The Trail: A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008

So he made a mistake. If we expect perfection then we better hope for the second coming of Christ.

Senor JakeD-Off subject here, but hopefully you will see this!

I did forget about the backwoods methods these Iowans employ! It still allows for deception considering the way the votes are cast in November, but they are a unique group!

Their method of crossing over in plain sight and "Standing" for their choice is one I forgot about!

They had to modify it this year though!

In the Dimocrat sections, to get to the side you want, you have to "Swim", "Climb", or "Run" real fast! If you somehow just show up, that works too! ;~)

Romney is the most excellent candidate. Huckabee has no integrity as demonstrated by his duplicitous messages.

Go Romney!

Of course, that would only be the subtitle for anyone who doesn't know anything about the actual facts involved.

How does that song go?

Well, if Jesus saves, well he better save HIMSELVE! Glory glory seekers, will use his name....

The subtitle to this article should be:
Huckabee Flips Off God

No one reversed the decision to air the Huckabee attack ad once Huckabee decided against it. The Huckabee campaign clearly tried to stop the attack ad from airing, but didn't quite succeed. That clearly set off a feeding frenzy among Romney supporters.

bryantford:

Which news conference and media interviews are you referring to? The New Year's Eve press conference I saw was Huckabee stating that ads were sent to stations and they were trying to recall them after he decided not to run the ad -- he even told cynical reporters they could confirm the fact that ads were shipped -- so, I'm not sure what exactly you think Huckabee "lied" about in this regard.

We have an arrogant, incompetent, illiterate, and inept fool in the White House, a demoralized and decimated military, plundered treasury, trashed world standing, trampled rule of law and Constitution while the nation is sinking under an tidal wave of Illegal Aliens waving the Mexican flag in our faces, demanding their rights, while feasting at the trough of Public Welfare, as they Kill, Rob, Rape thousands of American Citizens each year. .

In all, my country, a potential benefactor and beacon for all the world - is headed right off a cliff and to an third world status!

Senators? We as a nation can survive fools in our White House. What we CANNOT survive is fools in our Congress like McCain, Kennedy, Reid, Hillary, Obama, etc. & now they want to be President!.

In my view - and evidently in the view of many Americans - this has all come to pass because you, the elected and sworn stewards of this country, have allowed it to happen. Surely you should have known better...when you refused to abide by the Constitution or enforce our laws and disgraced your oath of office. The only way this nation is to recover is for the lot of you to be gone from those hallowed halls of Congress that have become a house of paid party-bound prostitutes swirling amidst the rubble of your own malfeasance - taking the country right down with you.

As a proud and concerned American that proudly served by Country in time of War as did my Father, my two brothers and my son. I am appalled and very angry at what self severing, corrupt politicians have done to my country!

McCain, Heckabee, Hillary, Obama & the rest of the Democrats, plus Liberal Media and the rest of the open Border pro-illegal Aliens supporters professed & false compassion for Illegal Aliens is sicking. This Nation has 47 millions citizens without medical insurance, Million of our elderly chose between food and medicine every day. Millions of American children live in poverty with no chance at the American dream. Our vets. return from the war that came about by lies from Politicians without proper medical care or treatment. Yet they shower rewards on the Illegal Aliens, free medical, free schooling for their many children, no reward is too great or price to high for the American citizens to pay, for the ones that break our laws, invaded this country and demand their rights while waving the Mexican flag and Slaughtering, Raping and Robbing thousands of American Citizens each year.

The Corrupt Politicians and Liberal Media try to get the public to believe they are Compassion, & Wise for wanting open borders and amnesty. While American Citizens are racist & xenophobe if we request that our Constitution and Immigration laws be followed and enforced for all law breakers irregardless of race or nationally!

It is the money they get from business from supplying them slave labor with 20K worth of benefits paid each year by the tax payers and the Latino votes with the promise of millions more if we give them amnesty that they are really after.

If they really are Compassion and Caring there are Millions of American Citizens that have played by
the rules, payed their taxes, obeyed the laws, fought the wars and built this Nation that are in great need. The Politicians could use American Citizens to show their Compassion. But Compassion for American citizens or legal Immigrants does not get Money and Votes for our Corrupt lying Politicians.

Huckabee lied at the news conference and at other media interviews when he said that the campaign office had kept all the copies of the negative ad and that it wouldn't be released. I don't have a problem with him running the ad but I do have a problem with the slippery way he tried to present himself as the nice guy that doesn't do things like that when he was doing it all along out of the public eye. There are three people on Huckabees staff that must review and approve the ads with Huckabee being in charge and he is trying to declare innocence just like he did with the cross, the attack on President Bush, when he crossed the picket line going to the Jay Leno show saying he didn't know.

Another staged event was when Huckabee's campaign manager, Ed Rollins, said he wanted to "knock Romney's teeth out". This set Huckabee up so he could comes across as the one who stopped the violence. I would say he was a little out of control on purpose so Huckabee could appear as being the nice guy by preventing the violence or certainly shows a poor judge of character in picking a campaign team. These actions show no civility and call in to question what he really knows about these events.

Like I always say:

Dear Lord,
Protecteth me from thy followers...
Amen.

munkle:

When did Huckabee say our planet is less than 6,000 years old?

A self-proclaimed "Christian", Mike Huckabee has said that, despite all the scientific evidence to the contrary, our planet is less than 6,000 years old. That anyone who proudly embraces ignorance and stupidity as a VIRTUE can be considered a serious and viable candidate is a stark reminder of just how doomed we are as a nation. To give Huckabee control of our nuclear weapons is to guarantee the arrival of his "Christian Armageddon" and the deaths of all "non-christians", wherever they might be...which is exactly what Huckabee prays for each and every day. It's the end of the world as we know it, and as for Huckabee, he feels fine.

And, "Guilt by Association" is a logical fallacy -- ad hominem attacks like "demagog" are as well -- but that's never stopped you guys before.

And, "Guilt by Association" is a logical fallacy -- ad hominem attacks like "demagog" are as well -- but that's never stopped you guys before.

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, so here is a question:

Which of the candidates (including their campaign spokepeople) have threatened to physically assault any of their opponents -- or said that they would LIKE to physically assault any of their opponents?

Answer: Mike Huckabee

Just can't trust those Christian demigods--they'll lie on ya every time!

The fact that the ad ran a few times before it could be pulled is not news. It was announced at the time of the press conference that it might slip through and air. Carl Cameron said he got a copy of the ad for Fox News but NOT from anybody in the Huckabee camp. Maybe the channel that ran it gave him a copy. At any rate, if you did not like Huckabee before - you'll add this to your list of reasons. But if Huckabee was your choice because you had weighed all the other candidates and found that when you ran the total attributes against the total negatives, Huckabee still came out ahead - this is just a minor glitch. Let's not forget that major newspapers, including USA Today, and the Boston Herald have decried Romney's distortion of facts. Even CNN said Romney was twisting facts. So if it walks like duck, quacks like a duck..it's a duck. If it looks like a liar, talks like a liar - it's a liar. There's nothing wrong with pointing that out.

Mike did not run the ad. He said that. He also said that there were a couple stations who may not have been able to get it pulled soon enough and so it may show a couple of times.

He didn't air it, he showed the press in a show of good faith. He asked that it not be distributed. Complain about the press, not Mike Huckabee.

The ad isn't very negative anyway. It actually just tells the truth in an easy spoken way.

If I would have made an ad it would gone something like this: "Don't elect this back-stabbing, crooked jerk. He is sending threatening letters to church leaders and acting like a thug" "Mitt Romney is nothing but a greedy rich mobster" "Remember the Mormons at the Mountain Meadow Masacre, and remember that they claimed war on the government of the U.S. Remember the leaders who founded mormonism and were later found guilty of crimes and imprisoned" "Remember all of the abused little girls married of to old Mormon geezers at the age 10 and up. Remember the abuse. Remember polygamy and Warren Jeff. Remember their dirty greedy ways" I'm Dan and I approve this message.

Trust me, Romney got it easy.

LOL! Seems Holier-Than-Thou Pastor Mike, really DID approve of his little message!

Unfortunately, WE don't! :-(

I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE AND I WILL SAY IT AGAIN:

DEMOCRACY JUST DOESN'T WORK!

:)

Whether this was released or not, the media would find something to complain about - Only proving that Huckabee is a valid contender.

I just feel so sad for the US, if this is all that is on offer to run the country, I havn't heard a single thing from anyone that makes me think they are fit to run a kindergarten let alone a country.

Huckabee was my second choice, but not any more! He is sleezy. I'm sick of the covert hidden messages of a wolf in sheeps clothing to evangelicals. The attempted media fooling was sickening on top of that.
Go Romney!..the only clear choice with integrity and leadership skill/experience.

Looks like mullah Mike might be just a tad challenged in the organization and competency department. Or maybe in the honesty department. Do we need to try to go down that road again so soon?

A lesson in campaign advertising. They are pre-paid. In other words, before an ad is scheduled they have their money in hand. So to say the Huckabee camp didn't know of this stretches credibility some.

Nice spam, idiot.

http://www.patriots247.com/forums/index.php?s=f8556f6dd7d5c4749e7471397ba29f7d&showtopic=1628&st=0&p=12750&#entry12750

Huckabee faces scrutiny for involvement in rapist parole

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Following the release of several new polls suggesting Mike Huckabee has risen into the first tier of the Republican presidential candidates, the former Arkansas governor is facing a fresh round of scrutiny over supporting the parole of a convicted rapist in 1999.

Huckabee, then in his first term as governor, expressed support for the parole of Wayne DuMond, who was serving a life sentence for raping a 17-year-old girl. Less than a year after his release, DuMond was accused of murdering and raping a woman in Kansas City, Missouri, a crime he was eventually convicted of in 2003. He died in prison in 2005.

Huckabee has repeatedly said he wished he had more information about DuMond before advocating the release, and recently told CNN there was no indication DuMond remained a threat.

"There's nothing any of us could ever do," Huckabee said. "None of us could've predicted what he could've done when he got out." Huckabee also said that the process leading to DuMond's release began under former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.

But new documents posted on the liberal Web site The Huffington Post indicate Huckabee had received letters from several victims of Wayne Dumond's before his release. The letters detailed his past actions and pleaded that he remain incarcerated.

"I feel that if he is released it is only a matter of time before he commits another crime and fear that he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time," one victim wrote. She described how DuMond had raped her at knifepoint.

In another letter, a woman documented how her mother was raped by DuMond, and said he had told her mother that he would rape her daughter if she did not cooperate.

The Huffington Post says it received the never-before-published letters from a "deeply troubled" former aide to Huckabee who believes the now-presidential candidate has "deliberately attempted to cover up his knowledge of DuMond's other sexual assaults."

Huckabee spokesman Alice Stewart denied to the Huffington Post that Huckabee ever received any of the letters, but now tells CNN he got at least one from a victim named "Onita" who lived in DeWitt, Arkansas.

It's not clear if this is one of the letters posted on the Huffington Post, because the site has redacted the names.

The Huffington Post has published three victims' letters, and says it will post additional files later Wednesday.

- CNN's Dana Bash and Alexander Mooney


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_po/huckabee_the_parodox

ON DEADLINE: Did Huckabee go too far?
By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press WriterMon Dec 31, 4:56 PM ET

Mike Huckabee may have finally gone too far.

After running an unconventional, surprisingly strong and sometimes strange race to the top tier of the Republican presidential campaign, the former Arkansas governor topped himself Monday with a campaign stunt that smacked of hypocrisy.

He called a news conference to unveil a negative ad that he had just withdrawn from Iowa television stations because, he told a room full of journalists recording the ad, he had a sudden aversion to negative politics. Quite a convenient epiphany.

"If people want to be cynical about it," Huckabee said, "they can be cynical about it."

If he loses Iowa's caucuses, New Year's Eve will forever mark the day Huckabee blew it -- the day a crowd stopped laughing with the witty Republican and laughed at him.

If he wins -- a possibility that even Huckabee now thinks he put at risk -- he sealed victory in a weird way Monday.

Here's what happened:

Huckabee came out of nowhere a few weeks ago to overtake former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Iowa polls, despite being massively outspent and out-organized. Romney answered back with television ads criticizing Huckabee's record in Arkansas.

While guilty of cherry-picking the worst aspects of Huckabee's resume, the negative ads stuck with the facts. For example, Huckabee did grant 1,033 pardons and commutations, including for 12 convicted murderers, as Romney's ad stated.

Huckabee's lead evaporated, which suggests that the ads worked or that a series of gaffes had caught up to him.

Or both.

So he did what desperate candidates do. Huckabee took himself off the campaign trail Sunday to shoot a negative ad. He bought $30,000 in television time to air the spot and called a news conference to unveil it.

While awaiting the late-arriving Huckabee, more than 50 reporters and a dozen photographers got to read five huge cards placed on easels by Huckabee's staff -- all highly critical of Romney's record as governor.

"Enough is enough," the signs said.

When Huckabee arrived, he announced that he had just changed his mind. The ad wouldn't run. It was too negative.

"I believe the people of Iowa deserve better, and we are going to try and give them better ...," he said.

But he didn't. Instead, Huckabee showed off the spot to the journalists, knowing full well his negative message would seep out of the room. He told the media to pay close attention.

"You're not going to get a copy of it," he warned, "so this is your chance to see it, then after that you'll never see it again."

The media laughed.

One of the funniest, most charming presidential candidate in recent memory, Huckabee normally makes reporters and voters laugh at his one-liners. On Monday, he made himself the butt of his own joke, urging journalists to take careful note of the negative ad that he had withdrawn because he wanted to run a positive campaign.

"It's never too late to do the right thing," he said.

The ad criticizes Romney's record as governor, fairly so, but goes on to question his character. "If a man is dishonest to obtain a job," Huckabee says in the ad, "he'll be dishonest on the job."

Funny that Huckabee decided at noon that line was too negative, because he used it six hours earlier during a national TV interview.

He used it on a Sunday news show, too.

And he didn't disavow the line Monday. "I said what I said. I spoke the truth," Huckabee said.

If he loses Thursday, Huckabee said, "I'll be the last guy to do this. But I want to be the first who will at least try."

Iowans have a reputation for punishing politicians who go negative. The question is whether voters, particularly evangelicals who make up his political base, will believe Huckabee had the political equivalent of a deathbed conversion.

Or will they think he's treating them likes rubes -- appealing to their sense of fair play while being foul?

Either way, the bizarre news conference was the latest twist in a campaign that has given new meaning to the word paradox. Huckabee is an immensely talented communicator and successful former governor who is nonetheless a flawed candidate.

• He is mistake prone, particularly when it comes to commenting about foreign policy.

• He can be thin-skinned and rash. Two of his advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said privately Monday that the production of the ad was fueled by Huckabee's white-hot anger with Romney, and that his change of mind was jarring to the campaign staff.

• He has a paltry political organization in a state that values the ground game, according to an informal survey of GOP county chairs and co-chairs. "I haven't seen much of a sign of him or his people," said Jim Conklin, chairman of the Linn County GOP.

He can also be disarmingly honest. Asked whether Romney should stop running negative ads, Huckabee said, "I'm not going to try to run his campaign."

"I'm having enough trouble running mine."

___

EDITORS: Ron Fournier has covered politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years. On Deadline is an occasional column.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTcyMTM5YzRiMzVjMjA3MGEwMjUwM2Y3NGJiMzM1YWY=

December 05, 2007, 4:00 a.m.

The Story Mike Huckabee Dreads
With his new success comes new attention to an old Arkansas crime.

By Byron York

In August, I interviewed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about the case of Wayne Dumond, the convicted rapist who was freed under Huckabee's administration, only to rape and kill a woman in neighboring Missouri. The crime attracted enormous attention in Arkansas, but at the time of our interview, it had not made its way into much coverage of Huckabee's presidential bid. "If [Huckabee] continues to rise in the polls," I wrote, "it's likely he'll be talking about it a lot more."

Now Huckabee is rising in the polls, and sure enough, the Dumond case is attracting more attention. This morning, ABC News ran a report featuring the mother of the woman Dumond murdered, who blames Huckabee for her daughter's death and vows to do everything she can to stop his campaign. "I can't imagine anybody wanting somebody like that running the country," the woman told ABC.

For many people, the report is the first they've heard of the Dumond case. Once they learn about it, however, they are unlikely to forget its bizarre details and the strange turn of events that led to Dumond's final crime. The case is the wild card in Mike Huckabee's record, the single most controversial event during his time in the Arkansas governor's office. And it is a potential threat to his now-soaring candidacy.

It began in September 1984, when Dumond, a 35-year-old handyman, kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old high-school cheerleader in the small eastern-Arkansas town of Forrest City. Dumond was allowed to remain free on bond while awaiting trial, and in March 1985 two masked men entered his house, tied him up with fishing line, and castrated him. People were stunned; the case, already notorious, became much more so. And that was before the local sheriff, a rather colorful man named Coolidge Conlee, displayed Dumond's severed testicles in a jar of formaldehyde on his desk in the St. Francis County building. Amid tons of publicity, Dumond was found guilty and sentenced to life plus 20 years.

The case took on a political coloring when it became known that the victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton. After conviction, Dumond, who claimed he was innocent, asked Clinton for clemency. Clinton declined.

Dumond also argued that even if he were guilty his sentence was excessive, and his position won him some sympathy, not least on the grounds that he had suffered terribly at the hands of those unknown assailants. In April 1992, when Dumond had served just seven years, Lt. Gov. Tucker, acting as governor while Clinton was out of state campaigning for president, commuted Dumond's sentence to a level where he would be eligible for parole. That didn't mean Dumond would go free, only that the state parole board would consider the question. The board declined to free Dumond.

That's where things stood when Huckabee took office on July 15, 1996. Last August, Huckabee told me he had his doubts about Dumond's guilt, and also felt sorry for him over the castration attack. On September 20, just weeks after taking office, Huckabee announced that he intended to set Dumond free, saying that there were "serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt." On October 31, Huckabee met with the parole board. Not long after, the board voted to free Dumond, but on the condition he move to another state. Huckabee was pleased, in part because -- given that the board had voted to free Dumond -- there was no need for Huckabee to commute the sentence or pardon him. So Huckabee denied Dumond's now-irrelevant pardon application while at the same time congratulating him on his soon-to-come freedom. "Dear Wayne," Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond. "My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place."

But no state would take Dumond. He remained behind bars for two and a half more years, until the board voted to free him in Arkansas. He was released in October 1999 and returned home. The next year, Dumond left the state, moving to a small town near Kansas City, Mo. Within weeks of arriving, he sexually assaulted and murdered a 39-year-old woman at an apartment complex near his home. The day that happened, everyone knew that freeing Wayne Dumond had been a very, very bad idea.

A political storm erupted. Huckabee sought cover by saying that all he had done was to deny Dumond's pardon application. But some Democrats claimed that Huckabee had pressured the parole board to free Dumond. What actually happened between Huckabee and the board remains unclear to this day, but there is no doubt that Huckabee wanted Wayne Dumond set free. And today, he knows he was terribly wrong, but he still defends his actions. "My only official action was to deny his clemency," Huckabee told me in Iowa. As we talked, Huckabee spread the blame around, not only to Tucker, who originally commuted Dumond's sentence, but to Bill Clinton as well. "Tucker could not have done that without Clinton's full knowledge and approval," Huckabee said.

I asked about the "Dear Wayne" letter. Didn't Huckabee want Dumond to go free? "I thought he would, you know, be clean," Huckabee told me. "And he had a job, he had sponsors lined up, so at the time, I did not have this apprehension that something horrible like that would happen. I did want him to report in [to parole authorities], because I just didn't know -- you never know about a guy like that."

As he talked, Huckabee looked down. "I hate it like crazy," he said. "It's one of the most horrible things ever that he went off and did what he did. It's just terrible. There's nothing you can say, but my gosh, it's the thing you pray never happens. And it did."

The Dumond case followed Huckabee around for the rest of his time in the governor's office. In his 2002 reelection bid, his Democratic opponent based virtually her entire campaign on the issue. And beyond the narrow issue of Dumond, Huckabee's actions raise larger questions about his views on crime and punishment. Critics, and some friends, too, have said Huckabee's position was deeply influenced by his Christian faith. "When I first met him, I was going through his positions on issues and I said, 'You're a conservative, so I'm sure you oppose granting parole for violent felons,'" Dick Morris, the campaign consultant who ran Huckabee's first run for lieutenant governor, told me. "And he said, 'Oh no, I would never take that position, because the concept of Christian duty requires that there is a possibility of forgiveness. The concept of Christian forgiveness requires that we keep open the process of parole -- use it sparingly, but keep it open.'"

When I asked Huckabee about that, he reminded me that he was tough on a lot of criminals, too. "Heck, I executed more people than any governor in the history of the state," Huckabee told me. "It's not something I'm bragging about, I'm just saying that if it had been simply a matter of my Christian conscience saying I don't believe in capital punishment, then I was pretty lousy in my conscience."

Huckabee doesn't duck talking about Dumond or the larger clemency issue. But he doesn't enjoy it, either, given that it was unquestionably the worst thing that happened while he was governor. Now, with the press spotlight shining on him, he has no choice but to explain himself.

--

Byron York, NR's White House correspondent, is the author of the book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President -- and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.

michael: maybe he meant a demiglace, since chuckles lost 110 lbs?

There's a difference between contrasting and attacking. People mostly knew about Mccain's issues, but Huckabee had alot of skeletons in his closet. I think ya'll are just upset that Mitt pointed them out before Hillary could.

see there, he has already been dishonest. he said he wouldn't air the ad, now here it is.

don't vote for somebody who says one thing, then does another.

in other words, stay home!

re jrgelman's comments:

That would be demagog (a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power) , not demigod (a person so outstanding as to seem to approach the divine)

They are all slimeballs.

Since the Huck was never a threat to any of the Democratic frontrunners in a general election, I just find this all very funny. I particularly enjoyed the horrendous hypocrisy from the Romney campaign who accused Huckabee of becoming negative the more and more he became exposed.

Romney has single-handedly run the most negative campaign I've ever seen. He hated Giuliani for a while, then he hated Huckabee for a while, and now he hates McCain, while still having some residual hatred for Huckabee. Seriously, What the hell is wrong with Romney? As if I didn't already know.

I'm so sick and tired of the idiot GOP candidates it's making me nauseated. I'd love to see a solid moderate break away like McCain or Giuliani. They haven't gotten too dirty and they've only issued a few huge lies between the two of them (McCain's Christian nation comment and Giuliani's socialized medicine gaffe - still the worst in the entire campaign season).

It just makes me smile to see Biden and Obama shaking hands, Richardson and Clinton (and Obama) shaking hands, Kucinich and Obama shaking hands; I mean come on, the Democratic Party is more unified than it ever has been and the GOP is practically handing the White House over to them.

This is the GOP at its finest, folks.

Hate to say it, but it serves Mitt Romney right! He has allowed some real dorks, to get into a counter-productive, meanspirited Negative Campaign!

Has he decided to run as a Dimocrat? We want someone to Vote FOR, not suffer through smear campaigns designed to make us choose through some process of default!

Mitt Romney has too much on his side, to have to stoop to petty attacks on the other candidates. He needs to get a grip on his people who cannot PROMOTE a Candidate like Himself, any better than trying to get him wins because the others are "Faulted"!

Believe me, Huck's playing the Religious Sectarian card, HURT his standings!

Again, what ARE, CAN, and are you POSSIBLY going to DO MITT, and why SHOULD we Vote for YOU!?

The cynicism of this move may not turn off the people of Iowa in time for tonight's caucuses but I hope that Republicans in the rest of the states will soon figure out that Huckabee has the makings of a demigod. I don't like any of the Republican candidates but friendly ol' Mike is even scarier than the rest of them.