Posted on 12/26/2007 6:39:22 PM PST by MitchellC
WHEN WE PAID pundits try to provide campaign analysis, we often strain to find historical analogies. Although I'm not asking for sympathy, please understand that it's not easy. There have been only fifty-something presidential campaigns, and obviously those conducted in the horse-and-buggy era provide scant parallels to an election held in our own age of Al Gore's wondrous intertubes. Besides, every one of these things is unique.
That said, I think I've found a near perfect parallel to the Huckabee '08 campaign--Pat Buchanan in 1996. Buchanan stunned the world in 1996 when he defeated Bob Dole in New Hampshire. That result caused the Republican electorate to ask itself two questions:
1) Is Pat Buchanan really up to being president?
[snip]
And there's also Huckabee's past. Every politician has a past--issues he flip-flopped on or positions he took that his party dislikes. But Huckabee's past has caused Republicans to remember the Arkansas mores that drove us nuts during the Clinton years. Seemingly every day, another piece of, er, stuff, hits the fan. Over the weekend, it came out that Huckabee received $35,000 in honoraria in 2006 from a company that does stem cell research, the very same company that social conservatives blasted Mitt Romney over because his blind trust had invested in it. Huckabee's take of $35,000 from the stem cell researchers was but a small sliver of the roughly $378,000 in outside fees that Huckabee raked in during his final year as Arkansas' governor. Too bad he didn't have Hillary Clinton's facility with commodities trading--such a skill probably would have made things easier for Huckabee.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Ping
Huckster is about to takethe Howard Dean fall. Not soon eonough.
I hope so, but he is a good talker.
So was Bill Clinton. People are catching on the Huckster is a slickster.
People are finally paying attention to what he says, not what thre press is saying about him.
What bothers me on top of everything else, is how many times he uses the “stupid” card, ie ‘I don’t know much about that...”
On Mormonism, Sodomy and the Supreme Court, Iran, the Military. Enough to disqualify him from the post - and as my pastor.
Candidates who rise overnight...can fall overnight.
Who would stand to benefit from a Huckabee decline?
Fred Thompson?
Geez, so this is what the elites think of Huckabee supporters.
Probably Fred.
Latest video: Crunch Time In Iowa
http://fredfile.fred08.com/blog/2007/video-crunch-time-in-iowa/
And from NumbersUSA as of December 21:
“Now that Rep. Tom Tancredo has dropped out of the race, only two candidates (THOMPSON & HUNTER) are left who have vigorous and thorough enough opposition to amnesty to warrant an EXCELLENT rating.”
GO FRED! :)
Do not miss this week’s Ann column - - it is a classic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944500/posts
Huckster ‘08 does not even hold a candle to Buchanan ‘96!
Fred is being patient, laying in the weeds, waiting for the flash in the pan candidates to burn themselves out.
Fred will be the only real choice by Super Tuesday.
Huckabee is a shallow little con artist. He’s like the crook who pats the griefing widow on the shoulder with one hand while his other hand is rifling her purse. Surely Iowa voters will wake up before they make a disastrous mistake. Romney and Thompson are the two most presidential candidates in the race. Thompson, in my opinion, is not an option because of his health and the fact that he’s periodically getting intravenous chemotherapy to keep him alive. Look at the attention Giuliani’s brief stay in the hospital has gotten. Now, project that same media attention on a report that Thompson is taking time away from the campaign for chemotherapy. It won’t wash, people. It’s a time bomb waiting to explode.
some constituencies that had natural concerns about a potential Buchanan presidency, namely gays, Jews, and people with triple-digit IQs.
Uh-huh, Jews and homosexuals are going to decide the republican nominee. Smart gay jews are the kingmakers in the republican party now, and they don't approve of stupid slackjawed homophobic Christers in the "flyover states." Got it.
Hate to say I told you so, but I did!
If it’s true that Romney’s negatives are really in the mid-to-high 40%s and the overwhelming second choice of Huckabee supporters is Thompson, as has been reported, then you can’t help but believe it will be Fred.
He's counting on locking up the 'stupid' vote. Come to think of it, he has.
ping
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