Mike Huckabee's numbers are surging. A new American Research Group Iowa poll has Huckabee at 19%, in 2nd place and only 8% behind Romney. With this surge, the media has picked up on it. It is a combination of recent poll numbers and Huckabee's performance at the Value Voters Summit where 400 media people were that has them talking everywhere about Huck.

Most of these stories have been positive. Huck is a great speaker and he is a comeback kid. He is a populist and can reach across the aisle to get things done. Now that he looks to be a clear #2 in Iowa, the negative stories are coming out. Frankly, it is just what I expected, a focus on his stance on Illegal Immigrant Education and the 5 tax increases that occurred while he was governor. But where are these attacks coming from?

They are not, coming from the left. I read my news from politico and realclearpolitics and drudge. Druge had his first link about Huckabee at least since the straw poll as far as I know last week. His headline was a Phyllis Schlafy quote that Huckabee “destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles” The link went to a John Fund Wall Street Journal article.

Note that the WSJ Opinion page is known for being very conservative. The Washington Times ran an article on Huckabee that tried to be balanced, but I would say in total it showed him in a negative light. Pat Toomey, a Club for Growth type got a piece on National Review Online, which basically says he wont win the presidency and ought not be a VP.

My point is that all the people bashing Huck are from the right. Why is this happening. Well I am sure you can thank Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson for one. Their opposition research has had the bullets in the gun, and they were just waiting to fire them only if they had to. Well folks, they had to. The next step is when the candidates themselves (namely Mitt and Fred)  must address Huck, which they have not done yet.

A lot of it also come from the Conservative establishment itself. See, much like Ronald Reagan, Huckabee dances to a differently drum then many conservatives like. They are, as Huckabee has called out, K street and Wall Street. Huck called them out, and now they are firing back. The question now is, can Huckabee's message and image make him the Teflon President for the 21st century?

I believe that he can, but we will only know for sure here in a couple of months. I am sure that my friend Jay Zhee, who I guess is working for the Mitt Romney campaign (or CFG) to discredit this blog and more important for him Mike Huckabee will have something to say here. We all pick our battles, and I am honored to have drawn the attention, much like Huck welcomes the negative attacks, as it is a sign of moving up.

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I just want to start and make a comment on this blog in general. Many of my long time readers of this blog expect to see post about politics, Christianity, sports, general news and whatever is going on in my life. 4 of the last 5 post have been about politics, and I intend to keep a heavy politics focus on this blog in the coming months. That is not to say I will not post something else, but don't expect it. traffic to this site has been going up, and I think the biggest reason for that is the surge in the Huckabee campaign in total. Huck just got 12% in a national Ramussen poll. 3 months ago he was lucky to get 2%.

While this blog is Huckabee friendly, it is not an extension of the Huckabee campaign. I don't get commanding orders on what to post here from Chip Saltsman, or anyone else in the Huckabee campaign. I am happy to be listed on mikehuckabee.com as a blogger. This site is devoted to telling what I consider what is going on in the political world. You can see that I have called out Huckabee's weakness more than some of my fellow Huckabee bloggers would probably like. That being said, I heart Huckabee, and mostly what I say on him will be positive because I believe that he is the best candidate for president I have seen, though I am young.

I love the work that my fellow bloggers do. There is a whole world of what you have to do in order to get people elected, and their work is vital. (where would Howard Dean be without their work, not running the DNC) I also think there is place for the work I am doing. I hope that I am looking at the political landscape as it is and giving thoughtful analysis.

This whole world of elections is amazing to me. I am honored to be involved, and I hope you are praying for me that I will keep a Godly mindset as I get further involved in campaigns.

God Bless, enjoy the blog and Go Huck!
-Nic

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I have been trying to explain to people why Huck's number keep rising with practically zero funds. Well, the truth it is the message, and the man behind this message. I have been telling people the great thing about social conservative candidates is that they have great grassroots. The thing that sticks for them is that it is hard for them to raise money.

This is why I feel like social conservatives do all the dirty work, and then they lose to a candidate of the economic or neo-con wing of the GOP because they are the ones who write the checks. Well Huck is basically the best candidate I have seen for president, but I am young so I only know about others from what I read.

Huck has the message, and he can get people enegized to vote for him. Elections based off of voting against someone don't often work (See John Kerry 04, Bob Dole 96). You need a candidate that the base can get excited about. This is even more true now for the Republican candidate since the Republican brand is one of hypocrite. This was my debate with Gary Bauer at the Value Voters Summit. He suggest that Fred Thompson is best to run cause he can support all 3 legs of the 3 leg stool that Republicans rely on. Well the truth is that Thompson does have the best 3 legged stool, but it is sawed of closest to the ground. That is, there is no excitement to bring him to the white house.

Now take Huck. It is clear there are a few conservatives who don't like him. These are economic types, such as the club for growth, which Huckabee calls the "Club for Greed" The truth is it ought not always be the social conservatives have to support the better of two evils (I use the term evil lightly, as I dont think Huck is evil on any level). It looks like there is not candidate that all 3 wings of the party can get excited about (they are very rare, I can only think of 1 actually, Reagan). The social conservatives united on Huck, and the club for growth will be forced to support him, even if they do hold their noses.

Well, it looks like the word about Huck is getting out to the social conservatives. They are finally moving with their pocketbooks. Huck raised just over 1 million in the third quarter. Just in the last two days, Huck has raised 200k online! If he could keep a pace of 80k a day, that would be 7.2 million. This would be more than respectable with the type of campaign he is running.

Now that Huck is rolling in the cash, He will be able to defend himself from the attacks coming at him soon since his numbers are rising and he will be able to get his message out even more. And seeing what the people who do hear his message do, it should be quite a sight to see indeed!

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Where do you go to sing "Blessed be Your Name" and then listen to Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee speak? Where do you hear Fred Thompson say that "in his first hour in the White House he will be on his knees praying" Like wise, where do you hear Mike Huckabee make a reference to David v. Goliath, "3 Hebrew Boys v blazing fire and Daniel v. Lions? You here these things at the Washington Briefing Value Voters Conference.

This is where I was on Friday and Saturday. The conference is put on by the Family Rea search Council Action, the legislation arm of Focus on the Family group. It is the number one Christian Political organization according to the Church Report. I, as you know have been supporting Mike Huckabee, hard. Actually, I got an e-mail from Northern Virgina Huckabee meetup.com supports if someone could put up two Liberty college kids who were coming up to the conference. I knew I could do it, and I decided to do exactly that. It worked out well and they were nice guys.

Well, I stroll down the escalator at the Washington Hilton and I am not too surprised. To my left, there are the doors to the exhibit hall. To the right, there is a huge hall where everyone would gather. It was 8AM, and we were 45 min from showtime. Very quickly, the place started to fill up.

Soon enough, I seen 2 cute girls who I was tempted to ask if they were Mormons, you know, they had that clear Mormon look, and a Romney sticker on. It was clear that Romney shipped in any Mormon he could. See, Romney needs to have a good showing at the Value Voters Summit, as he needs social conservatives to vote for him, while many of them are a bit reserved to do so because he is a Mormon.

I was at the base of the escalator giving out buttons to Huckabee supporters for the first hour of the conference. While standing there, it was amazing to see what was going on in front of me. There was tons of media from all over the world interviewing people. Some were interviewing regular joe's, and some were interviewing power players in politics. It was amazing to see people like Gary Bauer standing there and just any old person could talk to him.

After doing that for an hour, I walk into the convention hall and sit down while John McCain is speaking. Over the day, I hear all of the presidential candidates except Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giulani, who are scheduled to speak the next day. It is amazing to hear them all, and you get a mix of applause and 'Amen' uttering from time to time. The first person really to pump up the crowd was Tom Tancredo, who got multiple standing ovations.

Later in the day I do into the exhibit hall and see a mix of political and faith booths. It is here where I vote in the straw poll. It is also here where I see Newt Gingrich signing books, and gets some pictures close to him. Also, during the day I see some of the icons of the modern conservative movement, for example Phyllis Schafely. I go to bed with a good day excited about Huckabee on Saturday.

On Saturday, I was able to get a sign that I could wave for huckabee. I was noticing that more and more people had a Huckabee buttons. It was becoming clear that despite the on the ground efforts of Romney and Thompson, these people wanted Huckabee even before he spoke. As he was introduced, the mention of his name drew a standing ovation. When he came out, like all candidates, he got a standing ovation, though his was longer than anyone else's. It was clear that this was he crowd to win.

And boy did he ever win it. He gave a sermon, in many ways. He told a joke I have heard huckabee tell before on the internet. He talks about a women who asks him, "Mr. Huckabee, are you one of those people who think only Baptist are going to be in heaven" Huckabee responds, "I am more narrow than that, I don't even think all the Baptist are going to get in" Huckabee drew 11 standing ovations, way more than any other candidate. He said "I do not come to speak in front of you, rather I come from you" It was clear that the values voters had their candidate.

After the speech, Huckabee had a small room rented where he would talk to bloggers and other big time supporters who were invited. I was there, and he really impressed me even more there, as he took our questions. I sat there snapping pictures and smiling. As he left, I talked to him for a second and he told me "you have a cool camera" I said thanks. I wish I would have told him that I am praying for him.

The straw poll results came in and it was clear that Huckabee was the chosen one at the convention. I dont want to get into that debate again here, read my last post on the matter.

Anyway, it was an amazing time, and a setting that I had never been around before.

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I am e-mail this letter to news organizations all over the country, I am ticked:

Today, the Family Research Council Action group has failed they own membership. As you may know, the FRC decided to have a straw poll at the Washington Briefing Value Voters Conference. The conference was attended by approximately 2,000 of the most active members of the social conservative movement. I am an aspiring pollster who attends George Washington University as a graduate student and I normally put little stock in straw polls in general. Still, I considered this straw poll very important since it could very well have shown who these highly influential conservatives want as their nominee.

 

The people clearly decided that Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is their choice for President. Still, the straw poll did not do this due to the horrible move by the FRC to have online voting. They allowed anyone to vote in the poll if they donated $1 to the FRC, and in essence become a member of the group. Thus, with the combined results of online and onsite voting, Former Gov. Mitt Romney won the straw poll by 30 votes, edging out Mike Huckabee with 1595 votes over Huckabee’s 1565 votes. Romney was out voted 488 to 99 (51% to 10%) against Huckabee in onsite voting.

 

It was clear at the conference that the “normal people” at the conference are ready to rally around Mike Huckabee. Publicly, the leadership was hoping to have a clear candidate that they could throw the weight behind. Still, what they are saying and what they are doing are two separate things. The truth is the leadership does not want to support Hucakbee, as they don’t think that he can win in the general election. At the press conference following the straw poll results, Tony Perkins was downplaying the fact that its own members at the conference were clear.

 

It is a say day because a group that derives its power by grassroots support will not listen to those people who put them into power. They owe it to their membership to support Mike Huckabee. I understand their concerns about Huckabee, since he is not well received by the “economic conservative” wing of the party. Still, the leadership owes it to both Huckabee and its members to support Huckabee. They may very well be correct that Huckabee cannot win, but the social conservatives claim to vote on values, and if they do, they would support Huckabee, like their membership says. Sadly, it appears that the social conservative leadership are being hypocritical, which is probably why the social conservative movement has lost so much power in the recent past.

 

If you have any questions or comments on the matter, please e-mail me at shayko@gwu.edu. There is a lot more that I have to say, but I wanted to keep this letter short as I know you have a busy schedule.

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As a kid, people would ask me what my favorite show is. I would always answer then same thing, "The Price Is Right"

I still love the show, I love the flair, I loved Bob, and I loved the games. I liked to thing I am real good at the games, knowing optimal strategy and getting ticked off at the TV when people were making such stupid moves. Let me give you a quick example. Each round starts with the 4 contestants bidding on an item. The person who is cloest to the actual retail price without going over wins that prize and gets to play a game for a much better prize on stage. It is clear that being last is a huge advantage. Still, I have seen so many horrible bids, but this has to be the worst. One guy bids 600, what does the next lady bid? 599. What a Moron

Anyway, about Drew Carry on the Price is Right. You can watch it on cbs.com as in 2007 stations have learned to put their shows on the net. Drew did a decent job, but he still has a lot of work to do. The biggest thing he needs to work on is explaining the games. Bob was so clear and precise when he expained the game. Now, Bob has been doing it for years, but Drew needs to be able to do at least half as good as Bob did.

The other thing Drew needs to work on is his timing. On the "Power of 10" (Drew host this game show this summer), the questions take a long time and it is all about the buildup. On TPIR, the show moves very quickly, Drew did a poor job of making contestants commit to decisions. The biggest mistake was on the game "Its in the Bag" where it took way too long, 5 min as I timed it. That game should have taken 1/2 the time. The reason this is so important is that Drew need to keep it moving so the editing can be as smooth as possible.

These things Drew should be able to learn in time. Since Drew is from Cleveland and he flaunts it, a lot of people had on shirts that said "Cleveland Rocks" or other Cleveland related things. That is a cool thing to see. Still, I saw a group with yellow shirts that said Pittsburg Rocks, needless to say, no one made it on stage from that large group.

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I used to be a fan of Ann Coulter. In mays ways, I still am. I love how she has no regard for political correctness. Her new book just came out "If Democrats has brains, they would be Republicans"

Well, she just made some comments about Jews, here is an excerpt, talking about the difference between Christians and Jews:

"Do you know what Christianity is?" Coulter replied. "See, we believe your religion, but you have to obey. We have the fast track program."

While I see what she is trying to say, I think she is hurting Christians and Jews when she puts it in these terms. She later clarified, saying this after Donny Deutsch, who was interviewing her, was offended:

"No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be," she said. "I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament."

At first read this made me mad too. But after reading it again I came around. While I dont think Coulter's analysis is 100% correct, I think it is useful, unlike her "fast track program" statement.

I don't know, maybe I have just grown up and thus my love for Coulter has faded in many ways.

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Mike Huckabee is seeing a surge in the early states. The most visible is that of Iowa, where he is now polling in double digits. 3 of the last 4 polls have had him at 12% support or higher. The best news about that 12% is that it is a solid 12%. No one knew Huckabee before, so people who are saying they want Huckabee are informed voters who have thought an made their choice. Thus, he has big room for improvement.

Before, people were saying if Huckabee could sneak into 3rd place in Iowa it could be huge. While that is still true,a 2nd place finish in Iowa is not beyond Huckabee's grasp anymore. Look for Mike Huckabee to employ the Pat Buchanan strategy in 1996, look respectful in Iowa with a 2nd or 3rd place finish, and then take the world by storm with a win in New Hampshire.

If not a win, Huckabee need to finish above Romney (and Thompson) in New Hampshire, that will establish him as the conservative candidate.  Then Huckabee  needs his fellow conservatives to Support him vs Giuliani. What Huckabee needs is a 1 on 1 race vs Giuliani, if the conservative vote is still split 3 or 4 ways between Huck, Mitt, Fred and even McCain, then Giuliani will be the nominee.

The way Huckabee really gets up there in the polls is he needs to social conservatives to rally around him. If he can get 3/4 of the social conservative in his came before Iowa, we could really be talking about another long shot coming all the way up.

This is an exciting time in politics. Go Huckabee!!!!

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It has been said all year around Cleveland that the Indians have had something special going this summer. Many people have been calling divin inspiration this year. I seen a sign at the ballpark yesterday: "God is an Indians fan" I dont really think God is an Indians fan though, cause I dont think God is in the business of torturing himself.

Anyway, I was at the game last night, and it was amazing. The fire in the place being full in the playoffs compares to nothing else I have seen in professional sports. The indians could not buy a hit with runners in scoring position. They got 1, and only 1 hit in each of the first 7 innings. Then God sent the midges!

These little bugs screwed with Joba Chamberlain enought that he walked Sizemore, threw a wild pitch to get him to 2nd, and then a wild pitch to score him. God must have been getting a little upset at how the tribe could not get that run home, so he took matters into his own hands. After 12 innings, it was amazing and Hafter hit the walk off single and the whole place goes nuts. I will remember this moment forever

Well, I can't say I am suprised God went with the flying bugs, he has done that in the past.

Go Tribe!

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On Wed at 2:01PM at work. An odd e-mail hits my impox, which I see at 2:02. It is from the Indians and it says I can buy up to 8 playoff tickets for the ALDS postseason games. About 2 weeks ago the indians held a lottery for postseseason tickets and I lost. They offer me these casue, as I later found out, they hold a very few tickets cause they want to sell them as a package with a season ticket package for the 2008 season. When they have not sold them buy Wed, they offer them to a select few, which I was one of. As many of you know, game 1 of the series was yesterday (Indians won!). So they were offering me tickets got a game less than 30 hours away.

I come up with what I think is a master plan. I see what are the best tickets that I can get for Game 1. Two minutes later, I can buy the best seats in the house "Diamond Box" which have a face value of $115. I buy these 4 tickets. I then buy 4 Lower Reserve tickets for $52 for Friday, Game 2 of the series.

My plan is to sell the game 1 tickets and get a plane into Cleveland and watch game 2 with my father, brother and friend. I go through a sweet site, statravel.com and I am able to get a last min flight to Cleveland for $250 that would ahve been $700 for a non-student.

I figured that I could easy get $400 a ticket. Tickets that were worse than mind were selling on stubhub for $500, so I figure it is a lock. Then I find out how hard it is to sell tickets through stubhub. If I had an account set up already it would have been easy enough, but I just did not have the time to go through the hoops.

I then call ticket brokers and learn about their mean attitudes and how they ask you for a number and then balk at it. Other than class from 7-10, I take all day trying to sell these. I am so stress out as I charged my Credit Card $470 for these tickets alone and I cant do anything with them. At 8AM Thursday I call up a ticket broker, one I called before and tell him I want face value plus the convience fee ($6 per ticket). He talks now and a 4 hours later he has my tickets sold, and I get $125 a ticket.

All of this stress for a $4 a ticket profit which he is nice and gives me. I hear that night that tickets were going as high as $1000 a piece on the street, but I am happy just to get back what I paid for them.

So now I am in Cleveland and pumped to get going to game 2, and it should be a blast. I may have won the lottery, but I end up paying just over$300 for a weekend in Cleveland to watch the game with my friends and family. Still, I am looking foward to it!

Too bad it could not have been on the house.

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