Finally! The Moment We've All Been Waiting For

The Recession Is Here! The Recession Is Here!

Now maybe instead of endlessly listening to the doom-sayers predicting the imminent collapse of our financial institutions and discussing how deep and how long the coming catastrophic economic downturn will be as we teeter on the brink of ruin -- they can start with the happy talk of Teh Awesome recovery and how much better things will be ... reeeeel soon.

A growing number of top economists believe that the U.S. economy has now toppled into recession. Alarm bells were set off Tuesday by a grim report on service businesses, which make up the majority of the U.S. economy.

The Institute of Supply Management said that activity in the service sector declined for the first time in nearly five years. This report also indicated that employers are cutting staff.

Now they push the panic button?!? Now that all the decent jobs have been outsourced and the unions are a shadow of their former selves, you know that we're in trouble when cash flow has ground down to the point where we can't afford to wait on each other.

Come on, the Service Employee's Union is now the largest and most influential Union when it comes to endorsement headlines? WTF happened to the clout of the manufacturing guys, the Steel and Iron Workers, the UAB, the frickin' Teamsters? They were the forces to be appeased not that long ago. Now it's "big" news that the Painters endorsed the Huckster. Not to disparage the Painters Union, good folks all. But seriously, am I supposed to be impressed?

Ya gotta make stuff. That's the economic engine of an industrialized nation. What this current episode of chickens coming home to roost indicates is that the era of post-ndustrialized America is now fully in play. Everybody is servicing everybody else and nobody is making anything of value that originates the wealth we pass around to each other for doing stuff for the next guy.

In fact, all that we're witnessing is the perpetual motion machine wearing down through inertia -- a machine that was switched off in the late 70's and early 80's with the American steel industry disintegration and has slowly worked it's agony throughout the economy as manufacturing jobs have been outsourced over the last decade.

Finally, deregulation and indifference by a ruling class that treats globalization and the free market as a religion instead of an economic theory has trickled it's malignant magic right down though to the folk who clean up everybody else's messes, drive the buses, care for the sick and disabled, sell shoes, build, finance and sell houses, and flip burgers.

The survey covers the retail, transportation and health care industries as well as hard hit areas such as finance, real estate and construction.

Some economists argued that the normally low-profile ISM services reading, coupled with the government's report Friday showing the first monthly net loss in jobs in more than four years, is proof that recession is now a reality.

Of course, the cure for this is the same thing we saw when the economy was humming and the Club For Greed insisted that starving the beast was only "fair" -- that you should get "your money" back. Huzzah! Tax cuts for the wealthy, naturally. The elixir that treats all ailments -- just like snake-oil and a stiff shot of scotch (preferably Johnny Walker Blue -- the choice of Enron executives everywhere).

Say what you want about Mike Huckabee and his goofy ideas, but his break with supply-sider doctrine is outstanding. The Fed is still in the grip of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman mythology that tinkering with the money supply and playing with the Laffer Curve is the extent of proper government interference with the private sector.

Rand's "Objectivism" is merely raw selfish greed and hedonistic misogyny supercharged with a thesaurus yet this delusion of a failed screenwriter is the basis of the dominant fiscal policy of our nation -- supply-side (voodoo) economics. The fact that John McCain counts Trickle Down Guru Jack Kemp as an adviser tells you all you need to know about his fiscal conservative orthodoxy. McCain is just as nutty as the rest of them, The Blimpster included.

Put people to work. That'll fix a lot that's wrong. Adding some lanes to I-95 is a great thing to do -- lousy idea to campaign on, however. But Huck is a hick, after all.

More of the same is why we're in this mess.

Dear Mark Sheilds

by shep

Hi Mark,

On the News Hour New Hampshire Extravaganza, I thought your answer on Hillary’s "comeback" was brilliant (also a nice point on the "is blowing 20-point lead a great victory" question). At least, I agreed with it: roughly, female sympathy and backlash at the treatment Hillary has received from the press and her rivals over that last few days (why it wasn’t reflected even in late polling) turned the female vote out for her big time.

Wish I could say the same for your answer on McCain: “the anti-Bush”. Other than finally turning on Rumsfeld, and an all-too-tepid resistance to US sanctioned torture, he’s barely been off his knees before Bush since 2000.

I think the real Republican story is that rank-and-file Republicans, particularly Evangelicals, simply reject Romney (the Mormon) and Gulianni (the philandering New Yorker) and are choosing one of their own in Huckabee. Regardless of their automaton-like fealty to the Republican Party, they have been trained to despise (any) government (pretty shrewd of Huck to play the populist) and to do (and believe) what their preachers tell them.

Oh, and the (conspicuously unspoken) story with Edwards is that the corporate media ignored, marginalized or outright ridiculed him – because, obviously, they hate his anti-corporate, populist rhetoric – so his message never reached the voters who would be energized by it. Others simply bought into the media-framed “no chance against the frontrunners” status (breathtaking chutzpa considering that he came in second in Iowa).

IMHO, for what it's worth.

Best,
[shep]

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]

Yikes, We're Gonna Be Hucked

Cross Posted at The American Street

I watched Huckabee on Leno Wednesday night, and can tell you why he outperformed expectations in the Iowa caucus. If this guy manages to do the impossible, buck the GOP moneyed elite and withstand the onslaught of the entrenched conservative noise machine led by Limbaugh and Hannity, get outspent 25 to one, and still win the Republican nomination -- we're fucked.

He can take Edwards' populist message to a more authentic level with one story about his wife and him living in a double-wide trailer, and call out the same corporate lobbyists on their crap without the fighting words all the Broderites tell us liberals will always doom our cause.

He's soft-spoken, natural, and speaks of unity and ending our divides between right and left (moving up, vertically instead of horizontally) in a way captures the essence of Obama's recurrent uniter theme without sounding like a college professor, but a father-confessor.

And he not only was born in Hope, Arkansas, but was raised there, lived there most of his life -- unlike Hillary's hubby whose family moved to Hot Springs when Bubba was seven. And the dude can jam, but wisely forgoes the Blues Brothers' shades when he straps on his guitar. And while he embodies the "everyman" qualities Bill Clinton personified, he lacks that calculated guile Hillary Clinton oozes, which is both her strongest quality and her perpetual curse. (It's great that she has it, lousy that we know about it.)

Yep, Huckabee is stupid, dangerously so, but doesn't come off that way. He doesn't know squat about foreign policy and claims he didn't think he was crossing any picket lines by appearing on the Leno show. He's got a seriously flawed tax scheme, is one dumb joke short of being a gay basher, and is willing to hold up major disaster relief legislation because he doesn't think his boss should be blamed for Acts of God.

However, you never see him hesitate as he talks. He avoids those annoying vocal segregates you use when thinking of what you're going to say next (“aah”, “um” “uh-huh”) that even a crisp litigator slips into -- like John Edwards does habitually which makes him sound hesitant and uncertain when he interjects the word, "aahhnd" every other sentence. I guess this is where the communication degree balances my political science studies.

Style does matter. It sucks, but it's true. Wearing a goofy helmet or baby-blue bunny smock leaves an impression, even more so in a YouTube world. Speaking style, a graceful natural intonation has taken Barack Obama far indeed, which makes the substance of his message resonate in a way that Hillary tries, but fails, because it always seems like she's trying and not just doing. She needs to learn to just ... be. Barack does that, so does Huckabee. Edwards could if he wasn't trying to cover up a stutter.

Most of what any speaker communicates is non-verbal, and leaves an inarticulable impression on the listener/viewer. Often this impression is completely wrong, as people who stutter learn to use these vocal segregate devices as a way to control an even worse delivery -- yet they sometimes sound like they are trying to convince themselves as well as you. It's what got me through my college speech and debate team competitions as a former stutterer, so I know. It's the lessor of two evils.

You gotta dress the part too, look like a president, which Mitt Romney has spent about eight million bucks doing from the looks of him. Giuliani is running a campaign strictly on some tough-guy cred. He has to, the guy walks and talks like a thug. That's all he's got. The days when John McCain and Fred Thompson could pull off the illusion of inspirational leader have passed them by. Think Ronald Reagan in his second term, without an entourage of image-consultants to keep them looking the part.

Huckabee doesn't give the great, inspirational sermons Obama can crank out, but he can engage in conversation and not just parrot talking points, string two sentences together and make sense, tell a joke that gets laughs and not just a wince and nod, and comes across (as he says) more like the guy you work with than the one who laid you off. Already that makes him more than qualified for the position than the current resident, even after seven years of on-the-job training.

The more I learn about Mike Huckabee and what he stands for, the more I don't like him -- that he would be a disastrously impossible follow-up to the current fiasco. He stands for crackpot solutions to the very real problems his party has created. The more I see and hear him however, the more I know we're in for yet another fight for our lives come next fall if he's the GOP nominee.

He comes across "genuine." A genuine "what" is irrelevant, at least to the likes of Russert, Blitzer, Scarborough and Chris Matthews. The professional courtiers known as the Washington Press Corps live for those moments they can find a rich, unbelievably ambitious, narcissistic empty suit and tell us "He's one of you!"

You see, those of us who quest for information have a desire to learn. But there are more people who value action over knowledge, impressions over information, and are unconsciously more moved by style over substance in our American culture. The proof of this is that someone as utterly incompetent as George W. Bush got to the point where he is (thankfully) term limited, having fooled the voters enough to even make it close enough to steal, twice.

Mike Huckabee has a natural, comfortable ability to deliver more bad ideas than Bush ever dreamed.

I like This Post Title

It says it all.

I Don't Know If Mike Huckabee Was ‘Born’ an Flaming Dickwad …

Mike Huckabee's predictable inability to relate to "those people" is red meat to the conservative base. Think Progress covers the preference such conservative thinking gives to staying in the closet:

On NBC's Meet The Press this morning, host Tim Russert asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee if he believed “people are born gay or choose to be gay?" “I don't know whether people are born that way,” responded Huckabee, “but one thing I know, that the behavior one practices is a choice.”

Whatever Mike. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. Now if you could only keep your constant bible thumping in the closet we might get somewhere.

Buchucka-Upchuck

Watching the punditocracy try and fit this into their preconceived notions will be fun to watch.
That alone is enough reason to root for the underdogs. It's already started. Sometime over the weekend, Pat Buchanan saw his credibility wearing thin. He's always been about the money race, especially on the GOP side, insisting that Huckabee didn't have a chance going into Florida and the February 5th Mega-State primaries. He's said the same thing about John Edwards right along.

This morning on MSNBC, I saw him completely change his tune, laying out exactly how momentum alone can carry HuckABEE through to the nomination.

Buchanan's a believer now, and ignores Ron Paul's money bombs. This was quite out of character. When a veteran of the Nixon, Ford and Reagan White House can't figure out what's going on as the GOP coalition disintegrates any better than someone throwing chicken entrails against a wall as he backtracks on every bit of "wisdom" he's spouted about campaigning for president -- something's up.

Did he have some kind of epiphany? Did Karl Rove call him and share "The Math?" Or does he see his own failed attempt to buck the tide in 1996 as something akin to Huckamentum?

My guess, it's the latter. He most certainly has read New York Magazine's Huckabuchanan piece, and let his vanity overwhelm his pomposity.

It occurs to me that Pat's constant mantra that it's impossible to take anyone serious on either side unless they've got $50 million bucks to burn stems from his bitter experience at being a loser when he tried to grab the golden ring himself.

Huckabee’s brand of populism isn’t nearly as strident (read lunatic) as Buchanan’s. But to describe it as watery doesn’t do it justice. Huckabee’s posture on matters of taxing, trading, and even faith represent something shrewder: Buchananism minus the bombast, the paranoia, the out-front efforts to court the clenched-fist-and-camouflage crowd. And in this regard, the message and the messenger are the same—which could well make them more formidable, and no less disconcerting, than Buchanan and his gospel were in 1996.

See, it's not that Buchanan is nuttier than a fist full of cashews, at least according to Pat. He, like so many who attend the Court functions at Versailles on the Potomac refuses to ever question his world-view or competence. It's that he was outspent, not out campaigned or out thought by his competitors. He was robbed! And now he has a hero of his own to vindicate his trials and tribulations.

That's how he gets through the day, believing that his jingoistic xenophobia still resonates with more than a fraction of the general public and not just the wackos inhabiting the GOP base. Or worse, that it really is the best way for American to act. Mark my words, Buchanan will eventually take credit for any and all of Huckabee's success in the next six to eight weeks, having paved the way for the preacher from Hope, Arkansas.

And if Huckabee doesn't go all the way, it will (again) be all about the Benjamins.

Timing? Peaking Perfectly? Edwards Polls 1st In Iowa!

Can ya gimme a WØØT!

At considerable risk of unjustified derision and rolling of eyeballs, my uncanny powers of political observation verge on the psychic -- cuz this is what I've been saying right along. The second choice matters a lot in the quirky Iowa caucus, especially where the "second tier" candidates are so strong, yet not quite viable. Edwards always was going to get the lion's share of them.

His structural advantage of having a loyal following who caucused for him last time upon which to build, while everyone else had to create an Iowa base was (IMO) underrated as well. Mind you, by that logic if Bill hadn't skipped Iowa back in the 90's, Hillary could have tapped that base and be absolutely untouchable. Bill's the reason she even has a shot, and the reason she's struggling -- again and again. Irony's a bitter pill.

The race among the three top Democrats is extremely close, with the potential for any of them to finish first – or third.

Edwards leads with 30 percent in a poll of Democratic voters who said they intend to participate in the Jan. 3 presidential caucuses, followed by Clinton with 26 percent and Obama with 24 percent. When the sample was narrowed to the most likely caucus-goers, based on several questions, Obama leads Edwards by less than a percentage point with 27 percent, with Clinton in third place at 24 percent.

Edwards holds a significant advantage, however, among a group who could be key to the first contest of the presidential year: those who say their first choice is someone other than the top three. Under Iowa Democratic Party rules, candidates who poll less than 15 percent in the first vote at each caucus around the state are eliminated, and their supporters get a second chance to vote for another candidate.

Under both screens, Edwards leads as the second choice of these voters, with Clinton trailing Obama.

“If Edwards is the second choice at this stage of those who intend to vote for other Democrats, then it would not be surprising if he produced a bit of a shock in Iowa,” said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery.

Towery said the firm employed the same methodology with regard to asking the second choice of those who were voting for candidates other than those in the top tier, and obtained an accurate picture of John Kerry’s lead.

The poll of 977 Democrats who said they will go to the caucuses, conducted Sunday and Monday has a error margin of plus-or-minus 3 percent. The tighter screen of 633 voters has an error margin of plus-or-minus 4 percent.

Hat Tip Political Wire.

By my math, there's between 22% and 30% of Iowa caucusers either undecided or backing someone who most likely won't get above the 15% viability threshold. That's a huge built-in margin of error the horse race Villagers never seem to understand.

Huck looks good on the other side, and even if he comes in a close second, the breathlessness of the Village Press about the popular "insurgency" of Huck and a "surprise upset victory" by Edwards will be more powerful than a $50 million ad buy.

Speaking of which, besides buying a blimp, just what is Ron Paul doing with all that cash he raised? I've only see one poll where Paul is doing well, and that poll's methodology is, shall we say, suspect? But so is buying a frickin' blimp.

Actually, I don't know which is more absurd, polling at 120% or the blimp thingy. You probably need 120% to win an election by and for the vote stealing Republican Party.

---

UPDATE: Todd Beeton points me inside the numbers.

Interestingly enough, being a political science major, I let others do the math. Make that between 22% and 20%, not 30% as I previously said.

Doh!

What's weirder when you look inside, is that as they screened out the likely caucusers from the highly likely caucusers, there were more folks who were undecided than in the broader sample.

	Highly Likely Voters	Likely Voters
Obama	26.6	24.3
Edwards	26.0	29.8
Clinton	23.8	26.4
Other	14	12.1
Undecided	9.5	7.4

I just don't see anyone actually trudging out in the cold who hasn't got a horse in the race. I know Iowans are a peculiar people who take this stuff very seriously and I guess there are a certain number who feel duty bound to show up even if they have no f-ing clue who they'll cast their lot with. I know it's statistically insignificant, but a weird trend.

But if you absolutely know you'll be going to the local meeting hall in a couple of weeks, don't you think you'd be paying a bit more attention and picked sides?

Okay, I'm Done. I Don't Heart Huckabee

Yeah, I admit. It was a casual flirtation. Nothing more serious than checking out a pretty girl's legs then averting your eyes. I'm over it now.

Face it. Huck is irritating ...

Gomer Pyle is all testy, because people have the gall to keep asking him about his religious beliefs all the time:

[Huckabee] bristled Tuesday when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools.

Huckabee — who raised his hand at a debate last May when asked which candidates disbelieved the theory of evolution — asked this time why there is such a fascination with his beliefs.

Because you want to legislate them, dipshit. That makes them kind of a need-to-know issue for the rest of us.

The former Arkansas governor pointed out he has advocated for broad public school course lists that include the creative arts and math and science. Why, then, he asked, is evolution such a fascination?

... and downright ignorant ...

Huckabee sat down last night with reporters, and it turns out he still hadn't heard about the National Intelligence Estimate showing that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Not only that, but Huckabee continued speaking about Iran in terms of them being about to acquire nuclear weapons, even after reporter David Paul Kuhn summarized the official findings for him.

"I don't know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it ..." Huckabee said. "And I've heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought."

Sorry, I'm not buying the excuse that he can't afford advisers to keep him up to date (ie. tell him what to parrot) the way other candidates can. You don't need a death harbinger like Norm Podhoretz to feed you talking points when a story is this big -- and you hadn't even heard about it. Come on, really? It's everywhere. Pick up a paper. Tell the Mrs. to switch to CNN (or even FOX) between Oprah and The View so she can keep you from looking the fool. Oy!

Obviously we have a guy whose weakness is in curiosity about current events, any effective appreciation for foreign policy, and a stunning lack of people around him who do. There was always something fishy about the guy literally coming out of nowhere. He was somebody's (Rudy's) stalking horse, and I think his services are no longer required.

It really is pretty obvious when you think about it. The guy is a Republican after all. It was never going to work out between us. The customary fee is on the bedside table. Thanks for the hummer, Hucky.

Please Mike, don't cry. We can still be friends. Really. It's me, not you. You'll find someone new to cuddle with. There are a lot of clueless Ron Paul supporters out there who will need a hug soon. I'm just not ready to commit . . .

. . . to a stupidly delusional goofball.

Uh, Oh. Huck Has A Real Willie Horton Problem

I mentioned snarkily the other day that bass player Mike Huckabee has a "Willie Horton problem" because he pardoned Kieth Richards for a reckless operation charge after meeting the Rolling Stone's lead guitarist backstage at a concert.

Huffington Post has an exclusive, from a GOP source, that he let a rapist out of prison who did it again and comitted murder too -- after Mike was warned repeatedly that the guy was dangerous.

As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous other women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

But confidential files obtained by the Huffington Post show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.

See the full documents by clicking on the links below.

Letter From Rape Victim, Sept. 1996

Letter From Rape Victim's Daughter, Sept. 1996

Letter From Rape Victim, Sept. 1999

This has Rudy's thugs written all over it. Note it came out only after Huck made a run at the Mayor in National polls. That, and it fits completely within his Rovellian style. The fact that they didn't pedal this smear to any conservative outlet speaks volumes.

I mean, if Michele Malkin, Powerline, or the entire Rudy-Wired Fox Noise apparatus wouldn't run with this -- but HuffPost was chosen to do Giuliani's dirty work -- it speaks volumes.

[UPDATE: The fact that it's Murray Waas doing the original reporting in the Arkansas Times goes a long way with me towards believing the facts of the story. The fact that he updated the story on the HuffPost blog and not his usual outlets like the National Journal, Washington Post, New Yorker, LA Times or American Prospect tells me this thing is too hot to handle for the usual GOP suspects.]

For God's Sake, Democrats

If you ever needed a reason NOT to vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, take a look at what happens when you underestimate the Republican Party -- not their leaders, but the common people who make up the party with (by definition) common sense.

Not only that, new polling data released today shows that Huckabee has pulled to within a single percentage point of Hillary Clinton in a general election match-up. Huckabee is also a frontrunner in Iowa and essentially tied for second in New Hampshire. Some pundits believe Huckabee's numbers will surely go down as fast as they've gone up while others are beginning to consider the possibility that the bass-guitar playing Governor may become a serious contender for the Republican nomination.

Let me just get beyond the idiocy of seeing the Iowa frontrunner coming within the margin of error of being in first place nationally described as someone who "may become a serious contender." (Note: don't take "horse race" political journalists to the track. They stick with their first pick even after the nag has been scratched.)

The GOP is nutz if they don't get behind this authentic, god preachin' economic populist. NO, THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT. But if the GOP can flirt with a flip-flopping Governor of that bluest of Blue States, Massachusetts, and can give Rudy a pass for being against them on gays and abortion, and having Sex ON the City, of course they'll thumb their nose at Grover Norquist and risk a tax increase by Huckabee (which will of course destroy his reelection chances, but WTF).

But if they GOP faithful (and I mean that in every sense of the word) get behind Huck, we aren't going to see the rank and file so disgusted they'll stay home (like they would if their nominee was Mitt, Rudy or John McCain.)

This guy's pretty clean, folks. Mind you, the Clintons look like Ozzie and Harriet compared to the Bush Crime family and their Sopranoesque enablers, but that only makes Huckabee even more saintly.

All the Democratic candidates, including Hillary, can beat Rudy or Mitt, or even McCain. Those three are each in their own way a sell-out, and empty suit devoid of any more substance than the latest focus groups tell them to be. But that's the rap on Hillary too -- she just does it better.

Any other candidate, besides Hillary, ANY OTHER Democratic candidate can also compete against Huckabee's seeming authentic credentials as an outsider come to reform Washington and represent the people, not special interests -- even also-ran, life-time senators Biden and Dodd. But Hillary can't play on that turf like the rest of our field.

Huck's a nice enough guy, and says a lot that even I find appealing. But with Huck, you don't fix health care or end the war. Oh, and you can kiss legal abortions goodbye. So I can't ever vote for him, but a lot of Independent and moderate (Reagan) Democrats will.

We have to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that we nominate someone (you know, like that populist, nice-guy, southern charmer Edwards) who can run the table on any GOPer, including Huck.

What Huckabee Will Do As POTUS -- Be Afraid

Since Chuck Norris has told us that Mike Huckabee is going to be President, well ... that's the way it's going to be. And of course, Chuck isn't going to put just anyone in the White House unless they already agreed to run things The Chuck Norris Way:

Require members of Congress to work out on the Total Gym 15 minutes each day – or else they can't vote on anything.

[...]

Increase jobs in America by sending ninja teams to sabotage and steal them back from other countries.

[...]

Tattoo an American flag with the words, "In God we trust," on the forehead of every atheist.

[...]

Resolve the Iraq war by bringing all of our military personnel home immediately, then going over there by myself for "martial arts negotiations."

[...]

Complete the plan to bring Tony Blair to the U.S. as my vice president.

Expose the real WMDs – my fists and feet.

[...]

Personally smoke out bin Laden by myself and round-house kick him all the way back to America, where my United Fighting Arts Federation will handle the justice issues.

Source:



If I am elected president

Huckabee's Willie Horton?

If this is the only kind of abuse of power they can pin on Huckabee, the GOP are fools not to get in lockstep behind this guy. And for all the Dems trying to bring down Giuliani, be careful what you wish for, cuz we don't want to face this Republican from Hope Arkansas.

Mike Huckabee pardoned a drug-usin’, alcohol-guzzlin’, womanizin’ near-derelict? Who, I might add, was an “alien” visitor to the United States of America?

The criminal? Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones -- for reckless driving. Richards is known to have gone on to a life of crime, smoking dope and unlawfully falling out of palm trees. Shameful!

Romney's desperate to stop Huckabee, calling him a "lifelong politician" of all things. Scandalous!

Honestly, if this is the best anyone can hurl at a Republican in this day and age, someone who avoided the taint of George Bush's Washington, lacks ties to military contractors, a straight minister with no known mistresses, a guy who may have signed Grover Norquists "no tax increase" pledge mainly because he wants to eliminate the most feared and hated agency in the Federal Government, the IRS, who had the discipline to lose 100 pounds, the Democrats are in real trouble if the GOP can't keep this guy down.

I believe Huckabee can win Iowa and parlay that into a nomination for the same reasons I'm still on the Edwards bandwagon. It's not just the win that will propel them. It's the come from behind finish. The compelling narrative of being outspent by millions and millions of dollars by your well-connected foes, and despite all odds and emerging from pronouncements of being DOA by the Village Pundits -- their vision and message triumphs.

It's the stuff of legend.

And what if both of these populist nice-guys are nominated? Well America, good for you. It would be a whole new world if we had two good choices for a change. Now you just have to decide if you want to keep the IRS or have universal health care. Wanna bet who wins that simple argument?

Okay, I'm Scared

"Chuck Norris doesn't endorse - he tells America how it's gonna be."

Huckabee, The GOP's Edwards

David Sirota noted that Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate other than Edwards in the 2008 presidential race running explicitly on economic populist themes.

Mind you, he's still a Republican, and no matter how authentic he might be, I firmly believe the world will be a much better place if his friends spend a generation or two wandering in the wilderness. But that observation, coupled with the new interest in his campaign since his strong showing in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll made me pay more than the usual attention to yet another comment by yet another conservative presidential aspirant commenting on the Clintons' personal life -- especially since it sounded much more forgiving than anything I've heard from the right side of the aisle since 1996.

"But they kept their marriage together. And a lot of the Republicans who have condemned them and talk about their platform of family values, interestingly, didn’t keep their own families together." -- Mike Huckabee, quoted by NPR, praising Bill and Hillary Clinton. (via Political Wire)

Mike, it's not just Republicans who think the Bill and Hillary's marriage is fair game. Maybe he didn't catch this catty quote from Michelle Obama.

Our view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House,” Mrs. Obama said.

As I recall, noting the relative peace and prosperity of the 1990's, the Clintons did a decent job running the White House despite the constant harassment from people spewing exactly that kind of nonsense the First Couple's way, let alone the disorder, pain and humiliation "Teh Clenis" must have caused them on a personal level.

That, sadly, is in a nutshell why John Edwards is the guy for me. I can't stomach any more hate-filled invectives hurled towards Bill and Hill, and the eagerness with which Barack (and now Michelle) Obama embrace GOP framing and tactics is repulsive.

Not to mention I'm one of those economic populists kinda guys. If this thing should by some twist of fate end up a contest between Obama and Huckabee, I'm going to have a real problem choosing. A Republican who seems sincere and wants to speak for the little guy without sounding like a butthead, or a naive Democratic compromiser who refuses to do what must be done to the GOP -- bury it. Yikes.