Redstate

I don't know if he can or not. However, the way things are going, I'm pretty sure there will be a Democratic president anyways. Pardon my cynical rundown of the leading candidates. Rudy has too much baggage and angers some of the base all of the time. Romney has too many positions and has disagreed with all of the base at some point in time. Thompson has never caught fire though he probably appeals to the most part of the base if he'd put in the time. McCain is too old and angers all of the base some of the time. Huckabee is slicker than snot but is distrusted by half the base for all time. So, frankly I'm depressed about the choices and will ultimately vote for whoever revolts me the least.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

No, you're right. Though it's possible Huckabee could be christed the second black President just for being from Arkansas and playing bass (close enough to sax). In which case, who knows how the race would turn out. (End snark.)

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

christened*

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

...to be considered a "Black President", there are qualifications that Huckabee may not be able to fill.

There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa

LOL. Sometimes words just won't suffice.

P.S. I love your tagline.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

They did skip the Value Voters debate but they had already appeared at other forums that targeted their base. What caused the media circus is that they skipped every forum and debate (NAACP, National Urban League, etc) geared towards minority voters. Heck, even Hillary and Obama were smart enough to show up at Rick Warren's church to try to reach an audience not part of their base, even though it's primary season on their side as well. It was just a dumb, unforced error on the part of the leading candidates and gave an opening to a slick communicator like Huckabee.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

Good point about Rudy and the Value Voters debate. I went back and looked for some more info. Apparently, the NAACP and National Urban League sent out invitations to speak at their conventions which all the candidates turned down. Only Tancredo agreed to speak at the NAACP convention and discussed illegal immigration's impact on AA. Skipping the PBS debate after skipping two invitations to speak (unfiltered) to predominantly minority audiences created a meme that the MSM was only to happy to run with.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

It showed exactly how pathetic the big government helps you idea is.

1. Just how rapidly do you expect a response from an entity two thousand miles away ?

2. If a storm is coming and you don't get out of the way just what do you expect to happen ?

3. If you can't process one and two, just who do you think is going to be the servant and who the master in the you and government relationship ?
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

This is part of the danger in attacking Huckabee (in a traditional way) because I will bet he comes back with some spin about how the Wall Street elites (i.e. Club for Growth or any presidential rival who attacks him) are attacking him for speaking up for the average Joe/Main Street/middle class/evangelical voter.

I could see Huckabee try to turn Romney's strength as a former CEO into a disadvantage by painting him as an out-of-touch elitist, if Mitt goes after Mike too hard.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

e does what no conservative has been able to do since Reagan left town-talk to the Middle Class in ways that doesn't condescend to them. Remember, Middle Class voters want things done for them, and see government as an ally, not just an enemy.

Reagan wasn't about appealing to idea that the government is your friend and exists to help you out and to punish from those rich fat cats on Wall Street. He wasn't about a zero-sum game between "Wall Street" and "Main Street." He wasn't about feeding the government.

But hey, maybe I'm not remembering it right and he really was a big government compassionate conservative. You got some quotes from 1980 where he's selling government as the solution to all your problems?
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

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absentee

Yep, Mr. "9-scariest-words" was a big believer in "Government Fixes Things", eh?

Actually, I seem to recall he was a pretty obvious believer in the maxim that "Government Sucks at Fixing Things" - but perhaps we're talking about a different Ronald Reagan.

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

i also think many people see a genuiness there - like it or not. (whether its true or not)

I just wish Fred would do something to shake up the race.. after this weekend my vote for him is solidified.

Govenor Huckabee took it upon himself to help organize a place to stay for close to 60,000 people after the storm. He did so by tapping into what some people are critizing him for. You know being a Christian. He used is contacts in Arkansas with the different youth camp organizations from when he was a pastor to reopen the summer camps that had just recently closed. He did so without the Fedral Governments assistance because he knew what was right and what had to be done. Do you think that could have had an influence on why Lousiana just elected a Republican as it's new Governor. Because they saw Man of Action and not a man of words. All I can say is Governor Huckabee is in touch with the average American as Section9 has suggested.

a reaction to an emergency situation is exactly the sort of thing government should be doing. An ongoing handout program is not.

"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle

I don't think all those black voters he got in Arkansas were conservative. I think he reached out and changed hearts and minds. As far as pandering, is it pandering by showing up? You're not gonna get many converts in church if you never invite anyone else in. The GOP's inept outreach to minority groups sicken me. At least Huck makes a effort and if more conservatives were like Huck we wouldn't be in the minority.

Thank you. Showing up is not pandering. It's called communicating. How you communicate could be pandering, but the idea that Republicans are pandering by having a conversation about conservative principles before a non-white audience is ridiculous. So is expecting 35 million Americans to have a road to Damascus conversion to the Republican party each election cycle without bothering to show up at non-traditional forums once given the opportunity.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

What do you call it when you have a black preacher friend as part of your outreach and that friend decided to ask to get some killers and other felons freed and you comply.

"_A pastor who promoted Huckabee among blacks urged the governor to grant clemency to John Henry Claiborne, who was sentenced to 100 years for a 1994 armed robbery, according to a 2004 report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Huckabee made Claiborne eligible for parole after receiving a letter from the Rev. Charles Williams, who told the newspaper he had helped win "many, many" clemencies from Huckabee."

Now *thats* beyond pandering.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1937282/posts?page=67

Showing up is not reaching out to African Americans. Anyone can show up say a few pretty words and then go home to his nice safe life. Reaching out is changing inner city schools, stoping illegals from taking scholarships that kids of all color need, stoping illegals from bringing these drugs to inner cities and using the minority to push drugs,etc. Come to AK &see just how much the huckster cares about African Americans then say he is not pandering. That is the problem people listen to words instead of looking at action.

No, showing up is the baseline. Then you actually have to do something or communicate that you did something. And the list that you provided would fit the bill. If you don't show up, it implies you haven't done anything worth talking about.

Now, I'm not going to defend Huckabee for what he has or has not done in AR relative to minority voters because 1) I don't know and 2) I don't support him or anyone else for that matter as of yet. The point of this post though was that Mitt, Rudy, John, and Fred made an unforced error by skipping this forum and in so doing gave Huckabee the exposure and airtime he had been previously denied in more crowded debates with the 4 frontrunners.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

To make you a fiscon.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

As a small business owner you should be supporting Mike. He is the only candidate that is backing the Fair Tax. The one policy alone has more benefits for a self-employed individual than any plan proposed by all the other candidates. Check it out for yourself at Fairtax.org.

Huckabee's actions speak louder than words. Huck's not an honest tax reformer, but a johnny-come-lately who needed a campaign gimmick - marriage of convenience.

His real tax record is recorded here:
http://www.taxhikemike.org/
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/
http://therealmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/

"According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the average Arkansas tax burden increased 47% over Huckabee’s tenure. Huckabee supported (in chronological order) a sales tax hike; gas and diesel fuel tax hikes; another sales tax hike; a cigarette tax hike; a nursing home bed tax; another sales tax hike; an income surcharge tax; a tobacco tax hike; taxes on Internet access; and higher beer taxes. Huckabee also oversaw a 50-percent increase in spending; happily signed a minimum wage increase and encouraged national Republicans to do the same; favors a national smoking ban, farm subsidies, and a federally mandated arts and music curriculum; opposes private school choice; and employs class-warfare and protectionist language on the campaign trail. " - Pat Toomey

Someone who spends 10 years hiking taxes and spending as Governor is going to look pretty bad on the campaign trail trying to defend that horrible record to consrevative voters. So what does he do? He then joins the FairTax bandwagon to get some organization in Iowa and get some conservative suckers to sign up for his campaign. Yet the FairTax will never pass near-term and in the meantime serious tax-and-spend questions are deflected by Huckabee, or (as in S-CHIP) he takes the big-spend approach. Huckabee cannot be taken seriously on the tax issue.

"Nothing frightens me more as a small business owner than a Democratic/Huckabee Presidency. Why? Because Huckabee isn't just bad on fiscal issues-he's atrocious."

100% dittos on this. In response to the abysmal rating that the Cato Institute ("D" rating) and other correct criticisms of Huckabee's tax-and-spend policies, Huck didn't respond factually, he bashed the groups, like Club for Growth, and dissembled about his record.

IBD noted: " Mike Huckabee, whose appeal among evangelicals has raised him to within striking distance in Iowa, has continually attacked the Club for Growth, a major champion of conservative economic policies, as the "Club for Greed."

Calling capitalists Scrooges is straight out of the liberal Democratic playbook. A more helpful retort from Huckabee would be to address the Club's concerns about his approving an income-tax surcharge in Little Rock."

And that's the bottom line. Mike Huckabee's populist bashing response has proven the Club for Growth correct.

People are cooing about Mike Huckabee's outreach to liberals, Tavis Smiley, and unions etc. Well, his pandering to the NEA is no less annoying than John Edwards doing the same, especially when he comes down on the NEA's side on issue. His support for CO2 cap-and-trade is not a plus, its a big fat *minus*. His nanny-state support for smoking bans is wrong. His Democrat-like browbeating of the economy and business is pure populist pap that is divisive, false, and conducive to economic-over-regulation. He was wrong to hike spending taxes as Arkansas Gov as much as he did, and doubly wrong to bash the conservatives who expose his real record. What we need seriously is more outreach to real conservatives and less populist liberal policies!

Maybe Huckabee sounds good if you are shallow or uninformed voter who don't study his real record, but Huckabee is perhaps the worst possible choice we could make for the GOP nomination.

Bob Dole never got outrageous commercials because he was never really a threat to a second Clinton term. On the other hand, he never got any additional votes either. Arguably, Bush's outreach directly to church leaders paid off with an increase in the black vote in Ohio (16% in 2004) without which he would not be president today.

Anyways, the problems usually lie with Julian Bond, Danny Glover, and Harry Belafonte; but they do not speak for black America no matter how well they market themselves as if they do. The same goes for Jesse and Al. We are going to run into more pushback from black Democratic leaders, the more we do outreach. If we run home crying every time, we'll never make any progress.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

Well that is true about Ohio. I totally agree about who the problem lies with, ie the leadership, not necessarily the rank and file of the AA community. I guess it may take several election cycles of targeting the AA community and maybe the desperation of the leadership to maintain the status quo will finally be obvious to a larger percentage of the AA community.

Having said that, I understand and second your frustration.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts

I was extremely disappointed by the loss of Michael Steele in Maryland and Ken Blackwell in Ohio in last years election. I was very impressed with both of them and could have seen their leadership if elected go a long way to making "Black Republican" not seem like an oxymoron to so many people.

Ditto. I'm working in my spare time to try to build a grassroots of black Republicans so that we can mobilize them better in general but specifically in races like Steele's and Blackwell's for GOTV. It's a long, slow painful process but it's worth it.

There is nothing lonelier than being a black Republican in Boston, Massachusetts