In the meantime, I will badger John McCain to make him his choice for Vice-President. Not that I think I and my fellow Huckabee supporters will have to try hard. Frankly I think Senator John likes him. I have to admit “Old Man McCain” is growing on me. After the betrayal by people I used to admire, I am beginning to change my own loyalties. So, off to being a loyal real conservative Republican–voting for McCain, but ready to work like a slave for his election—if he chooses the right man—Gov. Huckabee, as his running mate—and the eventual Vice-President of the United States, to become the 45th President of the United States in 2012 or 2016.

As the Crusaders would say, “God wills it!”

—The Old Alcalde—

The following post was earlier written on Red State, in response to a pretty arrogant and misinformed complainant against Gov. Huckabee. You can imagine what was said by that guy. So watch out below.

“Don’t spill you KoolAid. Oops….
You did!”

Uhhh,….Actually, I don’t drink KoolAid. Haven’t since age 12. You’re dreaming again, just like Club for Growth and Cato’s image (or shall I say ‘mirage’? Yes, I can.)of Gov. Huckabee’s record. I’ll be quick.

1. The tax increase on diesel fuel was on interstate trucking traffic only. It was done to meet a situation of a budget shortfall and disastrous roads in Arkansas. The alternative, since they were dealing with court orders on balanced budgets with no further room for budget cuts (which had already been done by 11-18%), was to simply hike the general sales tax. Conservative tax theory states that, when necessary, as here, strictly-targeted taxes, such as user fees, etc., are preferable to general taxes.

2. The general sales tax increase was, again, in response to a court order to raise revenues to cover a budget shortfall. The Governor was not allowed to erase the shortfall by more budget cuts. And it was only a 7/8 of a cent rise, which at 6% is still much lower than most states.

3. The cigarette increase was of the same kind, to make up for the budget shortfall, was targeted for state Medicaid programs, and to prevent a loss of 3/1 ratio federal funding. Know any governors who would turn down tens of millions of dollars of federal matching funds for indigent health care? The alternative? Go back to the people for fresh looting and explain why his conservative principles have now lost federal money and caused him to either demand more money in general taxes or close down much of the state Medicaid program, which would probably violate federal law/guidelines, triggering a rush of lawsuits by your friends and mine—that’s right—Democrat trial lawyers!

4. On the Mexican consulates–Sorry, no KoolAid again, except the green stuff that your downing. They were one of over 40 countries that Gov. Huckabee visited and set up trade missions or consulates in order to further business relationships with Arkansas business and ensure LEGAL activities representing their foreign nationals in the state. Remember he had a firm called Wal-Mart that has given a major second chance for prosperity for the state. There is no truth to the notion that the Governor personally encouraged the Mexican governmsnt in issuing Matricula Consular cards to anyone, much less to illegals.

5. On changes in position at the onset to a campaign, that is much more typical of people who are having to conform earlier-held positions to the new realities of seeking the Presidency. Ronald Reagan advocated broad tax increases to end the large budget deficit in 1976. It was not until a conversation with Jack Kemp and Arthur Laffer that Reagan chose to champion the broad tax cuts he achieved.

6. Oh, and Mitt Romney raised taxes by $721 million in just 4 years, as opposed to Huckabee’s record over 11 years. Rudy Giuliani had increased taxes as mayor as well in New York.

7. On anything ethical? On all issues, including the $70,000 furniture they were all dismissed in court as nonsensical and void of merit, the work of Mike’s enemies, who are part of the Bill Clinton machine. Once again, a little problem with hallucinatory green ooze, hmmm?

8. On foreign policy: I admit, that was Mike’s weakness, initially. However, on closer examination, Gov. Huckabee explained in a later debate in New Hampshire that he was really referring to the actions of Donald Rumsfeld in stubbornly refusing to listen to the counsel of battlefield commanders concerning the battle with insurgents and with his cavalier failure to provide proper battle armor for vehicles against IEDs. Furthermore, on the issue of Iran, he noted that jumping into war may not be wise when the populace already is overwhelmingly against their own leaders and strongly sympathetic to the USA (candlelight vigils in Tehran, celebrations in Gaza on 9/11).

9. On the military: He made the adjustments in that area in the most responsible way. The Governor promised, if elected, he would match Pres. Reagan’s buildup of the military in the 80s to 6% of GDP, roughly doubling the amount of military spending, including large increases in land forces, the Marines, and especially in restoring Pres. Reagan’s 600-ship Navy. A purpose in it? Oh yes, it’s called a resurgent Russia and a dangerous China.

10. On immigration: Wanting kids who went to school in Arkansas from ages 6-18, and who, because of their age, were eligible, due to section 245i of the Immigration and Nationalization Act, to apply for legal resident status, IS a great deal different than supporting mass amnesty without exception and providing no border security, allowing mass incursions of the next 15 million illegals into the country.

Sorry, I’m drinking champagne. I’ll chat more later, I imagine.

—The Old Alcalde—

I am watching the way this selection process is going, like everybody else. What I think is going to happen is nothing less than miraculous. On Saturday morning, the Rasmussen Poll, which normally releases composite results based upon a 4-day tracking process, used only the two days beginning Thursday and the day Mitt Romney suspended his campaign, to post a lead of 55%-24% by Senator McCain over Governor Mike Huckabee. On Sunday morning, Rasmussen revealed that the 3-day composite poll showed that the nationwide margin had changed to 49%-29%. And this morning the numbers had narrowed to 46%-34% McCain, using the entire 4 days of polling. In order for that to happen, the following two days would have to look like this:

Saturday:
McCain-37%
Huckabee39%

Sunday:

McCain-37%
Huckabee-49%

Similar surges are being indicated in the Survey USA, AP, and Newsweek polls, both nationwide, and in the Potomac primary, particularly in Virginia. There is no indication of how the numbers are changing, if at all, today, or how it will go tomorrow. But with a smaller percentage of early voters compared to some of the Super Tuesday states, particularly California, the turnout and the sentiment of that turnout on Primary Tuesday will tell us much of whether the calls will be louder for Mike Huckabee to withdraw, or whether it will be a day even more like Saturday, or the Tuesday before that. A day on which the American political environment becomes completely turned on its head.

In my belief that Governor Michael Huckabee will create that surprise, and will become the leader of a new restructuring of the Republican Party, and the conservative movement in particular. I show myself as either an utter fool, standing in the way of all the conventional political wisdom of all American political experts, of all persuasions, or, as the successful proponent of an extremely fortunate guess.

Based upon what I’m beginning to see, and considering the fact that at least 10% of voters no doubt have voted early, and that the endorsements of the party and its opinion leaders are overwhelmingly for McCain, mostly unwillingly, that McCain has a huge lead among delegates (although Louisiana and Washington may yet slightly alter that), and that the wealth of fundraising is totally on McCain’s side, the odds are completely against me. And I am completely assured that I will have great reason to rejoice tomorrow at this time.

Mike Huckabee will eventually be able to describe the victory he will achieve in the words of Mohandas Gandhi, as he described his lead of India’s victory over British rule with the following:

“First they ignore you. Then they disdain you. Then they mock you. Then they condemn you. Then they fight you.
…..Then you win.”

Let’s see the fun.

—The Old Alcalde—

Why I LIKE MIKE HUCKABEE

Supports Israel
Man of Faith
Stood By His Wife During Spinal Cancer
Will Appoint Conservative, Pro-Life Judges
Against Judges Legislating from the Bench
Supports Pro Life
Supports Marriage Amendment
Supports Vertical Politics vs Left Against Right
Will Secure America’s Borders
Endorsed by Jim Gilchrist-Founder of Minutemen
Supports Building Border Fence
Opposes Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
Wants to Provide a Path to Citizenship For Illegal Aliens
Supports the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Believes in Well Rounded Education
Set Up Tax-Free Savings Accounts For College Tuition
Took Arkansas Schools from below average to 8th in Nation-Quality Counts
Implemented Smart Start, Smart Step & Next Step In Schools
Significantly Raised School Test Scores
Believes in High Standards for Schools, Tough Tests, Strong Accountability
Promotes Financial Transparency
Promotes School and Teacher Accountability
Rewards Excellence in Teachers
Holds Parents and Students Accountable For Performance
Supports Homeschoolers
Author of 3 Inspirational Books – Co-authored 3 Books
Supports Fair Tax
Faced ALL His Duties as Governor-Including Carrying Out 16 Executions
HIS Constituents WANT HIM BACK
Wants Energy Independence
Wants Agricultural Independence
Wants Defense Independence
Wants to Put America to Work on Infrastructure
Welfare rolls Declined by Half
For Eminent Domain-Protection of Personal Property
Supports Castle Doctrine Law-A Man’s Home is his Castle
Public Official of the Year 2005-Governings
One of Nations Best Governors-Time Magazine
Dist Public Health Legislator of the Year-Amer Public Health Assoc
AARP Impact Award-2006
Honoree-Government Technology Magazine
Leader of Leaders-Chairman of National Governors Assoc
Uninsured Children fell from 18% Down to 9%-Time Magazine
Wants to Promote Health Care vs Disease Care
Established Tax Free Savings Accounts For Medical Care
Has Personal Discipline to Loose 110 lbs and Trains to Run Marathons
Can Rise to Emergency Situations-Op K.A.R.E-75,000 Katrina Victims-WSJ
Good Financial Steward
AR Rds from “Worst Roads-1999″ to “Most Improved-2004″- Overdrive Mag
Revenue Stabilization Law-Prevents Deficit Spending
Took $200 Million Dollar Deficit to $850 Million Dollar Surplus
REPEALED a Tax When No Longer Needed-Short Term Save After Sept 11th
Balanced His State’s Budget 5 Times
During 10 Years as Gov, AR Taxes Rose ½ as Much as Other States Rose
Got Voter Approval For 1/8 Cent Tax Increase For Parks and Recreation
Friend of the Taxpayer-Americans for Tax Reform
Signed Presidential Taxpayer Pledge
Eliminated Capital Gains Tax for Sale of a Home
Lowered Capital Gains Rate
Expanded the Homestead Exemption
Indexed Income Tax to Inflation to Prevent Move to Higher Tax Brackets
Supports Making Bush Tax Cuts Permanent
Doubled the Child Care Credit
Doubled the Standard Deduction
Eliminated Marriage Penalty
Supports Limiting Earmarks
Wields a Tough Veto Pen
Helped Nursing Homes
Champions Families and Traditional Marriage
Reaffirmed Marriage Vows
Has Been Married to the Same Woman For 34 Years
Sold His Guitar Collection to Buy His Young Wife a Washer and Dryer
Nursed His Wife Himself
Helps His Wife Up Steps Instead of Running on Ahead-Pres Campaign
Against Racism
Against Centralized Power
Against Gun Control
Lifetime member of the NRA, member for over 15 years
First Governor to have concealed-carry permit
Removed restrictions on carry permit holders
Protected gun manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits
Opposes reauthorization of the Assault Weapon Ban
Opposes expansion of the unconstitutional “Brady Bill”
Opposes waiting period for purchase of firearms
Opposes background checks on private firearms transactions at gun shows
An avid hunter and conservationist, and a member of the Ducks Unlimited, National Wild Turkey Federation and BASS.
Won’t Pull Our Troops Without Honorable End
Supports Veterans Bill of Rights
Supports Veterans Health Care
Supports Spelling Out Veterans Rights and Then Giving Them to Veterans
Supports Processing Veterans Claims Within 6 Months
Supports Fullest Accounting by Government Relative to POW/MIA Status
Supports Giving Same Rights to National Guard and Reserves
Supports Giving Vets Military Returement and VA Compensation
Endorsed by Calif Rep Duncan Hunter, Now a Senior Advisor-Huckabee Campaign
The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (1997 Act 984)
The Fetal Protection Act (1999 Act 1273)
The Physician Assisted Suicide Ban Act (1999 Act 394)
The Woman’s Right to Know Act (2001 Act 353)
The Safe Haven Act (2001 Act 236)
The Choose Life Specialty Plate (2003 Act 344)
The Human Cloning Ban (2003 Act 607)
The Right to View Ultrasound Test (2003 Act 1189)
The Right to Receive Nutrition & Hydration (2003 Act 1322)(Terry Schivo Case:Endorsed by her brother)
The Parental Consent for Minor Abortion Act (2005 Act 537)
The Unborn Child Pain Awareness & Prevention Act (2005 Act 1696)
Unborn Victims of Violence Act
VOTE ONLY FOR MIKE HUCKABEE

—The Old Alcalde—

I imported this information about Mike Huckabee from his website, MikeHuckabee.com, that in bullet-sized form repeats pretty well all the major policy positions that he has taken, and their distinctiveness from his main two Republican rivals in the primary season, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Hope this helps clarifies matters for those who are wavering voters, and leads them to vote for Governor Huckabee.

Huckabee for President Volunteer Issue Guide
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
1. With ten-and-a-half years of experience running state government, Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas has more relevant executive experience than any candidate in the race – either Republican or Democrat.

2. Recognized and tapped by his peers for leadership, the National Governor’s Association selected Governor Huckabee as it’s Chairman.

3. TIME Magazine honored him as one of the five best Governors in America.

4. Governor Huckabee is a fiscal conservative who cut taxes almost 100 times in the state of Arkansas, including the state’s first broad-based tax cuts, and turned a $200 million deficit into an $850 million surplus.

ISSUES
1. TAXES/ECONOMY –Governor Huckabee supports The FairTax because it will restore the “Made in America” label, making American goods 12-25% more competitive, boosting economic growth, increasing our exports, and securing American jobs. It also prevents criminals or illegal aliens from avoiding taxes, and makes the taxes we all pay 100% transparent.

2. GOVERNMENT SPENDING – Governor Huckabee is committed to reducing government spending. One way he’ll do this is by reducing the cost of welfare. Governor Huckabee will work with states to reduce welfare roles through programs like the one he implemented in Arkansas, which reduced welfare roles by 50%.

3. HEALTH CARE –Governor Huckabee will implement a consumer-based healthcare system that emphasizes preventative medicine and wellness. Because 70% of our $2 trillion dollar healthcare costs is spent treating chronic, preventable diseases, this approach will make healthcare more affordable for everybody while keeping us healthier.

4. FAMILY VALUES –Governor Huckabee supports a federal constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. He Successfully fought for Arknasas’ marriage amendment and strongly supports a similar, federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

5. IMMIGRATION –Governor Huckabee will secure the border (with physical barriers, electronic surveillance, and more border-patrol personnel and detention facilities). He will also end sanctuary cities and increase penalties on, and enforcement against, employers who hire illegal immigrants. Governor Huckabee will make sure the border patrol has adequate funding to end our “catch and release” system so that everyone caught trying to enter illegally, overstaying their visa, or committing a crime will be held until they’re tried, convicted, and deported. Gov. Huckabee has also signed the Numbers USA “No Amnesty” Pledge.

6. WAR ON TERROR AND IRAQ – Governor Huckabee knows it takes a large, well-equipped military to ensure our national defense and to deter conventional military confrontations. He also knows we need large, well-equipped intelligence and Special Forces operations for our national offense – so we can effectively find and eliminate terrorist threats at home or abroad. Governor Huckabee will be a Commander in Chief who knows that IF WE HAVE TO FIGHT A WAR, our President has to fight it the way our GENERALS tell him it can be won, not the way we want it to be won.

7. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE –Governor Huckabee will implement a program to end the import of foreign oil in the next ten years by increasing domestic oil production in the short term, and then replacing oil-based energy infrastructure with alternative and renewable energies.

8. CLEMENCIES – Arkansas Governors grant clemency, but the parole board grants parole. Wayne DuMond’s parole was granted by the board and NOT Governor Huckabee.

9. TAXES –When Governor Huckabee left office, the tax rates remained exactly the same as when he first came into office. Governor Huckabee returned almost $400 million to Arkansas taxpayers, and he also DOUBLED the standard deduction for individuals and married couples, DOUBLED the childcare tax credit, and eliminated the marriage penalty. He also repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate by 25%, expanded the homestead exemption, and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition. Gov. Huckabee has also signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge not to raise taxes.

10. SECOND AMENDMENT-
• Lifetime member of the NRA, member for over 15 years
• First Governor to have concealed-carry permit
• Removed restrictions on carry permit holders
• Protected gun manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits
• Opposes reauthorization of the Assault Weapon Ban
• Opposes expansion of the unconstitutional “Brady Bill”
• Opposes waiting period for purchase of firearms
• Opposes background checks on private firearms transactions at gun shows
• Will nominate judges who interpret the constitution as the Founders intended, rather than as a “living document reflecting current political trends or opinions”
• An avid hunter and conservationist, and a member of the Ducks Unlimited, National Wild Turkey Federation and BASS.

Permalink: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=1332

—The Old Alcalde—
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Just a warning—it will throw you a curve. A downloaded video for Barack Obama, by a radically committed supporter of Mike Huckabee.

You’ll understand, though. If you trust me.

Well, I am back. The approach of Fat Tuesday has certainly created a good metaphorical piece of imagery for what is going on with this super primary on Tuesday. It has certainly promoted a kind of insanity and the idea that anything goes. We are told that only certain people can be trusted to fight a war, to fix an economy, to fix Washington, to bring hope, to ensure that this class or that group will have their pet interests and hoped-for-or-presumed-rights advanced or protected. We even are led to believe that my own candidate is unqualified to lead, simply because he has the nerve to answer a call from Heaven to lead the people of the churches he pastored, just as he followed that call to lead the people of his state, a poor, neglected, forgotten place in the eyes of many, just as he hears that same voice to ask the people of his country through his chosen party to grant him the place of leadership of the free world in a time that is, and promises to be even more, a time of darkness and titanic struggle.

I have chosen Mike Huckabee. I am biased, I am partial, I have already decided. Why? Yes, I have sought to bring up issues of the problems of other candidates: particularly McCain and Romney, though I have emphasized the reality of the man I support over the image that has been created by a media that is just simply uncomfortable with him.

Uncomfortable, because they cannot handle a former minister, who, is not simply going to follow the idea that being a Conservative Christian Republican means that you have to ignore the poor, ignore the broken, the despised, the lonely, and the stranger in our gates, and not say too much about the child in the womb or the institution of marriage–while finding a way to the hearts of those whose own brokenness have driven them to become our enemies in that struggle.

We have decided that being Conservative means that we cannot ever criticize the man who is STILL Our President, yet we cannot love him too much, ere we receive his stigma. We cannot conceive of the notion that hating a government-regime of darkness cannot also mean that we seek to prevent the plague of war from destroying both Americans and Israelis….and Iranians and Muslims. To say that such is possible, and that we should keep trying to work with the rest of the world (as Pres. Bush has tried to do and as Mike Huckabee wants to do), somehow means that you are weak and that you are not a true conservative.

We are told that to end the unrestrained activity of a globalized system of trade, which destroys the livelihoods of factory workers in South Carolina, of computer programmers in Northern California, of textile workers in Delhi, and farmers in Michoacan, while piling up trillions in fragile and unstable wealth for financiers who bind them in mortgage-backed securities made through predatory practices upon the unsuspecting, and who then use their questionably-gained wealth and power to spread their own infectious poison of globalism around a suffering world while they talk to themselves in the pleasure fields of Davos, to fight against that means that YOU ARE NOT A CONSERVATIVE and that YOU MUST HATE THE FREE MARKET!!

And we are told that the desire to end the income tax and replace it with something that does not tax you for what you do but for what you buy–and only when new–something that has been the stated dream of Conservatives since Russell Kirk began telling a people led astray with Social Liberalism that there was a better way–is not workable, undesirable, and even dangerous to the free market, and therefore it means that YOU ARE NOT A CONSERVATIVE!!!

I am told what to believe. I find that the establishment has crowned John McCain, and that Mitt Romney, through his corporation and their fellows in Thomas Lee Partners and the Carlyle Group, have bought Regnery Publishing, Clear Channel Communications, cut their deals with Fox News through the News Corporation, and therefore, metaphorically speaking, “bought the printing press” and the voices of every single conservative commentator on radio or television, as they all tell us to vote only for their choice….Mitt Romney.

It is not the man’s wealth that is a problem. Nor would it be an unhealthy desire to buy such companies as he did, if he himself were not the direct beneficiary, just as it was McCain and his friends who are the direct beneficiaries of McCain-Feingold as they structured the law to attempt to silence only those voices that could potentially be arrayed against him.

But Romney and McCain did. They sought to fix the process. And with that fix, they were no longer mere opponents in an election–they were opponents to democracy. And that is to do the unthinkable…and the intolerable.

I have enclosed the video that is now circulating the Net that supports and sets to music the speech Barack Obama made in Iowa. Why would a conservative Christian put a pro-Obama video in a blog committed to Mike Huckabee? Because for all the reasons that Obama cannot, Mike Huckabee represents for those who are told we should not.

Change. Freedom. Truth. Life. Youth. Hope. Peace. Strength. Patriotism. Victory. America. My Country. God.

So I am in this fight. One voice. One keyboard. And I will not be silent. Not ever.

Si, se puede–Republicanos–conservatismos.

–The Old Alcalde–

Anyway, here’s the Red State post.

After the rant which I posted on Wednesday night (1/30), I had a chance to decompress on Thursday and today.  The wife and I saw Mike and Janet Huckabee on Thursday evening for about 10 minutes in between a press conference and a conference address to about 1,000 pastors in San Diego.  It was not a time I spent peppering him with my own questions, the media had done enough of that.  We just enjoyed reminding him of our original meetings with him in the early days of his political activity.

It was November 1991, when he had just started as a senatorial candidate in Arkansas, talking at one of the earliest of Christian Coalition conventions in Virginia Beach, when we were the second such chapter coordinators in all of Houston, and when Ralph Reed drove a Mazda and was just getting his first victories in the Virginia legislative elections.  The biggest speaker was, of all things, Vice-President Dan Quayle.  We sat at a banquet table on a Saturday night in the “Road to Victory” Seminar, and chatted away like brand-new-old-friends for almost four hours, trying not to laugh while watching the keynote speaker, the late Rep. Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan, trying to inspire patriotism by reciting the entirety of the lyrics to “God Bless the USA.” (God rest him, he was a good guy who would sadly lose to a pro-abort woman the next year after 26 years in office).

I am unconcerned about the fact that I am now become a shill for Huckabee in relating to you how we just knew, in a crowd full of office-holders, candidates, and movers and shakers, that this man was different.  We met him at the Road to Victory candidates’ forum, held late afternoon, to a crowd of less than a hundred, where he spoke as one “evangelical” candidate among about 20.  The crowd paid more attention to several candidates than to Mike, none of whom are in anybody’s present-day mental Rolodex, an oversight which, in retrospect, was certainly strange.

I have to admit, that, as much as anything else I remembered about him, I found startling how truly comfortable he was with himself.  We talked about our respective Arkansas educational backgrounds: he went to Ouachita Baptist University, I to Harding University (Church of Christ).  When I told him that I was a graduate of Regent Law School in its former life at Oral Roberts University in the 80s, he poked good-natured fun with me about how a good ol’ Texas boy from the “One True Church”, could have gone so wrong in hanging out at “ole’ Holy Roller U.”  I jokingly told him I had become a heretic, and that there was no hope for me, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit had ruined me forever.  He showed his ecumenism on that issue by saying that, as a recent President of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, he nonetheless didn’t think that the Holy Spirit took a vacation when the canon of Scripture was completed.

He listened patiently as I described the struggles I had in my solo law practice.  He talked about the struggles he had as a young pastor in a successful attempt to encourage me.  He enjoyed being a pastor, and a successful one.  His departure from the spiritual ministry into politics was not a mask for frustration or disillusionment, either in his faith or his calling.  Gail and I got the clear sense that, he was making this change in his life from preaching to politics because a Master above any of us simply said for him to do so, and he was just going to obey.  He wasn’t upset about leaving the ministry either, but rather excited about the new road the Lord had laid for him.

The impression I clearly got, his much greater weight then aside, was the same thing everyone is seeing now.  Pastor-now-Governor Huckabee was simply a man at peace with himself.  He was just displaying the virtues that you would, in a burst of idealism, expect to see in a person with a strong relationship with the Lord Jesus.  The immediate admiration we had for him continued even after lost contact with him for 16 years, all because of the indelible effect he made on us.

I am writing all this for a very important reason:  there is simply nobody else who has this kind of pure, unadulterated unflappability, that joie du vivre, making you absolutely sure that no matter the circumstances, Mike Huckabee would always have a good joke, a certainty of what to do next, and a keen sense of command of the setting.  You could trust him—implicitly, to lead you where you need to go.  The only other statesman who had that same ability was Reagan.

That leads me to my primary point.  The next President of the United States is going to have to have all of those keen attributes and more.  Whether we like it or not, whether Mike believes it or not, America is going to enter a new war, a real one, much bigger than the actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.      We will need someone who is not a knee-jerk reactor to events such as in Iran, someone who remembers that being a conservative and a patriot doesn’t mean that when Iran has the nuclear missile we start bombing city centers in Tehran and Isfahan, certainly not in a nation where the people loathe their leaders, and have a great support and admiration for the United States.

At the same time, it is serendipitous that Governor Huckabee is proposing the buildup of U.S. armed forces budget to 6% of GDP.  That, in raw terms, would cause our armed forces to morcoe than double.  There may be a Russian or Chinese conflict coming to a theater near you, and you’ll be ready for anything.

I just don’t see the issue of our caution in dealing with the criminal and deadly government of Iran as a detraction from Governor Mike’s capability to lead.  Indeed, he sounds like the nice guy with the 8th degree black belt (Chuck Norris?)–you know he can easily kill you, but instead he is a complete gentleman, and a truly decent and compassionate man.

But think he’ll “go wobbly” on Iran?  Does he have the resolve to lead the U.S. and the world to victory in a world war that I believe is inevitable?  I believe Mike Huckabee does.

I’ll share about his military plans later.

Hasta al pronto.

—The Old Alcalde—

Yes, I Am Still For Huckabee, Even Now–Part II.”

I have to confess that it is ironic how history has a habit of repeating itself. Abraham Lincoln is not remembered today as a man who was a second choice by his own fledgling party as President in 1860, and that he was considered something of a turncoat by the abolitionist movement both for not proposing outlawing slavery other than in the western territories, as well as for not proposing war against the seceding Southern states until Beauregard fired upon Anderson at Fort Sumter. He was able to win election only because the Democrats split between its Northern and Southern wings, even though the Republicans fell in its vote from the previous election (45% to 40%). Most of us know that his Gettysburg Address was poorly received by many until after his death.

Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address is now celebrated as one of his greatest speeches and one of the greatest speeches in American politics, with his throat-tightening paean to America as “a city on a hill.” But the truth was, at the time it was considered as anti-climatic, as rather mundane compared to some of his other messages (Berlin Wall, Point du Hoc).

The fact of the matter is that we are getting a situation like that now. I will be vilified, no doubt, just as the candidate I support has been during the course of this campaign. Governor Mike Huckabee, I will say again, is still the right man to become the 44th President. In fact, based upon what I saw in the debate at the Reagan Library on Wednesday night, I believe that Governor Huckabee is the successor to the mantle of spiritual leader of the Republican Party, following Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Senator Robert Taft, and Ronald Reagan.

I say that even with my continued abiding support for President Bush, and that, even though he made mistakes, he has always sought to correct them when he believed them necessary, and that history will judge him far more of a conservative than his contemporaries do now, especially on Iraq. I will even include his efforts on the prescription drug benefit plan, as an attempt to reign in the costs of Medicare under a conservative model in dealing with what seems to many an intractable “third rail” problem. Many will believe me out of my mind for thinking so, but that’s my contention, and a topic for another time.

And it is notable to remind anyone who would read this that, as of last Thursday, Mitt Romney was all but pronounced the probable winner in the Florida primary and expected to steamroll to the Republican nomination. We have had no less than 5 men make it into first place in the presidential opinion surveys run by the Rasmussen polling agency. And four of them (Rudy, Fred, John, and Mitt) all proclaimed as an inevitable nominee. It’s unlike any presidential election I have ever seen, and I have paid close attention to every one since 1964.

And so we now come, the chattering classes on the left have decided, to crown John McCain king of the Republicans on Super Tuesday. And the chattering hordes of the right, so many of whom I had so long respected, even admired, have converged in their rage and desperate fear, seeking to uphold their remaining hero, Mitt Romney. In the last two months they have acted as if the end of the Republic will come if the new king is enthroned.

Somehow these ‘guardians of the Judeo-Christian conservative ethic’ seem convinced that a long-time social moderate, moderate on gun owners’ rights, the son of a moderate Governor of Michigan who was an erstwhile critic of the Vietnam War, who was supportive of gay rights, abortion rights, and embryonic stem cell research right on until—yes, after he gets elected as a typical moderate establishment Republican governor of Massachusetts and then casts his wistful eyes toward the White House, and who, as a Mormon, is a member of a religion which in the eyes of 2,000-year-old orthodox Christian doctrine, is a pernicious cult—should stand as the rightful successor to Ronald Reagan–or as Rush Limbaugh likes to call him, “Ronaldus Magnus.”

But the former Southern Baptist megachurch pastor and state denomination’s president, who served as an evangelical organizer for Reagan’s 1980 Religious Affairs Briefings, who served as the most conservative governor in the history of Arkansas and passed its first tax cuts in its 175-year history, took it from $200 million in debt to $800 million in surplus, slashed crime, achieved breathtaking improvements in education, infrastructure and economic development and international trade, firmly defended innocent human life and fought gay marriage and humanism in a 14-year career as both Lt. Governor and Governor (11 in that office), and who after a couple of misstatements concerning Middle East policy has been passionate in his reiteration of an intent to passionately defend Israel, increase defense spending to 6% of GDP, and pursue an eventual removal of the Iranian regime, and who on trade assures that his opinions on ‘fair trade’ involve tax relief, regulatory reduction, maintaining support for NAFTA and GATT but opposing tariffs and other protectionist barriers, while diplomatically confronting Chinese trade abuses, all the while intending, as his signature issue, the end of the IRS and replacement of the income tax system with a consumption tax—this man is demonized as the destruction of the Republican Party!

Only a few things seem to be wrong with the set of the pre-wrapped coronation last night: Mike Huckabee insisted that he receive equal treatment with the ‘two kings’ and he got it (especially in the second half of the debate, directly after the worst of the McCain-Romney catfight). He then spoke both with a clear command of facts, eloquently and insightfully of the interconnectedness of all the issues that face an executive (definite but classy slap at McCain), skillfully defended his strong anti-illegal immigrant position without an overreaching which could hurt him with Hispanics in a fall election matchup, and gave a strenous yet creative defense of the use of the 10th Amendment-guarded place for the states in solving major pressing problems rather than federal involvement. And then, on top of that, Governor Huckabee responded to the hypothetical question about who would Reagan endorse with one of the most soaring and inspirational tributes of the Great Communicator’s greatness I’ve heard in years, especially his love of America. The awesomeness of his eloquence, which connected visably with Nancy Reagan and the dignitaries seated around her and Governor Schwartzenegger, contrasted powerfully with Romney’s pedantic and arrogant recitation of his bullet points of flipped-flopped-to Reaganesque positions, and McCain’s smarmy self-promotion–which was coupled with a true Freudian slip–”I was a leader–ooops!–a soldier in the Reagan revolution.”

A huge attention has been paid earlier in the week at the Kennedy family’s endorsement of Barack Obama, and their pronouncement that the Illinois Senator was the recipient of John F. Kennedy’s memorable metaphorical “torch” of leadership of the liberal-progressive (read European Socialist-globalist)wing of the Democrat party. But from the time that Nancy Reagan came to Governor Huckabee at the beginning of the evening to have him escort her to her seat, to the abovementioned tribute to her revered husband, I felt that the real torch has passed—the mantle of Reagan–long coveted but undeserved, had finally come to its rightful heir–to Mike Huckabee.

Today this pronouncement will merit me significant scorn.
Tomorrow….perhaps the same…or..not.

But consider these states: Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, North Dakota, Montana, Alaska. These are all states where, according to recent polls taken in them, Mike Huckabee is either leading or running within low single digit percentages behind the leader, usually McCain, though a few are with Romney. Time will tell, but I believe that Mike may very well win all of them. 12 states. 12 Super Tuesday states. Maybe not the big states McCain gets: New York, California, Arizona, New Jersey, Illinois (along with R.I., Conn., VT., ME), but they are a huge set up for a devastating end for the Romney campaign. And then a very, VERY, interesting scenario begins to occur. Can you just guess what that would be?

No, I didn’t think you would. But then, there’s a lot of us that are missing it on what should happen during this election.

Hasta al pronto.

I am reprinting Mr. Quinn’s blog entry, at The Huck Report, along with my reply to his article. Hope it helps some of you out there.

And consider my response:

Fernandez, Floyd

01/26/2008 04:37 PM

My blog is BelisariusCA (http://belisariusca.wordpress.com) (reason for absence from blogroll explained below).

Dear Quinn,

I am impressed by your ability to simplify economic concepts, and show how the Fair Tax works. I would mildly take issue with one thing you said, namely, the part where you said:

“However, if government spending is cut (as supply siders also desire), demand for these products will drop precipitously since the federal government is the single largest purchaser in the country.”

My friend (and probably my brother before the only King any man should have), the very point of supply-side economics, at least as Ronald Reagan envisioned it, was to take away the reality of the federal government as a dominant purchaser of goods and services. That’s why he cut taxes across the board. Indeed, it solely due to political realities of his time that he could not succeed in creating a single flat tax, which while holding its deficiencies, contain much of the same benefits that the Fair Tax entails.

Furthermore, it is the gross dependency that the all-powerful federal government has possessed that has helped create many of the pathologies in our society: moral, spiritual, racial/ethnic.

I would add, that if you do not cut government spending, and get our house in order, all the benefit of the Fair Tax would be dried up as debt continues to pile on debt, and the federal government becomes a giant vacuum cleaner on all ability to work, produce, buy, sell, save, and invest. I would point you to the devastation in Europe as the value-added tax there was wasted as the governments there would not end their welfare-state economics.

On balance, I do support the Fair Tax, perhaps at a lower rate such as 17% (Steve Forbes old flat tax rate), but for the very reason that classical economics from the 18th-19th centuries would support: the government would then become dependent upon a thriving economy and a self-reliant people, including the poor (who would become less in number anyway, thank the Lord), rather than a dependent people captive to an all-powerful government.

I have some questions about how the prebate procedure in the Fair Tax is going to avoid creating another large bureaucracy, although I imagine that the net effect will be a revenue-collection-redistribution service would occasion a much smaller IRS (possibly with a new name). However, I do believe that in creating the Fair Tax a huge uptick in investment capital will be poured into the USA, which will cause a huge shift in the economy into overdrive.

That will be critical in two other areas that Mike has proposed: the massive buildup in our armed forces that he wants (to 6% of GDP), and the buildup in infrastructure that he proposes. To do that, there will need to be a serious strengthening of our bond markets, the financiers of so many infrastructure-related activities, which we have seen lately are in serious trouble.

It is almost a strange anomaly, but that to strengthen our high-tech-based society, we will need to emulate China, and rapidly rebuild our manufacturing sector through both transformation of infrastructure and our military. Failure to do so will, unfortunately, cause us to mirror India, whose own rapid high-tech economic growth is being hamstrung by corruption and failure to develop infrastructure.

As I examine the positions of the other candidates (especially Romney), I came to the conviction, that Huckabee is the better choice on precisely what is considered Romney’s strength, economic and business sense.

I have a blog, which after numerous attempts has not been accepted onto Huckabee’s blog roll. So, with your permission, I will post your article and my response on my blog (http://belisariusCA.wordpress.com), and I will copy this same article on the entry you have on the Governor’s website.

Hope we can converse again. God bless.

And God bless us all. Hasta al pronto. Go, Mike, go!

—The Old Alcalde—

Darren, I don’t know who you’re referring to. If it was McCain, I could see that conclusion, but only because he has betrayed his party and the ideology he has professed belief in on numerous occasions besides McCain-Kennedy. If you’re talking about Huckabee, you haven’t paid attention to the man’s 9-point plan that basically involves demanding every single illegal alien to go back to their own country and start all over in the application process, along with practically walling up the border and clamping down on employers and several draconian measures.

On enforcement I agree with him. On eviction of 15 million people without exception I do not. What do you do with the young woman who comes with her parents as 1-year old (I know this woman), and she is now a 25-year old wife of a Marine Corps captain? Deport her from the only country she knows to a Mexico she has never been to? She doesn’t even speak Spanish! And what about the hundreds of thousands who came here as virtual slave laborers from Communist China, or Christians fleeing Muslim republics in the former Soviet Union? To send them back would be tantamount to a death sentence! I am willing to support him on the basis of a lot of other positions, as well as his character, but even Huckabee is not immune to giving in to the unwarranted pressure on this issue.

And Darren, since I have been a conservative since I was 8 years old (yes, and I am 52), I would be a little careful on who you decide is or isn’t a conservative. You can’t just unload a check list and demand 100% compliance before you give them the benediction of conservatism. There may be positions you have that I would believe are not conservative. It was Reagan himself who said that the one who is 80% in agreement with him is his ally.

Huckabee isn’t granting amnesty, I would not grant amnesty, Giuliani isn’t for granting amnesty. Significant fines, long waits to qualify for legal residence, even longer waits (17 years or longer) for citizenship, double-fence border barriers (totally for Hunter’s solution), crackdowns on crooked employers and smugglers and removal of drug dealers and potential terrorists and those who committed felony crimes and offenses besides illegal border entry, and eliminating by attrition on job crackdowns millions of recent arrivals who came thinking that they were getting amnesty like a fire sale because the Mexican government told them so, forcing those otherwise long-time law abiding residents to learn English and get no Social Security for work done while illegal and for some years afterward—-all of these are not amnesty Darren.

And they are not liberal ideas. They are pragmatic, just, and fair. Do not let Tom Tancredo and Pat Buchanan determine the bar of conservatism solely at the issue of immigration, disqualifying Iraq, Islamofascism, limited government, taxes, abortion, gay marriage, rebuilding the military, intelligence and interrogation techniques, federalism, 2nd Amendment, education (I disagreed with ‘No Child Left Behind’), and China and trade and sovereignty (Law of the Sea Treaty).

I am conservative on all those things. And with the possible exception of Guantanamo (Supreme Court has yet to rule finally on that), Huckabee is conservative on all of them. Even where he is supposedly populist, on trade, he is still for NAFTA and opposed to tariffs–he prefers to deal with the tax and regulatory barriers to American competitiveness.

We are out of line when we deal with quick and dismissive labels. The only thing that makes me madder on the issue of immigration than the catch phrase “Illegal means Illegal,” is the much more dangerous motto of the other side “No One is Illegal.” It is way too irresponsible to deal with this issue with slogans. There are ways to insist on abiding with the rule of law than to simply try to deport a population equal to the population of Ohio, without exceptions or regard to varying circumstances.

I know this was like unloading the dump truck and pouring all on you. But I have heard this expressed for too long, as if the only way you can oppose amnesty is not only stopping any more illegals coming in, but deporting EVERY single illegal alien without exception. And Mike Huckabee shouldn’t be held to that standard either. The issue of scholarships in Arkansas to illegal ‘minor children’ was based upon children who had been in school for 12 years or longer, and his new proposals more than undo any mistakes he may have made before on that issue.

Please reconsider your conclusions about Mike and other conservatives, if I have read them correctly. And thank you for considering my remarks as well.

I am revealing myself more than I am defending Mike Huckabee, no doubt.  But I felt like it was long overdue.  This was as good an occasion as any.  So there it is.

Hasta al pronto.

—The Old Alcalde—

Oh, and I’ll say it to Chris Matthews—there were WMD in Iraq held by Saddam Hussein, and programs set to start up again, once U.N. sanctions were lifted, which they would have been had there been no invasion.  So don’t tell me about him being hammered about it—Mike Huckabee is right.  Rather than hurting him, it probably helped Huckabee with a lot of the Republican base that he stuck up for the wisdom of the invasion of Iraq.

Get ready, for we’ll see whether there is a move to or away from the guerrilla candidate.  But I wouldn’t put my money away from Mr. Huckabee just yet.  He’s the candidate that won’t die.  Get ready, for he’s going to win a lot of states before this nominating process is done.  You may just get more than a little surprised.

Hasta al pronto.

—The Old Alcalde—