Evidently, you need a self-centered, they can’t do it without me Type A personality. A person who doesn’t relate won’t do a blessed thing — kinda like a lot of the clowns in Congress.

Report comment to moderator

Huckabee’s stance on taxes is ludicrous. He needs to stop talking about getting rid of the IRS. His health care plan is basically a weight loss and smoking cessation plan. I guess since he lost 120 pounds he figures that the rest of America can as well. I expect a little more from the US president.

I will be voting for Obama unless some other candidate can provide a stronger path for America. I am not sold on Obama and I honestly would like to vote Republican but I couldn’t handle another 4 years of non-sense like we have seen the last 8 years. McCain or Romney could potentially sway me but it would be difficult since they are basically supporting Bush’s reign of terror. If Thompson was the candidate that everyone had hoped for, he may have stood a chance. The man hardly even wants to be president however.

Report comment to moderator

Report comment to moderator

1979??

You’re right, it’s not the right forum. However, if you ever get a chance to meet this mysterious “maker”, come back from where ever you are and tell us about him. I suspect it will be a long wait. Sad to judge people on an imaginary friend, so imaginary in fact, no one has ever met him. Pity.

Report comment to moderator

Isn’t it always possible that the people, the voters, understand that even a candidate can misspeak one word for another? I think Huckabee would actually stand a chance against Hillary. If you’re shrill, how do you attack such a nice, humble guy? Would Obama change his character and attack him? Maybe we’d have a more civil debate.

Maybe the “evangelical” began a reform of politics in general.

Report comment to moderator

It seems to me that both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are doing the shaking up. David Brooks’ words from Arcadia’s link are very interesting:

Second, Huckabee understands much better than Mitt Romney that we have a crisis of authority in this country. People have lost faith in their leaders’ ability to respond to problems. While Romney embodies the leadership class, Huckabee went after it. He criticized Wall Street and K Street. Most importantly, he sensed that conservatives do not believe their own movement is well led. He took on Rush Limbaugh, the Club for Growth and even President Bush. The old guard threw everything they had at him, and their diminished power is now exposed.

Huckabee probably won’t be the nominee, but starting last night in Iowa, an evangelical began the Republican Reformation.

Report comment to moderator

I think it’s much simpler. I agree with Frank in Phoenix that this is a primary season unlike anything we’ve seen, because I think “the people” want to take control, they want things to get done, they want to cut through all the horsepucky. They gave the Repubs a change, then the Dems, and for both groups it was about THEM. They did nothing for the people. This isn’t just about who will be president. This is the “people” redefining the way we do political business here.

(I hope we’re successful.)

Report comment to moderator

My thoughts:

The primary season has never been been a game of start-to-finish domination by the man who eventually becomes his party’s nominee. Iowa is neither unimportant, nor is it a bona-fide kingmaker.

I was not expecting Ron Paul to kick butt & take names in corn country. (He opposes, after al, federal farm subsidies, unlike the agri-socialist who won Thursday.) Given the upcoming primary contests — especially Tuesday in NH — suffice to say that I’m pleased with RP’s Iowa showing.

Note that NH’s GOP chairman is in ongoing negotions with Fox news to get Ron Paul included in Fox’s “itty-bitty-trailer forum.” (What, in the 21st Century, they can’t include him via video-screen from a remote location?!) He (the NH GOP chairman) has threatened to pull state GOP sponsorship of Fox’s forum if Paul is not included. This should give you some idea of the difference between NH’s “Live Free or Die” Republicans vs. the “sorta Conservative – but don’t you dare touch my subsidies!” IA Republicans.

In addition, Paul supporters from all over the country have been swarming NH like winter locusts for the last two months to get the word out. The effort in NH makes the Iowa effort look like a morning walk. (Just spend a half-hour at YouTube to see documentation of this. I don’t think RP volunteers spent near as much time in Iowa.)

And finally, it is my understanding that in NH, you can change your party registration/affiliation on the day of the primary. There have been reports from pockets around the country (though I don’t know if it qualifies as a honest-to-goodness “national trend”) of large numbers of voters changing their registration to Republican. Given Ron Paul’s appeal to a broad, cross-party range of voters, I suspect that this is primarily being done by Democrats and independents — not to mention Libertarians — who want to vote for Ron Paul.

So, back to the beginning: While I wasn’t holding my breath in Iowa, I confess I’ll be chewing my nails over New Hampshire. But all in all, the primary season is going to have to unfold a piece at a time. Ron Paul is arguably the most unique candidate in either party, because of his principled constitutionalism. And his supporters have been doing successful end-runs around the MSM’s “kingmaker machine” since January. (I would also remind you that the Paul campaign has been greatly decentralized — grass-roots, bottom up, not centralized top-down control. Sorta like Paul’s position on state’s rights and true federalism.)

All of these factors, I think, are going to make this primary season unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, and could very well make Ron Paul the GOP nominee.

Report comment to moderator

It’s interesting you should mention that. Last night they were showing pictures of the crowds at Clinton’s, Obama’s, and Paul’s rallies over the last few months. Most of the people at Clinton’s were older (50+), most of the people at Obama’s were middle-age (25-50), and most of the people at Paul’s were younger (under 25). Like Howard Dean, Paul imported an enthusiastic army of young people to Iowa to work for his candidacy. It was a serious effort. But it didn’t quite work out.

Don’t get me wrong – I wish Ron Paul well. Anyone that can shake the foundation of the Republican Party deserves a “thumbs up”.

But who I really want to hear from on this is Frank in Phoenix. I want to hear his thoughts on Ron Paul’s vote count. Perhaps I’m missing something.

Report comment to moderator

BTW- I am not now, nor have I been a Ron Paul supporter. That could change in the next five weeks, however.

Report comment to moderator