Mike Huckabee Dismisses Libertarians and CPAC
By Matt Welch
Bass-slapping talkshow host and weight-loss pitchman Mike Huckabee washes his hands of the Ron Paul-crowning Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC):
"CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years, one of the reasons I didn't go this year," Huckabee said in an interview with Fox News, where he is a paid analyst and has his own show.
He was responding to a question about whether he was upset by his single-digit showing in the conference’s straw poll, which was won by libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
The Politico article also contains this section after the jump:
But for all the enthusiasm in the hotel's corridors, much of the rhetoric on stage felt oddly dated. For every Marco Rubio – the young Florida Senate candidate who is seen as by many conservatives as their future – there was the NRA's Wayne LaPierre, rambling about Clinton-era gun control battles and showing decade-old video clips of himself jousting with TV hosts on the big screens in the ballroom.
Worse, at least in the eyes of CPAC organizers, hearty supporters of Paul showed up in part to ensure the quirky Texas septuagenarian won the straw poll.
What was seen in the past as an indicator of who conservative activists preferred in the next presidential race became ratified as all but worthless as boos rained down in the ballroom when it was disclosed that Paul had won the contest.
Whole thing here; link via Instapundit.
It certainly is interesting to watch Republicanism become more outwardly libertarian, in ways not seen since at least 1998, if not before. Is it the dying gasp of a party going the way of the Whigs, as Huckabee suggests? Will the libertarians who soured on the GOP under CPAC heroes George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ever come back? Will Ron Paul ever win a straw poll that will not post-facto be declared "all but worthless"? These are some of the questions.
Some Reason Huckabusiness from seasons past, in reverse chronological order:
* Radley Balko's "Clemency on Trial."
* David Weigel's "Mike Huckabee vs. the Libertarians."
* Jacob Sullum's "The Thin Man Goes to Washington."
* Kerry Howley's "Does Mike Huckabee have a prayer?"
* Nick Gillespie's "The Dog Days of David Huckabee."
* Ronald Bailey's "Choosing Between Science and God: The Mike Huckabee Story."
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It isn't the Republican Political Action Conference. It's the Conservative Political Action Conference. Just because someone is a Republican doesn't make them a conservative, and vice versa. Mr. Huckabee would do well to learn this. I think liberals and conservatives alike want to get back to following the constitution and it so happens that Dr. Paul is a strong conservative constitutionalist.
Dr. Paul is also looney and does little to help the conservative cause.
I am not so sure if his looney-ness is reality, or one of the anti-conservative flavors of liberal media kool-aid.
Most of the time when I watch him speak, he seems fairly levelheaded: take his Google town-hall candidacy introduction in 2007 for the 2008 elections , for example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg
Ron Paul marches to the beat of a different drummer, I'll not disagree. I like the beat, though. So do the Tea Partiers. Before the MSM completely refused him coverage last time, he was the popular-opinion leader on the strength of his ideas.
I just get a little sick every time I see the meme that he 'is a looney' being repeated.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
I never said his ideas are looney, I wrote he, as in his mannerism and style are looney. He comes off as the mad hatter at times. He has the people skills of a rabid monkey. That will not get him elected to anything other than his current office. It is a non-starter. Yes, I agree that is a problem within our current political structure that it matters how you present yourself to people, but that is how the real world works. Ron Paul will never be elected to the office of President. So we need to find someone else.
My bad, seriously. I automatically assumed that you were talking about what you thought of his ideas, not something as trite as his mannerisms. I further thought you were challenging it, not that you were pointing out how the electorate would challenge it.
I agree that the bulk of the American voters are shallow like that. We think elections are entertainment . It is sad and costs us dearly.
So, who would be a strong challenger, in your opinion?
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
I personally believe that none of the ones listed so far could win in a general against Obama. I feel that to win the 'new' base of the republican base, would mean catering to a crowd that the majority would find distasteful. Ron Paul would have the best chance of those listed.
One thing I would take exception to Huckabee's comment "..CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican..." Really I think Republicans have left some of their more libertarian small government ideals behind and have embraced a more neo-con attitude of government, CPAC didn't leave them, they left CPAC.
And that sentiment is shared by an ever-increasing amount of Americans.
I honestly believe that a new party will spin off of those left behind by Republicans. I don't know if it will be some find of neo-libertarian/Tea Party mash-up, but it seems quite possible.
I think that if the Libertarian Party had the gravitas that the Republican Party has, and the motivation/ media airtime that the Tea Party enjoys, it would effectively replace the Republican Party, and not in name only.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
CPAC and the prevailing thought which came from it at his political peril.
It is the direction Republicans are moving. If he wishes to be left behind, he has that option.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.