Never trust a guy on the Left to talk about guys on the Right
I respect Dick Morris, but his newest missive over at Real Clear Politics is off the mark. In fact, after reading it, I'd have to guess the guy is a bit ditzy. Excerpts:
Peel them away and, underneath, you have Mike Huckabee, the last survivor in the elimination tournament of the Christian right. And they could do a whole lot worse! ...
... So it became "Where have you gone, Newt Gingrich? The nation turns its lonely eyes to you." But Newt took one look at Hillary and decided he really wanted to head a nonprofit foundation educating voters on solutions for America instead of being president of the United States, so he pulled out before he ever got in. ...
... Now he churns his way to the forefront of the pack in the Republican primary. He's still broke, but still finished a strong second in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll with 18 percent of the vote.
Now in Iowa polls he has moved ahead of McCain and, in some trial heats, ahead of Romney. Rasmussen has him rising to 7 percent nationally. (Full disclosure: If he breaks 10, I win a dinner from Bill O'Reilly.) But he has the best of all possible worlds: Rivals who are falling of their own weight. So here comes Mike.
Let me address Gingrich first -- No chance in Hell that any conservative would have taken him seriously in a run. People can cite the baggage this man had, but I cite one simple snafu that would have turned conservative voters off to him. He debated John Kerry on global warming and climate change a few months back and praised him for his thoughts on the subject! Gingrich, the supposed small-government conservative actually praised John Kerry for his thoughts on global warming. Give me a break! That like agreeing that the Goracle is right, and his Nobel Peace Prize was warranted. Disappointment city, folks.
Second, Huckabee has no shot whatsoever at the nomination or even a veep spot right now. I like him. I respect him. I think it's great he lost a ton of weight (no pun intended), but since then he's become Mr. Health Nut. And Ames doesn't mean squat. It was a straw poll, nothing more and nothing less. nice barometer, but Ames doesn't signal who the nominee will be. (I'd like to remind Morris that Paul came in third, so it's not like Ames was any sort of serious poll.) We're at war, and this guy is preaching about losing weight and being healthier. What I think killed his chances more than anything is the fact that he went on MSNBC and called for a nationwide smoking ban. Now, I don't smoke anymore, but since when is it the government's job to outlaw smoking in public places.
I agree that smoking is bad for people, but it is their choice to kill themselves if they so choose. Additionally, the poor schlubs back in the nineties that jumped on the tobacco lawsuit bandwagon that claimed they didn't know smoking was dangerous are lying sacks. You're inhaling smoke, numb nuts. Did you actually think that was good for you, like the smoke had vitamin-C in it or something?
Granted, more and more places are banning smoking in public, such as restaurants, but that has been mandated, again, by the government. This appalls me to no end. If a business chooses to have smoking indoors, that should be the choice of the establishment, not the government., I don't care if the people are ticked about it. I've watched businesses in Arizona go under with these stupid smoking bans because their patrons have been driven off.
If Mike Huckabee wants to be the smoking Nazi, let him do it in his home state. But when he advocates further government intrusion in our lives, I've got a problem with him. Dick Morris can think that he's the best candidate on the Right for Christian conservatives, but in truth the best one is Mitt Romney. People like Morris are having pipe dreams if they think the also-rans have snowball's chance in Hell of winning the nomination.
This is a two way race in the GOP right now, and those two are Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. The rest of the pack are just strangers killing time until Super Duper Tuesday rolls around, and tosses them overboard.
Publius II
Peel them away and, underneath, you have Mike Huckabee, the last survivor in the elimination tournament of the Christian right. And they could do a whole lot worse! ...
... So it became "Where have you gone, Newt Gingrich? The nation turns its lonely eyes to you." But Newt took one look at Hillary and decided he really wanted to head a nonprofit foundation educating voters on solutions for America instead of being president of the United States, so he pulled out before he ever got in. ...
... Now he churns his way to the forefront of the pack in the Republican primary. He's still broke, but still finished a strong second in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll with 18 percent of the vote.
Now in Iowa polls he has moved ahead of McCain and, in some trial heats, ahead of Romney. Rasmussen has him rising to 7 percent nationally. (Full disclosure: If he breaks 10, I win a dinner from Bill O'Reilly.) But he has the best of all possible worlds: Rivals who are falling of their own weight. So here comes Mike.
Let me address Gingrich first -- No chance in Hell that any conservative would have taken him seriously in a run. People can cite the baggage this man had, but I cite one simple snafu that would have turned conservative voters off to him. He debated John Kerry on global warming and climate change a few months back and praised him for his thoughts on the subject! Gingrich, the supposed small-government conservative actually praised John Kerry for his thoughts on global warming. Give me a break! That like agreeing that the Goracle is right, and his Nobel Peace Prize was warranted. Disappointment city, folks.
Second, Huckabee has no shot whatsoever at the nomination or even a veep spot right now. I like him. I respect him. I think it's great he lost a ton of weight (no pun intended), but since then he's become Mr. Health Nut. And Ames doesn't mean squat. It was a straw poll, nothing more and nothing less. nice barometer, but Ames doesn't signal who the nominee will be. (I'd like to remind Morris that Paul came in third, so it's not like Ames was any sort of serious poll.) We're at war, and this guy is preaching about losing weight and being healthier. What I think killed his chances more than anything is the fact that he went on MSNBC and called for a nationwide smoking ban. Now, I don't smoke anymore, but since when is it the government's job to outlaw smoking in public places.
I agree that smoking is bad for people, but it is their choice to kill themselves if they so choose. Additionally, the poor schlubs back in the nineties that jumped on the tobacco lawsuit bandwagon that claimed they didn't know smoking was dangerous are lying sacks. You're inhaling smoke, numb nuts. Did you actually think that was good for you, like the smoke had vitamin-C in it or something?
Granted, more and more places are banning smoking in public, such as restaurants, but that has been mandated, again, by the government. This appalls me to no end. If a business chooses to have smoking indoors, that should be the choice of the establishment, not the government., I don't care if the people are ticked about it. I've watched businesses in Arizona go under with these stupid smoking bans because their patrons have been driven off.
If Mike Huckabee wants to be the smoking Nazi, let him do it in his home state. But when he advocates further government intrusion in our lives, I've got a problem with him. Dick Morris can think that he's the best candidate on the Right for Christian conservatives, but in truth the best one is Mitt Romney. People like Morris are having pipe dreams if they think the also-rans have snowball's chance in Hell of winning the nomination.
This is a two way race in the GOP right now, and those two are Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. The rest of the pack are just strangers killing time until Super Duper Tuesday rolls around, and tosses them overboard.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:39 PM
1 Comments:
Nice piece!
I do agree with your take on Newt's chances as well as those of Huckabee, but when you mention the viable Repub candidates, you do not mention Fred Thompson. In fact, I see no mention of him here at all.
Now, I'm not a Thompson supporter but just curious if you feel he won't be influential or a force at all in the race?
p.s. nice blog : )
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