Our tracking statistics tell us that only half of the reminder emails that were sent out yesterday were read; and a few of those who did look at the email, have not gotten around to making their donation yet. Therefore, we still have almost three quarters of the existing pledges still outstanding! Today might be a bigger day than yesterday! We are extending the fundraiser into the 29th to accommodate those who have yet to donate their pledge. Do it now!
TEXAS is looking good for Mike...
PLEASE NOTE: the political anaylist at the end of this video is dead wrong! Mike Huckabee does not need to get 1191 delegates (which is now impossible) to win, he only needs to stop McCain from getting that many. If he does, most of the delegates are released at the convention, and can then vote for whoever they want. Mike Huckabee, being far more conservative than McCain, and an excellent speaker, could win such a vote at the convention!
So remember, this nomination process is far from over! We need you to DONATE NOW! Winning Texas is the first big step toward keeping our chances alive! You can make a difference!
McCain raked in a substantial number of delegates yesterday, taking almost every swing state from Romney. Current estimates show him now topping off at over five hundred delegates. However, most people do not realize that McCain victories last night were comprised of all the big delegate liberal states: New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut.
You can look at it this way: McCain has now used up all his time outs. From here on in it is a majority of extremely conservative electorates that will be much, much less favorable to McCain. All the hype that will be coming from the media about his momentum might be in for a real shock. Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint.
With McCain losing credibility as a conservative among core republicans, and Romney showing his weakness as a candidate (little progress for spending millions of dollars), a great window of opportunity is opening up for Huckabee. The remainder of the states will be holding their primaries in smaller clusters from here on in, a factor that plays to Huckabee's advantage as he is unable to spend a lot of money in a short time.
For analysis on road ahead in the republican nomination and an outlook for Mike Huckabee's campaign, read the article below that was posted on the Living On Anon blog (good stuff):
liberal states have spoken, and from now until June 3, the conservative states will have their turn. Huckabee now has momentum, and I believe the rest of this primary is his to take.
In case you need to be reminded, Huckabee was once the national front runner. It is not just a dream that he could rise to such a position, he has been there before! Huckabee's chances are now as good as ever.
"Huckabee appears to be the night's big surprise with wins across the South." - NBC News
Falsifying the predictions of almost every state primary poll, and beating all expectations, Tom Brokaw of NBC News even proclaimed "The number two man in the race appears to be Mike Huckabee." The former Arkansas Governor walks away from Super Tuesday with five very significant wins, most of them listed as extremely valuable winner-take-all states.
For Mitt Romney, who attempted to gain an artificial boost by pretending Huckabee was no longer a contender, is now ironically facing that same fate himself. Gathering only a handful of expected victories, and loosing almost every critical toss up state to Senator John McCain, commentators are even talking about how realistic it is for him to stay in the race.
"His strong performance seemed to prove that he’s more than just a spoiler for Romney, as the former Massachusetts governor had suggested." - FOX News
Once again, in spite of investing millions of dollars of his own money in negative advertising, Romney simply lacks the ability to capture the American people with his message. On the other hand, what Huckabee has been able to accomplish today is not only unpresidented, it is staggering to the mind. He has matched the results of a man who has spent millions of more dollars and enjoyed hundreds of more hours of media coverage.
Today is the "winner takes all" Florida primary, which means that the first place candidates take home all 57 delegates, even if he only wins by one vote. The stakes are very high for McCain and Romney who are competing for first place.
Huckabee has been "expected" to take fourth place, but a recent trend has demonstrated he is within reach of finishing third, ahead of Giuliani. One of the unfortunate factors for Huckabee has been the false media reports that he was "skipping" Florida, when in fact he has been there every day this week.
Once again we recommend tracking the live results tonight at the Politico website. The results should start coming in at 8:00 PM EST when the last polls close in the panhandle.
Of all the TV ads released by the campaign, this is the most brilliant one of them all. We urge you to flood the campaign with donations to get this ad playing everywhere it possibly can! We believe this message is powerful enough to shake up the whole presidential race all over again.
His decision would seem potentially to help Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who has competed for many of the same conservative voters that Thompson sought to appeal to. Huckabee said Tuesday he might have come in second in South Carolina because Thompson had siphoned off much of his support, permitting Sen. John McCain of Arizona to win.
The news items in Huckabee's favor have really been piling up the last couple of days! Take courage, a groundswell of momentum is building and ready to burst. The field of candidates is also narrowing, and Huckabee is still standing just fine.
While reading the story on CNN's website about Duncan Hunter endorsing Mike Huckabee, I was struck by the profound wisdom from one of the individuals commenting on the story:
Mike Huckabee is perhaps the most charismatic and likable politician America has seen for the last many years. He could easily win against Clinton or Obama in the general election. It is unfortunate for the Republican party, and perhaps for the country, that the elites are conspiring to undermine his candidacy.
Does the Republican establishment not recognize that Romney is unelectable: not only because most people in this country are deeply suspicious of Mormonism, but because he comes across as a flip-flopper and a phony? McCain is perhaps slightly more acceptable to the ruling powers than is Huckabee, but he is a pariah in the eyes of many conservatives, plus he is woefully uncharismatic. And of course, Ghoul-iani is perhaps even less electable than the others.
The best , perhaps the only, chance Republicans have to win the general election is to nominate Huckabee, whose charismatic style could easily convert some Democrats and independents to his cause. Already, African-American church leaders are coming to his support in droves. Duncan Hunter's endorsement should provide a much-needed shot in the arm for Huckabee's faltering campaign.
With Fred Thompson out of the race, it is even more clear who republicans must to pick if they want a true conservative in the White House. The only other contenders (Giuliani, McCain, and Romney) all have recent records riddled with weak support for pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-second amendment issues. The last hard core conservative left who supports these essential doctrines of the republican party is Mike Huckabee. Lots of people are starting to realize this!
Today the Huckabee campaign gained a huge boost in credibility among true conservatives with the endorsement of former presidential candidate Duncan Hunter. Get all the details over at CNN:
Hunter: "Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well."
Duncan Hunter never gained much support during his presidential run, but his endorsement still carries a lot of weight on the national news scene. For the Huckabee campaign this is another big sign of revival, although he still holds a strong second place in national polling.
Perhaps the most ironic factor of this endorsement has to do with Ann Coulter. She has been one of Duncan Hunter's biggest fans. The interesting part is that she has also been one of Huckabee's strongest critics. Obviously this endorsement is turning into an awkward moment for her. But perhaps is may serve as an encouragement for her to reconsider her misinformed disappointed of Huckabee.
You must return to this blog on Monday night. We are in the process of writing an extremely important article. There is a wealth of unrecognized factors from the results of the South Carolina Primary yesterday. Huckabee's narrow loss is a sad thing, but it is not bad!
We urge you not to fall for any of the media's rhetoric about Huckabee's second place finish until you read this upcoming blog post we are preparing. You will not want to miss it!
Literally minutes ago the American Research Group unveiled the most recent polling data for South Carolina. On the eve of the state's critical primary they are showing Huckabee with a SEVEN point lead! Even more interesting is that the poll they released before this one, done only a day earlier, had reported John McCain being ahead by ten points.
I have yet to observe such a dramatic shift in results from any pollster over such a short period of time. To see the data for yourself, visit the official website of the American Research Group:
Not only does this strongly illustrate the volatile nature of polling, but the fact that McCain's spike in popularity could leave as quickly as it came. It will be a fascinating when we know what actually happens tomorrow.
Staying solid, but not necessarily exceeding expectations, Huckabee has been holding tight through the New Hampshire and Michigan primaries. Now with more conservative states on the horizon (South Carolina and Florida), Huckabee is coming back into the spotlight.
For those who are addicted to the latest polls, Rasmussen reflects this shifting surge. On Wednesday they released a new South Carolina poll showing John McCain and Mike Huckabee tied for first place at 24%, closing down a nine point lead the Senator previously held following his momentum after a strong victory in New Hampshire. Then on Thursday Rasmussen released national polling with Mike Huckabee holding a three point lead over the entire republican field.
We would like to remind our readers that not only are poll numbers several days behind actual trends, they tend to only be accurate to within five to ten points. New Hampshire polls consistently predicted a ten point lead for Obama in New Hampshire, but as we all know, Clinton ended winning by two points.
It is bold to even make educated predictions, but our gut feeling about South Carolina is that Huckabee will deliver a surprise landslide victory over McCain. Up until a week ago Huckabee had been consistently holding a seven point lead in the state. The rapid shifting in poll numbers only illustrates that voters are easily swayed and undecided. Remember, McCain was tied with Romney in Michigan polls only days before suffering a nine point loss on election day.
The lesson so far has been that a victory provides a false surge in a candidate's polling numbers. Since we have evidence that McCain's numbers in South Carolina are returning to normal, and the factor that they may also be overinflated, the chances seem to be in Huckabee's favor. Also reassuring is the historic fact that McCain's liberal positions on social issues lost him South Carolina in the 2000 presidential primary to George W. Bush.
GOP Hopeful Mike Huckabee, who has sharpened his anti-illegal immigration talk recently, as he competes for the first in the south primary of South Carolina, put an exclamation point today next to his hardening stance on border security.
There has been a drastic and unfortunate misunderstanding of Huckabee's tough stand on illegal immigration because of his opinion that the children of illegal immigrants should not be excluded from instate college tuition rates.
Being compassionate towards the children of illegal immigrants (who were dragged here by their parents) does not mean you also have the same compassion for the adults who did break the law; let alone what your desire might be to prevent others from doing it.
This particular news item is actually from January 7th, but it received so little attention I wanted to mention it. As the story points out, it is rather unusual for high ranking GOP officers to endorse candidates during the nomination process. Now we have even more evidence that Huckabee is a big time republican candidate gathering big time support.
Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign hit new heights in Minnesota when the state's GOP chairman said he'd spearhead the former Arkansas governor's campaign here.
With McCain's recent surge in the polls, the best thing for Mike Huckabee today was Romney defeating him in Michigan. National polls have long told us that Romney has had very little appeal outside of the states were he has campaigned aggressively and spent millions of dollars. He is fighting an uphill battle and his chances seem very slim.
John McCain's big defeat tonight will have the important affect of dampening his surge and bringing the media hype over his frontrunner status back to reality. Many times the momentum from a win and the concomitancy of enthusiastic press coverage has the affect of causing a surge more than it does reporting it.
Now you have Obama and McCain who have experienced huge victories only to suffer unexpected defeats in the next round. With the way the polls falsely reported a strong surge for both of them, it would seem that the momentum gained from a victory is sometimes overrated. Almost all the political analysts predicted an easy win for Obama in NH and one for McCain in MI. Instead, both candidates lost by about as much as they were predicted to win by.
Romney only won within the last several hours, but already the reporters have changed their rhetoric from "McCain is the clear frontrunner" to "Romney shakes up the GOP." Most likely the polls will once again reflect a bounce for the winner, but don't be fooled again. South Carolina holds its primary on Saturday where Huckabee has the same kind of strong support that he had in Iowa.
It would be a mistake to assume that he'll be unable to broaden his appeal. Huckabee is an extraordinary communicator--by far the best speaker in the Republican field--and his rhetorical skill helped Iowa voters see him as a plausible president.
Unfortunately portions of this article, along with the commentators in the media, are still making the mistake of underestimating Huckabee by his financial situation. First they said he couldn't will Iowa against Mitt Romney's money and organization, but then when he did, they came up with reasons why it was an exception.
Now they are trying to say the same thing about the rest of the nomination. "Without a huge war chest no one can compete on Super Tuesday" they say. Certainly money can help almost any campaign, but in the end people still vote because of what they think of a candidate, not how many comericals they've seen.
It was known all along that New Hampshire would be a tough state for Huckabee. His third place finish will merely have a neutral affect on his campaign. The big news from the granite state is the victory of John McCain and another devastating defeat for Mitt Romney.
With New Hampshire behind us, now the spotlight will return to the Huckabee campaign. According to the most recent Rasmussen polls, Huckabee is first place in the next three states scheduled to hold their primaries. Here is a brief schedule:
January 15: Michigan (+1.0) January 19: South Carolina (+7.0) January 29: Florida (+4.0)
In addition to these primaries, Nevada is holding a caucus on January 19th. Rasmussen has not conducted a poll in Nevada, and the most recent data from other pollsters is over a month old, so we don't know how Huckabee is doing there.
Much more than usual lately, Huckabee has been bringing up Mitt Romney's record. In one sense this is necessary when you are being dishonestly represented, but I think he should scale back a little more to his previous style of taking the high ground and focusing on getting out his own message (the reason he surged).
It was obvious from Iowa that Romney's million dollar negative assault had little affect (along with the negative slant of the media as well). I want to urge you Governor Huckabee to be very careful moving forward. Remember it is the way you have conducted yourself in the past that has brought you to this point, not any newer strategies.
Nevertheless, Mike Huckabee in this interview with CNN does an excelent job of cleaning up some of the negative impressions that have been attached to him recently by his opponents and the press.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with his values and positions, he comes across as the type of person that many of us would not mind having as a neighbor.
You would probably be surprised at the number of people who are not partisan when they choose who to vote for. Many of these individuals do not make strong ideological distinctions between liberals and conservatives. They are drawn to the candidate of their choice in the same way many of you would order a meal at a restaurant: according to personal impressions rather than criteria.
The voting block described above is one of the reasons that two candidates with same exact values and principles may not do nearly as well as one another against an identical opponent. Even though likability really has nothing to do with qualifications, it still has a very powerful influence on the voting choices that people make.
In this five minute speech Mike Huckabee is at his best as he demonstrates he is a genuine candidate with sincere character and vision. The recent surge of his campaign is no accident.
On Monday Huckabee held a press conference to announce he had suddenly reversed his decision to start running negative ads against Romney in Iowa hours before they were scheduled to run.
The press has been fairly cynical about the event, calling it a "stunt." He is being criticized for trying to "release the ad without really releasing it." Such a claim is unreasonable if you understand what was really involved with the decision that had to be made.
The first clear evidence for such a case is that Politico.com is reporting that the last minute decision may have cost the Huckabee campaign up to $150,000. That is big sacrifice for a campaign that has been strapped for cash.
The media has displayed some awkwardness handling this story. They want to report that Huckabee is a fool for not running negative campaign ads, but that forces them to imply that he must have been sincere (something they hate to admit even more). So the reaction of the press has been very interesting.
You must realize that negative ads work. During a barrage of attacks, it is simply impossible for the mind not to be eventually influenced by it. So in one sense you could say that Huckabee had nothing to lose by running the ad. But he did. He would have lost his character.
It is not all peaches and cream though. There are several other factors that demonstrate this decision would have been impossible if "doing anything to win" was the motive behind this decision. The campaign not only lost money, but precious time to prepare the ad.
If you're only pulling a stunt, none of this makes sense:
» Losing almost $150,000 in campaign funds. » Canceling your ad buys only hours beforehand. » Refusing to give a copy of the ad to the media. » Admitting you were about to do something wrong. » Taking a huge political risk when you're ahead. » Knowing that the press is going to figure out your stunt.
If the character of Mike Huckabee, or his honesty as a candidate was ever in question, these concerns were demolished during a monday morning press conference in which he decided to reverse a decision suggested by his campaign advisers to go on the attack against Mitt Romney in Iowa.
We suggest that you read about this story as reported by the Washington Post. More specifically, we recommend that you watch the video highlights of the press conference available in the article.
Mike Huckabee is a rare breed in the political realm. He is someone who has not been changed by politics. You can still see the average, everyday american in him. For this reason his campaign has baffled the modern political media, and charmed so many of us who support him.
Consider the dedication he has to the principles of his christian beliefs. Many candidates have a religious background, but how many of them faithfully practice what they believe, let alone in their campaign? One does not need to be a christian like Mike Huckabee to at least appreciate the traits of honesty, kindness, humility, and self-control that his faith requires of him. I look forward to having some of that in the oval office.
With the endorsement now of the DMN, and previously the National Education Association, many conservatives are pointing to these as signs that Huckabee is a weak conservative; these groups almost exclusively endorse democrats.
In one sense they have a point. It is just not good for your image when you are endorsed by someone who your supporters strongly disagree with. But there is a different angle that is easily overlooked. Maybe these endorsements have less to do with issues, and more to do with character. Read more to see what I mean.
Mike Huckabee comes across as very compassionate, down to earth, and open-minded. He builds common ground with people around the need for solutions rather than emphasizing the conflict over which ones to use. If the National Education Association recognizes that Huckabee is not a stubborn ideologue, but sincerely interested in solutions, they may find him even more attractive than the people who relentlessly support their propaganda.
This positive approach is also evident in the way Mike Huckabee is running his campaign: no negative advertising, rarely mentioning his opponents in stump speeches, and refusing to bash fellow contenders when presented with the opportunity.
Rather than a burden, these endorsements are a strong sign that Huckabee's honest approach is even capable of winning over democrats who disagree with his conservative politics. Reading this endorsement from the DMN shows why some democrats like Mike Huckabee in spite of opposing many of his positions.
For those of you familiar with the November 20th website that helped the Huckabee campaign raise over $223,000 in one day, the December 27th website is organizing a similar effort. As the name suggests, they are planning this donation bonanza for December 27, 2007. Buzz over to their website and make a pledge of any amount!
If you are trying to decide between the Pledge for Huckabee and the December 27th project, we encourage you to rather help the December 27th project so that we can get the Huckabee campaign the critical funding they need before the end of the month. We are not expecting to hit 10,000 pledgers until much later than that.
