I noticed some remarkable qualities in his rhetoric some of which are useful for his intended destination a few of which are probably pure poison for him.

The man is a talker...that's for sure. I suppose that comes of the many years of practice as a pastor..never at a loss for words and never incapable of warming up a crowd. He did both of those things remarkably well last night in Iowa. Though I did notice at one point he dodged a direct hit from a theocratic pragmatist on the handshaking leg of the rally as a tall, red headed Iowa man proclaimed " We believe that the US is suffering for leaving God and we also believe that you are the man to bring us back to the the path, that's why you have our vote!" There is no question that the bread basket region of this country is still populated by people who read the Bible with fervor, something that the Democratic right constantly underestimates. Huckabee stayed away from that one...smart man.

On the contest side I find it fascinating that the most vituperative rhetorical exchange in the GOP camp is being tossed between two former clergy men...Hucakbee a former Pastor and Romney a former Bishop of the Mormon church. In this exchange Hucakbee just owns Romney...not just because I think Romney is a creep but also because he seems to be a lot better at telling the truth than Mitty boy is. Mitt has been know to protract les mots vrais from time to time just a little. :) Not a good reputation for a Presidential candidate..I mean at least wait till you get in before you pull out the stall shovels Mitt! Sheesh!

As the really continued I listened intently to a man who is well practiced at making his point, I confess to having enjoyed his presentation and his personable-ness but make no mistake about who this guy is! He talked about pulling the lever on "Old Sparky" no less than 16 times as Governor, a feat that none of the other Candidates can talk about. Now I'm not sure if he thinks that helps him but it does send a chill down my spine especially when we all know that the Justice systems out there have less than a perfect record when it comes to verdicts and convictions. I guess what it demonstrates about him is that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

At one point Huckabee mentioned a popular theme that a few of the Candidates have espoused...Getting rid of the 6,600 page tax code and going over to consumption based and flat tax. That one always draws applause but I'm not convinced he really understands what he is saying when he says it. It's one thing to dowse the IRS but another to make up the difference in revenue. In that regard I see Ron Paul as having a great deal more Financial Acumen.

Mike Huckabee is also noticeably soft on Illegal Immigration, even though he spent a few minutes talking about a working Immigration system..he is definitely in the pro-globalism class. This is a flaw in my opinion.

Finally what I do see about Mike Huckabee is that he is the real deal. What you see is what you get. I can live with that. But I'm not sure he can take that to Washington DC and succeed with it. Washington DC is a Hot bed of lies and Immorality, sending a man of God to the big seat is not likely to change any of that and it may in fact make it impossible for him to function there.

He does not believe in Evolution.

He does believe in "intelligent Design'".

He Thinks the Earth is less than 10,000 Years Old.

Men and Dinosaurs (T-Rex , Brontosaurus , etc.) lived at the same

Time !

He is too Stupid too be President.

would make him a poor fit for the office.

What I see as troublesome is an unrelenting morality that would be rejected almost wholesale in Washington.

Right now Washington is a foundation of lies and falsehoods that have enabled the ruling class therein to foist the largest transfer of wealth scam on this nation that the world has ever seen. They are not going to give up their money just to please Mike Huckabee and no one man can do this Job alone. Alone is what he would be there.

There is a map back to accountability and sanity but it has to begin from a secular source not a theocratic one. Bush is a theocrat...and he is also the biggest liar, cheater, and blood spiller in the history of the office.

Ron Paul has it right. Begin with the basics that everyone can see the benefit of. Stop overseas spending aimed at imperialism. Stop meddling in the affairs of one thousand year old cultures..ours is a mere infant by comparison. Unload the cumbersome government agencies that cost more to operate than they can recover in services rendered such as the IRS for instance. Re-establish Immigration as a proper legal procedure. Invest in real affordable housing programs..real estate is still the biggest business on earth and the government could make a fortune therein without destroying the blue collar culture to do it. These are reachable goals that have an actual chance of seeing legislation in the span of one administration that knows how to work the Washington Law making bodies. Huckabee on the other hand is at much at odds with most of his own party as he would find himself at odds with the Dems. This is not a recipe for progress just a recipe for 4 to 8 years of political bickering and getting nothing done.

You don't think that someone with a poor grasp of reality is unfit to be the most powerful man on earth?

Huckabee is a lying, glad-handing crook with no understanding of scientific matters or foriegn affairs. He was a lousy governor, and he is a lousy human being. He has absolutely no qualifications to be president of the United States. The fact that he is getting any support at all indicates how far this country has fallen.

Fact is I know very little of the man...Romney is more my specialty since I had to live with the Bastard for 4 years.

Wow...that's pretty scary man! If what you are telling me is true then this guy is doubly dangerous.

Once again I will reiterate that the ID stuff and the Evolution stuff doesn't really have a bearing on a person's political abilities here in the present. We don't have to postulate or theorize present events they are right there in front of us.

I'll take your word for it that the things you have enumerated are legitimate since I have not known you to be otherwise in your posting and I really have no personal knowledge other than what I have seen on the campaign trail of this man.

The one real red flag in my book was the bragging about 16 executions! That shook me a little...made me wonder what I was looking at...that much I can tell you.

"Why shouldn't it be part of a political discussion? If someone believes that the earth is 6000 years old, when every scientist in the world tells us it's billions of years old, why shouldn't I take that into account when I'm assessing the rationality of someone I'm going to put into the highest office in the land?"

I surely hope people aren't fooled by Huckabee's nice guy persona. Even though he appears to be wearing a warm cuddly flannel nightgown, look very carefully at his smile.

"Oh grandma, what sharp teeth you have!"

I really appreciate the guidance here because I did have some feelings of turmoil after his televised rally last night.

I thought that I could see some subtle inconsistencies in his demeanor but he is very polished and smooth and also rather disarming.

Now I can go back to being convinced that I have made the right choice with RP........

Religion is religion....

I don't think those criteria have a strong bearing on the needs of impromptu leadership.

I am an ID person myself but I never believed the 6,000 year thing ... that is a fundamentalist literality that requires not just faith but blind faith.

On the other hand I think that it is a dangerous precedent to begin drawing on philosophy and cultural background as a measuring stick. If that was the case how does Obama stack up as a Muslim?

Obama is not a Muslim.

Looks like I put my foot in my mouth on that one..

Geeze! it's getting harder and harder to sort out the bushels of bullshit coming in from the media and now the latest one about Ron Paul bing a nazi. Clearly RP has somebody worried. Maybe the Fed??

Sounds as though, given maybe another fifteen minutes or so, you're a True ConVert. That's not necessarily Good News IMHO.

One of the more astounding feats of conservatives is their ability to hoodwink poor and middle class Republicans into believing the IRS is their enemy and that a flat tax or consumption tax is a better deal. What pure unadulterated bullshit this is from the POV of these lower income folks. Unless you have no kids and no mortgage, most folks in the under 50k/annum income bracket are not going to pay much income tax at all. At worst they may pay a grand or two after deductions. You take that away and tax them on their consumption and all of a sudden everything they buy will be subject to an additional tax liability. The idiocy of these voters is astounding. The crass manipulation of statistics to gain a tax advantage for upper income voters over the backs of lower income voters is criminal, its anti-Jesus Fucking Christ also.

In whats the matter with Kansas, the author asked why those good people would continue to vote against their own interests. The only reason I can think of is found in this list of possibilities:

1. People are very misinformed.

2. People are easily manipulated.

3. Wedge issues mask the reality of the charade.

4. Propaganda works.

5. Feeding hatred for minorities of all stripes will always motivate poor to middle class white rural voters, they cannot help themselves.

Ron Paul is someone Known to me...Hucakbee isn't...

I saw enough of him last night to see some of the monsters hiding underneath that mild mannered composure. I just didn't have a clue about his history until some of the others helped to fill it in.

can see the benefit of"

In particular:

Unload the cumbersome government agencies that cost more to operate than they can recover in services rendered such as the IRS for instance.

I call bullshit. Specifically, I say this is knee-jerk, anti-government wingnut ideologue nonsense that you'll be unable to back up with any factual evidence for the simple and obvious reason that it's false. But by all means, go ahead and prove me wrong if you can.

As for Paul more generally, I think Greenwald has it just about right. Paul's candidacy (like Dodd's, and Huckabee's, and even Edwards' in some regards) is most important for forcing -- to the extent the political/media Establishment is unable to prevent it despite doing their damnedest (literally!) trying -- critical issues into the national discussion that the Establishment is trying to bury:

As Ezra somewhat hints at, many people (including myself) who think that Paul's candidacy has important positive elements (without wanting him to be President) believe that to be the case because he's injecting into our political discussions critical ideas and debates (such as his belief in a republic rather than an empire) which are otherwise all but excluded.

However, as needed and appealing as those positive elements are, Paul's just nutty in several other regards -- not even remotely a viable candidate. I really wish Dodd's candidacy were more viable. He's been the most principled of declared candidates in opposing the admin's trashing of the Constitution and Rule of Law and the enabling of same by Congressional and media abdication of solemn duties ("Oligarchical Decay", in Greenwald's nicely-turned phrase) -- but without any disqualifying Paulian nuttiness*. And since I see those moves towards lawless, authoritarian tyranny -- with lack of any meaningful opposition to them by the institutions charged with those checks-and-balances, i.e., Congress and "the Press" -- as the single greatest current threat to the health of our nation and democracy, the candidate who best "gets" this would have my vote despite inevitable disagreements on other matters (at least so far anyway, alas, there hasn't arisen a candidate wise enough to agree with me on every single issue right down the line -- hard to believe, I know!).

*But since the Political/Media Establishment views defending the Constitution and Rule of Law as nuttiness on a par with some of Paul's other positions, they mock and try to marginalize Dodd just as they do Paul (and Huckabee, and of course Kucinich deserves mention in this list -- and as they try to do with somewhat less success to Edwards).