Mike Huckabee’s strategy to stay in the race is doing more than just irritating the crud out of John McCain, party elites and media. It is sifting and shaking up the status quo of the Republican establishment which has been operating in the shadows for far too long. Mike’s candidacy is bringing clarity by exposing where true conservatives vs. moderates stand in our party. This is a sea change that not only is good for the party but needs to happen within our party. The party moderate establishment has been enjoying the party strings of control for far too long. Mike’s candidacy is flushing all this out into the open. I have never seen anything like it. Conservative pundits that I once expected and admired have abandoned all good sense and followed the elitist agenda like lambs to the slaughter. Nearly all of them now are at the mercy of Clear Channel Communications, the media outlet purchased by Romney’s Bain Capital investment firm in partnership with Thomas H. Lee Partners. What a huge conflict of interest of late that is controlling the conservative political air waves! For those of us who have daily depended on the alternative conservative media, how are they any different now from the established media that we sought refuge from? They can no longer brag impartiality nor point the finger at CNN types for engaging in media distortion and bias for they now have to deal with a huge conflict of interest that Romney’s Bain Capital brings to their long held credibility. I have nothing against wealth and its influence as long as its for good purposes but when it seeks to manipulate the political process through private acquisition to further ones own campaign, it sends a message to the world that our democracy is no better than that of third world nations who buy and fix their own supposed “free” elections. So its no wonder that conservative media are lining up for the John McCain coronation.
If it weren’t for the Huckabee strategy of staying in the race, conservatives would not have a voice at all to raise against the party establishment who are the real proponents of “class warfare” against Mike Huckabee. These are the ones who will stop at nothing to ensure that a person like Mike, who pulled himself up from poor humble beginnings, doesn’t compete for preeminence with “their” candidates. This party infighting is about money, and status which qualifies acceptance into the elitist club of party control . Mike Huckabee’s determination to campaign on is threatening their nice little election train, something for which I hope derails the plans in which they hold all their hopes. The party elites couldn’t just let the primary process alone to work things out. No, in their arrogance they used the alternative press along with Romney’s negative distortion of the facts to take advantage of ignorance and manipulate their candidate to the forefront high jacking conservative support away from the true conservative in Mike Huckabee to Romney who masqueraded as one. Thanks to their meddling, John McCain whose numbers were cratering at the time was able to take advantage of their foolishness and resurrect his campaign to where it is now. I would say its just recompense for them if it weren’t for the fact that they have messed up the party for everyone else! If anyone is to blame for holding up the party process, it is party elites, whether conservative, moderate conservative or moderate! They arrogantly and stupidly thought they could, once again, shove Romney down conservatives’ throats forcing us into their mold.
Its a repeat sell out that happened in the special Governor’s election in California in which enough Republicans sold out for movie stardom rather than get behind a true conservative candidate which could have won for them but because they had no “faith” they sacrificed not only their principals but their good sense and we in California have been paying for it ever since. Now it is about to happen again on a national scale and I am warning all of you Republicans, friend or foe alike, if you allow it to happen, payback cometh and its judgment draweth nigh!
Now that Romney has endorsed John McCain, his supporters have nothing else they can do but either “hold their nose,” or support Mike but I think some would rather hold their nose and vote for McCain instead of support that “guy from the poor side of town” in Arkansas. Although, equally so, there are those whose eyes have now been opened to who the true conservative was all along as a result of their perceived betrayal by Romney through his endorsement of John McCain. All in all, this could be a repeat of 1976 when Ronald Reagan forced the primary process to the convention floor.
I say if there is a chance for all that to happen, everyone who can’t stand the thought of party moderates manipulating them to vote for John McCain, should protest by supporting Mike’s candidacy which supports the Huckabee strategy to stay in the race! At least it will be a lot more interesting and you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you didn’t have to politically prostitute yourself to McCain like Romney did. In addition you can aid in giving that 2/3 party a voice even if it is a long shot. It didn’t appear to be a long shot when Reagan pulled it off in 1976 which means it can happen again! Republicans who haven’t voted yet have the opportunity to bring it about by supporting Huckabee’s campaign which is why I appreciate that he is still in the race.
John McCain only had 1/3 of the party behind him before Mitt Romney dropped out of the race. John McCain doesn’t have to become the “inevitable nominee” if conservatives come home to Mike Huckabee and prevent it. I for one am not ready to crown John McCain! With the primaries that are still left to be won, it is still conceivable that John McCain could fall just short of the delegates needed if Huckabee can starve McCain of the needed delegates since delegate count is determined through state voting district lines that are drawn not through media estimates.
Republicans shouldn’t have to be manipulated through the methods of party elites to vote for someone like John McCain when 2/3 of party Republicans didn’t want to in the first place. Don’t listen to those that say that we need to get behind McCain so that we can beat the Democrats in the fall. The fact of the matter is John McCain can not beat the Democrats in the fall even if he has to twist the arm of conservatives and give them a close pin to put over their nose! He will never be able to mobilize enough of the party to beat an Obama candidate in the fall. He can only count on a Hillary nomination to do that. The real truth is that Mike Huckabee is the candidate that still exists to do just that. He has defeated the Clinton machine in Arkansas several times and is the only candidate that has the communication skills, the message and the substance to rival an Obama style campaign if we are to have a chance at truly controlling the White House and congress. Party elites duped as many conservatives as they could with the Romney candidacy in order to blind us to the true conservative in Huckabee who should have rightfully expected party establishment support. Perhaps if Huckabee had a Romney fortune behind him, it would have been different! Ergo, why the Huckabee strategy to go it alone with the grass roots has been more of a successful strategy and one that is proving in the long run to brand him as the conservative leader of the Republican Party. He may be the dark horse with a campaign that looks hopeless to many who have lost their ability to trust in faith, principals and hard work but to coin a popular phrase used by a Democratic candidate, “THERE IS NOTHING FALSE ABOUT HOPE.” SO GO EVEREADY MIKE GO!
