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Subscribe to RSSA new Gallup poll finds that “Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have no clear favorite for the party's 2012 presidential nominee at this point, with Mike Huckabee (18%), Mitt Romney (16%), and Sarah Palin (16%) in a statistical tie for the lead.”
The Hill’s take: “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) would draw 9 percent, Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) would get 5 percent, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) would get 4 percent; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty checks in at 3 percent, as do Govs. Haley Barbour (Miss.) and Mitch Daniels (Ind.). Two percent would back former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.). This was the first time Bachmann was included, as well as former Utah governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (R), who received support from 1 percent of Republicans. Fourteen percent of Republicans said ‘none’ or had no opinion.”
BARBOUR: “Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) will be in Washington next week for a Chamber of Commerce breakfast. He's speaking as part of an event called ‘The Impact of State Employment Policies on Job Growth: A 50-State Review,’” the Washington Post says.
CHRISTIE: “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Wednesday he does not have a favorite candidate in the field of potential 2012 Republican presidential aspirants,” The Hill writes. “ ‘Listen, I don't think there is a front-runner right now,’ he said on NBC's ‘Today’ show. ‘I think the field's really wide open. I don't even know who the field's going to be entirely.’”
DANIELS: Speaking at the Hamilton, OH, Republican party’s Lincoln-Reagan dinner, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called public employee unions “privileged elite,” the Cincinnati Enquirer writes.
HUCKABEE: Mike Huckabee said he will used his book tour, launched yesterday, “help him determine how interested party activists are in his possible candidacy and whether there is the financial support to sustain a bid, he told reporters on a conference call,” the Des Moines Register recounts.
AP
FILE - In this Sept. file photo, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks in Washington.
Huckabee will not stop in New Hampshire on his book tour, the Boston Globe writes. “‘You ever been to New Hampshire in February?’ he told reporters this afternoon at a tea hosted by the Christan Science Monitor. “My Southern blood isn’t acclimated.’”
“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is making more positive noises about making a 2012 run–and touting how he’s the guy to beat President Barack Obama,” the Wall Street Journal writes. “In a Fox News interview that he is trumpeting on his Twitter account and his own website, Mr. Huckabee cites his recent favorable poll numbers and says Mr. Obama is more vulnerable that many people think. ‘Here’s the reality: I think he can be beat,’ he told Fox’s Sean Hannity. He goes on to say that ‘I frankly think that I would be in a very good position to do it.’”
But Roll Call says “don’t hold your breath waiting for Mike Huckabee to announce his plans for 2012.” Does this sound like someone running for president? “If I run, I walk away from a pretty good income. I don’t want to walk away any sooner than I have to because frankly, I don’t have a lot of reserve built up. Most of my life was in public service. Therefore I didn’t come away wealthy,” he said during an afternoon tea organized by the Christian Science Monitor. “In order to run for president last time, I cashed in my life insurance, my annuities, I pretty much went through everything that I ever had as an asset that I thought I might someday live on. One thing I committed to myself, to my wife and God, was that if I do this I’m hopefully going to be in a position that I’m not so completely destitute at the end of it, that I have no idea what to do if I get sick. ...”
Politico: “In his new book, Mike Huckabee trashes ‘RomneyCare’ – saying it’s ‘socialized medicine’ that has exploded costs, worsened care for patients, and proves why President Obama’s unpopular health care reform plan won't work.”
And he expressed doubts on the war in Afghanistan. Here’s Huffington Post’s Sam Stein: “Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) became one of the most high-profile Republicans to express skepticism with the war in Afghanistan, telling reporters on Wednesday that he sees no ‘end game’ in sight, has no confidence in President Hamid Karzai, thinks the country looks ‘like the surface of the moon’ and believes the time has come for an honest, non-political conversation about the next steps.”
PALIN: “Sarah Palin is traveling to India next month to rub elbows with Indian politicians and Bollywood stars,” Politico reports. “The former Alaska governor is scheduled to speak at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on March 19.”
PAWLENTY: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's PAC is launching a video and petition drive today supporting Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), embroiled in a showdown over unions’ collective-bargaining rights. Here’s the video and petition.
SANTORUM: "Nationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage is formally reviving his Internet war with likely presidential candidate Rick Santorum," Roll Call says. "Savage’s disdain for the former Senator from Pennsylvania reached epic levels in 2003 when the writer launched one of the first successful Google bombs in the modern political era. This bomb ensured that one of the top Google search results for the Republican’s last name is a sexual definition that can’t fully be repeated here."
More: "The feud had grown rather stale until last week when Roll Call published an interview with Santorum about his continued 'Google problem.'... 'The website that’s still giving Rick Santorum fits — www.spreadingsantorum.com — hasn’t been updated since 2004. But we will be re-launching the site in the next few weeks,' Savage wrote. 'Stay tuned!'"
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The Huck must not be doing too well to just be 2% points ahead of someone like Palin.
You have to break these numbers into the type of Republican voter:
Social (southern states) Conservatives: Huckabee/Palin/Bachmann = 38%
Fiscal (northern states) Conservatives: Romney/Gingrich/Paul = 30%
Others will probably break even between the two camps.
It will probably be between Huckabee & Romney. Huckabee would win that battle and also beat Obama handily.
Rich
e 5 minutes ago
Huckabee is out of touch with reality. The Dumond incident is a direct and meaningful relfection of HUckabee's spiritual and administrative intuition.
Huckabee believes in the "spirit of prophecy" and so his clemency was like a test of Huckabee's spiritual "prophecy" about Wayne Dumond. Dumond claimed that he had "received Jesus" and was "transformed" and "saved."
Huckabee bought it hook, line, and sinker, and then relied on that Huckabean spiritual intuition to let Wayne Dumond go.
The result? 4 dead innocent police officers - leaving wives as widows and children fatherless.
As it says in the New Testament - pure religion undefiled before God is this -"to visit the widows and the fatherless in their afflications."
Huckabee's intunition failed to preserve the highest values of his religions - to protect the widows and fatherless.
Huckabee will say anything to get elected or worse, prevent Romney from being elected. He claimed that Romneycare was "socialized medicine" but the Heritage Foundation said these things about Romneycare:
– Heritage On Romney’s Individual Mandate: “Not an unreasonable position, and one that is clearly consistent with conservative values.” [Heritage, 1/28/06]
– Heritage On Romney’s Insurance Exchange: An “innovative mechanism to promote real consumer choice.” [Heritage, 4/20/06]
– Heritage On Romney’s Medicaid Expansion: Reduced “the total cost to taxpayers” by taking people out of the “uncompensated care pool.” [Heritage, 1/28/06]
See, Huckabee cannot be trusted.
MSNBC would LOVE to kick Romney out of the race because everyone knows that neither Huckabee or Palin can win against Obama. Romney has the only real chance.
Romney's accomplishments:
* Earned over 260 million in the private sector - 25 years
* Successful Romney companies: Dominos Pizza, Staples, Accuride, Brookstone, Sealy Corp, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, Monsato Company, Outboard Main Corporation, Burlington Industries, Corning Incorporated
* Romney’s companies have created over 10,000 jobs
* Took 2002 Utah Winter Olympics’ 300 million deficit and turned it into a 100 million dollar surplus - the most successful games on record.
* Took Massachusetts 1.5 BILLION dollar deficit and turned it into a 600 million dollar surplus withOUT raising income and other taxes (he did raise some "fees" on other services - about 2 million worth.)
* Balanced the budget every year he was in office without raising income taxes and adding to state debt.
* 80,000 new jobs created under his watch in MA
Newt Gingrinch responded to the critical view of Romneycare:
• Romney is firmly committed to repeal of Obamacare
• It’s not accurate or fair to compare Obamacare and Romneycare
• Romney vetoed many provisions of the Mass bill and Romney was overridden by Democrats
• The original Romney bill was better and practical than what the liberal Democrats did to it
• The Democrats overrode Romney’s original bill on a whole series of items
• The issue is not as clear cut as Tea Partiers think or the liberal media has made the issue out to be
Fact 1: He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients.
Sources:
LeBlanc, Steve (April 13, 2006). "Mass. governor signs health bill, with vetoes". The Beaufort Gazette. Associated Press: p. 4A.
Fact 2: The legislature overrode all eight vetoes.
LeBlanc, Steve (April 26, 2006). "Mass. House Overrides Gov. Romney Veto of Health Care Fee". Insurance Journal. Associated Press.
Fact 3: Romney said of the measure overall, "There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover.
Source: Belluck, Pam (April 6, 2006). "On Health Care, Massachusetts Leaders Invoke Action, Not Talk". The New York Times.
Fact 4: Obamacare is government healthcare takeover.
You make Romney sound good but the redneck Republicans/Tea Party will never vote for him because they believe his religion (Mormon) is a cult.
After looking over the entire field right now my favorite would be Gov Huckabee! His experience, communication skills, and competent calm demeanor certainly make Obama look like an inexperienced bumbling fool. And Gov Huckabee is honest and sincere while Obama hasn't is just a cynical Chicago politician who couldn't keep a campaign promise if his life depended on it. The only other Republican that really peaks my interest is Gov Christie, and he seems pretty emphatic he won't run. How about a Huckabee / Rubio ticket. After all by 2012 Sen Rubio will have as much more political experience as Speaker of the Florida House, and a U.S. Senator than Obama did, and he'd only be running for VP. Besides a White Southern protestant Governor together with a Roman Catholic Spanish/English speaking Latino would be a great complement to each other and team!
I'm amused by the comment "Huckabee will not stop in New Hampshire on his book tour, the Boston Globe writes. ‘You ever been to New Hampshire in February?’" considering that Sarah Palin is, at this moment, grounded in Nome Alaska where she went to meet Todd at the mid-point of the Iron Dog race. The weather is so bad they are having the teams move in groups away from the water for a restart. Everything is grounded.
Some people are tougher than others.