Original Huckabee Bloggers in the Spotlight

A while back I said that I would spotlight the original Huckabee bloggers. I have not gotten around to doing that. I really believe without these bloggers, Mike Huckabee would not be in the postition he is now. Those of us who have been around since before the first debate on May 5 braved had to hearing "Who is Mike Huckabee" and/or "He won't make it past the first contribution quarter." Well guess what? Ten months after Mike Huckabee announced he was running for president he is in first place in Iowa, second nationally. Golly, I recall back to when he was at 1% in all the polls. I had attended a Lincoln Day Dinner about two days before the first debate, where long term Republicans attended. These people were big into politics and followed it well. Even many of them had not heard about Mike Huckabee.

Check out some of these posts;
Mike Huckabee President 2008 thanks the Club for Growth. Ya gotta check it out to see why.

• Over the last couple of years, I spent quite a bit of time writing posts to refute the "hit pieces" being issued by the Club For Growth on Mike Huckabee's campaign. I was worried, back in the early days, that the Club's lies and misrepresentations would succeed in harming the campaign. More Here.
  

Illinois 4 Huckabee on the Huckabee Surge

• Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
• Monday, December 03, 2007
• If the current round of Huck-a-mania is nothing more than Mike Huckabee’s fifteen minutes of fame, the former Arkansas Governor is certainly making the most of it. Today, in the first full round of national polling completed since last week’s “debate” among Republican Presidential hopefuls, Huckabee has pulled to within three points of the frontrunning Rudy Giuliani. Heading into the debate, Giuliani led Huckabee by twelve. More here.

The POTUS Blog has a post that includes thoughts from John Engler on Mike Huckabee.

• ...John Engler, himself a former governor of Michigan and currently serving as the president of the National Manufacturer’s Association, echoed the comments of Thompson. “Mike Huckabee has become a national figure with major appeal to people, regardless of party, because he is focused on results,” said Engler. “He is a marvelous leader with a bright future.”... More here.

Larry Perrault from Stranger in a Foreign Land explains Mike Huckabee's view on smoking, in his most recent posts.

• My last post drew a comment that was insistent about the illegitimacy of a national smoking ban of any sort.After my response became somewhat expensive, I decided to post it.Here is the comment, followed by my response: here

• I have corrected the Star Parker commentary. I posted it, last night. But, after I had left the editor, I saw that I must have accidentally clipped a bit and that I did not present the true statements and sentiments about Huckabee that have been misconstrued or distorted.

• AND, I saw a C-SPAN video of Jonah Goldberg discussing his discomfort with Mike Huckabee, whom he said seems to think that anything he thinks is a good thing to do, he should use government to do it. He calls this a progressive and liberal disposition, and says two important things: here

• Star Parker explains how the attacks against Huckabee are inaccurate and unfair.As she did in her original announcement of support for Huckabee, Parker concedes that there is some I’ve always loved Star Parker and have been to a few pro-life banquets where she spoke. Her article has the signal qualification of being sincere. However, her concessions still bear the great liability of being inaccurate. I will excerpt the paragraph in which she allows these, concessions, insert corrections, and then discuss what Huckabee is guilty of, if you still want to call it guilt. I don’t, incidentally. here

Huck 2008 posts about Star Parker on mike Huckabee

• (Star Parker: "The unfair rap against Mike Huckabee"): "The Washington Post's David Broder provides one hint about the fuel that might be propelling Huckabee. He says that, according to veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, the attributes that are pushing voters' buttons this year are 'transparency, authenticity and unity.' A just-released The Economist/YouGov poll shows Huckabee doing well in these areas. Republican voters rate him first in both honesty and morality." more here
  
• Cross-posted at WisdomisVindicated.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Star parker's Commentary on Mike Huckabee in WorldNetDaily

I have been away from posting about Mike Huckabee for a while. I needed to take a slight break from politics. I just didn't feel like dealing with the games that go along with politics during the Thanksgiving time. I found this great article by Star Parker that I thought I would share with y'all.

Huckabee hounding

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Posted: November 24, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee

What's going on with Mike Huckabee?
With little resources, and with a GOP presidential candidacy hovering in obscurity through the summer, the former Arkansas governor is now running in a dead heat with Mitt Romney in the lead in Iowa.
The former Massachusetts governor's spending in Iowa has been 10 times greater than Huckabee's and, until this week, Huckabee had not run a single ad (versus Romney, whose ads have already run more than 5,000 times).
In various national polls, Huckabee is coming in a solid third behind former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.
The Washington Post's David Broder provides one hint about the fuel that might be propelling Huckabee. He says that, according to veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, the attributes that are pushing voters' buttons this year are "transparency, authenticity and unity."
A just-released The Economist/YouGov poll shows Huckabee doing well in these areas. Republican voters rate him first in both honesty and morality.
The long campaign and the plethora of pre-primary televised debates have been helpful to Huckabee, whose appeal has come through to voters, but who has not had a lot of resources for his own marketing. He has come off as genuine and not like a candidate, in Huckabee's words, "who's sort of the culmination of a room full of consultants."
There is little question that, on social issues, Huckabee, a Baptist minister, is the real deal. This is playing well among Iowa Republicans, a third of whom are evangelicals and 70 percent of whom are conservatives.
But what about the rap against him that he is a populist with little regard for traditional Republican proclivities for unfettered markets and limited government?
He's been accused by the Club for Growth of "big-government liberalism" and called, by conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, a "statist."
(Column continues below, click here for more)

Here are some of what else she has to say about Mike Huckabee.

But there are important strains in what Huckabee is about that defy simple labels, and in this sense these accusations and generalizations are not legitimate.

The traditional-values agenda is as much an economic initiative as anything else.

It's family breakdown and values breakdown that drive poverty in our country today. Poor families are overwhelmingly single-parent families

It's tough to see how someone who wants to get rid of the IRS, which Huckabee's "fair tax" initiative would do, can be thought of as someone who loves big government.

And, of course, Huckabee is a hard-core supporter of understanding the Second Amendment as protection of the rights of individuals to bear arms.

Click the above link to read the full article.