How Huckabee Could Stop President Palin

Frum Forum ^ | November 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 am | David Frum

[onyx]

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.”

Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register:

Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run.

Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs to be prepared for.

Huckabee’s words are more than an observation. They are a warning. And they are a warning especially to be heeded because they come from the one politician who can probably do most to stop Palin, the candidate best positioned to win Iowa.

Huckabee himself is also persona non grata with party leaders, because of his repeated criticism of Wall Street and Wall Street minded GOP insiders.

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded. And while he expresses a strong social conservative message, he does not play the politics of division, disparagement, and resentment in which Palin specializes.

In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket.

In modern times, the game is played differently, but the structure of the situation remains the same: an early Huckabee pact with a candidate acceptable to Republican donors (if not Romney, then Tim Pawlenty or even Jeb Bush) would command enough clout to push Palin off the stage.

If not, all bets are off. As I think about it, that’s one of the big problems with the candidacies of a Thune, a Daniels or a Barbour: They will need Huckabee as much or more than Romney does.

Yet Huckabee is also a re-elected governor, plus he won the second largest haul of delegates last time. Why should he defer to any of the lower-polling governors? And who will make him?

[Lazlo in PA]

Do we want 4 years of this dopes soft progressive agenda??

Or this?

[detective]

“Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded.”

This article was obviously put out by the Huckabee people. The article says that Huckabee is smart and policy minded, and that this makes him very different than Sarah who must therefore be stupid and ignorant of policy.

The larger point of the article is that Huckabee is the only one who can save the Republicans from Sarah Palin but the Republicans are too stupid to realize it.

Huckabee doesn't have the courage to call Sarah Palin stupid to her face. He has to get other people to write articles praising him and calling her names.

[upsdriver]

Oh sure, that would be fine. Too often, the Iowa winner has invested everything into winning that state with no plan beyond. I think Sarah will be an exception because of her national grassroots support.

[Terpfen]

Frum trying to prop up Suckabee?

Too bad. Maurice Clemmons has already torpedoed Suckabee’s chances at a second run.

[onyx]

You have said it all! You are spot on!! That’s precisely what’s wrong with all of the pundits, talking heads and other candidates “supposedly” on our side. All of them need to stop worrying about Sarah Palin, and start aiming their ammo at Obama, but like you said, only Sarah Palin shoots at Obama.

[onyx]

LOL. He already has his ground game (campaign) set up in Iowa. Not fully up and running, but he’s working on it.

[Waryone]

Onyx,

David Frum is a wishful thinking idiot. Huckabee hates Romney with a passion. He would give up all his delegates to Palin to stop Romney. And if he even appeared to be thinking of joining forces with Romney, his own supporters would desert him. They really hate Romney.

[Lily4Jesus]

How cruel and low you are.

[2ndDivisionVet]

A Love Letter to Gomer Huckleberry from Frum. Shouldn’t they get a room? Ever had fried squirrel cooked up on a popcorn popper burner, David?

[The Cajun]

A Love Letter to Gomer Huckleberry from Frum. Shouldn’t they get a room? Ever had fried squirrel cooked up on a popcorn popper burner, David?

You should have added a "Yee Hawwwww" somewhere in that statement.

[onyx]

He swept into Iowa in ‘08 to take it from Romney and I think he thought Iowa would be his this time too, but Sarah Palin would likely give him a run for the Christian, pro-life vote.

[2ndDivisionVet]

That was the OFFICIAL family portrait of the governor & his family that year. They chose to dress and pose that way. onyx didn't photoshop that, it's been around here since 2007. That's like saying that posting an actual photo of Mrs. Obama is racist...

[onyx]

OH. Thanks for the information!
Interesting!!!

[indianrightwinger]

It is worse on the presumption scale. The headline says “Stop President Palin”. What?

[2ndDivisionVet]

The “YeeeeHawwwwww!” and “Boy Howdy” and “Here, hold my beer” were implied. The “If we git deevorced, is she still my sister?” isn’t.

[onyx]

LOL. The Cajun made me post it....LOL.
(It’s a popular request).

[The Cajun]

LOL!

[Jim Robinson]

"In the days of party conventions, the answer to the Palin problem would have been obvious: party leaders would assemble and force the mutually mistrustful Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee onto the same ticket."

ROFLOL!! Frum is an idiot!!

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

From David Frum's idiotic article:

But Huckabee is a very different cat from Sarah Palin. He’s smart and policy-minded.

Smart? I don't think so. Huckabee was stupid and arrogant in Arkansas. He parachuted into more than 1,000 legal cases in Arkansas and replaced the judges' and juries' decisions with his own. His grants of clemency were SICKENING. They put the people of Arkansas in danger, as well as the rest of the country. How David Frum can call Huckabee smart is beyond me. If Huckabee was actually smart, he wouldn't have let the guy out of prison who went on to murder four Washington state police officers. And he wouldn't have spent valuable time granting clemency in more than a thousand other cases, as well.

[TCH]

I’ll take the HER “BANG!” over HIS “TWANG” any day of the week!