And So It Begins...

From the Right Wing Howler Monkey Media Chorus that brought you "Aaaiieee!! It's Barack Obama's Scary Black Preacher Who Is Black and Racist and Hates America!" it's "Michelle Obama: Traitor or America-Hater?" The Republicans HAVE to make the campaign about Barack Obama being a Muslim, a communist a homosexual or possibly all three and French to boot, because if it's about the issues, they're toast.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan (of all people) writes the GOP's obituary. I have to say, "butts in the butter" is one of the better faux home-spun analogies I've read this year.

UPDATE 2: Mike Huckabee is an asshole. Film at eleven.

UPDATE 3: And Cong. Tom Davis is an idiot.

UPDATE 4: And Michael Medved is a moron of cosmic proportions. Also, a racist, pandering tool.

Barack and the Huck

Turns out, Mike Huckabee may actually be as nice a guy as Vince keeps telling me he is.

From the Sunshine State

McCain wins (and may get Giuliani's mighty endorsement), but he's pretty much out of money, and the people who have the money don't like him. With Rudy! out, I'm curious to see how McCain does in a head-to-head to the Romney-bot (with Huckabee apparently no longer a factor). If Giuliani hadn't been on the ballot, how much of his 15% would've gone to McCain? The exit polls tend to indicate that McCain still has a significant problem with the GOP base (Scarborough dismissed his platform as "less jobs and more wars"). This would tend to hurt his ability to use the Karl Rove/Nathan Bedford Forrest ("Git thar fustest with the mostest men") strategy in November.

In other news, Dubya was lying during SOTU. Quick, fetch the smelling salts; I feel faint!

The Straight Talk Express?

McCain wins South Carolina (barely, against the dramatically underfunded Huckabee), but again his weakness with actual Republican primary voters (as opposed to crossover Independents) may hurt him in the contests ahead. What's worse (or better, if you are a Democrat) is the fact that the "Maverick" McCain seems to have completely drunk the koolaid on Reaganomics, repeating the old chestnuts that cutting taxes raises revenue, that "out-of-control spending" is the only real economic problem, and besides, there's nothing wrong with the economy anyway (or maybe there is, or maybe not. Anyway, I don't understand all this fancy *open finger quotes* economicals *close finger quotes*). Do Republicans really want another nominee who believes that ignorance is a virtue?

UPDATE: Good overview piece from WaPo on the first real GOP Contest (meaning one in a closed primary), Florida. I would argue, though, that Florida is not a "normal" Southern state, given that it is a bizarre mishmash of Northeastern colonists, good ol' fashioned rednecks, and of course Cubans (whose only real issue is which candidate hates Castro the most). Meanwhile, "Maverick" McCain is showing his true straight-shootin', outsider credentials in the South by canoodling with racists.

Huckafascism

Mike Huckabee issues charming, self-deprecating, down-home, populist appeal for theocracy. Funny how "God's standard" always just so happens to be the standard of the tele-Pharisees, which is essentially Social Darwinism with a religious fig-leaf. Of course, the economic royalists of the GOP had no problem with the Huck's designs on the Constitution; no, what got their knickers in a twist was his blasphemous intimation that maybe, just maybe, not absolutely everyone is doing completely 100% hunky-dory well in the current economy. In Michigan. Which contains Detroit.

Huckabee & Giuliani on Taxes

"My tax plan will eliminate the IRS!!"

"Oh yeah? Well, MY tax plan will be TWICE the size of Reagan's!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, under MY plan, everyone gets a pony! Tax free!"

"9-11! 9-11!"

Hucked!

Apparently, Right Wing Arkansas fundraisers hate not just Bill Clinton but the Huck, too, because they are now financing brutal attack ads in South Carolina hammering him for his role in the release of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. Any guesses as to which "mainstream" GOP candidate is really behind this?

Jimmy Obama?

Based on this Washington Post article, Obama's "audacious hope" really rings of naivete, and an unrealistic expectation of how things truly get done in Washington. "Sweeping bipartisan change" is an oxymoron; "change," sweeping or otherwise, typically occurs only when one set of partisans has enough votes to ram it through over the objections of the other side. There are exceptions, such as LBJ's civil rights legislation, which could not have passed without Republican votes, but given how polarized the parties are these days, I sincerely doubt it will matter how charming and inspirational a President Obama would be. Republicans have already settled on their game plan, obstructionism, and I don't see that changing, no matter how badly they get whipped in November.

In other news, just in case the historical relevance of the word "populist" hasn't yet been sufficiently desecrated through association with such odious poseurs as Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, now Lou "Crazier'n a shithouse rat" Dobbs is mulling a bid for President to hold the line against the Invading Brown Hordes.

UPDATE: Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine...

George Will Gets the Vapors

In his latest pronouncement from in high, the Official Spokesnerd of the Republican Establishment denies that any such "establishment" exists, since, after all, wasn't that filthy barbarian Barry Goldwater nominated? In Will's mind, "establishment" apparently is synonymous with "Rockefeller." Likewise, Will sniffs that John Edwards and Mike Huckabee are (*gasp!*) "populists," which evidently means anyone who expressing anything less than unvarnished contempt for the poor. Why. it's so bad, Will looks favorably upon Obama, who is thereby transformed into a grown-up. And nothing, but nothing, gets the goat of Economic Royalist Republicans more than anything that even remotely smells of "populism."

Meet the New Boss?

The Huckabee/Dumont story continues to remind: do we really want another four years in the White House of a shallow former governor who makes decisions that determine whether others live or die based solely on cronyism and political extremism, while ignoring all inconvenient facts to the contrary?

Biting the Hands That Feed

Arianna Huffington has a good piece on the hilarity of watching "establishment Republicans" hyperventilate over the prospect of Mike "Health & Wealth Gospel" Huckabee leading in Iowa. Apparently, Right Wing Politico-Evangelicals are perfectly alright to exploit as cannon fodder and for votes, but to actually head the ticket? Heaven forfend!

UPDATE: E.J. Dionne on the rise of Huckapopulism.

Why Huckabee Is Doomed

I remarked to a GOP friend the other day that if I were a Republican, I would be supporting Mike Huckabee. Of course, since he is neither a Know-Nothing Nativist nor a Plutocrat, he doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. Their loss.