Going fishin’
March 23, 2008 10:53 pm 2008 Race, Opinion, RepublicansGordon James Klingenschmitt, writing at WND, cites his 8 reasons for not voting for John McCain. Gordon is a big fan of Alan Keyes, and plans to write-in Keyes’ name on the ballot for President. Frankly, I cannot think of a bigger waste of time than a write-in vote, but it’s Gordon’s vote, and if he wants to waste it, that’s his business. So be it.
I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to fully support McCain with my time, money, and words. The fact is, McCain hasn’t earned it. I’m concerned about McCain for some of the very same reasons that Gordon cites. He brings some unattractive baggage to the race that should have disqualified him in the primary process. But for several reasons, and a whole lot of dumb luck, McCain survived the Primary, and now stands as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
Even though I may not fully support him, I’m still going to vote for him. I decided a long time ago that I would vote for the Republican nominee. It is a decision that is completely based upon the issue of National Security. McCain will stay on the offensive in the war against the Mufsidun, while his opponents are arguing about the best way to withdraw and go on defense. Theirs is the proverbial prescription for disaster.
Gordon’s logic is puzzling. If the issues that he claims to care most about are left to the care and governance of the organized effort that strives daily to impose nihilism on the nation (euphemistically called the Democrat Party), then who will be to left to fight the good fight? Do those well-intentioned conservatives who plan on writing in a name on the ballot, or just going fishing on election day, really believe that surrendering the franchise is the way to advance their agenda? Having lost the Congress in the last cycle, losing the Executive this time around will mean losing the Judiciary for another generation as well.
I certainly believe that the social issues are worth fighting for, but, without liberty, they are moot. McCain is not my first choice to lead the Party, but I do respect his ability to make a command decision, delegate authority, and hold his subordinates accountable to task. In wartime, the primary role as CIC makes McCain the superior candidate among those still in the race.
Gordon’s criticism of Janet Folger notwithstanding, I wonder if he read her concluding remark.
First, repent on behalf of our nation; then put your faith to action.
It is important, I think, to understand that the Power to truly change this great Republic isn’t going to come from Washington. D.C. That one salient fact should give hope to believers, as well as the courage to fight on in the cultural struggles. Folger’s edification for Christians to stand and be counted is of great significance, and comes as a reminder to us to stay engaged.
Have faith, Gordon. Stand with us.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Well put. We CANNOT afford to loose the Judiciary. And that’s just what will happen if we don’t unite behind the Republican nominee.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:28 am
” FATHER FORGIVE THEM….
THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO”
(Jesus from the Cross)
THE POLITICAL CRUCIFICTION OF GOVERNOR MIKE HUCKABEE.
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TODAY’S ARTICLE/INTERVIEW: GOV. HUCKABEE:
Title: Huckabee cites power of ‘kingmakers’
By: Ralph Z. Hallow/The Washington Times
March 25, 2008
MISUNDERSTOOD: Mike Huckabee made it further in the Republican race than expected on a mere $13 million.
(Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)
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Mike Huckabee can’t definitively explain why he couldn’t win the Republican presidential nomination, but he thinks the desire of Christian leaders to be “kingmakers,” media coverage and Mother Nature all had something to do with it.
“Rank-and-file evangelicals supported me strongly, but a lot of the leadership did not,” the former Arkansas governor says. “Let’s face it, if you’re not going to be king, the next best thing is to be the kingmaker. And if the person gets there without you, you become less relevant.”
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson backed Rudolph W. Giuliani; American Value President and former presidential hopeful Gary Bauer endorsed Sen. John McCain; and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins remained neutral, even as Mr. Huckabee was wowing their supporters and winning the values voter straw polls they organized.
Mr. Huckabee said his foreign-policy views were misunderstood by evangelical leaders who criticized him for not comprehending the direness of the “Islamo-fascist” threat.
Their criticism and even antagonism still leave him bemused, and he said it was “like playing the Whack-a-Mole pizza-parlor game” in trying to shoot down their objections.
“I was the one person who talked about this being a theological war, not just a geopolitical war [because] it was unlike a traditional war over borders and boundaries,” he says.
Mr. Bauer says Mr. Huckabee “ran an honorable campaign, but in spite of his successes,
I saw no evidence that he could bring together the three main parts of the Reagan electoral constituency — defense, economic and social conservatives.
“If he asked my advice, it would be to try to do that in the months and years ahead,” he said. Mr. Perkins said his organization tries to influence the public policy debate and has never endorsed a presidential nomination candidate in its 25 year history.
At the same time, Mr. Huckabee says, the press undermined his prospects by too often mentioning he was a Baptist minister before he was an elected official.
“The qualification for me being president is not that I was a pastor 20 years ago [but] that I effectively governed a state, running a microcosm of the federal government,” Mr. Huckabee said in an interview with The Washington Times.
And the same news outlets that gave him so much positive attention ended up saying he couldn’t win — creating “a self-fulfilling prophecy” that helped sap donations and turnout.
Mr. Huckabee takes solace in what his campaign accomplished: Winning the first-in-the nation Iowa caucuses and seven other states, and being the last to exit the race when Mr. McCain became the party’s presumptive nominee.
It showed “that a person of humble background and ordinary means can run for the presidency of the United States and get close enough to scare people to death,” he said.
“We never raised the money that competitors had,” Mr. Huckabee. “I think what’s remarkable is that we got as far as we did.”
Mr. Huckabee took in about $13 million compared to Mr. McCain’s nearly $55 million and Rep. Ron Paul managed to raise nearly $33 million.
“You know, we were the little bitty college that made the Final Four, that nobody thought would be there,” he said.
The former governor says he could have made a longer run if not for the winner-take-all setup that allowed Mr. McCain to clamp down the nomination by winning New York, California, New Jersey and Connecticut that won’t help a Republican win the presidency in November.
“I swept most of the Southern states on Super-Duper Tuesday,” he says. “Who’s going to tip the scale for a Republican? It’s going to be the Southern states like Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kansas,” all of which he won.
God or Mother Nature intervened in Missouri — and on the wrong side. He says he would have won Missouri, too, but for tornados that on election eve hit his voter strongholds Springfield, Joplin and Branson in the southwest of the state.
The “turning point” for Mr. Huckabee was his loss of the Jan. 19 South Carolina primary to Mr. McCain and being portrayed by some economic conservatives as unreliable on taxes and spending in Arkansas.
He credits the Club for Growth ads, which he says were paid for by Mitt Romney donors, for damaging him with conservative voters in South Carolina.
“It was very frustrating to be presented as an economic liberal, because I have a very different record, as an economic conservative,” Mr. Huckabee says.
“Had Fred Thompson not been in the race, we would have won South Carolina by ten points,” says Mr. Huckabee. “His and Romney’s presence split the conservative vote three ways, and we barely squeaked under McCain, you know, and it’s just the way it is. That’s not sour grapes. It’s just life.”
For Mr. Huckabee, there’s still an opening for running mate on the McCain ticket despite lingering questions about his stances on the war and free trade and his commitment to cracking down on illegal immigration.
“I have a fairly broad appeal,” he says. “I certainly have a strong core constituency with the conservatives in this party … the ones who knock on doors and make the calls pro-life, pro-family, strong traditional-value conservatives.”
He thinks he “also touched a nerve with a whole lot of people who are nowhere near that, people who either support me because of the Fair Tax or because I really did bring some different ideas to the issues of health care and education.”
He says he was the only Republican candidate “to say that the economy was in trouble” when the others “quoted the Republican National Committee’s talking points, saying the economy’s great.”
Like Mr. McCain, Mr. Huckabee takes pride in not repeating what he calls “the company line.”
March 25th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I respect everyone’s decision on whether they will vote for John McCain or not. I will address why I will not being voting for McCain momentarily, but I would urge EVERYONE, GO VOTE. Please do not stay home on election day. You have state and local elections that will impact your life much more immediately than the presidential race. These races are extremely important and one of, if not the biggest reason Brett, et. al. established this to help the grass roots efforts of conservatism.
Now on to my opinion of John McCain:
No candidate, for any office, has ever been more inspirational to me or given me more hope for the future of our country than you. There are few who will truly and unwaveringly stand on the principles of their faith. I was a sophomore in high school standing in our library as I watched the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, and stood speechless as I watched her explode mid flight.
I mention this because at the time I was 16 years old and already somewhat aware of the political process and world events. That day, of course, President Ronald Reagan addressed the country with a touching tribute to those lost, ending with one of the most memorable quotes of presidential speeches “they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ’slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.”
And as I listened to Pres. Reagan I felt a kinship of heart I thought I would never feel again from a president. Like most conservatives, especially social conservatives, I have felt abandoned by the Republican party (and unfortunately that remains unchanged). But I watched your interview on Glenn Beck’s television show in October last year and was introduced to a man that brought back that same feeling of kinship, that same tug of the heart. I was listening to a man who ‘gets it’. And throughout the next several months I became more and more excited about the opportunity this country would have to change its course, and revive her glory, dignity and honor.
I saw a man who led by example, who was honest, held the highest standards of integrity, true to his convictions, and someone who I believe would serve this country with true humility and a spirit of servitude.
But as the weeks and months during the election process continued I saw an ugliness that disturbs me greatly. The speech of men and women to derail and diminish you was unbelievable. Those who hold themselves up as moral compasses, as keepers of honesty and truth brought shame to themselves by distorting facts, perpetuating lies and rumors, continually bombarding you and your campaign with negativity and contempt. This came from both member of the media, so-called religious leaders and even the Republican party — what’s astonishing is the Republican party is about to nominate a Senator who just a few years ago considered leaving the party, recently voted inconsistent with conservative values and sponsored very significant legislations highly touted by liberals and rejected by conservatives. How Ironic!
As Mike stated during his campaign “this is politics, and it’s a bloody sport”. What disturbed me most is not the attacks on Mike, but their source. Again, from those who claim strong moral convictions. I am dismayed that we, as social conservatives, have once again been relegated to accepting a leader who does not reflect the values that many of us hold dear. We are asked to accept someone who has blatantly ignored the will of the people on immigration. We are asked to accept a leader who does not inspire, does not speak from the heart, but simply repeats the rhetoric of ’safety and security’. A presumptive nominee who, to this day during interviews repeatedly says that he now needs to reach out to independents and “Reagan-democrats”. So much for that conservative base of the party. He did not garner their vote during the primaries, nor does he see the need to “reach out” to them now.
The social fabric of this country is in decay, unravelling at the seams, almost to the point of disintegration. And while John McCain will carry the fight to the battlefield he has no intention of healing the erosion from within. America will never be defeated on the battlefield regardless of the person we place her care in. But she will collapse from within if her course of morality and integrity remain unchanged.
That change is the hope Mike Huckabee brings.
While I admire his dedication to the Republican party and his obligation to them, I hold no such obligation. As a very wise man once said “Far more important to me than the party itself are the principles that made me a Republican”-Huckabeee. No truer words have been spoken that reflect the frustration and disenchantment of social conservatives thoughout this country.
The Republican party again has shown their contempt for truly socially conservative candidates and truly socially conservative voters. But they will show no shame in asking, nay, EXPECTING our votes because the candidate with the R is the lesser of two evils. And this will continue as long as the Republican Party does not feel the need to acknowledge concerns of the social conservative.
The Republican party will no longer receive my vote just because their candidate claims to be Republican.
I will not vote for a man or woman who I cannot trust, nor do I believe will lead this country with the same value system and convictions I possess.
I will be writing in MIKE HUCKABEE for president, and will do so with a clear conscience. And if not allowed to ‘write-in’ in Texas the national ballot will be left blank.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I feel too strongly about this to not lay all of the cards on the table and speak (or write as it were) from the depths of my heart.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I cannot vote for Sen. McCain in clear conscience.
I will vote for the candidate of MY choice…..NOT YOURS !
The QUOTE PARTY should have united WHILE campaigning …instead of ostracizing Mr. Huckabee and Ron Paul and, resultantly, the voters themselves… (See today’s article in which Gov. Huckabee is either too polite or politically saavy to talk too much about McCain’s numerous banalities and indictments.)
However, I DO hope if HE IS NOT chosen as The
Vice Presidential running mate that Governor Huckabee will finally come forth with “all his guns loaded” and further expose the proud liberal…eh ..proud “conservative” Senator.
In addition, we owe the Republican Party nothing!
Conversely, They DO owe us a fair and decent election process
(ie: NOT:winner takes all States …that is nonsensical—also how about a one day Primary, in warmer clement weather…a Republican debate with the remaining three candidates would have been nice, instead of A McCain Two Day Barbeque in which he ignored our petition.)!
We, the voters have been ill-served this election 2008…by the Republican Party.
Therefore,
I contend the Republican Party committed political suicide this year,at our expense, and that is breathing it’s last breaths.
They need Huckabee to run as Vice President to revive them !
Otherwise, I think McCain Caimpaign Manager Charley Black(also a lobbyist) may have to use the Diebold voting machines he bought in that viscious corporate take-over the day before the Texas Primary!
See what I mean ?