I still predict that if Mike doesn't get in, Newt will be the tortoise and slowly work his way to the finish line as the rest of them knock themselves and each other out. We are already seeing it, even on this board, and it's what I'm hearing on the streets here in this part of Iowa.

I hope you're right about that. Gingrich is the only one I'd feel comfortable with in the general both substantively and stylistically.

_________________
THE TIMES are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man’s distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.
Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal…
G.M. Hopkins.

I'm still hoping for Huck.......but

I like Cain but he has proven to be grossly unprepared and I just don't trust him against Obama their are too many times that he has waffled back and forth and made mistakes. The argument is he could surround himself with good people when he is president and things will work out....I'm sorry who is he surrounding himself with now.

Santorum is a good conservative but a sticking point for me is when the governor needed his support he endorsed Romney. Now Santorum is blasting Romney like he's not even a conservative.

As much as I hate what Newt did in his personal life I can forgive him. When the chips were down he stuck with Huck in 2008. That means a lot to me. Newt has done remarkable in the debates and we will see when he debates Cain how he carries himself. Newt has one huge flaw he has not locked in the social conservatives and needs help in the South. I could see Huck being his VP pick. Huck as a VP pick for anyone else seems weird......Cain Huckabee..how out of balance....Santorum Huckabee...oh please the VP should not be the president's babysitter. Romney Huckabee...uhmmmm Romney has finally made some sense and I would gladly pull the lever.

oops almost forgot our boy Perry....debate with Obama would be a joke.....good governor but like I said when the chips were down he did the establishment thing and turned his back on Huck and endorsed Romney.

Pray for a Hail Mary pass tomorrow...still hoping...guess we have til Nov 2nd at the latest.

After watching that baseball game last night......anything is possible!

For what it is worth.... Mike Huckabee posted on facebook: "Happy Friday!"

Why cant he make it a happy friday for all of us and show up in new hampshire (or send someone) this morning? I suppose he could even have a plan of iowa, then fly right to SC, then to Florida....forget NH and Nev. I know I'm only fooling myself, but oh well.

Hard to find a flaw in Mr. Carville's comments.....what was looking like a slam dunk GOP victory in '12 is starting to get me very nervous.
Notice he hasn't commented much on Gingrich.....

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/james-carvil ... president/
Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Good Morning America this morning to assess the current crop of front runners in the GOP presidential field and was not shy in his both predictable and entertainingly harsh criticism of his ideological foes. Herman Cain and Mitt Romney were both targeted, but it was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has seen a rather enormous dip in recent polls, that received the most merciless review.

In Carville’s purview, Romney isn’t so much a “flip-flopper” but more of a “a serial wind sock” adding “every time you turn around, it’s something else.” On Herman Cain, Carville declared that he “is not going to be the Republican nomination for president,” before calling him a “national distraction,” which might be a welcome one in the middle of this “horrific recession.”

But he saved the best/worst for Perry, saying of the one time belle of the GOP ball “The best thing Rick Perrry can do for himself and his friends and family is get out of the race and go back to Texas, adding “this man is evidently not up to this. He had plenty of chances to do it. He can’t debate. He can’t give a speech. He can’t hold a position paper. He can’t go on television….he’s in over his head.”

GMA host George Stephanopoulos served as a sort of straight man for Carville’s partisan punditry that likely reminded many viewers of the typically non-partisan ABC News offering that these two worked hand-in-hand in Bill Clinton‘s campaign and administration. Since tephanopoulos never really challenged Carville on his take — and there was never an opportunity given to a dissenting point of view — this segment is sure to give rise to the predictable charge of “liberal media bias” (thunder crack!)

Cant believe Huckabee is leaving us with this guy:

Notice in the segment how many poll results Stewart uses that has Huckabee on the top

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-o ... d-mittless

_________________
ConservTexan

http://ilikemikehuckabee2012.blogspot.com/

George Will only has 3 days to draft G.H.
SNEAK PEEK -- GEORGE WILL SLAMS MITT – Sunday’s column: “Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate: Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the tea party and other conservatives, who will be deflated by a nominee whose blurry profile in caution communicates only calculated trimming. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from ‘data’ ... Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?”

Why don't we organize a write-in? I know plenty of moderates and independants who would vote for Huck if they were given a chance. Everyone realizes that anyone who wants the job shouldn't be elected president. I know that he would step up if the public made an outcry for him to be the president. You want grassroots? Do it! Run the campaign for him! There are plenty of us out there willing to help.

Huck for Pres 2012!

Welcome a-board, bernheart!

Fun fantasy, but it would be the same as running any other 3rd party candidate - it would just end up handing the election to Obama. Even if we were for taking the chance, which most of us are not, Huck would be adamantly against it.

Nah, if he doesn't get in to the GOP race, he won't be running - period.

Doc - what's your take on a R.P. victory in Iowa?

Well it still remains to be seen.

Paul's chances have always hinged on a very depressed turnout of regular evangelical conservative caucus goers and a surge in independents and cross-over Dems.

The second still may happen but the first seems less likely each day as "the story" becomes Santorum's "surge." Paul also needed his full story to stay out of sight. As much as we here think candidate positions and position history is very well known it aint. Paul is a "brand" for anti-establishmentarian Don't Tread on Me stickittodemantiosis (to borrow the last part from Jack Black). I know deeply conservative college kids who are drawn to Paul (and some have gone to Iowa to help) who have little idea about Paul beyond his opposition to the Fed, a gold standard return, and a generalized appeal to less government.

As Paul finds himself in the full glare of the media he is already having real problems with some of his past and present positions. The longer he is near the top and taking fire the less likely he can sneak in to his perfect fourfold stealth scenario for victory of: true believer zealots; largely ignorant protest voting; cross-over chaos partisans; and a decline in the opposition due to depressed evangelicals and party regulars.

If he does hit his zone the net result will be to further marginalize the Iowa caucus in the minds of the GOP leadership and to set in motion a full assualt on him and his positions. This may spur him to a third party run. If so he will be the man who assured Obama a second term. More likely he will see this all the way out to the convention. A Paul win in Iowa makes more likely a brokered convention - but it also makes for a very ugly race until then.

_________________
"As for us, our days of combat are over. Our swords are rust. Our guns will thunder no more. The vultures that once wheeled over our heads must be buried with their prey. Whatever of glory must be won in the council or the closet, never again in the field. I do not repine. We have shared the incommunicable experience of war; we have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

After viewing the video of Austin NAACP director vouching for Dr. Paul,
as well as being in agreement on his foreign policy, along with the Active Military personnel who gave more to Dr. Paul than all of the other Republican competitors combined.... Now I came across this video... No wonder he actually gains support as they continually sling mud.

_________________
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." ~ Ronald Reagan


You say "Conspiracy Theorist"?? Call me Agenda Analyst.

I get SO tired of hearing this misleading spin. As an overall % of donations received, Paul's take from military personnel is actually not very much. Last I knew it was about $177,000 out of over $12.1 Million in total contributions. Just think about it. The guy was an Air Force doctor, so of course he has a circle of friends who happen to be very well off and easily able to contribute to his campaign, because they are 1) retired military officers and 2) doctors. If your circle of friends just happened to include these people, you would probably be able to raise far more than $177,000 from military personnel when you ran for POTUS. I personally have served over 20 years in the military, so far, and I see his policies as exactly THE OPPOSITE of what we need in a Commander-In-Chief. He is completely clueless regarding the importance of being a nation that is blessed with forward deployment. He claims that we are occupying all of the places. No we aren't! We are guest of all of these nations, it helps us keep our nation safe, and these nations know that it just happens to keep them safe, too. Like Reagan taught us: Peace through strength and deterrence - not appeasement and acting like ostriches with our heads in the sand back home, just hoping that the nutty bullies of the world will be nice in the age of modern technology.

_________________
http://www.RickSantorum.com/
http://www.JimBridenstine.com/
Mike Huckabee Book Store

His 3 largest donors are:
The US Army, The US Air Force and The US Navy.
How much did they give to your candidate.
Who are his three largest donors?
Very telling....
Whew! sure hit a nerve with my post...
Get the foreign policy right and
the troops will donate to your guy (who is it, anyway?).

_________________
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." ~ Ronald Reagan


You say "Conspiracy Theorist"?? Call me Agenda Analyst.

Okay, I'm not trying to be nasty with you about this, but if you look at the facts here, Ron Paul was a DOCTOR IN THE US ARMED FORCES. Do you NOT understand why that would give him enough donations from personal friends and friends of those friends, etc. to boost the number significantly above the others, who do not just happen to have in their background experiences that include having friends that happen to be military officers (They make significant income, in case you have never looked at the military payscale - about twice what the enlisted make) AND they are doctors on top of it? It is misleading to tie his higher donations from military personnel to his wacky foreign policy/national security positions (which is what actually strikes my nerve). I'm still in the military. I talk to military people all the time. We mostly think that Ron Paul's ideas for what to do with us is complete insanity and extremely dangerous for our familys' security. We don't find it amusing, one bit, that someone with these beliefs can convince so many fellow Americans to support them in a campaign for POTUS. It would be like saying that Rick Perry has more donations from Texans than anyone else (and the state that he gets more donations from than any other) and pretending like the fact that his is the sitting Governor of Texas didn't have a significant impact on that at all. It would be purposely misleading people if Perry tried to spin that into meaning anything else. I get upset when I see a dishonest spin, but much more so when that spin is perpetrated on those who are willing to lay their lives on the line for all of us to have our freedom. Lastly, I don't care if all of the military gave 100% of their money to Ron Paul, "Get the foreign policy right", is exactly what Ron Paul needs to do. He is wrong (even backwards) and he is very dangerous for it.

_________________
http://www.RickSantorum.com/
http://www.JimBridenstine.com/
Mike Huckabee Book Store

Additionally, his support is disproportionately young and male, as is the military.

_________________
THE TIMES are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man’s distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.
Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal…
G.M. Hopkins.

Then why not Perry?
Also the same thing happened throughout 2007/2008
in a race where I believe, there were other
military veterans.
And why does Obana also get more from the military,
though not nearly as much. This was also true in 2007
before he ever was Commander in Chief?

Paul also got a lot more from active military than
John Mccain last time around.
The spin you provide is dizzying.

Never mind. Since this is evolving into a Santorum forum (as it should)
I will leave you all to your "sit and spins".
Nevada phone bank is open. I should be calling.
Guess we just disagree, that's all.

_________________
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." ~ Ronald Reagan


You say "Conspiracy Theorist"?? Call me Agenda Analyst.

Can't you list anything you want as your employer when donating to a campaign with also the option of just leaving it blank?

_________________