On to New Hampshire

A big win for Huckabee last night in Iowa. However, this probably helps McCain more than Huckabee. I'm skeptical that Huckabee's shtick will play well in New Hampshire or Florida, although South Carolina is a maybe. McCain gets a boost for Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, where he has a slim lead over Romney. Governor Romney is easy to take shots at (changing his views on abortion, Mormonism, etc.) but there is no perfect candidate. Thompson's campaign has been very disappointing. He would have been a better Vice Presidential candidate had he not run in the first place. Romney is the only one running as a full spectrum conservative that is a viable candidate. Republicans may choose to reject conservatism and give Jimmy Carter Jr. (Huckabee) a try, or maybe the preeminent RHINO (Republican in name only), McCain. Romney needs to take a few of these early primaries or else no one will be able to stop Giuliani. I am warming up to Giuliani, hopefully the base can too if he wins.

National Review Endorses Romney

National Review, the prominent conservative magazine, has just endorsed Mitt Romney for president. While they also like Thompson, they do not view him as a viable candidate, citing his lackluster campaign and lack of executive experience.

Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest.

On Rudy and Huckabee:

Rudolph Giuliani did extraordinary work as mayor of New York and was inspirational on 9/11. But he and Mike Huckabee would pull apart the coalition from opposite ends: Giuliani alienating the social conservatives, and Huckabee the economic (and foreign-policy) conservatives. A Republican party that abandoned either limited government or moral standards would be much diminished in the service it could give the country.

More on why Romney is the right choice:

Romney is an intelligent, articulate, and accomplished former businessman and governor. At a time when voters yearn for competence and have soured on Washington because too often the Bush administration has not demonstrated it, Romney offers proven executive skill. He has demonstrated it in everything he has done in his professional life, and his tightly organized, disciplined campaign is no exception. He himself has shown impressive focus and energy.

A huge endorsement for Romney, who many feel scored some points on Huckabee at the debate yesterday in Iowa.

CNN/Youtube Debate

I'm not sure who the winner of Wednesday's debate was, but the clear loser is CNN. They flew in a member of Hillary's campaign to debate the candidates on gays in the military when all of the questioners were supposed to be undecided Republicans. CNN would have realized that many of the questioners were actually Democrat plants if they had done a minute's worth of research online and I don't think anybody's buying their story that they didn't know who the gays in the military guy was. Many of the questions CNN chose revealed their view of Republican voters: crazy gun lovers and religious weirdos. One questioner wanted to the candidates to comment on his Confederate flag. We get the message, CNN: Republicans are kooks. CNN is a joke, yet it's the Democrats who refused to even go on Fox News for a debate.

As far as the candidates (click here for transcript), I thought Rudy got creamed, especially on illegal immigration. Thompson was good, but not great. He had solid answers to every question, I'm confident in his conservative values and character, but he just hasn't excited me yet. Huckabee was good, although he did take shots on taxes. He had a great line, when asked about expanding the space program: "maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars." No one addressed his huge weaknesses in understanding a free-market economy (see my entry below). Romney scored some points early on Rudy, but seemed to waffle on a couple questions. However, he firmly responded to criticsm from Thompson on his abortion record: "I was wrong." Romney noted that he had his change of heart soon after becoming governor and vetoed every abortion rights expanding bill that came across his desk. I think Romney made a mistake though in wasting all his ammo on Rudy. He should have targeted Huckabee's lack of conservative credentials, as Huckabee is a greater threat in the early primaries.