Mike Huckabee Speech

On January 21, 2008, Mike Huckabee gave a speech at the American Family Association's "Rediscovering God in America" conference. The speech is posted below in four parts.

* If you receive an error message, refresh your browser.

Huckabee on Christian Conservative Leaders

Via World Magazine:

Prominent Christian leaders have been slow to embrace Huckabee, and [Gary] Bauer told WORLD that his primary concern is the candidate's electability in the upcoming primaries.

In a private meeting with supporters after his speech, Huckabee expressed frustration over Christian leaders' reticence to back him: "It's a little bit like a soldier who goes to war and his own army won't give him the supplies he needs to win."

But evangelicals at the conference handed Huckabee a huge win over the weekend: In a straw poll conducted by the FRC, Huckabee garnered 51 percent of those who voted on-site, swamping every other candidate. Romney trailed in second place with 10 percent of the on-site vote. (The FRC allowed online voting as well, and Romney edged Huckabee by 30 votes in the overall tally.)

In my opinion, there is a demonstrable rift between the so-called "Christian Leaders," and the Christians they are presumed to be leading. That rift is essentially that the aforesaid leaders are pursuing pragmatism, whereas those who are not leaders are pursuing principle. The leaders are openly skeptical of Huckabee (for unprincipled reasons, I might add), but nevertheless the voice of those attending the Values Voter Summit handed Huckabee a resounding amount of support.

Dick Morris on Huckabee

Today, Dick Morris writes in an article for RealClearPolitcs that Mike Huckabee is "an articulate, principled, knowledgeable, conservative Christian[.]"

Mike Huckabee is beginning to generate national attention, and he has done it the old fashion way. He has not bought his way into contention; he has simply articulated a message and a vision, and folks are lining up behind him. Now if we could just get those pesky "Evangelical Leaders" to back him...

Huckabee Discussed in CT

Tony Beam discusses Huckabee in a column for Christianity Today. The bottom line:

As long as Governor Mike Huckabee is in the race thank God we don’t have to compromise. We don’t have to hold our nose and vote. We can march into the voting booth, vote Huckabee, and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we have stood by the things that matter most.

If Huckabee can continue to generate this sort of sentiment, watch out over the next few months. Huckabee may not have a lot of money, but he has something much, much better: a message.

Evangelicals Unwisely Continue the Third-Party Threat

Newsweek interviewed Richard Land, who they described as "a leading evangelical [serving] as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission." Some of the highlights:

NEWSWEEK: So we wanted to ask you, first of all, about the third-party idea and whether it's serious. A number of people are suggesting it's just a threat.

Richard Land: My intuition [is that] this is not a bluff. If Giuliani is the nominee there will be a third party...This is not a bluff.

NEWSWEEK: Is Huckabee's success there a harbinger of things to come? Is he starting to gain some traction?

Richard Land: We'll see. Everyone says he does great when he speaks; everyone says he does great in the debates. But so far that hasn't translated either into fund-raising success or into a surge in the polls...

I think a third-party campaign is likely to ensure the Democratic nominee the Presidency. All the talk about a third-party run is, in the very least, premature. Mike Huckabee is a candidate who holds values that are not just consistent with those in the Bible, as Dr. Grudem put it, but they seem to be genuinely derived from the Bible, and he has the skill to communicate those values to other people in a way that bridges the gap between ideological lines. This is vertical politics, as the Governor puts it, and his message resounds with anyone who hears it. Talking of a prospective third-party run while Huckabee is still in the race is ridiculous. Instead, evangelicals should throw their support around him.

Why I Started This Blog

I follow political happenings closely, and while I have supported Mike Huckabee for quite some time, I did not want to take the time to write a blog. But some things have happened in recent days that have caused my blood to boil. Let's review.

1. On October 1st, the New York Times reported that, "a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate." The coalition here referred to was none other than the so-called, media-dubbed leaders of the Christian Conservative block such as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Richard A. Viguerie.
2. On October 18th, the Washington Post, quoting Chuck Colson, summarizd the seemingly prevalent attitude among the so-called, media-dubbed conservative leaders saying, "...there's no one candidate out there around whom evangelicals and conservative Catholics can sort of coalesce around and get excited about."
3. On October 18th, none other than the fine theologian, Dr. Wayne Grudem, penned an article entitled, "Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney" in which he argued that Mitt Romney was the best qualified, morally palatable candidate for Evangelical voters.
4. On October 22nd, the Washington Times reported that a meeting of several "conservative leaders" could not find a satisfactory candidate coming out of the "Values Voters" summitt held on October 19-20.
5. On October 21st, Gary Bauer discounted Mike Huckabee on the grounds that Bauer believed that Huckabee is only seeking the office of the Vice President.

These five things have led me to vast disappointment with the people who have been thought to be leaders of the Christian wing of conservatives. One purpose of this blog is to argue that Mike Huckabee is the clear and convincing candidate for those who are considered "values voters." As a Christian I am disappointed, to say the least, that those who have been considered leaders in the fight for Christian values are unwisely and unjustifiably embracing a doctrine of political pragmatism that will ultimately derail the advancement of the very values they claim to be trying to preserve.

In posts to follow, I will examine why I think pragmatism will ultimately fail the conservative movement. But in the mean time, please allow me to introduce you to Mike Huckabee.