Political Ruminations

Quote of the Day

Mike Huckabee on the current state of the Republican Party, emphasis mine:

“I’m not sure a guy like me can win in the atmosphere of the current Republican party. We’ve become a party of such fractured purity. It’s all or nothing, now or never. It’s not whether the government functions, it’s whether the government is ideologically pure.”

Mike Huckabee Will Not Run for the GOP Presidential Nomination

Huckabee announced his decision not to run for the GOP presidential nomination this evening on his Fox Network show.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) announced Saturday that he won't run for president in 2012, removing a strong contender from the field and underscoring the volatility and wide-open nature of the Republican nominating contest.

"My answer is clear and firm. I will not seek the Republican nomination for president," Huckabee said Saturday evening.

Huckabee said that despite external pressure to run, and supreme confidence that he could win the Republican nomination, he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. "All the factors say go, but my heart says no," Huckabee said. "And that's the decision that I have made."

Morning Quote: Mike Huckabee

Conservative Fox Network host Mike Huckabee blogs. And here he is, slamming Glenn Beck on said blog, for attacking Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, and then attacking Huckabee when he gave the First Lady’s campaign a little respect.

Morning Quote: Mike Huckabee

I guess Mike Huckabee thinks that it’s his job to be the moral watchdog for America. This past week, Huckabee slammed recent Oscar award winner, Natalie Portman, for daring to embrace single motherhood:

People see a Natalie Portman who boasts, 'We're not married but we're having these children and they're doing just fine,’ I think it gives a distorted image. It's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of-wedlock children.

While there is no doubt that Portman enjoys many advantages that the average single mother does not, Huckabee’s comments sparked outrage on the Left because, of course, Huckabee has never said a single mean word to Bristol Palin about her own out of wedlock pregnancy.

But then again, Bristol is a Conservative, so you surely understand that Bristol’s unwed single mother status doesn’t count.

Morning Quote: Mike Huckabee

During an address to an anti-abortion group in 2009, former Arkansas governor, and current talk show host, Mike Huckabee, compared abortion to slavery.

What are we saying to the generation coming after us when we tell them that it is perfectly okay for one person to own another human being? I thought we dealt with that 150 years ago when the issue of slavery was finally settled in this country, and we decided that it no longer was a political issue, it wasn't an issue of geography, it was an issue of morality. That it was either right or it was immoral that one person could own another human being and have full control even to the point of life and death over that other human being.

And this guy is the frontrunner in the public opinion polls for the GOP presidential nominee.

Public Policy Polling New Release

Public Policy Polling (D)
2/11-14/11; 600 registered voters, 4% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
PPP release [pdf]

National

2012 President
47% Obama (D), 44% Huckabee (R)
52% Obama (D), 40% Palin (R)
49% Obama (D), 40% Gingrich (R)
46% Obama (D), 41% Romney (R)
48% Obama (D), 41% Romney (R)
48% Obama (D), 39% Paul (R)
48% Obama (D), 34% Trump (R)

Obama Job Approval
49% Approve, 46% Disapprove (chart)

Favorable / Unfavorable
Mike Huckabee: 36 / 30 (chart)
Sarah Palin: 34/ 56 (chart)
Newt Gingrich: 27 / 52
Mitt Romney: 33 / 42 (chart)
Ron Paul: 24 / 45
Donald Trump: 27 / 56

Huckabee seems to pose the greatest threat to Obama at this point, but can he win the Republican nomination?

Via HuffPost