillary Clinton

People are talking about Hillary’s recent “Mississippi Comments.”

Jonathan Martin at Politico wonders why none of the GOP nominees are making any statements about it: “Would seem like the perfect opportunity to score some points about her being a liberal elitist looking down her nose at a Southern state, right?”

It truly would be a good opportunity for Mitt Romney or the others to take Hillary to task on being a snob, but what everyone seems to be missing is the word “Communitarianism.”

Hillary:

"I think Iowa poses a special burden, or a special obstacle to me because when you look at the numbers, how can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

I had never heard this word before, so looked it up.

Wikipedia’s first paragraph describing it says: “Communitarianism as a group of related but distinct philosophies began in the late 20th century, opposing individualism while advocating phenomena such as civil society. Not necessarily hostile to social liberalism or even social democracy, communitarianism emphasizes the interest of communities and societies over those of the individual."

Sounds like Communitarianism is Hillary's new word for Communism.

This woman is scary.

And the fact that she made this statement and so easily used this word "Communitarianism" and everyone is caught up in her snobbiness and have totally (as far as I can see) missed the real heart of her message is very troubling to me.

Any thoughts on this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

P.S. Does anyone think this would be the makings of a good 'Hillary Attack Ad" ad for Mitt?

Labels: Communitarianism, Hillary Clinton

The New Hampshire Union Leader (and RCP) is reporting a new poll out by St. Anselm College's Institute of Politics. The results:

Romney 32.4%
Giuliani 21.8
McCain 15.2
Paul 7.4
Huckabee 6
Thompson 5

Labels: New Hampshire, Polls