A Second Hand Conjecture

If you thought Huckabee’s contention that Sarah Palin received more votes for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did for president sounded a little unlikely, that’s because it was. I don’t know where that went wrong, but I bet he meant in Delaware, where Biden received 2,863 votes.

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Well, Mr. Obama has finally quit that ludicrous Chicago institution known as Trinity United Church of Christ. His membership had survived Rev. Wright, but was ultimately done in over the visiting Rev. Michael Pfleger’s bizarre self-hating white guilt trip, and radicalized political rally in sacred masquerade.

Having seen the deranged, obscenely ideological sermons of Wright and then Pfleger, it may be that conservatives are experiencing for the first time in national politics what the left has endured for decades: the insufferable and corrosive experience of seeing clergy involved in brutish political editorializing from the pulpit, done allegedly under the sanction of God, for and toward His rather famously unpredictable purposes.

Perhaps there might then be a collective recognition in this country that aggressively involving the church in politics isn’t such a swell idea. Perhaps even a deeper understanding that God –who by His nature rules only through decree– might not be such a logical source for consultation in a democracy, which rules through consent of the governed.

Too much to hope for, I know. But one can dream of a better day. Even in an era where the preacher pirates in the Evangelical social conservative movement hold a cutlass at the Republican party’s throat every election. And thereby a patently preposterous, explicitly theocratic ignoramus like Mike Huckabee, can experience significant support within that party for its vice presidential nomination.

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A clerical ally of Huckabee is in trouble with the IRS for turning his tax-exempt church into a political platform. Now that seems like a “fair tax” no?

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A Huckabee blog calls it quits (sort-of). Facing the inevitability of McCain, he asks only that Huckabee “not look for or accept any positions in McCain’s cabinet.” Now there’s one of the first things I can agree with Huckabee supporters on.

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The polls suggest that McCain will defeat Hucakbee in Virginia today by 48% to 37%. I for one am hoping for a larger margin of defeat for Huckabee, but I’ll take that. Meanwhile Obama is favored to sweep Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

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It’s time to put “grassroots” in quotation marks for Mike Huckabee’s campaign. Renaissance Ruminations is being harassed by slimy disclaimerless robo-calls and push polls, from liberation theology central. An irritated Riley at Virginia Virtucon, who is experiencing the same problem, made his views known to the Huckabot: “The call cut off once I started giving answers such as “‘No way, no how’ and ‘Bite me.’” According to Riley, the Huckabee campaign is still complaining about Mitt Romney in these calls too. Huckabee’s un-Christian habit for harboring unreasonable and vindictive grudges, is not doing much to improve his well -earned reputation as a scoundrel, among non-soc-con Republicans.

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photo: Simón Pais-Thomas

Toronto police recently seized shipments of 10,320,000 counterfeit cigarettes from China (PRC authorities themselves intercepted nine billion in 2007). Chinese made counterfeits bearing fake American branding such as Marlboro, are produced “in underground operations, caves and old warehouses,” and shipped through Vancouver for sale on a vast black market that has developed to evade the high sales taxes legitimate Canadian retailers must charge.

This illustrates another deleterious economic effect of the 23% national sales tax championed by Mike Huckabee (many more were discussed this morning here). As consumers are forced into the black market to escape artificially inflated government pricing, the quality of goods declines with volume, as otherwise quality-focused consumers are introduced to the cheap sub-market products of illegal trade for the first time.

Since the black market is by definition unregulated, there is no effective deterrent for engaging in product counterfeiting to substantially enhance margins, as black marketeers compete with each other, rather than with retailers who are priced and regulated out of the real market. Thus, with high national sales taxes not only does the tax base contract as the black market expands, the real quality of life enjoyed by the populace begins to erode as the marketplace is flooded with cut-rate and even dangerous goods:

Usually priced at $10-to-$15 per 200 instead of a retail price averaging $70, Martin said some contain tobacco scooped off floors. Cut-rate workers also chop up stalks and sometimes leave in lumps due to blunt cutters.

“It’s just human nature for people to save a dollar,” the 10-year investigator said.
(London Free Press)

The belief that most Fair Taxers have that people will not resort to the underground economy to reap fantastic savings, betrays the scheme’s essentially utopian nature. When prices are artificially inflated above natural market prices by the state, someone will always be available to exploit the opportunity. While it is human nature to save a dollar, it’s also human nature to make one when you can. And with a 23% burden resting on businesses to finance the welfare state, there are many to be made.

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photo: Simón Pais-Thomas

Mick at Uncorrelated has another lovely post on the essentially vile character and politics of Mike Huckabee. Toward the end of his remarks he briefly hits Huckabee’s proposed Fair Tax:

…and politically DOA policy planks like the fair tax.
(Uncorrelated)

Politically DOA we must hope, because Huckabee’s tax plan would do more than “eliminate the IRS.” It would probably eliminate the US economy along with it.

(more…)

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photo: Steve Kaiser

Have you ever taken a moment to read some of the many Huckabee blogs that have sprung up over the past months? They’re really quite strange. For instance, here is a snippet from a Blogs 4 Huckabee post on Ann Coulter’s infamous endorsement of Hillary Clinton:

If the Democrats win, the American people will flock to the Party of God. As it is, 8 years of moral, sensible government have made the American people complacent, and ripe for the lies and distortions of a deviant candidate like Hitlery.

As usual, Coulter’s one of the smarter analysts out there. (I do wish she’d strap her chest down, but otherwise I also find her a very moral, and very alluring, woman.) Where I tend to disagree with her is her failure to endorse Brownback. I’m not sure America can stand 4 years of Hitlery, even if it’s followed by another 2 decades of Republican dominance. We’re still languishing under a recession caused by Bill Clinton; do we really want a Hitlery recession added onto that? We’ll be in the Great Depression in no time if we keep letting Democrats rule us.
(Blogs 4 Huckabee)

Probably the most disturbing element of this is his using the term “Party of God” in a sincere and supportive way to describe the GOP. “Party of God” in Arabic is literally “Hezbollah.”

But where do you even proceed from there? Moral yet alluring? A recession caused by Bill Clinton in 2008, Ann Coulter as the smartest “analyst,” with her only fault being a failure to endorse Sam Brownback of all things? Yes, this is pretty much beyond criticism, and well into the realm of opinions which are simply too bizarre to seriously comment on.

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photo: Foxicat

Looks like the liberation theologist won the Kansas caucuses with a substantial 67% of the vote. Earlier today at CPAC, Huckabee had suggested that miraculous intervention by the Almighty would eventually deliver him the GOP nomination. You have to take that as literal belief when it comes to Huckabee. He also pledged to remain in the race. Something that wasn’t altogether well received by CPAC, as Sharon Soon recounts: “Half the crowd gets on their feet, holding up ‘I Like Mike’ signs that were placed on every chair before his speech. Notably, though, there were many scattered in the audience who refused to stand or even clap.” Good for them.

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Via The Las Vegas Sun.

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Out of total Super Tuesday primary votes:
Democratic votes for Clinton and Obama: 14,622,822 (63.6%)
Republican votes for McCain, Romney and Huckabee: 8,370,022 (36.4%)
(Time via Dinocrat)

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Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

Ken at Oblogatory Anecdotes, along with many other Mormon Romney supporters, is naturally very disappointed about Mitt’s withdrawal from the Republican race. Like many Mormons Ken is convinced Romney was defeated “for the most part because of his affiliation with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” But unlike some, Ken places the blame squarely and solely on everyone’s favorite liberation theologist, Mike Huckabee.

Ken goes so far as to say that “Huckabee’s main motivation for entering and staying in the race is his hatred of Mormons.” While that’s clearly a bit much, it’s a view he says is commonly held among Mormons in Utah. Ken goes on to predict that Utah may vote Democrat if Huckabee is named he VP by McCain. While Utah deserting the GOP for Hillary or Obama seems like a fantastically remote possibility, consider that in the state, opposition to Huckabee is indeed very fierce. In the Utah primary the crypto-theocrat finished dead last (behind even Ronpaul), with a mere 1% of the vote. The worst defeat Huckabee has suffered anywhere.

It’s just a thought, but it might be useful for secular and economic conservative opponents of Huckabee to explore an alliance with concerned Mormons, to exert pressure on the McCain campaign to resist the temptation for the dreaded “ecumenical reform coalition.” Surely it is asking too much of loyal Republican Mormons in Utah to vote for a man they widely perceive to be a bigot against their faith. Of course, McCain has rarely proven sensitive to pressure from within the party, so it may be a useless exercise.

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Haven’t had a chance to look at them, but here are the responses.

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With Romney’s odds of winning the nomination now highly improbable, and the press directly asking Huckabee if he wants to be Vice President, the McCain-Huckabee alliance many of us have longed feared is now quite visible on the horizon. Even worse though, is the distinct possibility that this ghastly marriage of factions is in fact representative of the party.

(more…)

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Sadly, Mike Huckabee remains in the race in order to distort it. One has to wonder if the increasingly paranoid crypto-theocrat’s gambit to become McCain’s Vice Presidential nominee succeeds, how substantially will it depress mainstream conservative turnout? I’d say pretty significantly, as this is a concord between the liberal + soc-con wings of the party (although there’s now several points of commonality). Even were 66% of the GOP to be very happy about the ticket (that’s stretching their numbers substantially), that would still equal a devastating defeat to an almost certain Clinton/Obama ticket which will naturally command well over 90% approval from invigorated Democrats. You need maximum GOP turnout to have any chance of beating that Democratic ticket and McCain/Huckabee will not get it for you.

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McCain may be the front runner, but it is still anyone’s game going into next Tuesday. And the race can be just as muddled after next Tuesday, if there’s not a clear front runner.

And yes, it’s my contention that at this time, there isn’t a clear front runner. Just look at the numbers:

McCain – 93
Romney – 59
Huckabee – 40

I know some will look at that and think McCain has a tremendous lead on Romney. Except that the goal is 1191 delegates to get the Republican nomination. So, as a percentage of goal the candidates are currently at:

McCain – 7.8%
Romney – 5.0%
Huckabee – 3.4%

Now, between Super Tuesday puts 1102 delegates in play (including 21 for Maine this Friday.) I doubt that any candidate is going to sweep 22 states.

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Huckabee the liberation theologist is now tied with McCain in Rasmussen’s latest poll at 24%. One would hope for South Carolinians to regain their senses prior to the vote, but it doesn’t look good.

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A look at some possible constitutional changes Huckabee would make if he becomes president. Heh.

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The rhetoric is certainly heating up in this race. Just look at this speech from populist John Edwards:

For those of us for whom summer is not a verb, for those of us who didn’t go to fancy boarding schools on the east coast, for those of us who didn’t grow up with a silver spoon, who were lucky to have a spoon — ask those folks and they’ll tell you the economy is not doing well for them,

Oh wait, that was Mike Huckabee. To pile on Lee’s Huck posting, I thought I’d take a look at the other side of what I think is our general dislike of Mike Huckabee. And I don’t mean to speak for others here, but I think we’d agree on this. As others have pointed out, Huckabee has taken some decidedly non-conservative (and non-libertarian) positions. With his support for a federal smoking ban just throwing the 10th amendment and federalism out the window, I really can’t trust him to not do the same for banning abortion, banning same sex marriage, mandating the teaching of evolution and his other positions. With a candidate who believes in federalism, at least I can expect them to not try to nationalize their pet moral issues.

BTW, I think it’s worth voting for Fred Thompson just so we can keep up with France in the First Lady race, international relations depend on it!

(HT: The Corner)

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