Florida, Huckabee, The MSM and Bias
About Florida…
For Romney supporters, this one has left a mark. Is it a referendum on The Question? At this point, impossible to say. There are two things we can say with certainty.
Codes
We have studies that show, conclusively, that some political charges aimed at Romney are little more than codes behind which anti-Mormon sentiment resides. We have temporary part-time Huckabee staffers on yet-to-be-transcribed tape saying the same thing. The study shows that roughly 30% of voters that say “flip-flop” in reference to Romney means “Mormon.” That is certainly enough to change the outcome of this election. Does that mean Romney would win were he not Mormon? No way to tell. Many of those peope might find a different reason to dislike him. There is a bit of a populist revolution going on in the party.
Huckabee
Unquestionably, Mike Huckabee has and is playing a spoiler role for Romney. With no chance of winning, that is his only role going forward. The question is why. Well, we know unquestionably some, if not many, of his supporters are animated by anti-Mormon sentiment.
Huckabee has been remarkably silent about religion since Iowa, but this would be a very different primary season if he had played it straight there. All the religious talk in Iowa created an environment in which the codes can thrive. In fact the talk was so prevalent and distasteful to even the average voter that codes were inevitable. In a very real sense Huckabee’s up-frontness with the question disarmed the punditry on the issue – how do you argue against the codes? You have to call people liars and you need pretty solid evidence to get away with that. Besides, it just alienates most voters to be called a liar, even if it is true.
To my mind, Huckabee’s silence on religion since Iowa speaks volumes. He seems “conveniently” defined by his faith, which calls its genuineness into question. It makes him a prevaricator at best and I have little taste for such.
There is also little question there is animosity between Huckabee and Romney. But when you look at them, you have to think it is on a lot of levels not just religion alone. The class/populism stuff is too obvious.
So . . .
Are we seeing religious bigotry at play? Some Romney supporters certainly think so. I certainly think it is in the picture, but is it determinative? We can never know. What I do know is it is not over. Romney can still win this thing. I think that crying foul at this point, even though it is dishonorable and ugly for Huckabee to stay in, is counter-productive for the Romney camp.
The message that will carry the day is a positive one and one of urgency. McCain’s strength is supposed to be his service record and national defense. In that measure I rely on my favorite mil-blogger and Iraq vet, Dadmanly:
I am an Iraqi War Veteran, and while I admire John McCain for his outstanding and heroic service, I cannot support him for the nomination. His stance on illegal immigration is abhorrent; his willingness to abandon his party in critical fights; his long standing gravitation towards media attention; his simmering animosity towards President Bush; his desire to value bi-partisanship seemingly over values, often in the face of obvious partisan motives of his erstwhile “partners,” like Ted Kennedy. Plus, McCain is 71 years old. He might contest well against Clinton, but against Obama, I’m afraid he gets pummeled. I think we’ll see Dole ’96 all over again.
[...]
I’m an Evangelical Christian, yet I cannot stomach Huckabee, let alone support him for the nomination. I find him disingenuous at best, dissembling, with a suspicious resemblance to other recent Arkansas politicos.I have been favorably impressed by Mitt Romney. Until tonight, I wasn’t prepared to commit to support him. After tonight, I think he is the only GOP candidate with a chance to beat Obama or Clinton, the Executive ability, and the steadfastness on key conservative issues.
And then there is the MSM’s role in all this…
Misleading?
Time magazine writes of the late Gordon Hinckley:
Gordon B. Hinckley will be remembered for a lot of things within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose President and Prophet he was until his death Sunday at 97. His world travels, for instance, and the corresponding expansion of the church abroad; his modest redesign of Mormon Temples, which enabled their proliferation and thus the participation of many more Mormons outside of Utah in key Church activities. But for the rest of the country, he may be credited as the man who helped make Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy possible. [Emphasis added.]
So, are we to conclude that the Romney candidacy is defined by faith? That lead paragraph seems to want to make the case. The second paragraph makes the bottom line point:
Romney, while praising Hinckley on Monday, made a point of reminding voters that “like millions of other members of my faith, I didn’t get to know President Hinckley on a very personal, one-to-one basis.” But were it not for Hinckley’s relentless 20-year publicity campaign to assure fellow Christians that Mormons, as he insisted, were not “weird,” Romney would have had a much more difficult time overcoming the impression that many have of his faith.
Let’s just drive the message home a bit- Romney comes from a “weird” faith, sorta, but not really. I’m no Mormon, but I am gonna bet if we could ask him, Hinckley would hope for a different legacy. This is a blatant excuse to discuss The Question. I do wish they would just let well enough alone.
Lowell: Sigh.
Religion That Matters…
This old story about how faith helped the current president overcome his drinking problem just popped us yesterday. It made me nostalgic for an election cycle that was.
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JLFuller on 30 Jan 2008 at 8:38 am #
It sure looks like Mike Huckabee’s hatred of Mormons now controls his thinking. He has to know he can’t win. A vote for Huck is a vote for McCain. Huck knows this. We all know that now. But does Huckabee really think McCain best represents the conservative agenda? Will McCain give serious consideration to appointing conservative judges? Does it matter to him? Apparently not. Rush Limbaugh seems remarkably prescient. The Republican party of Ronald Regan is dead. McCain-ism killed it. It was kicked out of the house by Mike Huckabee who nailed a NO MORMONS ALLOWED sign on the door and a foul mouthed, bad tempered old man slammed it shut. A year from now expect to hear the words “Good evening Madam President”.
JLFuller on 30 Jan 2008 at 8:50 am #
Mike Huckabee’s epitaph:
On a day so some time ago
He fought a battle and lost.
He aimed high but his morals were low
And dead babies were the cost.
4thnephite on 30 Jan 2008 at 9:15 am #
A few words about last night, having Bill Clinton endorsing McCain saying the debate between Hillary and John would be the most civil in history. Remember the FBI files that were “lost” in the White House and then “found” several weeks later by Hillary. I was wondering since John McCain has been in Washington for all of those years, what mud can be slung at McCains way. Let us understand the Clintons have proved they do not hold our military in any regards and they will do anything to get what they want.
When was bringing up someones past records while in office considered slinging mud.
To answer the Question is to keep the Question alive. Lets go into the future, not the past.
After several years of “Lets make News” people at “Times” I consider what they say and do
birdcage material.
God Bless us all, Joe
Rusty on 30 Jan 2008 at 10:22 am #
I don’t see how Huckabee can claim that he is second in overall delegates. CNN has McCain at 97, Romney at 74 and Huckabee at 29. The rumor out of the Ron Paul camp is that Huckabee won’t get his anticipated number of delegates from Iowa because his people didn’t stay around to get elected as State delegates. Not being anywhere near Iowa it’s hard for me to confirm, but my source is credible. I guess we’ll see in convention. Huckabee is only in this to be the spoiler for Romney. He’ll run the attacks while McCain reaps the benefits.
BTW – Did anyone notice CNNs treatment of McCain’s attacks? In the last few days McCain ran ads in Florida using the “$50 co-pay for abortion” line and kept pounding the “supports timetables” meme. When CNN mentions these ads they are “tough issues”, yet Romney’s ads about McCain’s record are “attack ads”. The bias is so blatant and yet seems to go unnoticed; very Orwellian.
Sherry on 30 Jan 2008 at 12:16 pm #
Thinking about the results in Florida last night I had a few thoughts:
First off if McCain and Romney enter the national convention with almost the same number of delegates and, because of Huckabee, neither have the requisite half, can Huckabee bargain for the vice-presidential spot on McCain’s ticket with his delegates? I am fairly young, and certainly have never been this interested in how thing work before so I am wondering if the party at the national convention would have the power to stop this from happening, or if the result of Romney not getting the majority of delegates is obvious now.
Second, how short a memory do republicans have? I’ve seen with the Clintons the democrats have extremely short memories, but would republicans have short enough memories that a McCain-Huckabee ticket is feasible. I remember that besides all of the rancor toward the LDS church that constantly surrounds Huckabee, he has also offended Catholics and other groups as he chewed shoe leather at the beginning of the race. (Jews, secularists, and Muslims come to mind, but I don’t remember exactly anymore.) Add that to the less than stellar record McCain has on conservative issues, would the conservative bases of all kinds just stay home?
Third, would McCain lead Huckabee along just to pull the rug out from under him later? I’m not sure how that might happen, but I wonder if McCain is being somewhat disingenuous with Huckabee. McCain obviously wants Huckabee to take much of the support that would otherwise go to Romney, and eventually, take his delegates. But what has been promised in return? McCain has to know that Huckabee would be a very polarizing VP candidate and if he wants to win he will need someone who appeals more to the base. So what does Huckabee get? And, do I want him to have it?
I think it has become transparent that we have a McCain-Huckabee vs. Romney-? two ticket republican race from here on out, so I was wondering what the fall out would be, both at the convention and later in the general election.
Sherry on 30 Jan 2008 at 2:31 pm #
I’d like to ask one more question, if anyone knows the answer: Is Huckabee using taxpayer money for his campaign when he knows he won’t win? (I seem to remember some pundit saying during the very first states that he was waiting for the matching funds to run his campaign, but I’m not sure that person knew what they were talking about.)