Thursday, February 7, 2008

to whom will Romney's voters will go?

Not that it matters to the final outcome-- and assuming for now that Huckabee and Paul remain in the race-- but it's still a curiosity...

Frankly, it's difficult to imagine them going to any of the three-- or at least going to them in any disproportionate manner!

One thing seems likely: even moreso than prior to Romney's exodus, decisions will be made on the basis of voting for the lesser of evils rather than for someone they admire.

Any thoughts here?

1 Comments:

At February 7, 2008 at 10:56 PM , Blogger Bryce Raley said...

I'm voting for someone I admire.

Mike Huckabee

When people speak up about Ron Paul and his ties to militia and conspiracy theorists I step in and tell them that I agree with Ron Paul on 90% of his policies, and that no one can control who they attract to their candidacy. He's a good man and has been a faithful honest servant to this country. I sincerely wish the media did not margnilize him. He is spot on with less government- less regulation- less taxation.

I wish people would investigate candidates. Instead they just listen to talk radio and they repeat what they hear on Fox News. They read an article in WSJ- (a good conservative newspaper, but are they really in touch with much that happens outside of New York and Washington)

If you repeat that Ron Paul is a wacko Libertarian from Texas who has no shot at winning then that is what the bobbleheads say.

If you repeat that Mike Huckabee is a tax and spend liberal from Arkansas then that is what people parrot.

What are people's sources?

Huckabee was:

Rated top 5 Governor by Time
President of Governors Association
Elected twice serving over 10 years
Pulled 65% of votes in Arkansas
(far more than Romney or McCain in their home states Super Tuesday)
Pulled 46% of Black voters in Arkansas
Started with 86% democratic state government and left with big republican gains
Has never been questioned about his social conservatism

People attacked him because of his stance of big education.

The NY Times shows otherwise:

In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court presented the newly re-elected governor with the biggest challenge of his tenure, ruling that Arkansas’s system of financing public schools was inequitable. The court ordered change. More money had to be found, quickly.

Also to be noted Huckabee fought this lawsuit bitterly in the state courts.

Mr. Huckabee immediately adopted the path of greatest resistance, to the shock of many in the Legislature: he called for the closing of dozens of wasteful, tiny school districts. Some had fewer than 150 students. It was a volatile step, one that Mr. Clinton as governor had avoided, even though reformers had agreed for decades that it was an essential one.

“We certainly didn’t want to get too close to it,” recalled one of Mr. Clinton’s legislative aides in the 1980s, Bobby Roberts.

The governor’s plan aroused intense opposition all over the state, particularly as he proposed whittling down the 310 school districts by well over half.



John Fund's article in WSJ in October helped start the snowball on Huckabee.

Read it- it's short
(I doubt anyone will)

http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010782

Then read a journalists rebuttle in Arkansas the same day - it's a very fair and balanced rebuttle to Funds lack of hard evidence and reliance on anticdotes.


http://roebuckreport.blogspot.com/2007/10/funds-column-assassination-of-huckabee.html


His main points are Huckabee's vote for the gas tax used to fix the road system was voted upon by citizens and passed overwhelmingly. Now they are rated one of the top road systems by Trucker Magazine. Of course we're used to politicians developing a bill which we see and may like and then they vote it down. Next they go back add lots of pork and earmarks and pass it through. We get to call our congressman and complain. They actually put this out to vote in Arkansas, but no one is talking about it.

Now the rest of the story as Paul Harvey says.

Last but not least:

I disagree with Huckabee on school vouchers. I don't like his stance on banning smoking or soft drinks in schools. I wish he were tougher on immigration in the past- but tell me one candidate other than Paul who has done any better on immigration.

 

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