Discussing Huckabee
Posted by tgirsch

Mr. Dawntreader is too chicken* to allow non-Republicans to participate in his discussion of Huckabee’s recent rise in the polls. Since I can’t post it there, then, I’ll post it here. I’ve got two words for him:

Howard Dean.

At this time in the 2004 campaign, Dean star seemed to be rising, too, and look where that got him. It’s early, WAY early, and Huckabee’s recent rise very well may hurt his chances of getting the nomination, as it gives the other candidates a new target to shoot for (and in the aftermath of his Christmas ad, they’ve already started).

* I kid, of course. I understand wanting to limit the discussion to likely GOP voters, to avoid partisan flame wars and whatnot. He could have at least given us non-Kool-Aid-drinkers an open thread to weigh in with our views, though. :)

UPDATE: Mr. D asks:

who can hate a guy that has the guts to say that we need to shut down the IRS and institute a fair tax?

Anyone who knows anything about the so-called “fair tax.” It’s maligned by liberals and conservatives alike.

December 19th, 2007 | Politics | 4 comments

Energy Bill Passes Into Law
Posted by tgirsch

So the president signed the new energy bill today. It’s progress, to be sure, but I’m having a hard time getting too excited about it. For one thing, it’s a watered-down bill compared to what was originally proposed, with renewable energy funding stripped out, less-aggressive CAFE standards, and continued subsidies for oil and coal. For another, the new CAFE standards don’t take effect until 2020. For those keeping score at home, that’s twelve years away. 2010 or 2012 would have been something to get excited about. As it is, it’s better than nothing, and it’s worlds better than what a GOP congress would have given us, but still: Meh.

Your thoughts?

December 19th, 2007 | Politics, Environment, Climate Change | 2 comments

Huckabee: An Exceedingly Clever Christian (but don’t tell anyone)
Posted by KTK

Huckabee just can’t win for losing. In addition to the understandable criticism of his insane right-wing politics and values, he’s getting tagged for the smarmy dog-whistle content of his ads. In particular, his recent Christmas ad, informing our 1/4 non-Christian nation that “at this time of year . . . what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ”, has been criticized for including a huge glowing white cross hovering over Huckabee’s shoulder and slowly gliding behind his head (!) as he speaks.

The strangest thing is that his campaign seems to be lying about how it got there, pedaling peddling [oy!] a story to USA Today (repeated without the slightest critical inquiry by the credulous Byron York at NRO) that the whole thing was an unplanned coincidence resulting from a national-campaign ad shoot so casual there wasn’t even a script. Not only is the story absurd on its face, it’s actually physically impossible.

December 19th, 2007 | General, Politics, Church & State, Religion, Culture, Media, News & Current Events | 17 comments