Tennessee Right to Life Endorses Huckabee

We just received word that Tennessee Right to Life has endorsed Mike Huckabee for President. Read the endorsement here. Excerpt:

Tennessee Right to Life announces today the group's endorsement of Governor Mike Huckabee for the February 5 Presidential primary. The strength of Governor Huckabee's public record on matters concerning the protection of human life and strong support among the organization's grassroots members were key to making the decision.

"The beauty of a grassroots organization is that your members set the priorities," said Brian Harris, president of the state's oldest and largest pro-life organization. "For pro-life Tennesseans, the election of a sincere, proven pro-life president is paramount," said Harris. "Our members recognize Mike Huckabee as ‘one of us' and that enthusiasm is driven by his demonstrated record of leadership and sacrifice toward the shared cause of protecting life," said Harris.

Hunter Endorsed Huckabee

Today, congressman and former Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter announced his endorsement Mike Huckabee for President. In addition to giving a boost to Governor Huckabee's campaign, Hunter's endorsement has driven the right-wing crazy.

Dobson Says "Huh?"

The Spectator has updated its earlier story that reported the Dr. Dobson was preparing to endorse Governor Huckabee. From the update:

Tim Minnery, Senior Vice President for Focus on the Family, Dobson's organization, denied on Friday afternoon that Dobson intended to endorse Huckabee in the coming days. Minnery's denial was submitted to the Spectator after Dobson received calls from other social conservative leaders inquiring about the leaked endorsement plans from the Huckabee campaign and Dobson associates. "Dr. Dobson isn't close to an endorsement of anyone in the 2008 race," Minnery wrote in an email to the editor denying there was an endorsement planned.

"Dr. Dobson isn't close to an enodrsment of anyone in the 2008 race." Isn't close? That's too bad, really. Huckabee is the clear choice for Conservatives. If such a high level individual goes out of the way to make such an unequivocal denial on Dobson's behalf, then I would suggest that today's earlier report is flat out wrong. Dr. Dobson has not come around like so many of us have wished he would.

And MSNBC's Firstread reports that the Mike Huckabee campaign has released a statement speaking to the confusion. From the release:

“There is no imminent campaign announcement about his [Dr. Dobson's] support -- and my campaign has not said there is, despite wild Internet rumors and some press accounts to the contrary. I have also spoken personally to him about the matter.”

This is probably going to serve only to make people upset. There were already plenty of people who were upset at Dobson (and others) for not backing the clear candidate for social conservatives. Then today many of those people were elated to hear that Dr. Dobson had come around. Now they find out that Dr. Dobson "denies ferociously" that he is planning to endorse Mike Huckabee. That is just going to remind everyone about how much they have despised the way Dobson and other leaders have handled this election cycle.

Dobson to Back Huckabee?

According to a post at the American Spectator today, there appears to be some indication that Dr. James Dobson has settled on Mike Huckabee as his preferred candidate for President of the United States. The Spectator writes:

Sources close to Dobson say that within the next ten days he is coordinating an endorsement plan with the presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Many people, myself included, have been somewhat critical of Dr. Dobson and other Christian leaders for their refusal to back Governor Huckabee. If this report is true and Dr. Dobson does intend to publicly endorse Governor Huckabee, I have a couple of thoughts.

1. Dr. Dobson's endorsement would mean that Mike Huckabee's campaign would see a significant increase in support. This would likely include, among other things, a significant increase in campaign funding.
2. Dr. Dobson's endorsement would indicate that some significant Christian leaders still do care about the principles upon which they live. Dr. Dobson's endorsement of Huckabee could trigger a domino affect, and his influence could encourage other leaders to hop on board.

If the Spectator report is true, the race for the Republican Nomination could see a significant shift.

Alcorn Backs Huckabee

Randy Alcorn, committed pro-life advocate, explains why he supports Mike Huckabee.

While I would hate to be a politician, I have always thanked God for men and women who are called to that. So I thank God for Mike Huckabee. And especially when he labors to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, I feel like the least I can do is support him.

Alcorn is another individual who has found pragmatism to be unacceptable when it demands that one abandon principle.

Huckabee Gaining National Steam

According to a recently released Rasmussen poll, Gov. Huckabee has reached double digits in national polling for the first time. Huckabee receives 10% of national support for the Republican nomination. This may look like a small number, but the indication is that Huckabee is trending upward on a consistent basis.

Consider, for example, an important fact: there are at least some conservatives who, having previously written Huckabee off, are beginning to give him a second look. There is a growing swell of frustration with the pragmatic attitudes being adopted by conservative "leaders." The tide seems to be turning a bit as person after person abandons the pragmatic deception, and turns back to principled thinking. If that happens more, the other candidates will begin to lose some of their support as some of their less than happy supporters warm to Gov. Huckabee's princpled conservative campaign.

One example of conservatives who are beginning to warm to Huckabee is the tripartite endorsement from Christian bloggers Justin Taylor, Joe Carter, and Matthew Anderson. Having previously bought into the pragmatic notion of electability, these three have now come out in support of Mike Huckabee. They write:

For several months we have admired the scrappy campaign of Gov. Huckabee but believed it would be a wasted effort to support him with our time, energy, and finances. We bought into the notion that he could never get the GOP nomination since conservative voters would not support him. And the reason we were told conservative voters would never support him is because he could not get the nomination. To quote John Piper (from a different context), "It’s like the army being defeated because there aren’t enough troops, and the troops won’t sign up because the army’s being defeated."

We can no longer sit idly by and allow the campaign of a worthy candidate and an honorable man to flounder for lack of support.

So far, Huckabee has been able to avoid the negative attack politics that permeates the process. As he gains steam, however, I would not be surprised to see the other candidates and their supports begin to take attack shots at him. That would be a true indicator that Hucakbee is not only a threat, but a major threat.

Cold Feet ?

According to a Foxnews report, Pastor Don Wilton has retracted the endorsement he made of Mitt Romney. Pastor Wilton is was president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and his endorsement of Romney was made on October 19th. Wilton Said:

It was my personal error to agree to support Romney's campaign. Until this incident I had never endorsed any person running for any elected office, Democrat or Republican.

Read Wilton's entire press release here.

I could not help but notice that Wilton's endorsement was made the day before Governor Huckabee's speech at the Values Voter Summit. I wonder if the momentum that Huckabee has generated in the last few days has caused one of his own to give him a second look. Huckabee was, after all, president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. This is some excellent news!