Mike Huckabee on SNL

The Huckster gets some laughs on SNL's "Weekend Update." Hat tip Alex.

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.

Huckabee's Foreign Policy Fumbles

The tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto by terrorists had all the candidates rushing to the nearest microphone to express their sympathy and show off their foreign policy acumen. Or lack there of, in Mike Huckabee's case. He expressed concern that martial law would continue longer in Pakistan, apparently unaware that martial law was lifted two weeks ago. Huckabee also stated that Musharaff "really does not have enough control of those eastern borders near Afghanistan." Um, perhaps he should take a look at this map. Huckabee went on to offer his "apologies" for the assassination, later saying he meant "sympathies." But that's not all. He also tried to tie this to illegal immigration for a Pella crowd, expressing concern about the 660 Pakistanis who immigrated illegally this past year. How does Huckabee know the exact number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan? The Huckabee camp seems to be stumped as well.

Merry Christmas from the Huckabees

Please don't let this man win the Republican nomination.

Romney on Meet the Press

Romney was on Meet the Press with Tim Russert yesterday. You can watch the interview or read the transcript here. I thought Governor Romney was very successful in handling the tough questions from Russert on Mormonism, abortion, etc. He came out strong against Huckabee's comment that the Bush administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality,” saying “that’s an insult to the president, and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president." (Huckabee refuses to apologize). The most talked about moment occured when Romney was asked about the Mormon church's decision to finally allow African Americans into the priesthood in 1978. His eyes filled with tears for a moment as he described his reaction to the news.

“And so it’s very deep and fundamental in my life and my most core beliefs that all people are children of God. My faith has always told me that. My faith has also always told me that in the eyes of God, every individual was merited the fullest degree of happiness in the hereafter and I had no question that African Americans and blacks generally would have every right and every benefit in the hereafter that anyone else had and that God is no respecter of persons.”

Mike Huckabee or John Edwards?

Read the following quotes and see if you can guess who said them - Mike Huckabee or John Edwards.

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad."

• "When I hear the headlines that the economy's doing great, I know that it is, if you look at it from the macro sense. But if you go out and talk to people who work on the floors of factories or you talk to waitresses who are doing their second job, school teachers who have to work an extra job, you don't hear quite the confidence about how great the economy is doing."

• “I don't want to see our food come from China, our oil come from Saudi Arabia and our manufacturing come from Europe and Asia.”

• "I am not interested in being the candidate of Wall Street but of Main Street. Wealthy CEOs get paid 500 times what the average worker does, but they are not necessarily 500 times smarter or harder working and that is wrong."

• "If you want to know how to fix [healthcare], I've got a solution. Either give every American the same kind of healthcare that Congress has or make Congress have the same kind of health care that every American has."

• The US has a "revenge-based corrections system." And "we incarcerate more people than anybody on earth."

If you guessed that all of these quotes are from Huckabee, you are the big winner. He is definitely not a conservative. His comments about lower income workers are not based in reality. As I posted earlier, because of economic growth, the lowest quintile saw their income increase by 90.5% from '96 to '05. Why is it any of the government's business what corporations pay their executives? If they overpay, the market will punish them. In healthcare, we should only "give" healthcare to the impoverished. Let everybody else pay their own way. Sure, he's a social conservative, but let's support all conservative principles.

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.

Refuting the Income Gap

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a new study on American incomes between 1996 and 2005 conducted by the Treasury Department. Guess what? It doesn't give much credence to the populist, class envy messages that we've been hearing from the likes of John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, and Warren Buffet about a supposedly growing income gap.
The study examined the tax returns of 96,700 people over a ten year period. It showed that the poorest quintile actually saw the most growth (yes, adjusted for inflation) - their incomes were 90.5% higher in 2005 as compared to 1996. As the graph on the left shows, the poorer you were, the more income growth you had in the last decade. The top 5% actually saw their incomes drop 6.8%. In an impressive showing of upward mobility, 58% of those in the bottom quintile in '95 moved up at least one quintile. These data are even more impressive given the huge numbers of low skilled immigrants that have entered the economy in the last decade. The American dream appears to be alive and well. How should this data affect our view of the "income gap?"

All of this certainly helps to illuminate the current election-year debate about income "inequality" in the U.S. The political left and its media echoes are promoting the inequality story as a way to justify a huge tax increase. But inequality is only a problem if it reflects stagnant opportunity and a society stratified by more or less permanent income differences. That kind of society can breed class resentments and unrest. America isn't remotely such a society, thanks in large part to the incentives that exist for risk-taking and wealth creation.
The great irony is that, in the name of reducing inequality, some of our politicians want to raise taxes and other government obstacles to the kind of risk-taking and hard work that allow Americans to climb the income ladder so rapidly. As the Treasury data show, we shouldn't worry about inequality. We should worry about the people who use inequality as a political club to promote policies that reduce opportunity.

Romney Newsweek Cover

Mitt Romney (my favorite for the Republican nominee in '08) is on the cover of the most current Newsweeek. The article examines Romney's upbringing and shows his struggle to portray himself as the turn around artist of the 2002 Winter Olympics and not as the Mormon candidate. The authors paint a picture of a hard working, disciplined, analytical, and bright person. Romney is shown to be very principled, but at the same time cognizant that he must connect with voters on shared values to overcome the liability of his religion. Not an easy thing to do, but I think as the average Republican voter gets to know him (as they have in New Hampshire and Iowa), he will gain ground on Rudy and Thompson. I'd like to see him run with Mike Huckabee as VP. Huckabee would help shore up the southern and evangelical vote.