What Huckabee Hath Wrought
I found Mike Huckabee's concession revealing. It revealed a lot about his political agenda. After he announced that he was leaving the campaign I couldn't help but ask, why now? Wasn't it certain a month before when Romney dropped out that Mc Cain was the nominee? The reason he gave for staying in then made his more recent departure seem disengenous. Do you remember what he said? His reason for not dropping out was that it would make the votes of his supporters seem wasted. Did it make them any less so a month later? So I began to think of possible reasons for dropping out when he did:
Was it money?
He had never had money behind him. Only the influence of primarily Bible-belt evangelicalism had propelled him to prominence. Had that influence waned win Mc Cain won? Hardly, most evangelicals despise Mc Cain. James Dobson had announced he would "never vote" for him. And he had announced Fred Thompson was a "non-Christian." One cannot imagine them turning from Huckabee to Mc Cain without some prayerful consideration.
Was it that he wondered how it would have looked if he'd have dropped out close to the time Romney did?
No doubt some would have tied the to events together saying that Huckabee has somehow sought to prevent Romney from getting the nomination, because he was Mormon. Yet when I , as an evangelical, looked at the records I had more in common with Romney (at least after Thompson dropped out) than I did with Mc Cain.
Did he stay in after Romney to make sure that his agenda was kept in the forefront until the convention?
As an evangelical myself I could have voted for Romney. H is Mormonism, is not a threat to our way of life like the radical secularism the left proposes. He had clearly shown his respect for freedom of religion. Presidents have historically been of a variety of faiths and our Judeo-Christian heritage has not been threatened. Jefferson was a deist, Adam and the Roosevelts were Unitarians. Truman was a pretty salty secular person, yet took counsel from Billy Graham.
John Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. And two of the President we evangelical disagreed with most -- Johnson and Carter-- both claimed to be one of us. A person does not have to have been raised going to Bible camp to appreciate the positive contribution faith has played in our culture. There are many unsaved persons who appreciate the contribution of faith in culture. There are many Mormon politicians such as Orren Hatch who have much more in common with us then the Clinton Obama crowd. Yet Huckabee seemed to be determined not to support these conservative men.
For a while I thought I understood what Huckabee was doing. I remember 20 years ago when the Rev. Pat Robertson ran for President. No one expected him to win then, but, like Huckabee, he had a much greater influence on the race than anyone expected. His funding and support came from some of the same sources that Huckabee's does today. He stayed in the election until the convention, so that he would have influence on the floor. And he was a primary influence in shaping a "pro-life" platform and nominating Ronald Reagan. Huckabee exiting when he did just left him among the group of also rans. Huckabee quit. He did not stay in long enough to leverage his power at the convention. One can only conclude that not only was he convinced the nominee was certain, he was comfortable exiting a time when he would appear to be supporting Mc Cain.
The next thing I thought of was maybe Huckabee had stayed in to assure himself a V.P., but if you are going to do that why run against the person you want to run with. Why not do what Bill Richardson had done on the democratic side, "suspend your campaign," keep your name on the convention floor while giving support to your preferred nominee. That sets you up for a V.P. spot if your man wins. But let's face it Huckabee offers nothing to Mc Cain.
By the process of eliminating the options I have come to one conclusion: Huckabee exited when he did because he was satisfied with the results of the primary. It is the only possible conclusion.He supported Mc Cain, because politically he is aligned with Mc Cain. If he had truly wanted a conservative it would have seemed to me that he would have exited earlier, closer to the exit of either Hunter, Tancredo, Thompson, or quit when Romney did and thrown his support to one of those more conservative men. That would have made the nomination difficult, maybe impossible for McCar
There is only one conclusion one can draw.
It seemed to me that Huckabee's actions speak louder than his words. He exited when he did because he liked how things had progressed. Of all of his rivals he was most comfortable with Mc Cain, and was comfortable exiting the process when throwing his support to the nominee meant throwing it to Mc Cain. Let's face it Huckabee is a moderate. maybe even a liberal. Look at his record in Arkansas. Look at the tone of the exchanges in the debate between he and Thompson or he and Romney. They were usually tense. When did he disagree with Mc Cain? Why did he find a way to get the media to play a negative add against Romney. Huckabee is a pro immigration, big government, weak on national defense liberal. As a matter of fact he is more liberal than Mc Cain.
Don't misunderstand me, please. I like Huckabee. I am an ordained evangelical minister, myself. We would have very few differences theologically. Neither was I surprised that the evangelical church got behind him. Ever since the tele-evangelism scandals of the 1980's the evangelical church has been the pariah of the American media. However, I really believe had Huckabee won their would have been more effort to destroy him than we have ever seen in American History. The media has treated George Bush's faith as further sign of his incompetence. They made life miserable for John Ashcroft and drove Alberto Gonzalez out of office. If you don't think this was about persecution, you do not understand the American religious scene. Had Huckabee ever been a serious contender some in the media would have done anything (and I do mean anything) necessary to defeat him.
Now I recognize that that is no reason to deny him support. I just think its points to the obvious that Huckabee's appeal was mostly emotional. Had many of his supporters understood what he stood for they would not have supported him. But they supported him for the same reason that some of the same folk support Jimmy Carter in 1976. They thought he was one of them. Yet look where that got us. Yet in many ways Huckabee does represent this generation of evangelicals. Hybels and Warren seem to more often court the Clintons and Obama, support illegal immigration, and global warming than they do a conservative agenda. And it seems to me that some of those same leaders who supported Huckabee must now support Mc Cain, if there support for Huckabee was based on the issue and not on emotion. If you supported Huckabee, and he dropped out, then Mc Cain is the next obvious choice.
So to me it is obvious Huckabee got out when he did because he liked the result. Had either Mit Romney or Fred Thompson been the front runner would he still be in there. I think the greatest service Huckabee can now offer to the party now is to be Mc Cains point man among the evangelicals. Go visit those people who supported him, that Mc Cain nomination was the inevitable product of his candidacy, and that a vote for Huckabee has always a vote for Mc Cain.
Mc Cain may not be qualified to be an elder in any or our churches, and he may not be a spiritual leader for the nation, but he will not attempt to destroy our way of life. He will not surrender in Iraq. He will carry on the steady march toward socialism. If Dobson will not vote for Mc Cain, then who will he vote for. Will he for the first time in his 30 year ministry tell evangelicals to stay home? Will he support some unlikely third party candidate? Either of those options will only result in an electoral victory for the Democrat. It seems to me that Huckabee has left us with no choice and that is Mc Cain. It also seems evident that was intention from the beginning. I now believe that whether he intended it to or not Huckabee's candidacy accomplished one thing the nomination of John McCain. Huckabee is no friend to the Regan revolution, but that is a different subject.
Was it money?
He had never had money behind him. Only the influence of primarily Bible-belt evangelicalism had propelled him to prominence. Had that influence waned win Mc Cain won? Hardly, most evangelicals despise Mc Cain. James Dobson had announced he would "never vote" for him. And he had announced Fred Thompson was a "non-Christian." One cannot imagine them turning from Huckabee to Mc Cain without some prayerful consideration.
Was it that he wondered how it would have looked if he'd have dropped out close to the time Romney did?
No doubt some would have tied the to events together saying that Huckabee has somehow sought to prevent Romney from getting the nomination, because he was Mormon. Yet when I , as an evangelical, looked at the records I had more in common with Romney (at least after Thompson dropped out) than I did with Mc Cain.
Did he stay in after Romney to make sure that his agenda was kept in the forefront until the convention?
As an evangelical myself I could have voted for Romney. H is Mormonism, is not a threat to our way of life like the radical secularism the left proposes. He had clearly shown his respect for freedom of religion. Presidents have historically been of a variety of faiths and our Judeo-Christian heritage has not been threatened. Jefferson was a deist, Adam and the Roosevelts were Unitarians. Truman was a pretty salty secular person, yet took counsel from Billy Graham.
John Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. And two of the President we evangelical disagreed with most -- Johnson and Carter-- both claimed to be one of us. A person does not have to have been raised going to Bible camp to appreciate the positive contribution faith has played in our culture. There are many unsaved persons who appreciate the contribution of faith in culture. There are many Mormon politicians such as Orren Hatch who have much more in common with us then the Clinton Obama crowd. Yet Huckabee seemed to be determined not to support these conservative men.
For a while I thought I understood what Huckabee was doing. I remember 20 years ago when the Rev. Pat Robertson ran for President. No one expected him to win then, but, like Huckabee, he had a much greater influence on the race than anyone expected. His funding and support came from some of the same sources that Huckabee's does today. He stayed in the election until the convention, so that he would have influence on the floor. And he was a primary influence in shaping a "pro-life" platform and nominating Ronald Reagan. Huckabee exiting when he did just left him among the group of also rans. Huckabee quit. He did not stay in long enough to leverage his power at the convention. One can only conclude that not only was he convinced the nominee was certain, he was comfortable exiting a time when he would appear to be supporting Mc Cain.
The next thing I thought of was maybe Huckabee had stayed in to assure himself a V.P., but if you are going to do that why run against the person you want to run with. Why not do what Bill Richardson had done on the democratic side, "suspend your campaign," keep your name on the convention floor while giving support to your preferred nominee. That sets you up for a V.P. spot if your man wins. But let's face it Huckabee offers nothing to Mc Cain.
By the process of eliminating the options I have come to one conclusion: Huckabee exited when he did because he was satisfied with the results of the primary. It is the only possible conclusion.He supported Mc Cain, because politically he is aligned with Mc Cain. If he had truly wanted a conservative it would have seemed to me that he would have exited earlier, closer to the exit of either Hunter, Tancredo, Thompson, or quit when Romney did and thrown his support to one of those more conservative men. That would have made the nomination difficult, maybe impossible for McCar
There is only one conclusion one can draw.
It seemed to me that Huckabee's actions speak louder than his words. He exited when he did because he liked how things had progressed. Of all of his rivals he was most comfortable with Mc Cain, and was comfortable exiting the process when throwing his support to the nominee meant throwing it to Mc Cain. Let's face it Huckabee is a moderate. maybe even a liberal. Look at his record in Arkansas. Look at the tone of the exchanges in the debate between he and Thompson or he and Romney. They were usually tense. When did he disagree with Mc Cain? Why did he find a way to get the media to play a negative add against Romney. Huckabee is a pro immigration, big government, weak on national defense liberal. As a matter of fact he is more liberal than Mc Cain.
Don't misunderstand me, please. I like Huckabee. I am an ordained evangelical minister, myself. We would have very few differences theologically. Neither was I surprised that the evangelical church got behind him. Ever since the tele-evangelism scandals of the 1980's the evangelical church has been the pariah of the American media. However, I really believe had Huckabee won their would have been more effort to destroy him than we have ever seen in American History. The media has treated George Bush's faith as further sign of his incompetence. They made life miserable for John Ashcroft and drove Alberto Gonzalez out of office. If you don't think this was about persecution, you do not understand the American religious scene. Had Huckabee ever been a serious contender some in the media would have done anything (and I do mean anything) necessary to defeat him.
Now I recognize that that is no reason to deny him support. I just think its points to the obvious that Huckabee's appeal was mostly emotional. Had many of his supporters understood what he stood for they would not have supported him. But they supported him for the same reason that some of the same folk support Jimmy Carter in 1976. They thought he was one of them. Yet look where that got us. Yet in many ways Huckabee does represent this generation of evangelicals. Hybels and Warren seem to more often court the Clintons and Obama, support illegal immigration, and global warming than they do a conservative agenda. And it seems to me that some of those same leaders who supported Huckabee must now support Mc Cain, if there support for Huckabee was based on the issue and not on emotion. If you supported Huckabee, and he dropped out, then Mc Cain is the next obvious choice.
So to me it is obvious Huckabee got out when he did because he liked the result. Had either Mit Romney or Fred Thompson been the front runner would he still be in there. I think the greatest service Huckabee can now offer to the party now is to be Mc Cains point man among the evangelicals. Go visit those people who supported him, that Mc Cain nomination was the inevitable product of his candidacy, and that a vote for Huckabee has always a vote for Mc Cain.
Mc Cain may not be qualified to be an elder in any or our churches, and he may not be a spiritual leader for the nation, but he will not attempt to destroy our way of life. He will not surrender in Iraq. He will carry on the steady march toward socialism. If Dobson will not vote for Mc Cain, then who will he vote for. Will he for the first time in his 30 year ministry tell evangelicals to stay home? Will he support some unlikely third party candidate? Either of those options will only result in an electoral victory for the Democrat. It seems to me that Huckabee has left us with no choice and that is Mc Cain. It also seems evident that was intention from the beginning. I now believe that whether he intended it to or not Huckabee's candidacy accomplished one thing the nomination of John McCain. Huckabee is no friend to the Regan revolution, but that is a different subject.
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