Since the summer, pundits have insisted that the race for the Republican nomination is basically a head-to-head between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. I subscribed to that theory, as its logic seemed sound, but now former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's jump in the polls has called all of this into question.
A year or so ago, many pundits (and myself) took a look at the likely candidates and sized them up. The consensus was that Huckabee had the potential to be a top tier candidate. He was a governor of a southern state, a funny and sociable preacher, and the only competitive historically solid conservative in the race. Chuck Todd and Mark Ambinder, who write weekly race ratings for the National Journal, wrote that he had to raise 20 million to be taken seriously, and I agreed. He started at about three to five percent in most polls, and didn't show up on the radar in the early states.
In the past few months, he has performed solidly in every debate, taken the moral high ground in bitter exchanges with Romney and Giuliani on immigration, and built up a strong Iowa organization. I noticed that he was climbing to around 10 points in the polls, but he didn't seem to me to have the money to break into the top tier.
Then, about a month ago, right as Rudy and Romney started to hurt from embarrassing debate moments, a hole appeared and Huckabee struck. He went on a frantic tour of Iowa, and portrayed himself as a new and improved Fred Thompson.
Now, in recent weeks, he has surged in the polls, and is now leading by more than the margin of error in Iowa, South Carolina, and several other southern states. A new poll shows him closing in on Giuliani nationally. No one predicted this.
Allow me to digress. A few days ago in a town hall debate, a college student asked the candidate to what he attributes his rise in the polls. Huckabee responded thus:
Before his presidential run, his main legacy was his book about losing weight, "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork." I do not know whether he believes God helped him with that as well.
What I do know is that the claiming divine right to the Presidency is completely inappropriate. This is the 21st century, not the Middle Ages.
Although we have since come to find out that the administration has been misleading us on Iran, Huckabee's support (or implied endorsement) of military intervention in Iran worries me greatly. We are still stuck in the mud with the Iraq fiasco, something that will cost my generation (and not Bush or Huckabee's) close to a trillion dollars. The oil industry's war profiteering has not helped matters. 3,900 young Americans will never return to their families, and almost 30,000 have been severely injured, both physically and psychologically.
Why did this happen? The leadership, claiming the support of God in its mission (as Bush claimed), and rushed to war against a country that never attacked us with a game plan based on distorted evidence and hubris. Now, with Bush hyping up the threat posed by Iran, we find out that they stopped their nuclear program four years ago. How many more times will it take?
When you're at a restaurant, you order what you can pay for, and when you realize you can't afford it, you don't wave it aside and then give the bill to your kid. Mike Huckabee, especially as a preacher and moral leader, should know that. On the issues that will count in tomorrow's America, he's George Bush all over again.
God help us.
A year or so ago, many pundits (and myself) took a look at the likely candidates and sized them up. The consensus was that Huckabee had the potential to be a top tier candidate. He was a governor of a southern state, a funny and sociable preacher, and the only competitive historically solid conservative in the race. Chuck Todd and Mark Ambinder, who write weekly race ratings for the National Journal, wrote that he had to raise 20 million to be taken seriously, and I agreed. He started at about three to five percent in most polls, and didn't show up on the radar in the early states.
In the past few months, he has performed solidly in every debate, taken the moral high ground in bitter exchanges with Romney and Giuliani on immigration, and built up a strong Iowa organization. I noticed that he was climbing to around 10 points in the polls, but he didn't seem to me to have the money to break into the top tier.
Then, about a month ago, right as Rudy and Romney started to hurt from embarrassing debate moments, a hole appeared and Huckabee struck. He went on a frantic tour of Iowa, and portrayed himself as a new and improved Fred Thompson.
Now, in recent weeks, he has surged in the polls, and is now leading by more than the margin of error in Iowa, South Carolina, and several other southern states. A new poll shows him closing in on Giuliani nationally. No one predicted this.
Allow me to digress. A few days ago in a town hall debate, a college student asked the candidate to what he attributes his rise in the polls. Huckabee responded thus:
There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and fives loaves to feed a crowd of five thousand people. And that's the only way that our campaign can be doing what its doing. And I'm not being facetious, nor am I trying to be trite; there literally are thousands of people across this country that are praying that a little will become much, and it has. It has defied all explanation...and until they [the pundits] look at it as an experience beyond human, they're never going to figure it out.Huckabee has also expressed disdain for the concepts of evolution, a woman's right to choose, a person's right to marry whomever they want, hate crimes legislation, and the Kyoto protocol. He has also supported displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and in October said that the President should disarm Iran's nuclear program even without the consent of congress.
Before his presidential run, his main legacy was his book about losing weight, "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork." I do not know whether he believes God helped him with that as well.
What I do know is that the claiming divine right to the Presidency is completely inappropriate. This is the 21st century, not the Middle Ages.
Although we have since come to find out that the administration has been misleading us on Iran, Huckabee's support (or implied endorsement) of military intervention in Iran worries me greatly. We are still stuck in the mud with the Iraq fiasco, something that will cost my generation (and not Bush or Huckabee's) close to a trillion dollars. The oil industry's war profiteering has not helped matters. 3,900 young Americans will never return to their families, and almost 30,000 have been severely injured, both physically and psychologically.
Why did this happen? The leadership, claiming the support of God in its mission (as Bush claimed), and rushed to war against a country that never attacked us with a game plan based on distorted evidence and hubris. Now, with Bush hyping up the threat posed by Iran, we find out that they stopped their nuclear program four years ago. How many more times will it take?
When you're at a restaurant, you order what you can pay for, and when you realize you can't afford it, you don't wave it aside and then give the bill to your kid. Mike Huckabee, especially as a preacher and moral leader, should know that. On the issues that will count in tomorrow's America, he's George Bush all over again.
God help us.
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