Republicans Buy Global Warming

Ok, that might be an overstatement. But at least GOP voters aren’t punishing candidates who have supported legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions. Interestingly, the only two Republican presidential candidates who have endorsed cap-and-trade legislation to control global warming—Mike Huckabee and John McCain—are the victors in the two most important early nominating contests, Iowa and New Hampshire.

It’s unlikely that they won much support for these positions—the environment is not high on the list of conservative voters. But they were not penalized for their positions, which suggests building consensus for global warming legislation will be easier than ever before no matter who wins the White House in November.

Iowa Votes for Politics of Authenticity

Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama have a lot in common. Of course, the winners of the respective Republican and Democratic Iowa caucuses Thursday couldn’t be more different on matters of policy. Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is a hard-core social conservative who is supportive of the war effort and has embraced a hard line on illegal immigration. Illinois Senator Barack Obama is pro-choice, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, and supports a federal role in providing health insurance anathema to a conservative like Huckabee.

Yet the both represent the same brand of politics—the politics of authenticity. To their supporters, each is viewed as speaking from the heart about the things they truly care about. Though both talk of seeking common ground and overcoming division, both speak about upholding values and causes with a high-minded idealism seldom heard in today’s debate. They promise a vision that will win converts rather than strategies that will thwart opponents.

Huckabee Campaign Divided on Environment and Evangelicalism

This complete story appears at Huffington Post.

The only policy issue Mike Huckabee singles out on a page devoted to “Faith and Politics” isn’t abortion or marriage. “My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them,” writes the GOP presidential hopeful. “For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth.”

But the prominence given to the environment on this webpage is unmatched in Iowa. He does not even mention the issue in his stump speech, and he is seldom asked about it by the largely conservative audiences that turn out to appraise whether he deserves their support in the state’s January 3rd caucus. This is undoubtedly a prudent judgment of the concerns of the voters he is courting. He is unlikely to win points for having bucked conservative orthodoxy with his endorsement of a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions. But he also likely avoids talking about the environment because there is deep division within the evangelical community that has fueled his rise to the front of the GOP pack.

“I’ve heard reporters talking about global warming as an evangelical issue, and that’s just poppycock,” said Iowa Christian Alliance President Steve Scheffler, reached by phone earlier this month.

Click here to read the rest of this story at Huffington Post.

Will the Real Mike Huckabee Please Stand Up?

This complete story appears at the Huffington Post.

Des Moines – Mike Huckabee began a bold denunciation of gay marriage in Ames, Iowa, Wednesday night, but quickly checked himself with stuttering caveats:

“We have to also realize that the strength of our nation really does come down to our families, and that’s why, without apology — I’m, I’m not mad at anybody and I’m, I’m not against anybody — but folks, we have an obligation to preserve the integrity of, of what family, what marriage means. Again, not to, not to try to put others down, but to lift that institution up.”

The former Arkansas governor returned to Iowa this week as the new frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. He has been selling himself as a kinder-and-gentler conservative, one who’s “just not angry about it.” How different is the aw-shucks Huck who spoke in this Iowa college town than the culture warrior who wrote in 1998: “It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations — from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.” This quote turned up by David Korn at Mother Jones is one of the many Ghosts of an Angry Huckabee Past that haunted him the week before Christmas.

One of Huckabee’s main challenges during the final stretch to the Iowa caucuses is preserving his sunny image under intensifying scrutiny.

Click here to read the rest of this story at Huffington Post.

Building the Choir to Preach to

“I even have a choir,” said former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee while marveling at the turnout at a 7:30 AM event at the Best Western Hotel in Marshalltown, Iowa. The crowd of mostly seniors and middle-aged white folks sat on all sides of a small stage.

“Looks familiar,” Huckabee said of the layout. “For a long time I was a pastor, I’d get up, the congregation would be here [in front of me], the choir would be here [behind me].” He enjoys playfully riffing on an off-hand joke in his speeches. He turned to his ersatz choir: “You ready?” Turning back to the chuckling crowd, he added, “The only thing we need now are ushers and we’ll be ready to receive the offering!”

These opening comments from the new front runner for the GOP presidential nomination may feed the caricature that Huckabee is a Christian fundamentalist who’s grown too big for his pulpit. Indeed, his Christmas ad now airing in Iowa—in which he describes “what really matters” during the holiday “is the celebration of the birth of Christ” along with being with friends and family—has been reported as evidence of his bible-thumping ways. And his surge among Iowa Republican caucus goers, 40% of whom self-identify as evangelical Christians, may give the impression that the GOP base is still looking for the second coming of Pat Robertson, the preacher embraced by Iowans in 1988 for his political crusade for Christian values.

But this perception doesn’t account for his appeal to every room of Iowa voters.