Both Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama, the two men who won their party caucuses in Iowa yesterday, managed to expand the playing field.
It's just one of the similarities between the two, but for electoral politics it may be the most important.
Obama tapped into the anti-Washington sentiment to argue for change, to "turn the page," to bring back hope. Young voters in particular responded, and helped him to a stunning victory over the old guard.
Huckabee, of course, is the second governor from Hope, that town in Arkansas that gave us Bill Clinton. But Huckabee also expanded the Republican playing field, drawing in new evangelical Christian voters who had never played in party politics before.
If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, his win yesterday leaves little doubt he can expand the reach of Democrats and turn out folks who usually stay out of the voting booths altogether.
Do Republicans swallow their misgivings and turn to Huckabee, who has shown there are plenty of conservatives who can also be tapped into as a counter to Obama?
— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (7)
By saying, "Do Republicans swallow their misgivings and turn to Huckabee, who has shown there are plenty of conservatives who can also be tapped into as a counter to Obama?" You are assuming that John McCain can't do the same thing but in a bipartisan way. True, Huckabee could probably get the evangelical vote, but if McCain gets the nomination he would get a lot more independents and conservative Democrats voting for him. Huckabee would only get the Republican base to come out, but McCain could pull in voters from both parties as well as independents, which is what Ronald Reagan did. Don't write McCain off. He could be the best thing that ever happened to the Republican Party.
Posted by Libertyship46 | January 4, 2008 4:18 PM
The Country Club republicans are already donating to Hillary Clinton. The uber-wealthy are donating to the Clinton machine. The democrats forces campaign finance reform through, then bust all of the limits.
Bottom line: the country club faction of the GOP has already given up on the party and are trying to influence the 'winning' side.
Clinton signed NAFTA & signed welfare 'reform'. They enjoy living the "american dream" while publicly ridiculing and wagging their finger at everything that makes America great: faith, hard work, decent wages, our volunteer military, and safe borders.
Posted by Ray | January 6, 2008 9:54 PM
I think Huck has been successful for some of the same reasons that Obama has. Both of them touch on a kind of optimism for the future. I just stumbled on a site called www.fittobepres.com that lets readers rank each attribute of the candidates, and both Huck and Obama have high scores in "perspectives." I think that says a lot about why they're both doing well.
Posted by Muskie | January 8, 2008 8:56 AM
Mr Dinan: If you were not so busy trying to ignore Ron Paul you might have noticed that his campaign literature for the last year has stated his position on birthright citizenship. He would abolish it. You are no better than Faux newws.
Posted by Dorothy Fairview | January 8, 2008 11:04 AM
From your January 8th article titled 'Huckabee vows to defy birthright citizenship'
"...a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced."
Bad journalism at its best. You must have been badly misinformed or deliberately skewed the truth in favor of Mr. Huckabee. You apparently missed this article dated January 4th.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59551
It's funny how so many candidates are now using Ron Paul's talking points and people are perfectly willing to believe they're sincere, despite their records to the contrary.
Posted by Denise | January 8, 2008 12:01 PM
This morning I read an article about Mike Huckabee and his announcement to amend the 14th amendment. You described it as ?a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced?
Huckabee is stealing the Ron Paul platform. Ron Paul wrote about amending birthright citzenship on October of 2006. He has it listed on his current site http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/130/rethinking-birthright-citizenship/ . Huckabee is also using lines like ?We need to say no to government spending when it?s wrecking our grandchildren?s futures. Nine trilllion dollars worth of debt on your credit card that somebody transferred to the next several generations. That?s irresponsible. And what?s their answer? Spend more. Print more, spend more.? CBS News is reporting this is right out of the mouth of Ron Paul. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/01/06/politics/fromtheroad/entry3680193.shtml
Mike Huckabee isn?t a populist as much as his is a plagiarizer.
Please consider reporting the whole story.
Posted by Tim Cryer | January 8, 2008 12:29 PM
Mr. Dinan,
Ron Paul has been stating his opposition to birthright citizenship for babies of illegals for years. He has a record to stand on, unlike Huckabee and has actually introduced legislation on this subject in Congress.
Here is a link to his immigration ad that states his opposition to birthright citizenship for babies of ILLEGAL aliens.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2T-iJKwskH4
In addition here are links to papers he has written on the subject.
Rethinking Birthright Citizenship
http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=480
Here is a link to what he has written on immigration and border security in general.
http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/topic.php?id=5
Huckabee is trying to sound like Ron Paul, but he doesn't have the record to go with it. He thinks that children of illegals deserve in state tuition for college, etc.....
Posted by Tammy | January 8, 2008 2:12 PM