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Thursday, January 3, 2008
Huckabee, but not yet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looks to be a good night for Mike Huckabee in Iowa. He’s won, followed by Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and John McCain. That would suggest that the Republicans move on to New Hampshire, where Huckabee is not expected to do well, and on to South Carolina on Jan. 26 for the real showdown for the conservative wing of the party.
The big showdown for McCain (13 percent) and Rudy Giuliani would likely shake out on Super Tuesday on Feb. 5. This could go on for awhile. Iowa doesn’t put anybody out of it who wasn’t already — or give anybody a decided edge.
About 60 percent of the Iowa caucus goers on the Republican side consider themselves evangelical Christians and of those 46 percent favored Huckabee, according to samplings taken at the caucuses.
It’s a good night for Huckabee. The small-town and rural voters in Iowa clearly relate — and it may well be that enthusiasm here trumps organization. (Cynthia and I don’t often agree on politics, but tonight we do. While I’m not the Republican establishment, it’s inconceivable that Huckabee will be the eventual nominee.)
On the Democratic side, Barack Obama’s win, coupled with Huckabee’s on the Republican, indicates that Iowa voters were not drawn back to earth by last week’s assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. The attention focused on that assassination should have been a reminder that national security will remain the top priority for the next President. Obama and Huckabee are not candidates who inspire confidence in their ability to lead a nation at war.
Rain, Polar Bears, earmarks, salaries
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• Drat. The weather never cooperates. “Driest on record” would have been an effective marketing tool to push legislation like DeKalb’s proposed mandate that owners of homes built before 1993 replace toilets and shower heads when the property’s sold. Then more than 43/4 inches of rain falls in four days. And just as the global warming campaign gathers steam, Britain enters the new year expecting one of its bitterest winters in 100 years. Act on water, but with facts, not emotion.
• Sign of the times: Of 11 first-births-of-2008 at Atlanta-area hospitals, only four were to couples who shared a surname.
• Virginia imposed fees ranging from $250 to $3,000 on drivers convicted of traffic offenses. Those are in addition to the usual fines. A motorist exceeding the speed limit by 20 mph, for example, would pay the fine, plus $1,000. The fee goes to transportation. It was passed by a Republican-controlled General Assembly as a tax alternative. The ostensible purpose is to deter bad driving and improve road safety. Since the law took effect July 1, 519 people have died on the highway, 10 more than the same period in 2006. Republicans who fee-and-spend are worse (more devious) than Democrats who tax and spend. Don’t fee my car, speeding ticket or cellphone for trauma centers. Tax and appropriate, upfront and in the open.
• Not on the list of adventures to do before I die: participating in any Polar Bear Swim on New Year’s Day at Lake Lanier. Or anywhere else for that matter. I could be wrong, but I’d say anybody over the age of 20 who does that is not from around here.
• When looking for somebody to represent me in the U.S. Senate, it’s unlikely that I’d shop the Polar Bear Swim. And it’s unlikely, too, that I’d look atop a 32-story tower in downtown Atlanta, which is where Democrat candidate Dale Cardwell spent nights in subfreezing weather. Boys, we are a nation at war. Judgment counts.
• Need more evidence that Washington flat doesn’t work? Hans von Spakovsky, the former Fulton County GOP chairman who had been appointed to the Federal Elections Commission by President Bush, left office on Dec. 31. He’d been caught up in the games of Congress, his January 2006 recess appointment blocked from Senate confirmation by Democrats Barack Obama of Illinois and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. In response, the GOP blocked two Democratic nominees. Von Spakovsky is a fair and capable man, maligned by liberals who made him the whipping boy of their opposition to voter ID. As The Wall Street Journal said in endorsing him: “The issue isn’t competence but political revenge.” The FEC now has two commissioners. Four are required to act on anything.
• Congratulations to five Georgia congressmen: Paul Broun of Athens, John Linder of Duluth, Tom Price of Roswell, Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville and Nathan Deal of Clermont. All account for less than a million dollars each in earmarks, the pork members of Congress insert into the federal budget. Broun, who just landed in Congress, had zero — a fine showing. Hank Johnson of DeKalb asked for $500,000 for fixes on Glenwood Road; his colleagues upped that to a million. Fixing local roads is not the business of Congress.
• New Year’s Resolution: Drop my panda PR team. Hire the one that can get almost half the front page of the Sunday paper to get all of Georgia to agonize over this pressing question: “Is the Thinking Right columnist underpaid?” They did that for Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. My question, though, is whether she knew what the job paid when she took it? It’s a shot in the dark, but I’m thinking yes. Besides, I can’t give her pay any think-time; I’m worried sick about how our mayor’s making it in Smyrna on $21,600 a year. Franklin’s job pays $147,500.
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Iowa winners are…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a year of campaigning, the Iowa caucuses are upon us. Today, then, is opportunity for all of us to see how much we’ve learned in the past year from each other in the Thinking Right discussion group. You be the pundit.
The AJC asked a number of Atlanta-area notables to pick the winners of tonight’s caucuses. Neal Boortz thinks it’ll be Hillary and Mike Huckabee. Former State GOP chairman Chuck Clay of Marietta thinks John Edwards and Mitt Romney. TBS baseball announcer Chip Caray says Edwards and Huckabee.
The correct answer is Romney and Clinton. Iowa’s about organization and Romney and Clinton are most effectively organized there to turn out their supporters.
In the spirit of fair play, however, other opinions are invited. Everybody’s an expert today.
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