Huckabee Catches a Wave in "Value Voters" Debate
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won a solid victory on friendly turf last night in the "Value Voters" Debate. World Net Daily Host Joseph Farah moderated, with assists from people like the magnificent Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum, Paul Weyrich, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, and Janet Folger.
While over 2,000 were in attendance, only about 400 or so were selected by organization leaders to be delegates. Huckabee scooped up 63% of the delegate vote, far out pacing the 16% of runner-up Dr. Ron Paul, a Congressman from Texas.
Things happened just right for Huckabee. The front-runners in the race dissed the event's sponsors by snubbing the debate. They are not going to forget. Fred Thompson made a huge blunder by skipping out. These people control media that a huge section of the Christian Right listen to. They were all ready to line up behind Thompson, but not anymore. Into that setting steps Huckabee, and he was smooth as silk.
Paul had an off night, coming off too rushed and even angry at times. He could not tell the crowd what they wanted to hear on some issues. Their loud boos when Paul made the point about applying the traditional Christian doctrine of a "just war" to Iraq made me glad they called themselves "Values Voters" instead of "Christian Voters". Those whose top-issue is bombing people for Jesus until they turn into the kind of country that we think they should be are never going to go for the traditional Christian doctrine of Just War (or for Ron Paul).
Alan Keyes jumped into the debate at the last minute. Though he had flashes, he was too bombastic and shrill for my tastes. The others seemed like decent fellows, but they were lost even in the reduced crowd. If these folks decide to rally around Huckabee, look for him to jump into contention for real. And after that I look for him to cost event organizers most of what little credibility some of them have left after their blind support for GW Bush.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Tuesday, September 18, 2007
4 Comments:
Some friends of mine observed that the other guys were talking about themselves all the time, "I did this" and "I did that", IIIIIII
Duncan Hunter is particularly bad about it. He makes it sound like he got out there with a shovel and personally built a border wall.
Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo were the only two who did not make constant references to themselves.
Mark,
I don't think Huckabee will hurt their credibility or even betray them. Although he strays a little on nanny-state government & fiscal issues, he is a true believer on the social issues those groups care about, as opposed to Bush(and many current presidential candidates) who merely give them lip service to garner their votes.
On the issue of lip service;
I've done some changing over the last year or two. Mark, you may have contributed to my evolving perspective.
I hear many Christian Conservatives who say they cannot/will not vote for Guiliani because of his social positions, but they will vote for Romney or Thompson because they now SAY they are pro-life, etc. when there is no evidence to support their promises and much to question them.
I think they are just fooling themselves, much like(I'm ashamed to say) I did with Bush. I for one am finished pushing someone who I deem to simply be pandering.
I do not support Guiliani, but at least he is honest when he says "Sorry, but I disagree on these issues". I think I could swallow that easier than Romney and Thompson's flip-flops & pandering.
I too went for Bush's baloney in 2000 and campaigned for him.
We have no choice on whether or not we will grow older. We DO have a choice on whether we will grow WISER. It is frustrating to me the large number of people who I otherwise respect that make a deliberate decision to not grow wiser, to be suckered again and again.
As for Huckabee, well, let's just keep the dialogue going as the weeks roll by.
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