I'm going to make myself the second person (after the previous Blogger) to declare Mike Huckabee the Republican front-runner for the 2008 Presidential race. Although I'm sure that his prolific authorship is an important factor, I have another reason.
I heard Huckabee on Meet the Press on Sunday ("heard" not "saw" because I get the podcast, so I can listen while I run - there's no time for exercise AND television AND finishing my Note), and he scared the crap out of me. I'll tell you why.
Now that McCain has expended every single ounce of his once-considerable credibility to fuel the final throws of the Bush Iraq misadventure, I was beginning to feel uncannily sanguine about our 2008 chances. Clinton, Obama, Edwards, they all seemed able to put the final kabosh on feeble John "Surge" McCain.
But then I hear Huckabee. This guy is the Governor of Arkansas, from Hope (like Bill Clinton), and was some kind of preacher before entering politics. He also raised taxes on damn near everything in the state to pay for better schools and roads. He's clearly out on the wingnut fringe on cultural issues, but he has the good sense to talk about them in a temperate way. He also appears to believe in activist government stepping up to do things to help people and the environment. Oh yeah, and he's a governor, so he's not carrying the millstone of Iraq.
It's become clear, I think, that we need to solidify our hold on middle-class populist Democrats to reestablish ourselves as the clear majority party. These are people who are concerned about the economic futures of themselves and their families, and will respond positively to reasonable government solutions on health care, education, balanced budgets, and the environment. But when Democrats have failed to offer this kind of strong economic program, this core constitutency can't vote their economic interests, so they vote according to their preferences on "cultural" issues. Unfortunately, this means that many of them vote against us, and we lose.
Huckabee scares me because he is enough of a fringe rightwinger on cultural issues to keep the Republican footsoldiers unified, but on Sunday he sounded on economic issues like we need to sound. Of course, if he's truly willing to raise taxes to pay for things, he might send the Republican corporate paymasters looking for a new stooge, but the GOP will probably be in such bad shape by 2008, that they'll take what they can get.
This isn't to say that we can't beat him. The falling stock of the Republican brand might alone be enough to finish him off, and if he's drank enough fire-and-brimstone flavored Kool-Aid, it might send a whole bunch of GOP moderates our way. But this is a guy to watch.
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3 comments:
Did anybody else notice that Huckabee answered almost every one of Tim Russert's questions by starting "I think it is dangerous to say..."? And I agree that he sounds like a real threat to our Obama/Edwards/Clinton hopes.
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Look for a Huckabee or Sam Brownback ticket. Either will likely win against any Democratic candidate with the American people. Sam Brownback is a natural born leader and he's a very kind man and dedicated to the human rights fight and actually puts his money where his mouth is with his "pro-life" whole life message (from the unborn to the suffering in Sudan). Only Obama would have a chance against them because Hillary is just so nasty and the public knows that. It's a good thing Obama is not as abortion hungry as Kerry was otherwise it's suicide for him.
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