December 15: Huckabee News Roundup

A new Chicago Tribune poll shows Huckabee in a virtual dead heat with Giuliani for 1st place in Illinois:

Giuliani 23
Huckabee 21
Romney 14
McCain 12
Thompson 11

Douglas Schoen has a column at Rasmussen discussing Huckabee's chance to win the nomination:

The Republican side is currently suggestive of a substantial breakthrough from Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is in a statistical tie with Rudy Giuliani in almost every recent national poll including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. This is a tremendous increase in support, as Huckabee was in fifth place a month ago and Giuliani’s lead at that time was substantial.

Huckabee’s surge has not been felt in every state – in New Hampshire, for instance, he remains in fourth place and around 20 points behind leader Mitt Romney. But the more enduring point is that the Republicans seem to be falling in lockstep with him. Huckabee’s latest numbers suggest that if he has a win in Iowa and wins South Carolina (which he leads by 7 points), he could receive enough momentum to carry the nomination.

To be sure, Huckabee could be attacked for lacking fiscal conservative credentials, for his pardons that have received national scrutiny recently, and for being excessively close to the religious right. Still, at this point, it seems clear that Huckabee has made a greater breakthrough on the Republican side than Obama has on the Democratic side.

The Washington Post has a report about Huckabee's new national campaign chairman:

Mike Huckabee's low-budget, fast-moving campaign brought on some needed organizational muscle today in the form of Ed Rollins, the veteran political strategist for candidates including Ronald Reagan -- to whom he today compared his new client for his ability to communicate and connect with voters.

"Governor Huckabee has probably inspired me as much as Ronald Reagan did," Rollins said after being introduced by Huckabee at a press conference here. "I've looked a long time to find a candidate like that...A lot of people walk around talking about the Reagan days and the next Reagan. I was with the old Reagan and I can promise you that this man comes as close as anyone to filling those shoes."

You might also want to check out the Washington Post's in-depth bio of Huckabee:

When he climbed out of the car at Fort Robinson that morning in June 1972, Mike Huckabee found himself surrounded by 1,200 other high school juniors, each a leader in his Arkansas home town, each primed for an election. Several were carrying posters touting their platforms. Others were handing out cards.

Then as now, Huckabee didn't have the campaign apparatus of his peers. The 16-year-old arrived at Boys State, a prestigious and civic-minded youth camp run by the American Legion, from the small southwest Arkansas town of Hope with nothing but a suitcase and a gift for oratory.

By week's end he was its brightest star, elected governor in a landslide. He left Boys State with a network of high-achieving new friends who were eager to hitch their futures to his. And he'd soon have a letter from Gov. Dale Bumpers encouraging him to consider a career in public service.

It was a heady triumph for a teenager who already harbored big ambitions. But it wasn't enough -- not yet -- to lure him from his chosen path: preaching the word of God.

Read the whole thing here...

And The Center for a Just Society defends Huckabee from a recent USA Today attack:

USA Today sees a red flag in Huckabee's call for "taking back the nation for Christ" in 1998, but what they fail to point out is that Huckabee was speaking to a pastor's conference about the goals of the church, not government. Huckabee's comments had nothing to do with imposing religion by governmental decree, and the editors were duplicitous in implying otherwise. Although the secularists on USA Today's editorial board may not like it, in America the Christian church is free to compete for every single soul in the country—as is every other religion.

Finally, USA Today cites Huckabee's disavowal of evolution as a sign that he is blatantly anti-science, but Huckabee's statement is anything but anti-science. He stated, "I believe there is a God who was very active in the creation process. Now how did he do it, and when did he do it, and how long did he take? I don't honestly know and I don't think that knowing that would make me a better or worse president…. [Y]ou know, if anybody wants to believe that they are descendants of a primate, they are certainly welcome to do it…but I believe that all of us in this room are the unique creations of a God who knows us and loves us and who created us for his own purpose." Huckabee's unpardonable sin was not that he is anti-science, but rather that he affirmed the Creator's role in our creation—a view held by Americans like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Christianity is not antithetical to science. Throughout centuries, it was Christians who advanced the cause of science. Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, and Pascal, among others, were all Christians. This connection between faith and science was based upon Christianity's belief in a God who gave order and meaning to the world. Christians believed that God's consistent nature produced consistent laws by which the world operated; laws which could be studied and applied. This is why theology came to be known as the "queen of the sciences." From this basic investigation of God's nature and his creation came the vast body of knowledge we now call "science."

USA Today's editorial reveals more about the editors than it does Mike Huckabee. Their piece demonstrates a profound ignorance of Christianity and the Constitution. They prefer fear-mongering to a careful dissection of the facts. Regardless of what one thinks of Mike Huckabee, one can only hope that the editors will endeavor to remove the log from their own eyes before trying to remove the speck from someone else's.

Read the full article...