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Huckabee Goes Into Caucuses "Kneeling To God"
January 2, 2008 12:01 AM
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Read More: Ed Rollins, Gop Presidential Candidates, Iowa, Iowa
Caucuses, Joe Scarborough, Marc Cooper, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney,
Breaking Politics News Iowa Off The Bus Politics
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West Des Moines, Iowa - Two nights before the crucial first-in-the-
nation caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee
appealed to God to grant his supporters guidance as the former
Arkansas governor struggled to maintain his tenuous lead.
"We cannot do it," he said referring to Thursday night's Republican
caucus, "by arming ourselves and taking anyone out. We will go to the
caucuses having knelt on our knees and having asked God for his
wisdom."
Huckabee made his appeal Tuesday night to a brimming ballroom of
supporters in the conservative suburbs of the state capital against a
backdrop of country western music and accompanied on stage by actor
and self-described "corporate leader" Chuck Norris.
The event drew a large crowd and galvanized various splintered shards
of Iowa's once-formidable and unified Christian conservative
constituencies: home schoolers, flat or "fair tax" advocates, anti-
choice activists and religious fundamentalists.
An influential and authoritative poll released earlier in the day by
the Des Moines Register showed Huckabee maintaining a six point edge
-- 32% to 26% -- over rival Mitt Romney.
Meanwhile a debate has raged among political insiders as to whether or
not Huckabee had staged an historic meltdown or a cynically brilliant
political coup during a highly unusual press conference on Monday.
After renouncing negative campaigning, the former Baptist minister and
former Arkansas governor said he was withdrawing a planned attack ad
against Romney, only to then show it in its entirety to dozens of news
TV cameras and reporters from the national press corps.
"I have no regret at all about pulling the ad. I slept well last night
and woke up this morning feeling even better about it. It was the
right decision," Huckabee said publicly earlier in the day. His
national campaign manager, veteran operative Ed Rollins, also defended
the move and predicted to reporters that Huckabee would win the Iowa
caucuses and would eventually pair off against Arizona John McCain for
the party nomination.
Huckabee maintained his promise of staying positive by keeping a
light, upbeat tone at tonight's event. But the speech was nearly free
of any specific policy proposals. Also gone were many of his trademark
economic populist exhortations against Wall Street.
Instead, Huckabee played directly to the staunchly conservative crowd
by emphasizing traditional red meat themes. He vowed a defense build-
up that would produce "a military of sorts that no one on earth would
want to take us on." And in promising a policy of energy self-
reliance, he said that soon after his election "we will be able to
tell the Middle East 'we don't need your oil anymore than we need your
sand.'"
The gathered crowd warmly received Huckabee as a political savior in a
Republican field littered with troubled campaigns. The candidate's
references to the Bible and to the prophet Isaiah elicited several
shouts of "halleluja" from the audience.
"I like his overall Christian principles, his family orientation. He's
the only candidate with real Christian ideals," said 41 year old
Arizona businessman John Moore. "I haven't even thought through who I
could vote for if he doesn't win the nomination."
Moore was part of a group of 21 adults and children, all home-
schoolers, who traveled from Flagstaff to volunteer for Huckabee's
Iowa campaign. The children, many of them grade school age, have been
helping to staff Huckabee's daily phone bank operation.
The presence of actor and businessman Chuck Norris also helped draw
tonight's big crowd that wildly applauded when he took the stage.
Norris offered up a rambling, unfocused talk in which he
enthusiastically endorsed Huckabee's proposal of a "fair tax" that
would replace the progressive federal income tax with a steep sales
tax. Norris said such a system would guarantee that "Arab sheiks" get
taxed when they come to America "to buy their yachts and jet planes."
January 2, 2008 12:01 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read More: Ed Rollins, Gop Presidential Candidates, Iowa, Iowa
Caucuses, Joe Scarborough, Marc Cooper, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney,
Breaking Politics News Iowa Off The Bus Politics
Comments
West Des Moines, Iowa - Two nights before the crucial first-in-the-
nation caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee
appealed to God to grant his supporters guidance as the former
Arkansas governor struggled to maintain his tenuous lead.
"We cannot do it," he said referring to Thursday night's Republican
caucus, "by arming ourselves and taking anyone out. We will go to the
caucuses having knelt on our knees and having asked God for his
wisdom."
Huckabee made his appeal Tuesday night to a brimming ballroom of
supporters in the conservative suburbs of the state capital against a
backdrop of country western music and accompanied on stage by actor
and self-described "corporate leader" Chuck Norris.
The event drew a large crowd and galvanized various splintered shards
of Iowa's once-formidable and unified Christian conservative
constituencies: home schoolers, flat or "fair tax" advocates, anti-
choice activists and religious fundamentalists.
An influential and authoritative poll released earlier in the day by
the Des Moines Register showed Huckabee maintaining a six point edge
-- 32% to 26% -- over rival Mitt Romney.
Meanwhile a debate has raged among political insiders as to whether or
not Huckabee had staged an historic meltdown or a cynically brilliant
political coup during a highly unusual press conference on Monday.
After renouncing negative campaigning, the former Baptist minister and
former Arkansas governor said he was withdrawing a planned attack ad
against Romney, only to then show it in its entirety to dozens of news
TV cameras and reporters from the national press corps.
"I have no regret at all about pulling the ad. I slept well last night
and woke up this morning feeling even better about it. It was the
right decision," Huckabee said publicly earlier in the day. His
national campaign manager, veteran operative Ed Rollins, also defended
the move and predicted to reporters that Huckabee would win the Iowa
caucuses and would eventually pair off against Arizona John McCain for
the party nomination.
Huckabee maintained his promise of staying positive by keeping a
light, upbeat tone at tonight's event. But the speech was nearly free
of any specific policy proposals. Also gone were many of his trademark
economic populist exhortations against Wall Street.
Instead, Huckabee played directly to the staunchly conservative crowd
by emphasizing traditional red meat themes. He vowed a defense build-
up that would produce "a military of sorts that no one on earth would
want to take us on." And in promising a policy of energy self-
reliance, he said that soon after his election "we will be able to
tell the Middle East 'we don't need your oil anymore than we need your
sand.'"
The gathered crowd warmly received Huckabee as a political savior in a
Republican field littered with troubled campaigns. The candidate's
references to the Bible and to the prophet Isaiah elicited several
shouts of "halleluja" from the audience.
"I like his overall Christian principles, his family orientation. He's
the only candidate with real Christian ideals," said 41 year old
Arizona businessman John Moore. "I haven't even thought through who I
could vote for if he doesn't win the nomination."
Moore was part of a group of 21 adults and children, all home-
schoolers, who traveled from Flagstaff to volunteer for Huckabee's
Iowa campaign. The children, many of them grade school age, have been
helping to staff Huckabee's daily phone bank operation.
The presence of actor and businessman Chuck Norris also helped draw
tonight's big crowd that wildly applauded when he took the stage.
Norris offered up a rambling, unfocused talk in which he
enthusiastically endorsed Huckabee's proposal of a "fair tax" that
would replace the progressive federal income tax with a steep sales
tax. Norris said such a system would guarantee that "Arab sheiks" get
taxed when they come to America "to buy their yachts and jet planes."
