“The Man From Target” and observations on the GOP
Ryan | 15 12 2007If you're a first time visitor, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, which will keep you up to date with all the latest New School Politics posts. Thanks for visiting!
From a NYT op-ed (may require a free regestration to access article):
Huckabee! Huckabee! The man of the hour! What is it that voters love so much about this guy? Is it a hitherto inchoate yearning for a president who knows less about international affairs than they do? Hope that a man who can lose 100 pounds could also get rid of the federal deficit?
Mike is soaring ahead in the early polls, in a surge to the front of the pack that suggests Republicans cannot come to grips with the idea that they are supposed to nominate either Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani for president. There has to be a way out! What about Huckabee? He has a good heart! True, his brain doesn’t seem to have a single thought about foreign policy or know much about domestic policy, for that matter. But one well-functioning body part is better than nothing.
…
The Republican pack is one extremely unappealing bunch of politicians, and it’s no wonder that the poor voters have developed buyers’ remorse before they’ve come near the cash register. Huckabee is this week’s exercise in avoidance, and he’s not likely to be the last.
Read the whole article–it is pretty funny, although probably moreso for liberals than conservatives. Perhaps it has a point, also. Huckabee’s rise is probably indicative of Republican’s lack of satisfaction with their candidates. Although, I believe he will have more lasting power than Ms Collins supposes as he does a remarkable job of making voters “feel good” and he has that sort of teflon feel which is rare in politicians.
As little as I think of his populist candidacy, he remains one of the most natural politicians in America today. Watch out.
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The “The Man From Target” and observations on the GOP by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
I understand that "feel good" factor that you speak of
Anthony Marenna | 16 12 2007I understand that “feel good” factor that you speak of with regards to Huckabee. To a certain extent, the fact that he is able to talk to Middle America in such a comfortable way lends him a great deal of credibility. On some level that makes people feel like his policies will be as much aimed at Middle America as his words are. I am tremendously impressed with his modernized innovation. He is not the stiff, locked up politician that most of these other guys (Romney) are, and he has the overwhelming ability to think on his feet. People love the idea of killing the IRS, but he doesn’t come off as an extremist like Ron Paul sometimes can. He balances out in all areas. That balance is comfortable and gives me confidence in his abilities as a leader. Of course, if the media (NYT) manages to cast him as an inexperienced extreme Evangelist, as it is clear they are trying to do (along with political cartoons that make him look like Nixon), the results might begin to change. Don’t discount him just yet.
I agree with most of those points. I do question
Ryan | 16 12 2007I agree with most of those points. I do question how much of his popularity is based on his policy positions. For one, as much as I would like to see the IRS ended, the fair tax is not a popular idea nationally. I surmise that people do not really know that Huck supports a national sales tax, and if they did it would seriously injure him.
On another note, I think Huckabee may be on the verge of becoming the frontrunner.
You're probably right about the sales tax part of it,
Anthony Marenna | 16 12 2007You’re probably right about the sales tax part of it, but chances are people would rather have that than an increased fed. income tax under the Dems. I’m starting to think Huckabee and Paul may end up on a ticket together if one of them pulls this thing off. What do you think?
No way, Jose. Despite the fact that they do hold
Ryan | 17 12 2007No way, Jose.
Despite the fact that they do hold in common the special bond of not believing in evolution, I do not see either of them picking each other if nominated. They are simply too different to voters.