SEARCH
Huckabee Who? |
Saturday’s straw poll for Iowa Republicans finished mostly as expected. Mitt Romney, who spent $5 million on the event and sent in 170 busloads of supporters, took the top spot. Tommy Thompson finished far behind and followed through on his promise to withdraw. Several top-tier candidates such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson didn’t bother to show up, nor did many voters: This year’s attendance fell far off from the last Iowa GOP straw poll: while nearly 24,000 votes were cast in 1999, only 14,000 Iowans voted this year.
The story of the day—more so than Romney, Thompson or the no-shows—was Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor ran a shoestring campaign in comparison with Romney, and the right-wing Club for Growth, in the lead-up to Ames, ran an ad campaign attacking him. Despite all of this, he finished second, coming in ahead of Sam Brownback. In fact, as Noam Scheiber suggests in the New Republic:
Clearly, Romney and Brownback dropped a lot of cash on people who ended up voting for someone else, and that someone else was probably Huckabee.
The rise of Huckabee to the top tier could have unexpected results. Huckabee’s role thus far has been as a conservative evangelical focused on social issues, but what sets him apart from the GOP field is his willingness to address economic issues, such as health care—and the adoration he is receiving from the political media. As BooMan notes on the BooMan Tribune blog, Scheiber’s New Republic piece also aserts “the political press is absolutely head over heels for Huckabee.” BooMan asks:
I would really like it if Noam Scheiber would name names. Which reporters were exchanging high-fives over Mike Huckabee’s success?
Just as troubling, Mr.-flush-government-down-the-toilet Newt Gingrich predicts Huckabee will catch on. In fact, Huckabee is doing what he can to create an electable candidate within the Republican Party–someone who so far hasn’t shown up in the mix. To do so, he needs to move the GOP discussion farther to the left, as Chris Bowers points out on OpenLeft.
And apparently, that’s his strategy. In the Aug. 8 edition of Hardball, Huckabee responded to a question asked at the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum by retired steelworker Steve Skvara.
The first thing we have to do as a Republican Party is quit being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street and corporations…not many Republicans are willing to say it, but we’d better say it, or we’re not going to win another election for a generation.
It’s no surprise the top tier candidates haven’t addressed working peoples’ economic concerns: Thompson, Romney and Giuliani are a trio of millionaires with deep roots in corporate culture. Giuliani has spent the past two years with a corporate law firm, Thompson has been a Washington lobbyist and Romney has been described as a “corporate raider.”
A recent appearance in Georgia provides an example of Giuliani’s disconnect with the issue of health care as it affects ordinary people:
Jill Martin, a teacher from Le Mars, Iowa, her child in her arms, was becoming emotional as she told the candidate how she could not afford the rate increases on her health insurance.
“What are you going to do to make health care possible for people like me and my children?” Ms. Martin asked, her voice cracking.[…]
“I don’t know,” Mr. Giuliani said brusquely. “I don’t know the answer in your particular circumstance how you are going to afford it.”
Huckabee’s record as governor of Arkansas is far from a good fit for working families, even though he signed legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage and authorize ARKids First, a program that offers health benefits for low-income children.
In fact as a presidential candidate, his primary domestic agenda item is a national sales tax that would hit poor and middle-income families the hardest, and he’s spoken favorably about privatized Social Security accounts.
Huckabee could carve out a place for himself in the field by stressing domestic policy issues. If he casts himself as an alternative to the corporate-friendly, conservative economic views of the rest of the Republican hopefuls, he could force the GOP to have a conversation it’s avoiding now—at least in the primaries. Any of the Democratic candidates now running will make sure bread-and-butter working family issues are front and center, and the Republican candidate will be forced to respond.
It will be interesting, in the wake of his second-place finish, to see if Huckabee gains traction and pulls the economic discussion in the GOP back to the center.
For more about the Iowa GOP straw poll, check out Iowa Independent, where the team spent Saturday giving moment-by-moment coverage.
7 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Thinking that Huckabee will pull the economic discussion in the GOP ‘back to the center’ is a waste of time. The words are meaningless, since “Huckabee’s record as governor of Arkansas is far from a good fit for working families..” What a ridiculous understatement! Even if these thugs like McCain and Thompson and pseudo-populists like Huckabee talk the talk, they certainly don’t walk the walk - and never will!
The AFL-CIO would do better to educate its members about how the GOP has destroyed our democracy, rights, and resources and revive the slogan, “Friends don’t let friends vote Republican.” Union members who rightly reject the sell out corporatists who lead the Democratic Party need an alternative beyond the corrupt duopoly - a Labor Party based in the working class, not some false hope that any of the ‘leading candidates’ or second-place finishers in a field of two are on our side.
Thier is not ONE candidate runnig for President that I would vote for on either Side as of now.
I agree with what Paul B. said. No self respecting Union Member should even consider any Republican at this point in time. The Republican party is not the party of Lincoln any more.
I worked in Arkansas at the time Mike Huckabee was governor and I must say giving him the nomination would be tannamount to giving it back to GWB. He has ethics issues and much like GWB kicked them to the curb. He comes across as a good guy but I believe the present governor in Arkansas now was the one running the state during Huckabee’s tenure. He put his name or his wife’s name on everything that wasn’t nailed down. He also took furniture that was earmarked for the governor’s mansion for his own personal use. I find it very hard to believe that a man who was governor could buy a $500,000+ house in North Little Rock on the pay that a governor receives. There are a lot of things to watch about this candidate. Also, he comes across as a compassionate person but he wrote a book about the shootings in a Jonesboro, Arkansas school with great haste. He should be watched very very closely.
Seth Michaels wrote ” his primary domestic agenda item is a national sales tax that would hit poor and middle-income families the hardest”
As I understand Gov Huckabee’s tax program it is called the “Fair Tax”.
That tax is a consumer tax that PREPAYS the tax on purchases of basic necessities. (you get a check or credit to your account sent each month to those with a valid social security number) Based on present figures that would amount to $525 each month for a family of four. That is the fairest tax for all of us and especially for low and middle income families. This tax would only go into effect after all other taxes are eliminated. Then we keep ALL of our pay and those big shot executives will pay the big bucks taxes on those big cars and yachts they buy. I call that tax reform at its best.
Seth,
Huckabee’s primary agenda is a Fair Tax that will aid poverty stricken, poor and lower middle class citizens. His plan would send a check to all Americans each month for an amount equal to the average tax of poverty level individuals.
I have not read nor heard of his desire to privatize Social Security, if that’s the case…that is a huge chink in the armour.
Huckabee was the only Republican to speak to the NEA and he is being looked at as a possible candidate to be backed by the IAM.
[…] Another fellow blogger placed an observative post today on Huckabee Who?Here’s a quick excerpt […]