Posted on 02/11/2008 7:02:40 AM PST by pissant
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Huckabee suggested the Republican Party could meet the same fate as 1976 if it elected a moderate candidate who does not inspire voters.
Speaking at a press conference after addressing Thomas Road Baptist Church, Huckabee continued to compare himself to Ronald Reagan, who ran in 1976 against the party establishment, which led to a floor fight at the national convention. When reminded that the Republicans lost the 1976, Huckabee said it wasn’t because the party was divided, but because Gerald Ford did not energize the party.
“He never championed himself as a conservative, not a pro-life person for whom that was important,” Huckabee said. “He was a really nice moderate Republican, a true gentleman. But a member of Congress and more a part of the Washington Republican establishment than representing the grassroots of conservatism.”
And in a thinly veiled reference to McCain, Huckabee went on to say Republicans could lose again with a similar candidate.
“I would argue that if we do not have a candidate who can excite the base of this country, and particularly the base of our party and make them energetic and going out and getting the folks to put the yard signs in and making phone calls and traveling all over the country asking people to vote, we can lose again,” he said.
Standing with Jerry Falwell Jr., the chancellor and president of Liberty University, Huckabee acknowledged that he was surprised by his success on Saturday.
“Quite frankly we were very surprised,” Huckabee said. “And we weren't confident of anything like that kind of victory in Kansas. We felt we were doing well in Kansas and I thought we would win Kansas. I thought it would be close.”
(Excerpt) Read more at firstread.msnbc.msn.com ...
I've been taking DLP classes online through Liberty for the past year. I love it! I hope to visit the campus someday. When did you graduate?
marinamuffy
Huckabee/Hunter '08
(unrealistic, I know, but one can always hope)
LOL
The tragedy of this election cycle is that so many are wanting to declare as winner a guy that only a minority of Republicans support. McCain is benefiting from winning states by small margins with big fields. That's why Huckabee staying in this will give the Republicans a better glimpse of how much real support McCain has within the Republican party itself. Yes I like Huckabee, but this isn't even about who the other candidate is. It's about how many voters won't support McCain no matter what. Seems better to know that before the general election, rather than after. Sure McCain has real support. He also has very high negatives. Allowing all of this to play out until the end will not cause disunity. It might reveal the cancer that is already present, but it won't create it. Everyone insisting on unity now should remember that fake or forced unity is not unity at all. It won't heal anything and will likely make things worse in the long run. Let it play out and give the rest of the states a say. Sometimes real unity only comes at the end of a battle.
Ford was a Democrats doormat... McCain’s their doorman.
I might find some agreement with Huck on that one but I would liken him to Jimmah Carter, a likeable Southern Gov., Christian with strong moral values, but no one I desire to run this country.
Against the inordinately charismatic (albeit vacuous) Obama, who possesses remarkable skills at extemporaneous public speaking: McCain might very well end up losing all fifty states... even, conceivably, duplicating the Goreacle's own pathetic feat of 2000, by losing his own home state (AZ, in this instance).
But that's all that's left (if by "moderate" you mean "far enough left to set the founders spinning like tops").
so Huck was using McCain this whole time. He just wanted to get Mitt out of the race to go head to head with the McCainiac.
Wow. So much for his vice presidency.
The first thing Huckabee has been right about in this campaign...
McCain removed me from the fold, but Hucabee is bringing me back - to McCain.
Huck must not be interested in being Vice President.
“Ford continually acted out of spite and contempt for the Republican base? I must have missed that.”
Ford, though from Michigan, was essentially part of the old patrician northeastern establishment wing of the GOP, the old upper-crusters. Like other patricians, he viewed the surging conservative movement led by Reagan with suspicion and fear. What we saw as a refreshing and neccessary revolution in politics, Ford and the old guard saw as a dirty mob, peasants with pitchforks tearing down the master’s gates.
When Reagan was elected, Ford, Kissenger...that whole crowd was not amused. And as much as I hate to say it, McCain and his bunch have that Ford-Dole feel to them.
Don't forget that there are also "Liars for Jesus" shearing the sheep in the Cult of Global warming, too. Isn't that special?
NY Times Friday 11 March 2005 ".. Mr. Cizik said he had a "conversion" on climate change so profound in Oxford that he likened it to an "altar call," when nonbelievers accept Jesus as their savior. Mr. Cizik recently bought a Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle. "
* “This is going to be an issue which evangelicals are going to look at when they cast their ballots,” Cizik said. ..” But only Republican former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas otherwise considered among the more conservative candidates in the race has explicitly aligned himself with the creation care movement. ..” [The Reverend Richard Cizik ] Much more: 11/06/2007 “God is Green”
* "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities." -- Winston Churchill
So Huckabee is saying our nomination contest is a replay of the 1976 general election? :-)
So tell me, what is it about Huck's stance on gun rights, traditional families, freedom of religion, abolishing the IRS, balencing the budget, and stauch support of Israel that you think is "liberal"? How is McCain better than Huck on these issues?
I might admire your passion, if I could understand your English.
Only in the sense that he is burning his bridges now to be VP like Reagan did.
Other than that, there is certainly no Reagan in the mix now.
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