Huckabee’s First Show A Smashing Hit!

I don’t think it was advertised on HuckPAC’s website, but the world premiere of “Huckabee” on Fox News Channel the other Saturday beat out its competitors on CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC… COMBINED!!! The Governor’s television show pulled in 2.01 Million viewers. Considering that the Saturday Night time slot is typically a dead zone for television, especially for cable news networks, the premiere of “Huckabee” must have blown Fox News Executives heads.

And with the exception of a special done on Sarah Palin a few days after the GOP Convention, it was the most watched hour for Fox News in the entire month of September.

The show aired again on Sunday night, pulling in an impressive 1.77 million viewers.

While a total of 3.78 million hits in a weekend is impressive, it’s even more impressive considering that Fox News did absolutely nothing in terms of advertising the show. It was completely the work of Governor Huckabee’s small staff at HuckPAC and the immeasurable conservative grassroots force that propelled him to the main stream.

I didn’t like the format of the show too much, and I hate to admit it, but I missed both showings of “Huckabee” over the weekend in favor of football. Hopefully there weren’t too many other Huckabee fans who were left wanting more from the format of the show (not the host) and spent the hour selfishly indulging in entertaining games and primal athletic rituals.

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Tom DeLay likes Huckabee for 2012

Tom DeLay hasn’t exactly been keeping his displeasure with John McCain a secret. But I certainly didn’t expect him to come out and say he liked Governor Mike Huckabee for President in 2012.

The former Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives supported Governor Huckabee late in the primary process as a last ditch attempt to stop John McCain from winning the Republican Party’s nomination. He’s certainly learned from his mistake of waiting too long to endorse and he’s making darn sure he doesn’t repeat the same mistake twice, jumping on Huckabee’s 2012 bandwagon before Huckabee announces his candidacy and before even the 2008 election.

One thing is for certain. Come 2011-2012, we’re not going to have to spend the first 11 months of the campaign season fighting for credibility and notoriety: Huckabee has their attention.

DeLay also said that he doubted Mike Huckabee would find satisfaction at his job on Fox News and that his real accomplishment over the next few years was going to come from building the Republican Party and getting us back on track and on message.

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McCain Bails Out of Michigan… without talking to Sarah Palin

If you’re curious to know what kind of input Governor Sarah Palin might have in a McCain White House, we got a pretty good idea this week. Without consulting with Governor Palin, John McCain and the lobbyists running his campaign made the decision to pull out of Michigan and virtually concede the state to his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama. But Palin couldn’t disagree with the move more, believing in the original Michigan philosophy stressed by the McCain campaign before the primaries even ended. Believing that John McCain’s moderate stance on the issues made him a real contender for state.

I’m going to put away my anti-McCain blogger pants and discuss strategy. There’s no bias, one way or the other, going into my analysis of the situation.

Long story short, McCain probably did the right thing. Although Michigan has continuously been listed as a battleground state for the past several elections, the truth of the matter is that it’s a pretty reliable pick up for Democrats. Even if Mitt Romney, the son of a former Michigan Governor, was nominated as the GOP’s candidate, he wouldn’t have won Michigan.

Making matters worse, states like Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, and Virginia are up for grabs in 2008 and Obama is pouring a lot of money into these traditionally conservative and Republican states. If McCain loses Virginia or any combination of two of those states while carrying all the other states Bush carried in 2004, McCain would lose the election.

Although McCain supporters said McCain would be able to compete in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and even California; which have been trending Democrat; the reality today is that McCain’s best chance for victory in November is to pull a near-repeat of President Bush’s electoral victory in 2004.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a problem that will be over in November. Although Indiana and North Carolina are still relatively conservative states, Virginia has been tilting Democrat for several years and once it goes blue, we’re going to have one hell of a difficult time bringing it back into the Republican fold. The reality facing the future of the Republican Party is that we may need to figure out a new way to win Presidential Elections without Virginia and Colorado. Electorally, that’s damn near impossible. We may have to turn our attention north to Wisconsin, build stronger organizations in New Hampshire, and pray for some sort of shift in Oregon, Washington, or Minnesota.

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Two Huckabee Articles Worth Reading

There are two articles about Governor Mike Huckabee that you should take the time to read (if you haven’t already).

The first comes from Adam Graham at RenewAmerica.us, titled “The Vindication of Mike Huckabee.” Graham points out the mind numbing hypocrisy of the National Review Online (NRO), which spearheaded the charge for the stuttering Fred Thompson and didn’t hide their bias against Governor Mike Huckabee for his alleged “liberal economic policies.” Interestingly though, as soon as the House Republicans voted down the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout package, the NRO slammed those 2/3rds of the Republican Party voting “Nay,” calling them all highly irresponsible. Meanwhile, Governor Huckabee took a stand early and said it was the $700 Billion bailout, Wall Street executives who were taking millions in severance pay, and the supporters of this corporate welfare who were being irresponsible.

Adam Graham and I agree that it’s the NRO that looks economically liberal, not Governor Huckabee who is defending the free-market approach to solve the problems… and you can bet you’re sweet butt we’re going to remember the NRO come 2012 when Huckabee (hopefully) decides to run again.

That’s actually a perfect segway into this second article from the left-leaning Atlantic Online and Marc Ambinder’s article from yesterday, titled “So Why’s Huck An Early ‘12 Frontrunner?.” You can guess what it’s about.

Assuming an Obama win in 2008, Ambinder contends that there will be three “instantly credible” Republican frontrunners for President in 2012. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich (although he’ll be 69 years old in 2008).

Mitt Romney because he has a pool of advisers, nice hair, experience as a governor, worshiped by the Club for Greed, and he has more money than he knows what to do with. Newt Gingrich because he’s respected as an agent of change in a Republican Party desperate for it. And then there’s Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee’s skills as an orator make him an instant threat to a President Obama. Additionally, the Republican Establishment that has rallied around McCain and Bush and is becoming despised by both independents and conservative Republicans has been disrespectful and unacceptable of Governor Huckabee. He’s the outsider every outsider has been looking for. Plus, by taking the free-market approach to handle the Wall Street Bailout, he’s going to look more appealing to CFG Republicans, which eats into Mitt Romney’s territory.

It’s difficult to say if Mitt Romney is going to run again. He’s been mostly absent from the public scene and he hasn’t been aggressively campaigning for Congressional candidates who supported him during his failed Presidential run… hardly the actions of a man thinking about running for President again in four years.

At the same time, I have a hard time imagine Governor Huckabee NOT running again. And if he continues to play his cards right after the election, it’s hard to imagine Governor Huckabee not entering the race as a frontrunner.

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My Reaction to Tonight’s Debate

Well, as expected, all the hullabaloo over moderator Gwen Ifill proved to be pointless as she hosted a fair and unbiased debate between Vice Presidential Candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I really don’t think this debate was much of a game changer, although there were a few things I noticed.

First, and most prolific, I realized that my problem with Sarah Palin’s speech delivery is the fact that, when she speaks, she speaks in one, ungodly long run on sentance using “so” “though” and “also” as the conjunction from one thought to a completely different thought. I don’t know when that woman breathes.

With that out of the way, both candidates did pretty well, which means Sarah Palin far exceeded expectations, which really wasn’t too hard to do given the utter humiliation the conservative movement faced after the Katie Couric interview. Although she was repetitive at times, she held her ground and, I’m pleased to say, she stood up to John McCain an drilling in ANWR on the national stage.

Meanwhile, Senator Biden appeared a little bit dry but as insightful as ever. Surprisingly, there were very few gaffes made by Senator Biden and he restrained himself from correcting Palin when she repeatedly messed up the name of the Commander of our military mission in Afghanistan (McClellan was the former White House Press Secretary).

As a policy buff who cares about details, Joe Biden was undoubtedly more knowledgeable on the issues and came across like a leader and the statesman that he is, even if I disagreed with some of his arguments. Sarah Palin survived and finished the night looking really good. She at least secured her spot on McCain’s ticket and quieted conservatives who were calling for her to be put on a 1-way red-eye flight back to Alaska. I’m still not convinced she’s ready to lead should something happen to McCain if, God forbid, that hot head should be elected President.

Some quick observations:

1. Sarah Palin and Joe Biden agreed on gay rights! I can’t even begin to count how many people have called me everything from a liberal to a closet homosexual for supporting civil unions for gay couples. I’ve been told I’m going to burn in Hell for my support of gay rights and aside from some libertarian-leaning Republicans who have used this blog as a safe haven for dissenting conservatives against John McCain, nobody has come to my defense.

I’m willing to bet you that all of these anti-gay radical evangelicals who flood my inbox with hate mail every day are going to completely ignore Palin’s statement because. I’ll let you decide if it’s hypocrisy or complete denial.

2. Someone will have to time this, but I think Senator Biden got considerably more time on rebuttals than Governor Palin. That said, I can’t imagine Palin’s run on sentences being much longer than they already were.

3. Did anybody else notice the makings of a constitutional law fight towards the end over the role of the Vice President in the United States Senate? Since, as Vice President James Garner said so eloquently, “The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss,” I would have really liked to hear more of this debate to see what they actually thought the roll of the Vice President should be.

4. Although she was an unbiased moderator, I thought she did a really terrible job of actually moderating the debate. Both candidates went completely off topic and used their time inappropriately. I think the candidates spent more time talking to each other than Gwen Ifill. It’s ironic, because that’s exactly the sort of debate Jim Lehrer tried hosting last week and couldn’t get cooperation on from the candidates.

And So, Also, Though, I’m interested to hear what you folks thought of the debate tonight. Did you hear all the specifics you wanted to hear? Did you hear more specifics than you expected to hear? Leave a comment and let the world know what you’re thinking.

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Controversy over Gwen Ifill as Tonight’s VP Debate Moderator

PBS’s Gwen Ifill will moderate
tonight’s Vice Presidential Debate
despite controversy over her
politically liberal views.

For the past few days, there has been a lot of controversy over the moderator of tonight’s Vice Presidential Debate, Gwen Ifill. More specifically, over a book she’s writing titled, “The Age of Obama.” While it’s unknown for sure whether or not Gwen Ifill’s book is a tribute to Obama’s new political brand or this generation of shallow politicians who don’t talk about the issues and the voters who don’t care about the issues, everyone seems to assume that the book will favor Obama.

Personally, I found those assumptions to be well founded based on her career at PBS and how she moderated the 2004 Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards.

And while I’m sure she will be bias in favor of Obama over Palin, I don’t think it’s going to be to the far left extreme that everyone is predicting. Granted, if Palin bombs, as everyone is predicting, conservatives can at least use Gwen Ifill as a scapegoat. But I truthfully don’t expect Palin to bomb this debate either.

Anyway, while conservatives are going bonkers over Gwen Ifill being the moderator of the Vice Presidential Debate, I’m left wondering another provacative question nobody seems to be asking…

If everyone knew Gwen Ifill was a flaming liberal, why in the blazes of Hell did the McCain Campaign agree to let her moderate this debate when they knew full well that they had a shaky Vice Presidential candidate? (Notice how I haven’t said, “I told you so,” after the Katie Couric interview) I mean, Jim Lehrer is a straightforward, unbiased moderator. He’s probably the best in the history of Presidential Debates. That’s why I was so quick to name him the winner of last week’s Presidential debate.

The McCain and Obama camps both knew Lehrer was a great and neutral moderator, so that’s why they were able to agree on him. But why in the world would the McCain campaign pick a liberal moderator to host Sarah Palin’s sole debate appearance? Not just a liberal, but a liberal woman, which neutralizes Palin’s greatest advantage going into this debate with Senator Biden?

Yeah, we can be mad that a liberal is going to be moderating this debate, but why is there nobody pissed off at the McCain campaign, which has essentially handicapped Governor Palin going into this debate by not vetoing Gwen Ifill as moderator?

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Thank You For Our Best Month Ever!

I want to thank everyone who came by this blog last month (September). It was officially the most successful month in this blog’s history, beating out October 2007 by a mere 163 unique visitors. So with that, the new record stands at 45,595 unique visitors in a single month.

There is really no way to thank everyone enough for stopping by, leaving comments, and adding to our discussions. But please, keep on contributing to this site and know that I’m truly grateful for every last one of you who stop by to read my take on the world we live in.

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The Most Important Election in History… except for Republicans.

How many times have you heard that this is the most important Presidential Election in history? Rhetorical question. You’ve probably heard the phrase used more times than you can imagine. In fact, you may have used it yourself a few times. But ask yourselves: is it really?

That largely depends on where you’re coming from on the political spectrum.

For a Democrat, this is without a doubt one of the most important elections since 1932 and 1936 when the Democratic Party convinced Americans to trust Franklin D. Roosevelt to end the Great Depression. In addition to an economic crisis they can politically attribute to a Republican Administration, like 1932, Democrats also have a war they plan on ending, ethics reforms they believe necessary, a need to protect the balance on the Supreme Court and prevent a conservative take over, and to top it all off, there’s a racial element that they (and many independents) will view as a huge step forward for the country.

So for a Democrat, this is undoubtedly the most important election in their lifetimes, possibly even in history.

But what about for a Republican? Not so much. In fact, for many Republicans, this may be the most insignificant Presidential Election in the history of the party. President Bush’s second term has been one embarrassing humiliation after another and most of us are anxious to put that behind us. And unfortunately, one of the most common factors to those Presidential embarrassments was Senator John McCain. During Hurricane Katrina, John McCain spent his birthday with President Bush in Crawford eating cake while people were literally trapped in attics and on rooftops. During the immigration debate, John McCain not only supported President Bush’s plan, but McCain teamed up with Senator Ted Kennedy to write the Amnesty Bill and try not once, not twice, but three times to force Amnesty through Congress. Of course, almost the entire leadership of the Republican Party (who wasn’t up for re-election) backed the McCain-Kennedy Amnesty proposal, which in turn led to a demoralized Republican base not turning out for the mid-term election in 2006 and costing us our majorities in Congress. Adding insult to injury, Senator John McCain and President Bush teamed up again to try and force a $700 Billion corporate welfare bill down our throats in much the same fashion as the amnesty bill.

As a result, the Republican Base is no longer loyal in any way, shape, or form to Republican Leadership. To most Republicans, John McCain, President Bush, and John Boehner are simply figure heads, over who we have no real control. They don’t represent us, but meh, at least there’s an (R) after their name.

When it comes to Amnesty, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Judges, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Lobbyists, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Corporate Welfare, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Abortion, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Gay Marriage, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Foreign Policy, we shouldn’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Values, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Women, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Campaign Finance Reform, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Economic Reform, we can’t trust John McCain.
When it comes to Veteran’s Issues, we can’t trust John McCain.

There are just too many issues that Republicans can’t trust John McCain on to make him a viable leader for our leaderless party.

To make matters worse for Senator McCain, his signature issue, the War in Iraq, is quickly becoming a non-issue. The fact of the matter is that, whether it was the result of years of sectarian cleansing or the US Troop Surge, the violence in Iraq has subsided and our work there is close to finished. The truth of the matter is that assuming Barack Obama sticks to his call for a “responsible timetable” for a US troop withdraw, the odds are that Iraqi security gains will be sufficient enough to maintain control of Iraq without significant US assistance by the end of the withdraw. Remember, during the Democratic Primary, Senators Obama and Biden both refused to promise that they would be completely out of Iraq by 2012. If the Iraqi government truly isn’t ready to take control of their country 10 years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, then they likely never will.

On the central Asian front in the War on Terrorism, John McCain may have hot-headed one liners like, “I’m going to chase Usama bin Laden to the Gates of Hell” but the fact of the matter is that only Barack Obama is willing to chase him to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, where the al-Qaida mastermind actually is.

On Iran’s plans to build a nuclear weapon, Barack Obama talks about the need to protect Israel and prevent the Iranian regime from developing a nuclear device than John McCain. In fact, Obama’s plans to stop their acquisition of a nuke actually begin without bombing and invading Iran, which allows us to stay focused on finishing the job in Iraq and securing Afghanistan.

From the Democratic point of view, so much is at stake in this election that it’s hard to find another single Presidential Election comparable to 2008. As Republicans, however, we aren’t going to lose much if our Presidential candidate doesn’t pull through in November. In fact, McCain leaves so much to be desired in a leader for our party that there are conservatives who are able to make the case that, in the long run, we’d be a lot better off without John McCain than with him. That’s how unimportant this election is to Republicans.

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: John McCain Saved Wall Street! (… wait a minute)

After bravely and selfishly calling off his campaign and traveling to Washington to bring Republicans to the table to bail out Wall Street, John McCain and his campaign surrogates were able to claim victory for their noble cause this morning. Mission Accomplished.

Except for the fact that the measure failed to pass the House of Representatives.

Of course, John McCain is resuming his campaign, apparently going to Washington was a political stunt. Gee, go figure. Perhaps if John McCain was actually helping Congressional candidates get elected and re-elected, they’d have been a little bit more responsive to his plea for unity with liberals like Nancy Pelosi instead of the people who actually voted for them.

I have to tip my hat to the 2/3rds of Republicans in the US Congress who took a stand for the free market principles and against this $700 Billion bailout package. The liberals who attacked the plan because John McCain was behind it have flip flopped and are now using it to criticize the Republicans who voted to kill the bill. They did a fantastic job. I was worried we lost the ability to do this after the disastrous 2006 election.

John McCain’s support of this $700 Billion bailout for Wall Street is further evidence that he’s not fitted to bring the kind of leadership we need in the Republican Party (he couldn’t even get the support of Arizona’s Republicans in Congress). The same can be said of Bush and Boehner. I don’t think there is any doubt about it, there is a very real void in leadership for the Republican Party.

Let’s just cross our fingers that Governor Huckabee or another charismatic conservative (like Mike Pence) is able to step up and fill that void.

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