Quote of the Day: Huckabee vs. Bolton

"The only advice I have provided is 'call my secretary.'"

—John Bolton, on the claim by Mike Huckabee that Bolton is advising him.

[continue reading...]

What Do Campaign Staffers Do After the Campaign Folds?

A couple days ago, Matt Bai observed (hat tip: TechPresident),

For all the people who work on a campaign, who share cramped apartments with other true believers and keep most of their belongings in a car, the end really does feel like The End. . . . When a campaign ends, the candidate goes on to campaign for someone else or to the lucrative life he had before, but the staff is left to figure out the numbing logistics of leases and U-hauls and W-2 forms. Those of us who cover campaigns never write about that part of the process; we check out of hotels and turn our attention elsewhere. For the people who work on losing campaigns, moving on takes longer.

Indeed. And what better way to capitalize on all that suddenly free time than to pen a retrospective? Here are two of my favorites; I'll update the post as I come across more.

1. Fred Thompson

• Michael Turk, "Fred08.com: An Outside Insider’s View," January 24, 2008.
• Todd Zeigler, "Why Did the Fred Thompson Blog Work?," February 1, 2008.
  

2. Mike Huckabee

• Joe Carter, "The Short Fast Ride: My 30-Day Crash Course in Presidential Politics," January 2, 2007.

[continue reading...]

The Daily Digest

A hang glider soars off a cliff in the Osterlen region of the Swedish Rivera

Attention Becki Donatelli and David All: "Which political action committee gave the most money to congressional campaigns in 2006? MoveOn.org? EMILY's List? The National Rifle Association? Nope, nope and nope." ActBlue—the Web-based bundler—was the single biggest PAC contributor in the last cycle," according to the Democratic Strategist.

Soren has christened him Governor Reverend Huckabee. Matt Lewis prefers William Jennings Huckabee (though Reason's Jesse Walker reminds us that real populism is much more than a "vague willingness to align yourself with the common man").

Ed Kilgore, a former speechwriter and legislative counsel for Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA), reflects on his old boss's credentials for a third-party presidential run. My take: policy-wise, Nunn offers a lot to like, but simply put, third parties fail.

Blogger John Henke once observed, "I'm never more interested in, and excited about, the Republican Party than when they are the opposition party." In a recent cover story, the Economist elaborates: "[T]he conservative movement is at its most deadly as an insurgency. The movement was born during the 1964 Goldwater campaign as a revolt against the liberal establishment. It enjoyed its glory days when it was battling Hillarycare and trying to impeach Bill Clinton. A[nother] Clinton presidential nomination would undoubtedly reunite and re-energize the movement."

[continue reading...]

Quote of the Day

"[A] lot of the Republicans who have condemned them and talk about their platform of family values, interestingly, didn't keep their own families together. Give Bill and Hillary Clinton credit for doing something we say they should have done and that is hold their marriage together in spite of enormous trials."

—Mike Huckabee.

(Hat tip: AmSpec Blog.)

Update: "I'm appalled when people are so personal in their attacks on her," Huckabee recently told the Weekly Standard, in reference to Hillary. "Nothing will engender more support for her than being perceived as a bully of a guy attacking this woman."

Related factoid: Huckabee and Bill both served as governor of Arkansas (the 54th and 50th), where they were also both born, in a town named Hope.

[continue reading...]

The Daily Digest

Rentals in Manhattan (clockwise from top left): 1 Carnegie Hill; 37 Wall Street; Chelsea Landmark; Ritz Plaza

Under Governor Mitt Blunt, Missouri has established the Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP), a Web site that MAPs out the entire state's finances. Better yet, Blunt did this using existing staff and resources, without a single additional expenditure.

In another instance of what I call "reverse snob appeal," Michael Medved and Jim Geraghty extol Mike Huckabee's anti-elitism. "Huckabee spontaneously deploys the warmth, humor, gift of gab, accessibility and kindness that we haven’t seen in a GOP presidential contender since Reagan," writes Medved. "He comes across as a regular guy who cares about other regular guys. He also possesses a rare ability to craft catchy phrases that connect with people." For Geraghty, Huckabee is "a vague populist with a fresh face who has quietly accumulated 10 years of executive experience."

Grover on Cheney: "His penchant for secrecy makes Howard Hughes look like Gypsy Rose Lee."A few days later, Grover also got a dig in at GWB, whose "compassionate conservatism" he referred to as "whatever that was."

What's the point of a blind trust if you know what's in it?

[continue reading...]

The Price of a Vote in Ames

USA Today breaks down the numbers:

• Third-place finisher Sam Brownback says he spent about $325,000 to win his 2,192 votes. That’s $148.27 for each vote.

• Second-place finisher Mike Huckabee spent about $150,000 and received 2,587 votes. That’s $57.98 per vote.

• Winner Mitt Romney has not said how much he spent. The reporting in this Washington Post article suggests at least $2 million and possibly more than twice that much. Assuming $2 million for 4,516 votes, that’s $442.87 per vote. But it could top $1,000.

How did Huckabee do it? Soren's guess: Americans for Fair Taxation turned out bodies for him.

"What great irony. The farthest left candidate on taxes 'wins' the straw poll because of his taxes coalition group."

Related: "Huckabee’s Rise Hurts Romney, Helps Rudy."

[continue reading...]

Veep Watch

RCP's Reid Wilson thoroughly runs down the various running-mate scenarios. Two of my favorite analyses:

Mike Huckabee for veep! "If the Democratic nominee is Hillary Clinton, who better to serve the role of attack dog than a former governor of a state closely affiliated with her? Huckabee's debate performances have been uniformly strong, and his stump speech—delivered without notes in Ames as others used a teleprompter—makes even some liberals nod along in agreement. He's a conservative from the South, but one who defies stereotypes and whose easygoing manner and message of compassionate conservatism will resonate well beyond Dixie."

Bill Richardson for veep? "Richardson's past raises some question marks. Whether it's the constant rumors (which he claims John Kerry's people tracked down, finding nothing of substance) or inconsistencies in some stories he tells (being drafted by a Major League Baseball team; a quiet conversation with the mother of a slain soldier she denies ever took place), or even his record (security problems at Los Alamos under his watch; a dramatically altered position on Iraq), choosing Richardson would seem to invite danger."

[continue reading...]

Debate About a Debate: Huckabee vs. Romney

It's hard to make Mitt Romney look bad, but Mike Huckabee pulls it off. The topic is the forthcoming GOP YouTube debate, to which all the Republican candidates have now committed—another online grassroots victory!—except Romney.

The irony is inexplicable: of all the candidates, Republican and Democrat, Romney boasts the most number of videos in his YouTube account (284, as of Sunday night; Huckabee has 81).

Here's Romney:

Here's Huckabee:

Melissa Jenna was unsuccessful in trying to change Romney's mind (ironic, huh?). Perhaps Billiam the Snowman will sway him:

[continue reading...]

Ames: Instant Analysis

As expected, Romney wins, and does so by a healthy margin, which will sustain his momentum.

Huckabee's second-place finish is the story of the night, especially because he didn't have any buses, and will inject some much-needed adrenaline into his fund-raising.

Brownback spent heavily here, so barely coming in third is a major disappointment.

As promised, Tommy Thompson will drop out (finally!). Duncan Hunter should follow suit.

Update (8/13/07): Ryan Sager has trouble expressing his opinion:

The face of the Republican Party in Iowa is the face of a losing party, full of hatred toward immigrants, lust for government subsidies, and the demand that any Republican seeking the office of the presidency acknowledge that he's little more than Jesus Christ's running mate. The pandering from the stage told the story. Mr. Romney promised not a chicken in every pot, but "a button on every computer" for parents to block obscene material. Anti-immigrant ranter Tom Tancredo nearly brought the house down decrying the fact that Americans sometimes have to "Press 1" for English. Mr. Huckabee earned his second-place finish in part by making the specious claim that farm subsidies safeguard America's food independence. (You think it's bad depending on foreign oil, Mr. Huckabee asked? "Wait until our country messes up and has to depend on foreign food.") Senator Brownback of Kansas, the third-place finisher, declared as he often does in his stump speech: "All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus."

[continue reading...]

Mike Huckabee's "Vertical Governing"

Mike Huckabee would rather you didn't question his conservative credentials. Instead, he asks that you consider his actual accomplishments:

I was judged on whether or not the roads got better or worse, whether the schools got better or worse, whether jobs improved or declined, whether wages got better or worse, whether we took better care of our natural resources or didn't, whether taxes went up or down, whether the cost of government got better or worse. It's what I like to call 'vertical governing.' Because, quite frankly, the average American isn't that concerned about whether you are left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. . . . [P]eople want ... vertical leadership, which they expect to lead up and not down.

Huckabee's a witty and likable guy (counterargument here), and his theory of governance sounds refreshing and homespun. But when the theory becomes practice, it privileges ends over means, and results in some decidedly un-conservative policies—for details, click "his conservative credentials" above, or watch the below ad, from the Club for Growth:



When will Republicans stop trying to reinvent the wheel—whether via George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism," Sam Brownback's "bleeding-heart conservatism," or Mike Huckabee "vertical governing"—and come home to the maxim that what worked for Reagan will work today? The core principle that government is not the solution, government is problem, need not be sanded down, tinkered with, improved upon or repackaged. Conservatism, as it is, is both successful and timeless.

Happily, this philosophy is still alive in some quarters of Congress; as I wrote of those who in 2005 scored a perfect 100% rating from the American Conservative Union:

“As many increasingly question what conservatism means today—especially in the face of an exploding and encroaching federal government—these rock-solid conservatives held fast to ACU’s core values of fiscal discipline and limited government,” said Keene. “Unmoved by shifting poll numbers and the Potomac temptations to make headlines and put power over principle, these men and women deserve our respect, our admiration, and our votes.”

[continue reading...]

The Daily Digest

Ciutadella, Menorca

Earlier this week, John Boehner said he agreed with me that (current) earmark reform is more symbolic than substantive—that the real fat to cut lies in military procurement and entitlement spending. Now the NYT reports another reason to deprioritize this small-potatoes reform: "Because everyone can see who is receiving what, rank-and-file members are clamoring for their districts to obtain a bigger share of the goodies. Similarly, constituents in home districts are becoming bolder as the earmarking process becomes less mysterious."

As dramatized in the Sopranos ("And that's a sickness, to fidget?"), educators have long been mis- and overdiagnosing children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As quoted in Time, Judith Rapoport, author of the landmark book The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing, explains why many such diagnoses are erroneous: The key to diagnosing OCD is how great an impact the behavior has on your life. "You have to show longstanding interference with function, and that eliminates most people."

Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, likes to profile up-and-coming leaders of the GOP. His latest subject is South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who many conservatives, as distinct from Republicans, admire for his commitment to limited government. "Whatever government doesn't have to do, it should let the private sector do," Sanford tells Barnes (counterarguments here).

Mike Huckabee's campaign manager tells Sam Brownback to shut up and grow up: "It's time for Sam Brownback to stop whining and start showing some of the Christian character he seems to always find lacking in others. He has attacked Governor Huckabee for something that a Huckabee supporter said in an email sent to two individuals. The person who originated the email has apologized and is not a member of the Huckabee staff. For Brownback to claim that the Governor 'owes him an apology' is nonsense and indicates that if Brownback is going to fall to pieces every time a supporter of the Governor says something he doesn't like, he clearly isn't tough enough to be President."

Update: It's not only Huckabee whom Brownback is lashing out at. He's also attacking, via autocalls, Tancredo and Romney, for their connections to Planned Parenthood.

Update: More Brownback brazenness (hat tip: Matt Lewis): the self-proclaimed Christian candidate humbly declares himself, via press release (which is apparently not online but was e-mailed to supporters), the winner of yesterday's ABC News Iowa debate. As Matt notes, the press release does not quote any outside pundits but is the opinion purely of the Brownback campaign.

[continue reading...]

The Daily Digest

Ayn Rand novels convert young people into libertarians. Departments of Motor Vehicles convert our parents. Dan Mitchell echoes Radley Balko on the urgent need to reform this bureaucratic no-man's-land.

Here's something rare: voluntary transparency in a campaign. To wit: Mike Huckabee has posted audio archives of his blogger conference calls, among other media events, on his Web site.

Christopher Caldwell profiles Ron Paul for the NYTM.

Having been stripped, nearly 40 years ago, of his only tangible responsibility, to oversee the Public Health Service, the surgeon general has little or no authority to coordinate the federal government’s public health activities. His office is routinely politicized, and he reports not to secretary of Health and Human Services, but to the assistant secretary. The result, argues Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council, is that the position "today has become mostly one of a bully pulpit to serve as a federally funded advocate." The solution: abolish the office.

[continue reading...]

The Daily Digest

Twins

Jennifer Rubin, who recently skewered Fred Thompson, hearts Mike Huckabee.

Onion-esque headline: CIA to Vindicate Conspiracy Theorists. Subtitle: Agency cops to quarter-century of drugging American citizens, opening our mail, and wiretapping and kidnapping us. Serious details in today's Post.

Demonstrating why he was the president's former chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson defends John McCain with eloquence, erudition and pith. "On occasion, Senator John McCain seems like a martyr anxious for the stake, offering his own lighter to get the proceedings started. His flamboyant heresies on campaign finance reform, global warming and immigration have left conservatives suspicious that he has a mild form of Chuck Hagel's disease: an uncontrollable moral exhibitionism designed to please the liberal media. . . . [But] [t]his is not moral exhibitionism; it is just morality. And my respect for McCain, it turns out, is less and less grudging."

Ron Rosenbaum wants to know the last time you read a celebrity profile that was disparaging? While you're thinking, chew on this: "The rules of the game, as established by the glossy magazines and the stars' PR reps, ensure that 'access' (well, a half-hour chat in a restaurant that enables the magazine to proclaim it has an 'exclusive' interview) and the all-important exclusive cover shot are granted only to those magazines and journalists who will refrain from anything but fawning prose. It works out well for everybody. Celebrity journalists who play along get a good payday, magazines get newsstand sales bumps, and the rest of us are inculcated into the received myths of Celebland, the legends that sustain the illusion that it is somehow truly important."

[continue reading...]

Making Reagan Proud

Here are some of the better responses on taxes from tonight's debate (via Americans for Tax Reform):

Huckabee was (surprisingly) the most ambitious: "[T]inkering . . . doesn’t work. I would work for the fair tax, which meets the four criteria: Flatter, fairer, finite, and family-friendly. We’d get rid of the IRS. We’d get rid of all capital gains, income, corporate, and we’d have a consumption tax. The fair tax proposal I believe offers the best opportunity for all levels of Americans."

Tommy Thompson (who was otherwise unimpressive) also advocated a "flat tax," while McCain promised a "simple, flatter, fairer tax so that Americans don’t have to spend $140 billion as they just did last April to prepare their tax returns."

Romney proposed an end to taxing "interest, dividends, or capital gains," and Tancredo (finally) came alive by zinging his colleagues: "You can veto all the spending bills you want, you will not touch the deficit until you actually deal with the structural problem of mandatory spending. That’s where all the money is. You can veto every one of the bills that come to you as discretionary funding, including the military if you want. It, is in, fact mandatory spending that has to be dealt with."

Update (5/8): Here's the full transcript.

[continue reading...]