As I'm sure you know by now, Mike Huckabee won in Iowa last night. Of course the attacks are on as always. Today I listened to a little bit of Rush Limbaugh who has spoke out against Huckabee. I'm not sure who he would rather conservatives vote for: Romney who is definitely not a real conservative, Giuliani who is a liberal through and through, John McCain who has never been a true conservative, or Fred Thompson who doesn't stand a chance and who puts me to sleep whenever I try to listen to him and usually he appears to be asleep whenever he is talking...Anyways, Limbaugh was going on today about how that Huckabee won because of evangelicals - yada, yada, yada... If that was true I would think that's great, but it's not. Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox News, etc. have been playing this like the only people who support Huckabee are some quaky evangelicals who just came out their holes in the ground long enough to vote...and that Huckabee doesn't stand a chance when it comes to the other states. Just like they've been on this entire election, they're wrong.
Today Rush about made my head explode when he was talking about the voters who voted for Huckabee. He said something about the fact that 60% of the voters were evangelicals and most of these were women from small towns who were probably being told by their pastors who to vote for...!! This about made the top of my head blow off. First of all, I'm sure the women in Iowa were perfectly able to think for themselves and I'm sure that they chose who to vote for on their own. Secondly, I don't know of any pastor's who get up and tell their people in church who they should vote for. I'm sure there are some places where this may happen, but just the fact that Rush tried to portray this image that some Pastor/Dictator was directing their poor ladies who can't think for themselves who to vote for, just about made my head explode!!
Here's the facts on the Iowa caucus voters. In the Republican caucus 60% of the voters were evangelicals. This is not all that surprising considering Iowa. Here's the stat that Limbaugh and all of the others who are trying to paint Huckabee as "just a preacher" don't bother to tell people. Of the 60% of the Iowa voters who were evangelicals, only 45% of the evangelicals voted for Huckabee. This means that 73% of those who voted for Huckabee were not evangelicals!
Now, I wish that 100% of the evangelicals would have voted for him, but don't listen to the lies. It's not just little old ladies from small country towns who can't think for themselves who support Huckabee (as Rush Limbaugh and others would like for you to think). Huckabee has the mainstream support necessary to win the election and I hope he wins. Do I agree with him 100% of the time? No. Do I think that he has always said the right things and made the right decisions? No. But I think that he is one of the best candidates that we have seen in a long time and I think he would make a great President.
I don't get to listen to Rush much so I speak with no authority, but my feel for this is that he's playing devils advocate. The liberals in the media who will be grinding Huckabee to mincemeat in the campaign, hate Limbaugh. So if he doesn't appear to like Huck it may be a good thing. It may hold them off a bit until he has a better hold on the campaign. Just thinking aloud...
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that Huckabee won Iowa and came in third in New Hampshire, the essential home of Romney! I just found a great site Jon, that lets Huckabee supporters connect and discuss topics. Here it is: http://mikehuckabee.ning.com/ Hope to see you there!
ReplyDeleteI shamelessly gloated in a bit of affirmation today when I read this piece on Rush and his position on McCain...I have felt his tirades against Huckabee and McCain were in a sense a buffer zone for them...He admitted the same in his statement. Commenting on the mainstream media's fixation with his feelings about McCain, Limbaugh said there may be more to his criticisms than meets the eye.
ReplyDelete"If I really wanted to torpedo McCain, I would endorse him," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Because that would send the independents and liberals who are going to vote for him running away faster than anything."
"What people don't realize is that I am doing McCain the biggest favor that can be done for him by staying out of this," he continued. "If I endorsed him thoroughly and with passion, that would end the independents and moderates, because they so despise me and they so hate me."
Of course Rush won't grab headlines agreeing with someone, so there's probably several aspects to his aggressive positions and statements against the front-runners.