Thoughts on Huckabee-Limbaugh

Let me first say that I’ve never been overly enthralled with Mike Huckabee and his candidacy for presidency.  He’s never struck me as overly bright individual to begin with, and his activities subsequent to announcing for the presidency, and have not changed that perception.  Indeed, they’ve solidified it. The guy can’t find his backside with a flashlight, both hands and step by step instructions.

That said, he’s taken on a new level of stupidity with this most recent whine about Rush Limbaugh. David’s comment to the point is nothing short of brilliant:

You don’t claim to be running against the Washington elites and then pick a fight with the person who makes his living skewering the same elites.

That said, let’s face facts here; the support for Huckabee in the Republican rank-and-file has never been more than lukewarm. In my hearing, Limbaugh has been walking a fine line are several days now, as regards Huckabee, apparently sensing… as we do here… just how thin his support really is. In truth, the press likes Huckabee better than the Republicans do.  the vast majority of punditry around the Beltway, and outside of it, have been giving tacit recognition of this idea for some time now.  They just haven’t said it directly.

The problem of course is not so much is social conservatism, and his lean towards Christianity; those in fact, are his strong points.  Unfortunately, it they are his only strong points. for all that he is a social conservative, he has clearly demonstrated he is not a conservative in the Reaganesque sense of governmental minimalism.in fact, Limbaugh is quite correct when he says that Mike Huckabee makes John McCain look good.  David and I have both often lamented McCain’s selective liberalism.  Huckabee takes McCain’s liberalism and takes a step farther into the abyss.

The perception of all of this is starting to play hell with Huckabee’s polling numbers.

Limbaugh been suggesting for some time now that the numbers being presented by the pollsters that say Huckabee is out in a commanding lead shouldn’t be taken all that seriously. And he’s right for several reasons… not least of which, the early numbers seldom if ever give us any indication of what’s coming in the later months of the primary season. but looking deeper, one sees all of the candidates within a couple of points of each other. It’s clear to me that the earlier projections of Huckabee being so far into the lead as to be inevitable, were utter nonsense, (and for reasons I’ve described here in some detail a few days ago are likely wishful thinking) The pollsters no more know who is going to be the nominee than do the voters themselves.

At some point within the last week I mentioned to David that I thought Huckabee and his campaign was more about inertia than  about actual thought.  I stand by that statement. Huckabee went after Limbaugh because he recognizes that Limbaugh and his listeners are looking very seriously at the man and not the momentum, and once people start doing that, he doesn’t stand a bloody chance of winning the nomination.  The only way out of that box, is to try and discredit Limbaugh himself. The trouble of course is that Huckabee simply doesn’t have the mental wherewithal to take on the likes of Rush Limbaugh. what Huckabee has failed to reckon with, is that Limbaugh and the politics that he represents, are far and away more popular than Mike Huckabee and his politics ever will be.

Thus we see Huckabee, losing a good deal of his momentum, because he’s decided to pick a fight with, what is in all honesty, one of the founders of the Reagan brand of conservatism. my guess is that the shark has been jumped and Mr. Huckabee’s candidacy will be a memory of the scope of a Howard Dean or a Mike Dukakis by mid-summer.

I submit to you that Mike Huckabee’s rapid rise, and his forthcoming even more rapid fall are both due to the hunger in the country as a whole for Ronald Reagan’s brand of conservatism.  Ronald Reagan made no bones about his faith.  His political conservatism, grew out of that faith.  When Mike Huckabee came along and started making all the proper noises, a lot of people figured that conservatism was part of the deal.  They are now rapidly finding out that that’s not the case. On Immigration for example Huckabee is looking like a real loser. As a result of this and many other issues high on the list of conservatives,  He’s falling in the polls faster than he rose.  ( Thus giving a new meaning to the word “Huckaboom ” which will forever translate as “Everything blowing up in your face”.)

The question now becomes whether or not a true conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan can capitalize on that desire amongst the electorate. I have suggested repeatedly that looking out over the field of Republican possibilities, the only one that really stands out to me is Fred Thompson, which is why he has my support.