Conservative Christians Heart…Mitt Romney?
Watching Mike Huckabee address the crowd at the 2007 Values Voter’s Summit felt like one of those moments in life when a person wholly finds their element, sort of like how it must have been when Pasteur finally stopped the milk from turning in that French laboratory or right before Daniel crane-kicked Johnny at the end of The Karate Kid. Mike Huckabee not only belonged in that precise moment, he completely owned it – and from the second he opened his strange little mouth, you knew he could not possibly miss.
The current Arkansas Governor worked the 1,200 faithful present into a veritable froth, earning a screaming orgy of flailing Christian appendages every two-minutes or so. It reminded me of a sporting event when oversized t-shirts are shot into the stands and fans temporarily lose control of their basic motor skills. In this case, Huckabee was more than willing to play the role of pep squad leader, unleashing a seemingly endless barrage of faith-based dial-survey words and non-negotiable values onto the crowded conference floor.
Although polling single digits in most national polls, Huckabee’s candidacy is custom made for values voters. Unlike Rudy Giuliani, who earlier in the morning delivered a stupidly incoherent speech about working across ideological barriers, Huckabee is an unabashed Christian who loves Jesus more than breakfast and whose conservative credentials are unquestionable to the point of recently earning a starry-eyed endorsement from conservative-yuppie-spokesman David Brooks.
My belief in the event-specific strength of Huckabee’s candidacy only grew when the caustic Laura Ingraham took to the stage and implored the audience to vote their conscience at the event’s afternoon straw poll – and to worry about beating Hillary sometime after Thanksgiving. Additionally, the vast majority of the folks I spoke with throughout the day mentioned Huckabee as the candidate most in line with their own personal and political views.
So you can imagine my surprise when they announced the poll’s result. I was sitting in a smaller conference room, head cradled in my hands, thinking very quietly about how my entire existence had led to this moment – trapped in a windowless room on a beautiful Saturday afternoon waiting for a speech to commence about “The Impact of the Homosexual Agenda.” Suddenly, a rogue Young Republican shot down the hall, excitedly screeching, “Romney won!”
Anyone who doesn’t think it unequivocally odd when a group of evangelicals endorse an admitted Mormon for the highest office in the land have obviously never spent much time with either demographic. Growing up in an evangelical community, I knew exactly zero conservative Christians who would give a follower of Joseph Smith a bucket of raw water – much less a vote for any public office that wasn’t strictly imaginary.
Saturday’s straw poll may have been just that sort of fantastical contest, but the fact Huckabee did such a good job of connecting with the audience during his speech leads me to believe that a very large swath of poll participants knew exactly what they were passing on when they went with Romney. If we accept this presupposition and interpret the curious poll result as an imperfect measurement of values voter passion leading into 2008, we might also entertain the notion that perhaps the values crowd is simply beginning to chill. Maybe Saturday’s peculiar outcome is merely indicative of a grassroots movement beginning the long metamorphosis towards a more traditional interest group.
Of course, I’m not delusional enough to believe these voters will flip in ‘08, nor am I even suggesting they won’t participate in relatively high numbers. But what if conservative Christians choose to participate without the well-documented energy characteristic of recent presidential elections, a style of grassroots focus and discipline widely credited with delivering the White House to Republicans two elections in a row? What if they roll over for a fake tanned used-car salesman like Romney instead of fighting for a walleyed true believer like Huckabee? In short, what if instead of expanding the electorate, values voters simply become a part of it?
Because that’s what Saturday’s result smelt like to me… a group of weathered, politically interested people who knew exactly where they stood on every issue imaginable, had a candidate who stood in exactly the same place, but who nonetheless decided to phone this one in because the guy they really wanted couldn’t possibly win in an actual election.
This sort of overt pragmatism feels an awful lot like being a progressive in both ’00 and ’04. No matter what Democrat wins the nomination next year, we should not interpret this as anything but a good thing. Romney, Huckabee, election, presidential, GOP, mitt, candidate, conservative, 08, christian
I've lived in New Jersey for five years, so not the best to ask about how real Arkansasans feel about Huckabee. That they replaced him with a dem, I think is telling. By the time he left office, he was plagued by a small scale version of the Bush problem. He believed that with God on his side, he was above question or censure. At one point, by refusing to release medicare funds for a mentally challenged rape victim to have an abortion, he risked medicare funding for the entire state. But mostly it was just tacky moves like accepting gifts and ripping antique paneling out of the governor's mansion to make room for his big screen TV. When he left office he used state funds to have all of the hard drives in the governor's office destroyed, leaving everyone to wonder what was on the drives, and leaving his successor to wonder how he was supposed to start running the state with no computers.
BUT Arkansas has gone red in presidential elections since time out of mind, Bill Clinton's two runs being exceptions.
AND remember, Hillary was first lady of Arkansas before she moved into the White House the first time. And she was more or less despised for everything from her arrogance, to her double last name to her distaste for jewlery and big hair. When Bill lost his 1980 re-electin bid, some thought it was a referendum on her. In anycase, when Bill came back in '82, she was just "Hillary Clinton" and she had bangs. A nice gesture, but the sate as a whole never really warmed up to her.
If it came down to Hillary vs. Huckabee, I'm afriad he would win Arkansas. But I don't really think he has a snowball's chance in hell of getting the party nomination. . . . . He talks funny and he looks like Gomer Pyle.
Anyway, my two cents. Thanks for asking.
Don’t mention it Kevin. I do regret the error, which can only be described as dumb, but appreciate the correction nonetheless (we’re working on fixing it but I didn’t think it fair to simply make it disappear -- lest your comment look insane). Additionally, if you have a moment, I was hoping you could share a little about how Huckabee plays in Arkansas post-term, especially compared to someone like Hillary?
Also, I think Alex’s post about Romney securing the endorsement of Jack Willke (please do correct me if this wasn’t what you were getting at) is worth commenting on for one important reason. The very fact that we’re even discussing a right-to-life “big fish” deciding to back a conservatively flawed candidate like Romney brings to mind a word that I have already used – but that I can’t seem to get out of my dome when thinking about the folks we met last week. That word is Pragmatic, with a very large P. It seems like these people are hedging their bets and selling-out to support people they would have previously never sat next to at Red Lobster. This is not a quality I’ve ever witnessed from Conservative Christians. For reasons discussed above, I found this factor extremely encouraging as I walked away from the Hilton last week. (I recently had an Evangelical friend tell me that she wouldn’t give Romney “a pot to piss in,” so I don’t know that my optimism at seeing him win a fake election where values voters controlled the entire electorate is completely misguided. I remain willing to hear otherwise though.
Raleigh, speaking of factors, you continue to scare me. That ticket absolutely terrifies me, although it might make for good TV. I wonder what they’re both afraid of? Muslims? Someone call Joe Rogan.
giuliani huckabee 08... fear factor DC.
Thanks Thom. I'm sure I speak for many Arkansans who are thrilled to see the state return to its proud tradition of having a democrat in the governor's mansion! Glory Hallelujah!
I think Raleigh is on point to bring up the Brownback dynamic…I regret not getting folks to talk about this more, as I’m sure it was on a few minds and probably should have been taken into account. I also think Kevin was correct to raise the issue of Huckabee not “currently” governing the great state of Arkansas. We meant to say “former,” as I’m told these words have quite different definitions.
I think Mike Beebe would be more than a little surprised to learn that Mike Huckabee is the current governor of Arkansas. . . .
You have to go with Romney...do you think Huckabee has ever caught a fish that big?
weird. good work file.
i don't think ritt money is as much of a threat as huckabee is -- and it was an AWFULLY close call. what do you think of the rumors brownback backing out to get on the ticket as a VP? do you think he can hold any conservative weight after his stunt with biden?
i don't think ritt money is as much of a threat as huckabee is -- and it was an AWFULLY close call. what do you think of the rumors brownback backing out to get on the ticket as a VP? do you think he can hold any conservative weight after his stunt with biden?