Chingy Would Be Proud

Huckabee's now famous quote that he's "not a foreign policy expert, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn" now has a visual aide.

Above is a more youthful Awshucksabee preaching at...you guessed it... a Holiday Inn.

Luda, Chingy, and Snoop's thoughts on the subject here.

Politico picks up on Cooler story

Vogel has the deets on Huckabee taking $$$ from stem cell/contraception groups.

Ambers is on it

Two interesting Huckabee items from the "well-sourced" Harvard alum.

Prominent Awshucksabee supporters are emailing pastors in IA to encourage them to GOTV from the pulpit this Sunday. (Jefferson would be thrilled)

Awshucksabee thinks Pakistan is west of Afghanistan. It's not. But who cares right? After all he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

New Poll

LAT has Huckabee with a commanding lead in the Hawkeye.

Huck 37
Mitt 23

Line Change!

Under a week until game day. To the big board!

1. Mike Huckabee- Up from 2-1 to 3-2. He's weathered the negative ad storm, the El Rushbo storm, the Bob Novak storm, the snarky blogger storm and he still maintains a lead. He's your favorite, no doubt about it.

2. Mitt Romney- Static at 3-1. Getting blasted for a week straight on WHO didn't help. But he's covered the airwaves, he's preparing his boffo political organization for turnoutpalooza. A surprise victory might just propel him to a win in New Hampshire and the nomination.

3. (tie) Fred Thompson- Up to 10-1. Big King endorsement, getting good press traveling the state, 3rd Place is up for grabs.

3. (tie) John McCain- Up to 10-1 He seems to be the guy with the mo. But the New Hampshire centric McCain operation (read: Dennehycentric) has up until this week left the guys in Iowa without much to work with from a resource persepective. Can they tie their shoestring organization together for a 3rd place "victory?"

3. (tie) Rudy Giuliani- Down to 10-1 What happened to the once national frontrunner? He still has some GOP heavies working the groundgame in the state, but he seems to have all but abandoned IA/NH/SC in a bewildering strategy.

6. Ron Paul- Up to 25-1. You can't deny the poll numbers. Would anyone be surprised if Paul beat out one of the three people listed above? Didn't think so.

7. Duncan Hunter- Up to 98-1 on the strength of his smart, funny, and attractive statewide co-chair.

Update- For nostalgia's sake, check out the Cooler line part 1 and 2 from August, 2006. Who's that guy in 3rd place?

Light Blogging

Sorry all. Real job got in the way at CoolerHQ today.

Back with a line-change tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out The Real Sporer's review of the McCain event today, Barack's amazing speechifying, and JMart's piece on Mittens TV monsoon in the Hawkeye.

The Dean

Can't imagine why you are at the Cooler if you haven't read Yepsen yet... But just in case... He has a great article today on what it means to win the bronze on Thursday..

Here in the final days, they've each realized that a third-place finish would give them a little boost into New Hampshire and the subsequent contests - and winnow out the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place winners.In other words, there is a standby seat on the Republican plane. Welcome back, boys. We know you have many choices for your air travel. Thank you for flying Iowa.

John McCain for President

Often it is the time that calls for a leader, not the other way around.  You can see examples of this throughout our nation's rich history, when courageous leaders seized moments that perfectly suited their political assets and capabilities.

This moment calls out clearly and loudly for John Sidney McCain

Read the rest of the endorsement after the jump.  Make sure to also note our anti-endorsement of Mike Huckabee in the last paragraph.

Gifts for All

Before we at the Cooler open Santa's gifts, we'd like to take a moment to give 1 or 2 things to each of the remaining presidential contenders.

Mike Huckabee- Supply Side Policies, studies in economics and business and Norman Podhoretz "World War IV, the struggle against Islamo-fascism." Hopefully some of it will sink it. We're not crossing our fingers.

Mitt Romney- Pinnochio. Mitt still needs to learn how to act like a real boy.

John McCain- The only thing we'd like to give John McCain this year is a party that appreciates him. But in lieu of that, he could probably use a new copy of Pet Sounds or maybe a Complete Guide to Music by the Beach Boys.
Rudy Giuliani- What it Takes. Let history be a guide Rudy. Waiting til Feb 5th just ain't gonna work. Also we'd like to give him a bound, laminated copy of the Mitchell Report. How about those juiced up Yankees!

Fred Thompson- A years supply of Red Bull. And an end to the writer's strike. (He's going to need work pretty soon)

Duncan Hunter- Duncan Hunter is still in the race? Have some tube socks.

Ron Paul- What else? A black helicopter and a tin foil hat.

May the joy of the holiday season find each and every one of you.

We'll be back with an endorsement, more gossip, and the sprint to the finish on Wednesday.

Merry Christmas everybody. (We aren't afraid to say it either Gary Thies)

-CC

Quad City Times- Time for A Real Hero

Boy the endorsements keep on rolling in for Governor Awshucksabee. Oh wait. Nevermind.

Another one for McCain.

But at this critical point in history, America can benefit from an honorable man with a hero's record. For Iowa's Republican caucuses, we support John McCain.