Arkansas Blog

The biggest thing Mike Huckabee has going for him is that no one wants a Mormon President. Even the most Bible-drunk Christian thinks Mormons are goofy. Huck knows this and he must be overjoyed. He'll do well in Iowa and afterwards as long as his main rival is Mormon Mitt. The Huckabee luck is amazing!

I agree with DBI. The whole GOP field is so lame that once you descend below fools Milt and Huck you find yourself knee-deep in assholedness like Thompson and Giulianni.

Again, when you only need impress/motivate 27-30% of approximately 100,000 caucus goers then anyone can be an overnite sensation. But NH is awaiting. Then Nevada, South Carolina and those will be actual elections.
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This is what you get with a guy like Saltsman running the show. He did the same thing in Tennesse. He runs out and hire's anyone who won't get more of the spotlight than he. Thus you end up with a campaign of college kids out every night getting trashed with the Governor's daughter, and looking at Saltsman everyday for direction like he is Tony Alamo. Huckabee has no policy Direction, because Saltsman hasn't ever spent anytime on someone's policy staff. Saltsman only policy is to feed his own coffers. Huckabee will do great in the first 3 primaries, then he better hope that he can pick up someone else's staff before super tuesday.

I don't agree with Jay Barth much (especially since he was giving money to Jimmie Lou Fisher with one hand and playing imprtial politcal analyst with the other in 2002) but he is correct that Mike would have been better off claiming all along that all he wanted was a good second place in Iowa. Everything else would have been gravy and he would have marched out in great shape. Now he has set the expectation bar very high......

I would also note that Thompson has the best staff money can buy and Huckabee is hammering him, so it's not all about the money and staff.

I have to spent most of my time here pointing out hypocrisy and double standards when you bash my guy....so let's take a moment to look at your Hilllllary love fest. I think Obama is going to beat your girl. I think he is going to beat her in Iowa and I don't think he is going to really look back. I think he has come into his own as a campaigner and I really think Bill has hurt her this year with undecided voters.

I read the post by Max' daughter today. I was fascinated she was surprised the Obama folks jeered her team. Why is that? If Romney or Huckabee people did it you would just say it's politics as usual, but the Hillary supporters have this odd and irritating sense of entitlement.

My prediction is that Obama gets the nomination and the massive Hillary operations goes home and whines and whomever gets the GOP nomination wins in November.

You all go ahead and mark that down...because I was right about the Huckabee surge eight months ago when all of the Arkansas columnists, bloggers, and pundits said he had no chance at all. I also think this country will be far better off, and will discuss the election in a more civilized way if Obama is the nominee.

The other fun thing is that you Hillary lovers talk about Huckabee's baggege and you forget how much baggage she really brings to 2008.

So, when Romney wins, will Huckabee accept it as God's will?

When the second round of the caucus voting comes, Edwards will have a substantial lead. I doubt he'll get a majority, but there'll be ten points or more between him and the two third-place finishers, who will be closer to each other than to him.

I'm sure by now everybody's read about Huckabee's nutty press conference today. You can click on my name and read the CNN story. Down toward the bottom one of Huckabee's spokesmen says that Huckabee has never run a negative campaign ad.

Hah. Somebody needs to tell that to Dale Bumpers.

let's take a moment to look at your Hilllllary love fest.<< Strange

Are you taking stuff again? Not very many on here are in a "love fest" with Hillary. Most of us liberals.
Max reports on her activities because of her Ark connection or maybe you can't figure that out.

"Electronic Voting is Questioned" Yahoo!/AP Story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_on_re_us/voting_machine_mess_3

And one of the States going back to paper ballots this election?? Yep, Ohio.

StrangeTimes, can an individual contribute to a candidate and still comment on the election? From what I can tell, Dr. Barth seems like he's pretty objective when making observations. He was on NPR a couple of weeks ago, and the part that was aired was fairly positive about our boy Mike. He could've gone into a litany of Huck's past deeds, but avoided this. Perhaps his professionalism can draw a distinction between his personal feelings and his neutral observations.

In 2002 the Democrat Gazette, Associated Press, and Stephens Media were going to Barth for impartial quotes about the state of the campaign. Not that unusual to use a political science professor at a local college to do that. Nothing wrong with that at all.

But Barth was giving money to the Fisher campaign and appeared on her finance reports. Nothing wrong with that either. It's America.

But there is something wrong with a legitimate newsroom using a guy who is giving money to one campaign for supposedly unbiased quotes. All of the media organizations stopped asking Barth for quotes after it was pointed out what was happening.

It doesn't diminish his ability to send nice updates from Iowa....it's just something that happened.

No newsroom I have known would use a donor for a commentator. Most commentators I have known did not give in that election cycle.

>>I read the post by Max' daughter today. I was fascinated she was surprised the Obama folks jeered her team. Why is that? If Romney or Huckabee people did it you would just say it's politics as usual, but the Hillary supporters have this odd and irritating sense of entitlement.

Hi Strange -- To clarify a little, they didn't really boo my "team" -- they booed me, after I walked up to say hi to my friend. I thought it was over the top -- I wouldn't boo somebody in a bar. I mean, maybe if he were wearing a white hood or something...but otherwise, I'd probably just keep my distance. We were off duty, ya know?

You're right -- I wouldn't be surprised if the Huckabee supporters looked at me like I was a baby-killer, but when it comes to me and a bunch of people supporting Senator Obama, we have a heckuva lot in common. Why not be cordial to each other?

Actually most hard core Huckabee types would probably give you points for taking time off on your own dime and going to Iowa to work for what you believe in. It's what they are doing. I was in New Hampshire in 1992 and those trips created some of the most amazing memories I have. You are young and smart and idealistic....you should be there. I think the Huckabee types would also ask you to talk to Dad about that blog of his.....he can be a real pain in the neck....but when he writes about how happy his family makes him....I sense there must be a decent guy in there somewhere. Have fun in the snow.