The SoCo Dilemma
Yepsen delivered a must-read column on Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas yesterday. He discussed in detail Huckabee’s different brand of social conservatism. While, Huckabee seems to have the moral high ground when it comes to a consistent Christian message; the Cooler is more interested in how this is going to develop from a political standpoint.
When it comes to conservative purity on gay marriage and abortion, Huckabee is in a good position. All five of the candidates ahead of him on the Cooler Line have abortion problems. For certain candidates those problems might be more perceived than anything, but that question is for another day. The fact of the matter is Huckabee is staking his flag square in the middle of the SoCo camp.
What is interesting though is how these SoCo’s will deal with a pro-life, anti-gay marriage, tax and spend Republican. When faced with a choice between candidates, who might not be as pro-life as they’d like, but are committed to cutting taxes and/or reducing spending and Huckabee, we at the Cooler are not sure where they’ll fall. This will be a development we’ll be watching closely as the campaign presses on. Let’s call it the SoCo dilemma.
When it comes to conservative purity on gay marriage and abortion, Huckabee is in a good position. All five of the candidates ahead of him on the Cooler Line have abortion problems. For certain candidates those problems might be more perceived than anything, but that question is for another day. The fact of the matter is Huckabee is staking his flag square in the middle of the SoCo camp.
What is interesting though is how these SoCo’s will deal with a pro-life, anti-gay marriage, tax and spend Republican. When faced with a choice between candidates, who might not be as pro-life as they’d like, but are committed to cutting taxes and/or reducing spending and Huckabee, we at the Cooler are not sure where they’ll fall. This will be a development we’ll be watching closely as the campaign presses on. Let’s call it the SoCo dilemma.
posted by Caucus Cooler at 7/17/2006
14 Comments:
Thanks for the great post. Our opinion: If your ranking is right, which we sincerely hope it is, this race comes down to Huckabee and Allen. Mitt Romney is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and not nearly as fiscally conservative as he'd like you to believe. He "fixed" his state's fiscal problems by cutting some spending, but MASSIVELY raised fees on state services to more than make up for the cuts..this amounts to an unauthorized tax. John McCain has far too many negatives with the base, including pro-lifers. Pataki and Giuliani are both flat-out liberals in the eyes of the vast majority of Republicans.
In a head-to-head contest, Huckabee eats Allen's lunch.
BSR
BSR- don't you think huckabee has a serious vulnerability on spending though? How will the base react to his support for entitlement programs and other big government projects?
I think Huckabee will be a great VP for Romney. Hucks strengths in social constervatism (and being a former Baptist Minister) will help appease the "religious right" and help get them out to vote for a Mormon from Massachusetts. Romney IS a strong fiscal conservative and pro-business leader (fees are always raised and that was NOT the main way he balanced the budget . . . he cut programs and earmarks right and left . . . check out the record). Huckabee will have a hard time attracting the money and excitement of the non-southern GOP base (another Southern POTUS?) He will have a hard time getting the pro-business vote with his signing an increase in the minimum wage and overall weak fiscal conservatism.
However, together, Romney and Huck seem to balance each other out as a strong ticket that the Dems would have a hard time beating!
Romney/Huckabee 2008!
"In a head-to-head contest, Huckabee eats Allen's lunch."
Only if Allen's lunch is from Subway!
WAR Huckabee's Subway Diet
BSR:
Step away from the crack pipe. Mitt Romney is pro-life, and has led the fight against gay marriage. His spending cuts were huge -- more government jobs were eliminated in Mass during his tenure than any other state.
I've appreciated your support for Mike Huckabee - he's a great guy and a good Governor, but you're out of your mind if you think Mitt Romney is a liberal.
Also, nobody has ever told me where Huckabee will raise the money it takes to win the nomination. Can you?
BR-
Been waiting for you. The cooler wasn't the same without you chatting around it.
Caucus Cooler
Can you verify the truth as to the impact of Romney's executive order on bringing gay marriage to Massachusetts? Did he sign the executive order and if so, what was the reason he did it?
Some truth - No Spin from Campaign Marketers.
I'll help out "Caucus Cooler" here.
The source of the "Romney is the Father of Gay Marriage" is from a group called MassResistance. For some reason, they get more pleasure from blaming Romney for the Gay Marriage issue than blaming the Gay Rights Groups, the activist liberal Supreme Judicial Court of Mass, or the liberal/Democratic legislature that has been a total "no show" on getting the issue pushed though . . . despite the demands of the public.
Essentially, they hold it against Romney that he upheld the ruling of the court (which he is duty bound to do as a leader who believes in the rule of law). Essentially, they're mad that Romney didn't pull a George Wallace "standing and blocking the schoolhouse doors" in protest of the integration rulings of the courts back in 1963. We all know how that ended. (see http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294680 )
Their whole premise doesn't make any sense. Taking a step back from their convoluted claims and looking at the "big picture" it all doesn't make any sense, especially highlighted by the following points:
1) If Romney could have found a way to legally stop Gay Marriage in MA (and believe me, he tried and tried and tried again) he absolutely would have! This would have made him every social conservative's "darling" and a "shoe in" for the GOP nomination (which he has been eyeing for some time).
2) The homosexual community hates Romney. I scan articles and blogs about Romney and HAVE NOT FOUND ONE from a homosexual source that speaks highly of Gov. Romney.
3) The Anti-gay marriage community lauds Romney as one of the strongest and the most articulate supporters of traditional marriage. See quote below from the most prominent activist supporting traditional marriage:
"Mitt Romney is a brave man. While the GOP glitterocracy attended the first gay wedding of one of their own, Gov. Romney was in Washington, D.C., making the single most eloquent and articulate defense of our traditional understanding of marriage I have heard from an American politician. (Maggie Gallager -- President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/gallagher200406250924.asp
(Romney's Senate testimony she's referring to can be found here http://judiciary.senate.gov/print_testimony.cfm?id=1234&wit_id=3608 )
4) See for yourself how the whole gay marriage issue played out in the Boston news. Go to http://cbs4boston.com/video/ and there is a blue "Search" tab by all of the video clip thumbnails. Click on that and then type in "Romney Gay Marriage." 12+ video clips will pop up in reverse chronology. Scanning the headlines chronologically will tell you that Romney kept coming up with new ideas and attempts to legally thwart gay marriages from happening in Massachusetts. Watch all of the video clips (most are just a couple of minutes long) and tell me if you are not 100%, completely, and totally convinced that Romney did everything in his power (legally) to prevent gay marriages from occurring. Tell me if the gays and/or liberals quoted seem happy with Romney (some even calling him "a Religious Zealot" for his opinions/actions).
5) He sent a letter to each US Senator urging them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment.
http://www.mass.gov/Agov2/docs/20060602_Marriage_Letter.pdf
6) He is leading charge in Mass to get the Gay Marriage issue to a public vote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/28/AR200606280 1670.html
OK, maybe that was a little too much "help". Sorry for the looooong comment.
P.S. For the record, I am NOT a Campaign Marketer or anyway involved with the Romney campaign (aside from being a strong grassroots supporter and, for this, was asked to be among the 50 unpaid members of Romney's intial Commonwealth PAC Iowa Advisory Board announced last month. Just an FYI for full disclosure.
You run a blog for romney that s pretty much being a part of his campaign.
Burton Rider - you are WISE!!!!
War Velvet Revolver picking up BR when they need an extra guitar!!
I think Huckabee is an outstanding candidate whom will see great results when people get to know him.
McCain polls well because people know his name, but rest assured, McCain is going to be destroyed in Iowa - he should just skip the state entirely.
Huckabee is a conservative in a sea of maybes, and his record on education is fantastic. Iowans pride themselves on education (even if it has slipped with idiot boy Tommy V.) and will cling to his results in Arkansas as a way to regain something for Iowa.
Pitaki is done. His supporters will be walking around like exspectant fathers with the clap, wondering who to really support when it becomes clear he won't get anything here.
Romney / Huckabee sounds good. Huckabee / Romney sounds better.
355: If you are going to insult candidates you should at least spell their names right. It's "Pataki"..
And you are cerainly overlooking a lot of factors when it comes to Rudy, McCain and the New York Governor.
Jeff,
Your efforts to spin Romney as a conservative always seem to require 5,600 words. Thats a bad sign.
Caucus Cooler, yes. Huckabee will have a hurdle to clear with the faction of the Republican party that focuses on fiscal issues to the exclusion of everything else. But we think his strong appeal to all of the other factions (social conservatives, gun rights, etc.) will help greatly. Unlike other candidates, Huckabee does not shy away from his record or try to spin it wildly hoping no one will notice. There are reasons for what Huckabee does and believes and they are good ones. From the Yepsen article:
"Huckabee admits this concern for economic justice causes him trouble with some Republicans. “At times people in my party scratch their heads and say, 'Why are you dealing with inadequate housing?’ I say, 'How can you ignore that? Can you say as long as a kid didn’t get aborted, heck, we don’t care where he lives? Or as long as a kid didn’t get aborted, we don’t care if he gets an education? As long as we didn’t abort the child, we don’t care if he has access to health care?’”
“I want to push those in the Christian community who are involved in politics to realize their faith has to embrace a great deal more than one or two issues. It really has to cover a much broader spectrum. If it doesn’t, then I understand the resentment of the left toward religious conservatives."
We CAN'T WAIT for the fiscal issue to come up in a public debate. Bring it.
BSR
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