Nominating Rudy is like betting your life on Bill Clinton passing a polygraph. There’s ALWAYS another scandal to come out. With Rudy, it’s not just a matter of liberal media members picking on him. It’s just that there’s too much dirt out there – everywhere – his marriages, his friends, his policies and decisions, etc, etc, etc. You have to go out of the way to avoid noticing it. Even a member of the press with no particular agenda can’t avoid bumping into it. So, if he makes it to the General campaign, the Clinton folks will just pull out one piece of dirt a week. And even though they’ve also got dirt, his dirt is even more salacious and trashy. It’s more novel-worthy than anything even the Clintons can come up with.

So, if Giuliani runs against Clinton, Clinton wins. For a whole bunch of reasons. Including a diminished and demoralized conservative base who has a hard time looking in the mirror after years of bashing liberalism and ethnical violations – but championing Mr. Twin Towers.

But, Mike Huckabee can do one thing that no other GOP candidate can do. He can match every Democrat in terms of likeability and also can pull support from a wide range of voters of all party affiliations, economic backgrounds, and colors. The latter point is particularly important. The Democrats cannot win nationally without winning almost all of the black vote. If they get less than 75%, they’re toast. Huckabee earned a whopping 48% of the black vote as Governor of Arkansas – higher than any modern Republican I can think of. If he siphons away even enough to make 20% of black voters vote for the GOP, Hillary can’t really win.

Why is he being picked on? What do the other GOP candidates think? Has Huckabee ever supported forcing everyone in his state to buy health insurance? If Massachusetts isn’t the “nannystate” what would be?

Let’s set it straight on taxes, what counts is the future. The tax situation facing us as a country is different from any one state. Is there any contender whose record is 100% pure?

Mike is only one of the two GOP candidates to take the anti tax pledge, the leading top tier candidate to favor abolishing the income tax.

Even President Reagan increased taxes as California Governor. What counts is what he did as President.

Both men “pledged to fight the nation’s No. 1 killer with increased research funding and financial incentives to promote healthy lifestyles … Huckabee committed to sign a nationwide smoking ban in public places, should such a measure win approval in Congress. Brownback said he would let anti-smoking efforts continue under the authority of states and local communities,” the Register said.

USATODAY

“What is the position of the other GOP candidates? Is he the only one to take this position?”

*WASHINGTON (CNN) — The majority of the Democratic presidential candidates said in Wednesday’s New Hampshire presidential debate they would support a national smoking ban in public places.

When asked the question, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama only said they supported efforts at local levels to prevent smoking in public places. The rest of the candidates indicated they would seek a national ban to do so.

*sorry, not GOP. I didn’t find much on GOP other than Huckabee and Brownback.

What is the position of the other GOP candidates? Is he the only one to take this position?

Vintage Santa Clause, Public Domain Clip Art Privacy

I agree on McCain. While he has pissed me off on NUMEROUS occasions I never once question his intent and patriotism. Sometimes I think he has fallen victim to political advisors trying to position him as a centrist. McCain -Rudy would be unbeatable.

Ernie Dumas writes: Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.
Clinton tax increases

link

Hmmm…didn’t Reagan raise taxes in California…and natioanlly?

Hmmm.