Governor Huckabee, You're No Ronald Reagan
To parapharase a couple great moments from our political history: “Governor Huckabee…..I knew Ronald Reagan. I study Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a hero of mine…..and governor Huckabee…you’re NO Ronald Reagan.”
And neither is Fred Thompson, though he inched closer in the South Carolina debate. But Mitt Romney falls short also and in another philosophical universe we can find media darling John McCain (who gets credit for being a maverick even though being a liberal Repuglican is the most gutless choice one can make inside the beltway.
To Rudy Giuliani’s credit, he (nor his supporters) are pretenders to be the Reagan mantle. Dittos Ron Paul. Oddly enough, those two candidates and a certain former Democrat President named JFK, are actually much closer to Reagan on taxes than any of the....and Rudy and JFK are pretty doggone close on defence and America’s role in the world than the would be Gippers. Paul is close on regulation. (Don’t even get me started on how far from JFK the “next JFK” on the Democrat side is.)
But back to Huck….since he won Iowa, survived New Hampshire and evoked the name of Reagan in the SC debate. Like Reagan, Huckabee has a great since of humor and is quick on his feet (something liberals are loathe to admit indicates a nimble mind). He is iminently likeable. Like Reagan, he has been a governor. He has brown hair. We think. And beyond that, we are having a hard time finding anything Reaganesque. And that is a real problem, since we’re told he is one of the guys getting the “Reagan vote” and said some things in Myrtle Beach that would lead one to believe he had full jellybean privledges in Reagan's Oval office.
With Reagan, we KNEW certain things….things we could count on. We knew Reagan understood that the genius of America is ordinary people doing extraordinary things…..which can best be accomplished when government gets the heck out of their way…and their wallet. We knew that Reagan understood the inherent evil and failures of the communist system of government and that he understood it had to be defeated. We knew that Reagan said what he meant…..that he wanted your vote only if you had come to believe in what he believed in.
What Reagan NEVER asked for was your vote based on pretending. He never swerved leftward to the center in order to rent loyalty and to pretend to believe in what you think you believe in because a Frank Luntz focus group said you and the “American people believe” such and such. Reagan’s stump speeches….from addressing obscure small conservative groups in the 60s through his final campaign speech on behalf of the GOP ticket in 1992….were remarkably the same. He was Ronald Reagan. In 1960, and in 1992. And every year in between. (one little tax related gliche in 86 notwithstanding).
Huckabee on the other hand can’t maintain consistency from the Fox Report at dinner time til Jay Leno late night. Reagan, for example, stood his ground against striking members of the Air Traffic Controllers union with the entire American economy and air traffic system in jeopardy because it was the right thing to do for the country.
Contrast Huckabee. With only a few disgruntled picketers at stake, Huck folded into a neo-John Edwards union thug in front of members of the screen writers guild in the Leno parking lot so they would like him. Can’t you just see him negotiating with Iran?
In contrast to Reagan’s faith in the generosity and genius of the American people, Huck has told us that he gets from his Bible an understanding that it is the genius and genorosity of government that must solve the problems of hurting people. We’re not sure if it was the extraordinary performance of the local, state or federal government in Katrina that inspired this….or perhaps it was the fact that four generations of liberalism had turned nearly 70% of New Orleans residents into “system” babies well before Katrina…..or maybe it was the brilliance of the government contracted levies themselves…that were you know, 10% dirt and 90% graft. (shhh….don’t bring up the fact that forensic radar and satellite readings show Katrina was actually only a CAT 3 when it hit the levys….)
Or perhaps he doesn’t believe all that bilge, but thinks playing this little moderate game is the way to the White House. Let’s see….when was the last time a Republican won by being moderate? Hmmm. Maybe Ike in 52 and 56. But Ike was no moderate at Normandy….so that doesn’t count.
GOP moderates get creamed when running for national office….every time it’s been tried in the past 35 years. They can afford to be a tad less conservative when the Democrats are hard core left…but the formula holds. Consider:
George Herbet Walker Bush….known as Bush 41…won his first race in 1988 as an extension of the Reagan administration….ie….as a conservative. When his poor governance and even poorer campaigning exposed him as a moderate in 92…. He had the worst showing ever by an incumbent. Bobe "little blue pill" Dole and Jack Kemp were a moderate mess in 96 and got whipped by a wounded Clinton campaign limping home on presidential "knee pads." Gerald Ford was a moderate disaster in 76, showing the leadership that kept the Dems in control of the House for 40 plus years.
On the flip side, Reagan blitzed an incumbent in 80 by being far right conservative and had an historic landslide in 84 “staying the course” (and launching the faulty notion that Ed Rollins is a good campaign manager). In 88, we elected Bush 41 thinking he was more of Reagan. In 2000 and 2004 Bush 43 was barely conservative, but hard lefties Gore and Kerry were weak opposition and allowed Bush 43 to appear more conservative in contrast.
It is only s only liberalism who win by going moderate (also known as lying about who they are.) I submit Carter in 76, Clinton in 90 and 94...liberals who won positioning themselves as middle of the roaders. Full fledges liberals do not win. Or get close. Carter was an exposed liberal in 1980 and was routed by Reagan. (he was an exposed liberal again in 2006 and was dissed by his own Library staff). Add to the lib loser list Walter Mondale in 84, and ACLU card carrier Michael Dukakis in 88 along with Gore and Kerry (who we think might have served in Viet Nam). It’s easy. Liberals must lie and go moderate to win.
Conservatives must say to hell with the press and hollywood…and be true to conservatism to win. When they go soft, they go home. This dymanic has played out in non Presidential elections when there was a national tone to them. Case in point would be the 1994 contract with America and the historic Republican win. In the terrible mid term election of 1998, the most dynamic conservative campaigner was third party Jesse Venture in Minnesota. He became governor by running far more conservatively than either the Democrat or the Republican….who insteringly enough was Norm Coleman. Norm got a bit more to the right to win a Senate seat a few years later.
Strangely, Governor Ventura then adopted Lowell Weicker (famous Connecticut GOP liberal) as his role model, governed as a moderate and left four years later in shame. It was the worst use of a mandate since, well, Newt Gingrich became speaker of the house and went wimpy.
But the bottom line message is clear. Republicans CANNOT win as anything but a conservative. Oh, and by gthe way....Huck...you’re NO Ronald Reagan.