I want something. I want to say yes or no. I want to pick one or the other. GOP voters should have the clear choice based on the records and ideas of two viable candidates. As long as Mike Huckabee stays in the race, we will be denied that choice. While Mitt Romney has been the clear choice of Republican and conservative voters, John McCain continues to win primaries. This is due to two factors. First, several of these early states allow democrats and independents to vote in the GOP primaries. John McCain has been the clear choice among these voters. Mitt Romney has been running a close second. Second, McCain has been winning because many socially conservative voters are voting for Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee remains in the race for reasons I cannot fathom even though he has no realistic chance of winning anymore. He has not won a race since the Iowa caucuses. He came in fourth in Florida. He is not in serious contention in any of the Super Tuesday states. But Huckabee remains in. By doing so, Mike Huckabee is denying me what I want most. I want an up or down vote on John McCain.
So with great respect, I cannot help but ask Mike to Get the Huck Out. Now. Respectfully of course.
January 31, 2008 at 4:23 am
“Mitt Romney has been the clear choice of Republican and conservative voters…”
Huh????
January 31, 2008 at 9:59 am
Perhaps Catholic conservative voters feel differently about a rep of the CLS in the White House.
January 31, 2008 at 11:40 am
What is the CLS?
January 31, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Patrick,
I remind you that Florida was an all Republican primary. Despite Huckabee still being in the race and siphoning off many of those conservative Republicans, McCain won handily, even in the conservative northern counties where Huckabee did well. There are all kinds of Republicans, including the many who voted for Guiliani, so it’s not a matter of simply attracting the conservative base. The Republican candidate will win in November only if he is able to win among independents and conservative Democrats who are none too thrilled with extreme liberals like Clinton and Obama. I don’t see Romney doing that, especially given his flip-flopping in order to attract conservatives.
Bob Hunt
Knoxville, TN
January 31, 2008 at 12:39 pm
The point is that I want an up or down vote on McCain. Florida was republican only but with 4 candidates. Giuiliani can’t win, so he is out. Huck can’t win but he is in. He should get out.
I am not saying that if he gets out that the nomination is automatically Romney’s, but I want to know. I want to know if John McCain is the preferred candidate of a majority (not plurality is a four way race) of republicans. If so, fine. But I want that up or down vote and I can’t have it while Huck is in the race.
David:
“Mitt Romney has been the clear choice of Republican and conservative voters…”
Yes. All the exit polling shows that those who self identify as conservatives, favor Romney at this point. In other states that allowed dems and independents, among self identified republicans, Romney again. This is what I mean by that.
January 31, 2008 at 1:13 pm
“All the exit polling shows that those who self identify as conservatives, favor Romney at this point.”
Okay, okay, so you’re telling me that all those evangelicals among the self-identified conservatives are suddenly okay with a Mormon in the White House. Hey, I’m just asking here. What does the “exit polling” say about that?
January 31, 2008 at 2:43 pm
David,
I am not ‘saying’ anything. I want to know. Is John McCain in the mainstream of the republican party? What I suspect, but cannot currently prove, is that many evangelicals currently supporting Huck, would be very uncomfortable with McCain record and rhetoric in some key areas. I think, I hope that evangelicals are nuanced enough to to look at who supports their issues the best and would not reflexively say, Mormon= bad.
Either way, even if I am completely wrong, I want to know.
January 31, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Well, that settles it, then. Cuz I wanna know too. Call up that radio show again and ask them to have viewers spout off about it. Maybe everybody else wants to know too.
January 31, 2008 at 3:06 pm
McCain is no conservative.
January 31, 2008 at 4:19 pm
To this I say, “Go, Huck! Go!” And I don’t mean from the race. One must continue to support those that are the best option not who has the best chance at winning. Otherwise, why try? It’s a defeatist perspective.
January 31, 2008 at 5:01 pm
No Huck No
Otherwise there will be nothing left in your wallet.
* Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
* He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07).
* He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
* He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
* He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/05/02).
* He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
* In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).
January 31, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Santorum said on numerous radio interviews that McCain attempted to torpedo every pro-life legislation while behind the scenes. He said he’d always vote for it in the end but he said he’d be out there attempting to form coalitions but he’d always have to be worried that McCain was pulling them apart behind him. He said McCain was always worried about being divisive. McCain is not a pro-life leader. I fear that he will wimp out and give us another Sandra Day O’ Connor.
January 31, 2008 at 8:50 pm
All non-Ron Paul candidates should get out now. Yes, Huckabee should get out and so should McCain and Romney.
January 31, 2008 at 9:38 pm
“I fear he [McCain] will wimp out and give us another Sandra Day O’Connor.”
You mean like that pro-life president Ronald Reagan did?
I would rather have somebody who tries to build coalitions and votes pro-life, then somebody who supports abortion “rights”, then suddenly converts to pro-life because he wants to be president. McCain is the first. Romney is the second.
Remember the last guy who converted to being pro-life because he wanted to be president? George H. W. Bush. What Supreme Court Justices did we get out of him? The largely unqualified Clarence Thomas and the rabid pro-abortion David Souter!
Patrick, my point in my earlier comment is that, despite Huckabee being in the race, McCain did well among conservative Republican voters in Florida, both in the northern counties, where McCain still won more counties than Huckabee, and in central Florida, where he did well against Romney where Romney was supposed to trounce him with conservatives. So, at least in Florida, McCain has already shown that he can attract conservative Republicans.
No one who is the majority candidate of only Republicans is going to win the general election. He is going to have to attract independents and conservative (read: Southern) Dems. Again, I don’t see Romney or Huckabee doing that. If McCain is able to pull conservative Republicans, independents and Southern Dems from Huckabee and Romney, he may be able to do so from whoever the Democratic candidate is.
Bob Hunt
January 31, 2008 at 9:53 pm
But if Romney wins by default that is pretty bad to. If he can’t convince Huckabee voters to come to him at this point then he does not deserve it. People always complain when their guy has an obstacle to overcome. The point is if he can’t overcome it then he does not seem like presidential material to me.
January 31, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Whoa! What’s with disrespecting Clarence Thomas? The guy’s been nothing but great for pro-lifers.
January 31, 2008 at 10:46 pm
“The largely unqualified Clarence Thomas” –The opinion of the largely unqualified Bob Hunt
February 1, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Golly! Matthew AND Patrick! Maybe I should run home and get my big brother. 🙂
Matthew, Thomas’ record as a solidly pro-life Supreme Court justice has nothing to do with whether or not he was qualified to sit on the Supreme Court when Bush nominated him back in 1991. Indeed, Thomas testified under oath (so I presume he wasn’t lying) during his confirmation hearing before the Senate that he had not formulated an opinion on Roe v. Wade. So, perhaps his pro-life record was foreseen by Bush (though Bush obviously lacked such vision in nominating Souter), or his pro-life record is a happy accident. The fact is, he had little of the type of experience usually expected of Supreme Court justices. When Bush nominated him, my own thoughts were, “This is the best you can do?”
Patrick, yes, that Thomas was largely unqualified for the Supreme Court is my opinion. Thomas’ qualifications at the time, after all, were and are a matter of public record. So all are free to form their opinions of his qualifications based on that record. For what, exactly, am I largely unqualified? And on what record do you form that opinion?
Bob Hunt
February 1, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I for one do not think that Bush the Elder was aware of Thomas’s pro-life views. His other nominee, David Souter, has been among the most pro-abortion justices to sit on the Court. But then not all of Reagan’s appointees to the Court were reliably pro-life either (O’Connor was not and Kennedy seems to vacillate).
I think the GOP is happy with the status quo on abortion. Of the current crew, seven were appointed by GOP presidents but only two would be likely to overturn Roe v. Wade (Scalia and Thomas).
February 1, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Right now polling indicates both Clinton and Obama would beat Romney in a head to head. http://www.realclearpolitics.com shows Romney behind by double digits to both Dem contenders. McCain however owns a slim advantage over both.
I agree that McCain isn’t the classic conservative. But, I think today’s voters aren’t warming to the stauch and traditional conservatives like they did in 2000 and 2004.
Only a candidate like McCain will garner enough swing votes and independents to challenge the Dems.
Romney, while yes a more classic and ‘by the the book’ type of conservative, will never overcome the skepticism of his LDS faith and his change of opinion on the abortion issue.