I must say that I was disappointed by what appears to be the Evangelical political mind- or lack there of: voting for a man who is the same religion and 'seems' like a values-guy. This is not a smart way to pick a presidential candidate. Issues need to be considered, and Huckabee's religion, which he's played up big-time, and his charm/wit are not enough to make a great president, let alone an electable candidate in November. These are the same people, presumably, who are tired of Bush... to me, Huck is simply a 'Dubya' re-dubbed without the surprises and more big-government initiatives.
-------------------------------------------------------------
An intellegent post on Evangelicals for Mitt site:
"Some scattered thoughts on Iowa...
I can't shake the sense that last night was a very bad one for the conservative movement. And that -- not the Romney campaign -- is what this is really about. Think about it: The three candidates who would split our movement and our party in November are ascendant. Those are Governor Huckabee, who offends fiscal and national-security conservatives; Senator McCain, who's spent the last decade annoying as many conservatives as possible; and Mayor Giuliani, who powerfully alienates social conservatives. Worse yet, our most-formidable general-election opponent, Senator Obama, also had a good night. I don't know about you all, but I would rather have the Republican candidate -- whoever he is -- face the Democratic candidate whom half of America already dislikes, not the eminently likable guy who's even more leftist.
"Perhaps the bitterest pill to swallow -- for a prideful sinner like me -- is that Iowans didn't just choose Governor Huckabee over Governor Romney. They decisively rejected EFM's message that values, not theological particulars, are what matters in a presidential election. The polling numbers are clear. Something like 40 percent of Iowa Republicans said it was very important to them that their candidate share their religious beliefs; Governor Huckabee beat Governor Romney among such voters by a 5-1 ratio. It's also obvious that huge numbers of evangelicals came out and voted for the guy who said he was one of them -- sixty percent of the GOP caucusgoers were self-described evangelicals or born-agains, and Governor Huckabee beat Governor Romney 2-1 there. My sense is that our brothers and sisters [Evangelicals] in, say, South Carolina won't necessarily behave this way -- see Jim Geraghty for the details -- but still, it is humbling that so many of our fellow evangelicals apparently voted on the basis of what church a given candidate attends."
-------------------------------
This is where the EFM's post turns brilliant:
" Beyond faith, the other major undercurrent in Iowa -- in both parties -- seems to be class warfare, described more nicely by the media as populism. Governor Huckabee's rhetoric against CEOs, against Governor Romney's wealth, and against free trade was an obvious winner. And don't forget Senator Edwards. He'll be eminently forgettable again very soon, but last night he beat Senator Clinton -- and he did so on the basis of more class warfare. Watching his vicious pseudo-concession speech, I, like Mark Hemingway, immediately needed an airsickness bag. It is immensely dispiriting to see -- thanks to Governor Huckabee's rise -- leading candidates in both parties abandoning fiscal conservatism. This kind of rhetoric strikes me as nothing more than covetousness on a massive scale -- and how strange that it's being led by a former pastor. I also strongly agree with Quin Hillyer's words:
'It also shows that the American people have no idea how good their lives are. The strong response to economic grievance-mongering shows that people who are incredibly wealthy by every historical standard are somehow convinced they are barely making ends meet -- barely making ends meet while their families have two cars, three TVs, four cell phones, and untold numbers of other gadgets in homes they themselves own. There is a word for this: spoiled. Huckabee and Obama are smart enough to appeal to the spoiled Americans who have no idea what real hardship is.'"
Check out "Evangelicals for Mitt":
http://www.evangelicalsformitt.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment