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Samizdata quote of the day It’s ultimately kind of sad that the controversial person in the race is Ron Paul rather than Huckabee.
– Jonah Goldberg, who is no fan of Ron Paul, discussing ‘Liberal Fascism’. Seeing as we, well I, have ‘diss’ed’ Jonah in the past on Samizdata, let me plug his new book.
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But Paul isn’t especially controversial because he is a generic and unremarkable loon and mostly ignored except when comic relief is needed. Most of the controversy IS surrounding the slick populist sleaze Huckabee. you have to be somewhat relevant to be controversial.
Another comment from a parallel universe by spidly.
Apologies for my ignorance – I haven’t been following the race particularly closely – but does anyone with any intellectual gravitas support Huckabee (other than Chuck Norris)?
*2 minutes later*
Hrm. Obama wins. Clinton third. Huckabee wins. Thompson third.
Asus;
oh that’s right….. Paul launched his banner towing chopper today so he’s back in the running and everyone will take him seriously. now I’m back in the Paul universe
Now, a third place for Hilary Clinton, that is something I did not expect. Close second maybe, but not third.
I saw a U-Tube broadcast of Ron Paul on Fox the other day and one thing he suffers from, rather like the late Labour politician Robin Cook, is a squeaky voice. Something about the tone of a voice can make a person sound like a nutjob, even though I don’t think Paul is a nutter, albeit prone to naivete on terrorism.
Glad to see Fred Thompson did quite well. He’s the only guy I would want to vote for if I were an American.
Jonathan: finally! I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it is that makes him seem so ridiculous.
I second that. What are the chances of a Fred Thompson-esque character arising in British politics? Zero to none, I suspect. Oh, I should really refrain from thinking about British politics too much, to save myself from depression.
I wouldn’t project too much from Iowa. The voters there tend to be quite a bit more religious and a bit more populist than voters in other states. While it’s true it’s a plus to pick up momentum for any candidate, a strategy tailored to win in Iowa spells almost certain defeat later in the season.
Well, geez, maybe if Huckamoron accused the U.S. of being behind the Anfal bombing campaign he could generate a bit of controversy.
So far Mike seems to be gathering momentum – of course greater in the Red states, but even among mainstream conservative-based folk throughout. His governorship has proven him to be very much a pragmatist in working with and appreciating the various special interests that comprise a democratic process – even to the point of some accusing him of being an actual liberal. He’s a complex individual, but not afraid to state certain convictions – one being that all human life is sacred, and that there ought not to be inherent contradictions such as, at once, abortion-on-demand as well as manslaughter charges for having destroyed a fetus’ viability (as in vehicle accidents, for instance). The idea that he would help create a right-wing theocracy is absurd. He’s added a lot of color to an otherwise white bread, stale and predictable Republican candidacy process.
In the “for what it’s worth column”, our small precinct mustered 35. 14 – Huckabee, 13 – Paul, 7 – Thompson, 1 – McCain.
I was shocked at the amount of support for Ron Paul, although I was personally bombarded with phone calls from his campaign, five calls total the day before.
I caucused for Thompson.
Also of note, all the precincts for our county gather in the same building for caucusing which made for very cramped quarters. It was largest turnout in memory.
i.e. he is a just another Big Government Republican in the tradition of Bush et al, good at doling out the pork and patronage. My only solace is that if he gets the nomination, he will get slaughtered by an embarrassingly large margin by the Slightly Bigger Government Democrat as anyone with an interest in smaller (not to mention constitutional) government stays home in disgust… that experience at least may do the Republican Party a power of good.
Pretty much the worst results I could personally ask for from Iowa.
Obama has some very peculiar foreign policy dichotomies to deal with (probably due to not really having much of a policy to speak of aside from naive idealism) and Huckerbee is just about the least palatable cadidate going (aside from John Edwards of course).
So the winners are a big taxing, big spending nanny stater with a naive foreign policy base and illiberal social policies and a big deficit, big spending, nanny stater with illiberal social policies.
Ugh.
I don’t think Huckabee is going to be the Republican candidate. Looks more like McCain. And if Obama gets the Democratic nomination – McCain has a good chance of beating him. (The only Democrats to win the presidency since Roosevelt have been Southerners).
Worse things could happen than a McCain presidency.
Kennedy and Truman were southerners?
Harry Truman was a southerner Sunfish – Missouri counted (especially in 1948).
John F. Kennedy was not a southerner – although his “win” was dubious (in Chigaco the dead made an impressive turnout to swing Illinois – and, in spite, of L.B.J. being on the ticket there was still a lot of rigging in Texas).
I think the last time the Democrats won without a southerner on the ticket (for either President or Vice President) was 1940.
Perry, sadly Huckabee does not have a record like George Bush as a Governor – it is a lot worse than that.
George Walker Bush was basically a “C” grade Governor (he did not increase taxes and government spending much, if at all, as percentage of total output in Texas) – Mike Huckabee was an D to F grade Governor (say an E grade overall).
He had one of the worst records on taxes and spending of any Governor in the United States – including the Democrats.
He is also a shameless liar:
He often claims that he “cut taxes” as Governor – the opposite of the truth.
And he goes round with Chuck Norris claiming to be really tough on illegal immigration – when he was fanatical about handing out every government benefit to illegals when he was Governor.
Last comment from me.
Good to see you here Ross Martin.
A person on the ground is worth many times more than a person commenting from thousands of miles away.
Sorry to tell you that the spin has already started (although you may well either know or have guessed that).
Fox and Friends treated John McCain as having come third (even though he came forth). And in spite of the “hope to see you tomorrow” yesterday Fred Thompson did not seem to be on Fox and Friends today.
Ron did get 10%, beating two others, including Guiliani, and only missed the next two tied for third at 13%… considering he got NO love from the MM, and was bashed on both sides of the aisle, I think that’s pretty good.
I am becoming steadily more convinced that there is a concerted effort to block Fred off of the MSM.
Last night ABC news asked each candidate from both parties what their pet peeves were. They even gave a fair amount of answer time each to Biden and Richardson (who last numbers I saw, pulled about 3% combined). But no Fred. Not even a comment about “unavailable”. IIRC, no Paul either.
Fox seems to be part of this also. What gives?
Thanks Paul. Actually I’ve been here a while… just not speaking up.
Midwesterner.. I too have noticed lack of attention Fred has been getting lately. Ironically, it was Fox News that gave me a reason to pay more attention to Fred.
Following and interview Fred Thompson had with Shepard Smith during his afternoon show (Studio B), Smith made it a point that Fred arrived at the Fox News studios alone.. without any advisors, handlers, and the like… simply alone. While this told me nothing about where he stands on any issue, it did tell me that this candidate can formulate a position without fear of creating some verbal faux pas.
Ross,
I didn’t know about that and even for Fred, that amazes me. I made the tongue in cheek remark in my Fred or Ron? article that as a former special counsel, he could put words in his own mouth, but even so the incident you relate is amazing.
I’ve previously outlined why I don’t want R. Paul to win, but I have to say his 10% performance is surprisingly good and hopefully represents a significant body of the electorate who favor libertarian policies.
I’ll also second the notion that those of you across the pond who may not be fully familiar with the absurd intricacies of American elections shouldn’t read too deeply into the results (and I need to keep reminding myself this so as not to freak out about 35% of Republicans supporting the Huckster). Approximately 60% of those who turned out to caucus for the GOP were evangelical or born-again Christians, which is not at all representative of the GOP as a whole, particularly in the urban states where the GOP is comprised more of the law-and-order, small-government set. The big day is Feb 5, or “Super Duper Tuesday”, when Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York (among several other states) all hold their primaries. The Republican race is still wide open, with Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, and McCain all with varying levels of support in each of those states (though Thompson is clearly in the worst shape in the polls), with most people outside of the bible belt seeing Huckabee for the nanny-state lunatic he is.
Ross – I remember Shepard Smith saying that, I believe it was before Fred Thompson started to run.
Yes the mainstream media (including even Fox News) does dislike both Fred Thompson and Ron Paul (with a few exceptions – for example Neil Cavuto has known Fred Thompson for years).
It is nothing to do with “the war” – as Paul and Thompson take different positions on that.
So it can only be that they are the only two people in the race who are anti Welfare State.
“Paranoid”.
Perhaps – but what other explination fits the facts?
However, let us not sell Mike Huckabee short.
He may be a man who has vastly increased taxes and government spending, and who wants the Federal government to regulate, i.e. control, every aspect of peoples lives – but he smiles nicely, looks kindly and has a good line in folksy stories.
Ron Paul appears small, and has a weak voice – and always appears to be looking at someone that only he can see (although that could be a camera trick against him).
And Fred Thompson is the size of Hill Giant and, by his admission, has a face like one as well.