Thanks for the Reminder

From CNN:

A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had “no foreign policy credentials” after his comments reacting to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto raised questions.

During an event Friday in Pella, Iowa, Huckabee said the crisis sparked by Bhutto’s death should lead to a crackdown on illegal immigrants from Pakistan.

The Huckabee official told CNN that when he said that, Huckabee was trying to turn attention away from scrutiny of his foreign policy knowledge.

If Huckabee was really trying to divert attention away from his lack of foreign policy experience, he’s failed miserably. The absurdity of his comments yesterday have only renewed scrutiny of his foreign policy capabilities, and I would say that Huckabee is the candidate most hurt by the Bhutto assassination from either party.

Mike Huckabee, Putting the Christ in Politics

So Mike Huckabee has this ad out wishing all of us a “Merry Christmas” (not “Happy Holidays”), and politely telling all of his political opponents that ’tis the season to shut up about his flaws. Why? Because Jesus likes it that way.

You can’t make this stuff up.

H/T: Captain’s Quarters.

Andrew Sullivan Backs Paul

Andrew Sullivan has endorsed Ron Paul. More at the Political Inquirer.

Choosing Horses

If the politics as a horse race metaphor is accurate, it looks like the betting men (yes, and women) are choosing their horses. The Des Moines Register has endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain for their respective caucuses. I write all about it at the Political Inquirer, noting that this is a victory for Clinton but pondering the significance for McCain:

I’m less sure about the Register’s decision to endorse McCain. It seems to me that, given its liberal bent, the Register decided to endorse McCain as the lesser of the Republican evils. In other words, McCain is the Republican candidate most palatable to the liberal editors of the Register. Again, this isn’t likely to help McCain among Republican caucus goers in Iowa, although it could benefit him in the general election in the unlikely event that he actually captures the Republican nomination. McCain’s reputation as a maverick is most helpful to him among non-partisan independents and moderates in both parties, so it could make him a formidable general election opponent. But first he has to get the Republican nomination, and I don’t see this endorsement helping him one bit in achieving that goal.

In another post, I note that the Boston Globe endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain, and I also take note of Judge Robert Bork’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. Finally, I discuss the wave of “anti-endorsements” that Mike Huckabee has received from moderate, right-leaning, and downright conservative bloggers, and I speculate that the Huckabee surge may be bad general election news for the Republicans and great news for the Democrats.

A Breath of Fresh Air

I’ve pretty much dismissed former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) as a serious presidential candidate due to his apparent laziness, but I really liked this paragraph from a Washington Post campaign blog (H/T: Instapundit):

Asked about his religious beliefs during an appearance before about 500 Republicans in South Carolina yesterday, Fred Thompson said he attends church when he visits his mother in Tennessee but does not belong to a church or attend regularly at his home in McLean, Va., just outside Washington. The actor and former senator, who was baptized in the Church of Christ, said he gained his values from “sitting around the kitchen table” and said he did not plan to speak about his religious beliefs on the stump. “I know that I’m right with God and the people I love,” he said, according to Bloomberg News Service. It’s “just the way I am not to talk about some of these things.”

It’s nice to see a truly conservative Republican presidential candidate who doesn’t wear his faith on his sleeve to pander to evangelicals. It’s also nice to see a candidate who admits that his values came from the kitchen table rather than the pew, which is I think true of most Americans. Forced to choose between Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Fred Thompson, I would now choose Thompson any day.

One Nation?

Ann Althouse informs us that Michael Newdow is back in court to challenge the “under God” clause in the pledge of allegiance, and this time he’s also taking on the “in God we trust” motto on our money. This comes just in time to ensure that substantive questions about issues like health care, entitlement reform, national security, etc., will be replaced by questions about this issue intended to create buzz and, of course, ratings.

Symphony of Faith or Noisy Gong?

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) delivered his much anticipated “Faith in America” speech today, ensuring Americans that he will not allow his Mormon faith to dictate public policy. You can get the full text and video of the speech at Power Line. Frankly, I was never worried that Mormonism would dictate Romney’s policy. I’m much more worried that a narrow strain of evangelical Christianity will influence Romney’s policy decisions, just as it has the decisions of all Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan.

The Giuliani Advantage? Really?

Maybe Ed Morrissey (Captain’s Quarters) just hadn’t had enough coffee when he posted this morning, but it seems to me there’s a problem with this statement:

Even more, Giuliani can argue that big wins in the coastal states give Republicans an opportunity unseen in two decades — a chance to force Democrats to spend money in traditionally blue states, which not only helps Republicans in the presidential race but down-ticket as well.

Well, maybe. This argument really depends upon whether or not Democratic voters can be swayed by Giuliani’s social moderation. If one assumes that they can, one is necessarily assuming that many Democratic voters choose Democratic candidates based on social issues. I think that’s an iffy assumption to make. Many Democratic voters choose Democrats for economic reasons, and many Democratic voters will be choosing Democrats in 2008 based on the Iraq War and other foreign policy issues. Does anyone really think that voters fed up with the Iraq War are going to turn toward Giuliani because he’s pro-choice? That’s not even going to be on the radar screen.

President for a Year

If you were president for a year, what would you do? Apparently believing that he is faced with the same question, President Bush plans to negotiate a treaty with Iraq that would lead to the withdrawal of approximately 2/3 of U.S. forces by the end of 2008 (H/T: Captain’s Quarters). He also expects the Israelis and Palestinians to sign a peace treaty by the end of 2008. One does wonder why Bush has decided to wait until the last year of his presidency to actually govern.

The Coalition Just Got Smaller

If you haven’t heard, Australia’s Labor Party has unseated the ruling Liberal Party, and Kevin Rudd will take John Howard’s place as Australian prime minister (H/T: The Washington Note). What does this mean for us? It means that a former Bush ally has been replaced by a Bush skeptic, and that Australia’s commitment in Iraq has become tenuous. John Howard’s unrelenting support of the Bush administration’s policies probably won’t be matched by Kevin Rudd.

It may also mean that the much heralded conservative wildfire said to be sweeping the globe has just been extinguished by a nice bucket of ice water. After the victories of Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France, many conservatives boasted that global opinion was turning back toward conservatism in general and the Bush administration in particular.

But with Gordon Brown replacing Tony Blair in the United Kingdom, with Donald Tusk replacing Bush ally Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Poland and promising the withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq by the end of 2008 (H/T: Think Progress), and now with Kevin Rudd’s victory in Australia – it seems that the right was wrong. In the two latter cases, nations that were once thoroughly conservative have lurched to the left. I’d imagine a lot of conservative columnists and bloggers are eating some serious crow right now, as it becomes clear that the world is never going to be either a conservative or a liberal “utopia” in which everyone thinks the same way.