Peggy Noonan's column today has some analysis. She has some insight on why Huckabee has surged and become the leading candidate.
From the mail I have received the past month after criticizing him in this space, I would say his great power, the thing really pushing his supporters, is that they believe that what ails America and threatens its continued existence is not economic collapse or jihad, it is our culture.
They have been bruised and offended by the rigid, almost militant secularism and multiculturalism of the public schools; they reject those schools' squalor, in all senses of the word. They believe in God and family and America. They are populist: They don't admire billionaire CEOs, they admire husbands with two jobs who hold the family together for the sake of the kids; they don't need to see the triumph of supply-side thinking, they want to see that suffering woman down the street get the help she needs.
They believe that Mr. Huckabee, the minister who speaks their language, shares, down to the bone, their anxieties, concerns and beliefs. They fear that the other Republican candidates are caught up in a million smaller issues--taxing, spending, the global economy, Sunnis and Shia--and missing the central issue: again, our culture. They are populists who vote Republican.
I think this is right on, definitely the feeling I get from the supporters that I have talked to and read.
So, we'll see what happens. I think Mr. Obama has the chops to go all the way. I think many people underestimate Mr. Huckabee and the support he can engender.
Now, on to Tuesday and New Hampshire!
3 comments:
I am a big fan of Peggy Noonan and know that she does not say things lightly. But I think both she and you overestimate Mike Huckabee's staying power. His rise exists not because of his own positives, but because he is a figure Evangelicals can solidify around to make a point that they are still a power in the GOP. But Evangelicals are only a minority within the party, and a candidate is needed who can also speak to the economic conservatives within the party.
I think we'll see him begin to fade from here on out in the polls.
I agree with you (he'll fade, and he rose because he speaks to the issues evangelicals think are important not because he is such a great candidate).
Look, all I am saying is that he was written off as the guy with the funny name who was a religious kook, and now he has won the first race of the election cycle. If that isn't underestimating the guy and his supporters, I don't know what is.
I just liked Noonan's analysis of why people support Obama and Huckabee.
Post a Comment