Huckabee Polls Best Against Clinton in Ohio Poll by Survey USA

Talking Points Memo has two polls up on its website. One is a national polls that shows Huckabee running second among Republicans for the nomination. The other one shows that Huckabee is the Republican polling best against Clinton in a Survey USA Poll. These polls are very fascinating.

One reason why Huckabee may have moved up is that his campaign is tapping into a circle of evangelical ministers that is helping his spread his message. Giuliani doesn't play well to evangelical Christians because of his support for gay rights, abortion, and his rather messy life with his three marriages. Romney doesn't play well because a lot of evangelical Christians don't regard Mormonism as a religion but regard it as a cult. Interestingly Huckabee is not stating his views on Mormonism being a cult.

That is a very smart political move. By not getting involved he doesn't get criticized for being intolerant of others' religion. Yet, since he is an ordained Baptist minister, he also doesn't risk offending conservative Christians as he might if he said that he thought it wasn't a cult.

In a earlier post, we wrote that Huckabee is the worst Republican nominee from a Democratic perspective, especially if Clinton is the nominee. He would bring out conservative evangelical Christians without the down side of either Giuliani or Romney. Warning to fellow Democrats: Keep your eyes on "County Boy Huck".

Mitt Romney's Financial Backers Legal Woes

Media Matters' Jamison Foser put out a column on Friday, September 28, 2007, about the difference in the coverage that the legal troubles of one of Hillary Clinton's supporters received compared to Mitt Romney's. In the column he points out the legal troubles of two of Romney's backers.

The first is Alan Fabian. Fabian was indicted for 23 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and obstruction of justice. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The second is Robert Litchfield who is being sued for abuses at schools for troubled kids. The newspaper, The Hill, which covers Capitol Hill, had a story with the following quote:

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 133 plaintiffs have alleged that Robert Lichfield, co-chairman of Romney's Utah finance committee owned or operated residential boarding schools for troubled teenagers where students were "subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse."

The question that Foser raises in his column is why the different treatment between the troubles of Clinton's backer, Norman Hsu, and the troubles of Litchfield and Fabian? One explanation is that the media is obsessed with the Clintons. Another explanation is that she is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination while Romney is not the front-runner for the Republican nomination. A third possible explanation is that reporters know that their publishers, owners, editors, etc., want stories on the Clintons and don't want stories on the Republicans.

Whatever the explanation, this is just one more example of why Democrats need their own vehicles of communication with the public. We just can't trust the media to be fair or objective where Democrats are concerned.

Is Mitt Romney Against Birth Control Pills?

Read this article that appeared on the Baltimore Sun's website on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 and see what you think.

Republicans Duck You Tube Debate on CNN

If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can read about how Rudy, the Political Transvestite and Mitt, the Dog Abuser, are trying to duck the You Tube debate on CNN. Why? Because they don't want to face ordinary Americans and answer their questions. They only want to answer questions from a corporate owned media and friendly GOP audiences. Well, if they are afraid to face ordinary Americans now, what will they do with the Islamist terrorists they are always talking about?

Mitt Romney Strapped Dog to Roof of Family Car, Dog Crapped Over Car

Okay, so this is not a dog bites man story, but still it is instructive on so many levels. According to the story linked to in the Boston Globe Mitt Romney was once taking his family on a vacation from Boston to Ontario for the summer. He put his children and wife in the car and then strapped his dog to the roof in a carrier for which he has constructed a windshield. Apparently the dog had to go after several hours and crapped down the back of the car. Good ol' Mitt pulls into a gas station, hoses down the car and dog, and then puts the dog back in the rooftop carrier.

If you want to know something about a person, check out the way they treat people who have to serve them and the way they treat animals. If a person is rude to a waitress, or to an employee, someone who can't really fight back, or if they are mean or cruel to animals, then that person is an inconsiderate jerk. We think that Mitt certainly fits the description.

Of course, we may be overly sensitive. After all we have been told by the media for the last six years or so that the "cute" nicknames that Bush gives his friends shows his affection for them. Names like "Turdblossom" for Karl Rove and "Fredo" for Alberto Gonzales. Personally, if one of our friends called us "Turdblossom" we would be reconsidering our relationship with that person. But, hey, that's just us. Maybe Karl Rove likes to be referred to a flowering piece of human waste. Come to think of it, maybe Bush has the right idea after all.

Romney Distancing Himself from Bubble-Boy

First it was Sam Brownback, now it is Mitt Romney. With Bush's approval ratings in the low 30s or high 20s, the war in Iraq escalating, and the whole GOP in danger of getting slaughtered in '08, Mitt Romney is distancing himself from Bush. Both Romney and Brownback see an opportunity to become the "anti-Bush" in the race for the GOP nomination.

With his different views on abortion, Rudy Giuliani, the political transvestite, could also become the "anti-Bush" in '08 among Republicans, but he is wedding himself to the war. John McCain has already done so, although he keeps trying to have it both ways.

Romney and Brownback got the better idea. Start distancing youself from the Iraq War, hope that Hillary is the Dem nominee, and maybe you can avoid the fallout from BB's blunders. It is sure better for them than drinking more Bush Kool-Aid and getting killed.

Religious Conservatives in Iowa's GOP are Searching for a President

One of the pillars of the Iowa Republican Party has been white evangelicals. According to this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer they are feeling like they don't have a candidate in the 2008 presidential race. They find Giuliani too socially liberal, they don't trust McCain, Romney is a Mormon, Brownback and Huckabee are long-shots. If this was to hold up until the GOP nomination, it could lead to religious conservatives sitting out the 2008 election. That would have huge consequences for Republicans up and down the ballot.

People get in trouble in politics when they start believing their own bs. Since 2004 white evangelicals in the Republican Party have bragged about their power over their party. That has led to those voters who don't share their beliefs getting worried and becoming more active themselves. In the Ohio 2006 election the Republican Party learned that a candidate who just appeals to part of a political party's base gets beat. If you don't believe us, just look at the totals in the Strickland-Blackwell campaign for governor.

It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the religious right is to the fact that Romney is now leading in the "money" primary and Giuliani is leading in the polls. Will they redouble their efforts to try and come up with a person they see as more acceptable? Will they suck it up and back one of the three front-runners? Or will they take their marbles and go home? The 2008 election chances for the GOP may depend on their choice.

Guiliani & Romney Believe WHAT?

In this excellent article by Glen Greenwald, posted on his blog, he points out that both Romney and Guiliani were asked by the Club for Growth if they thought that the President should have the power to imprison Americans without any review. Romney said he would have to consult a team of lawyers and Guiliani said that he would hope to use such power infrequently. As Greenwald points out that means that two of the three leading Republican candidates for their party's nomination seem to believe that it is not un-American for the President to imprison American citizens without any review by the courts.

The Republican Party is becoming the party of right-wing authoritarianism, although perhaps "becoming" is really not the right word. Perhaps the phrase should be "continuing to be". It is incomprehensible that a person who is running for an office that requires the holder to take an oath to protect the Constitution would believe in something that is clearly unconstitutional.

Such a belief is not at all "conservative". It is instead very radical. It is radical to suggest that the President has the power to detain American citizens without review by someone independent of the executive branch. Such review is one of the pillars of the rule of law in this country. Candidates who believe otherwise shouldn't be elected.