HUCKABEE WON THE CALIFORNIA DEBATE; ROMNEY PUNTS

Huckabee won the California debate with his thoughtful answers, poise, and good humor.

It was an uphill battle though.

The debate again was weighted in Romney's favor. Another "sit-down" affair which favors Romney because appears more physically imposing (especially next to the diminutive, if not shrinking-from-age John McCain). Romney also had the "alpha male" prime seat closest to the moderators.

Although the CNN/Politico/L.A. Times panel did a far better job in running the debate than either MS/NBC or Fox News Channel in prior rounds, the network still relegated Mike Huckabee to the distant perimeter and failed to give him equal time or opportunity.

So the stage was set to produce a Romney wipeout. But, far from winning, Mitt Romney showed he was not ready for prime time.

Out of the box, Romney proved he couldn't stick to the question of whether the U.S. is "better off" than it was eight years ago. Romney punted, preferring to drift back to cherry-picking his slim and decidedly mixed record in Massachusetts. Romney repeatedly hogged time and abused the "no rules" format by launching into his canned stump speech boilerplate.

The detour prompted Anderson Cooper to quip "Are you running for governor or are you running for president, though?"

The big, obviously rehearsed, moment was Romney's attempted bullying of John McCain over Romney's "timetables" quote from the surge debate. He interrupted McCain repeatedly, tried to talk over him, and kept repeating the same canned "lawyer talk" over and over -- not about the facts, but about the timing of when the "timetables" issue arose. He also parsed words about what "timetables" meant. (Notwithstanding that "timetable" was a buzzword for "get out of Iraq" in the context of the debate)

Moreover, when McCain advanced the debate by pointing out that Romney had refused to take a position on the surge just two months before declaring for president, Romney responded with a Clintonesque bit of gibberish, saying that as a governor that he didn't have to.

Does that mean that ordinary Americans shouldn't have taken a position on the surge during the National debate on it? Even Dr. Bill Bennett wailed on this rhetorical fumble in the post-debate commentary show.

However, McCain mostly muffed his defense of the "timetables" issue. The one salient thing he did say was that while Romney was busy avoiding the debate, McCain "put his career on the line" for the surge.

That's the difference between a politician and a leader.

Romney's weak response was that after he was briefed and President Bush was -- months late and after a congressional election lost-- just about to announce that the surge would become official U.S. policy, Romney publically supported the surge. In other words, Romney waited until the surge was a fait accompli before he jumped onto the bandwagon.

Romney did pitch some batting practice for McCain. When Romney whined again about the "old Washington" nature of the "timetables" attack, McCain hammered back that Romney had spent millions on attack ads and had "set the tone" for the campaign.

Sadly, the debate didn't produce a real examination of Romney's flip-flops and liberal record.

For example:

ABORTION RIGHTS

"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard."
Boston Herald Debate, 10/29/02

[As governor, Romney authored and signed a mandatory heath insurance plan backed by Ted Kennedy – including taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.

As governor, Romney overruled his own health department and forced Catholic hospitals to distribute the morning after abortion pill.]


"Roe v. Wade continues to work its destructive logic throughout our society This can't continue."
Speech to the Massachusetts Citizens For Life Mother's Day Pioneer Valley Dinner, 5/10/07

IMMIGRATION REFORM

"With these 11 million people [here illegally], let's have them registered, know who they are....those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process towards application for citizenship."
Lowell Sun, 3/30/06

"One simple rule: no amnesty. If that [Kennedy-McCain bill] is not a form of amnesty, I don't know what is."
New York Times, 6/4/07

[Romney is apparently the only remaining GOP candidate who has actually employed illegal aliens -- at the Romney Mansion]

GUN LAWS

"We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them. I won't chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."
Romney in 2002 gov. debate, Boston Globe, 1/14/07

"I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I'm a member of the NRA [for less than one year] and believe firmly in the right to bear arms."
Boston Globe, 1/14/07

AMENDMENT TO BAN GAY MARRIAGE

"Mitt does not support it...As far as Mitt is concerned, it goes farther than current law, and therefore it's unnecessary."
Romney spokesman, Boston Globe, 3/22/02

[As governor, Mitt Romney issued an executive order forcing justices of the peace to perform homosexual weddings, or resign. Then he ordered marriage licenses changed to read "party A" and "party B" – instead of "husband" and "wife."]

"When I was Governor, we took every conceivable step within the law to stop, block or slow down this unprecedented court decision."
Speech to National Right to Life Convention, 6/15/07

"NO NEW TAXES" PLEDGE

"I'm not intending to, at this stage, sign a document which would prevent me from being able to look specifically at the revenue needs of the commonwealth"
Associated Press, 3/27/02

"Signing the pledge now sends a very clear message to those in Washington who have voted against tax relief and for tax hikes that such actions will never grow our regional and national economies."
Romney spokesman, Boston Globe, 1/5/07

MINIMUM WAGE

"I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation. I think the minimum wage is a good thing to have in our economy and I think it ought to be updated."
Boston Globe, 10/17/94

"[T]he challenge with raising the minimum wage excessively is it is a hurt to those that are entering the work force, the very poor, those that are trying to get early jobs, get those first jobs."
Associated Press, 7/25/06

CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY

"I don't think you go back and rewrite the contract the government has with people who've retired."
Boston Globe, 10/17/94

"Personal accounts would be a big plus."... [Romney]also said changing the retirement age could be considered, as well as basing the Social Security cost of living adjustment on a different inflation gauge.
Union Leader, 6/7/07

ADOPTION NON-DISCRIMINATION

Governor Mitt Romney and a legislative leader yesterday delivered unwelcome news to the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts, who plan to seek permission from the state to exclude gay and lesbian parents from adopting children through its social service agencies. The governor said he was not authorized to give such an exemption...
Boston Globe, 2/17/06

"And then another slide along the slippery slope. The Catholic Church was forced to end its adoption service, which was crucial in helping the state find homes for some of our most difficult to place children... Now, even religious freedom was being trumped by the new-found 'right' of gay marriage."
Speech to National Right to Life Convention, 6/15/07

STEM CELL RESEARCH

[Romney]endorsed embryonic stem cell research, saying the controversial science might one day help treat his wife's multiple sclerosis...."I am in favor of stem cell research. I will work and fight for stem cell research. I'd be happy to talk to [President Bush] about this, though I don't know if I could budge him an inch."
Boston Globe, 6/14/02

"FACT: Governor Romney Opposes Using Taxpayer Money to Fund Embryo-Destructive Research."
MittRomney.com A Record of Protecting Life

BUSH TAX CUTS

Governor Mitt Romney refused yesterday to endorse tax cuts at the heart of President Bush's economic program...In addition to refusing to endorse the president's tax cut, the governor surprised several people at the meeting by saying he is open to a federal increase in gas taxes.
Boston Globe, 4/11/0

[Romney] said it was "absolutely critical" to renew tax cuts proposed by President George W. Bush. Letting them expire would result in a "massive tax increase" that would retard economic growth, Romney said.
Detroit Free Press, 2/8/07

DESIRE TO SERVE IN VIETNAM

"I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam..."
Boston Herald, 5/2/94

["As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s, Mitt Romney received a deferment from the draft as a Mormon 'minister of religion' for the duration of his missionary work in France, which lasted two and a half years.
Before and after his missionary deferment, Romney also received nearly three years of deferments for his academic studies. When his deferments ended and he became eligible for military service in 1970, he drew a high number in the annual lottery that determined which young men were drafted. His high number ensured he was not drafted into the military.

The deferments for Mormon missionaries became increasingly controversial in the late 1960s, especially in Utah, leading the Mormon Church and the government to limit the number of church missionaries who could put off their military service. That agreement called for each church ward, or church district, to designate one male every six months to be exempted from potential duty for the duration of his missionary work.

Romney's home state was Michigan, making his 4-D exemption as a missionary all but automatic because of the relatively small number of Mormon missionaries from that state. . . [The fact that his dad was the Governor of Michigan probably didn't hurt]

By serving as a missionary and being given the deferment, Romney ensured that he would not be drafted from July 1966 until February 1969. Romney's draft record from the time describes him as 'minister of religion or divinity student.'" Boston Globe, 6/27/07]

"I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."

Boston Globe, 6/24/07

[Mitt? EVER HEARD OF A RECRUITING OFFICE?]

REAGAN REPUBLICANISM

"I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush." Boston Herald, 10/27/94

"Ronald Reagan is ... my hero. ... I believe that our party's ascendancy began with Ronald Reagan's brand of visionary and courageous leadership."
Boston Globe, 1/19/07
None of these flip-flops were explored.

Perhaps the most telling moment of the debate was when all of the candidates were asked whether Ronald Reagan would have endorsed them.

Romney got the question first and launched into a laundry list from his stump speech. Romney laced his imaginary Reagan endorsement with overblown "facts," such as a worst case scenario speculation that McCain's cap-and-trade carbon plan would cause a "50-cent-per-gallon charge" on energy (which assumes no reductions in use, market adjustments or technological advances).

It was a bit of pompous, arrogant self-promotion that would have made any "big man on campus" running for student counsel president proud.

But when Mike Huckabee took his turn at this question, he crushed it out of the ballpark:

"I think it would be incredibly presumptuous and even arrogant for me to try to suggest what Ronald Reagan would do, that he would endorse any of us against the others.

Let me just say this, I'm not going to pretend he would endorse me. I wish he would. I would love that, but I endorse him, and I'm going to tell you why.

It wasn't just his specific policies, but Ronald Reagan was something more than just a policy wonk. He was a man who loved this country, and he inspired this country to believe in itself again.

What made Ronald Reagan a great president was not just the intricacies of his policies, though they were good policies. It was that he loved America and saw it as a good nation and a great nation because of the greatness of its people.

And if we can recapture that, that's when we recapture the Reagan spirit. It's that spirit that has a can-do attitude about America's futures and that makes us love our country whether we're Democrats or Republicans. And that's what I believe Ronald Reagan did -- he brought this country back together and made us believe in ourselves.

And whether he believes in us, I hope we still believe in those things which made him a great leader and a great American."


Reagan Democrats and Reagan Republicans had a lump in their throats and a mist in their eyes (including Nancy Reagan) as Gov. Huckabee continued with his tribute to Reagan.

Huckabee shone through as truly presidential in that debate.

OTHER HUCKABEE POWER POINTS

"HOOK: President Bush once said he looked into the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and found him to be, "very straightforward and trustworthy," and that he "got a sense of his soul." Senator McCain says he looks into Putin's eyes and he sees three letters -- KGB.

When you look at President Putin, what do you see?

HUCKABEE: Well, I don't know that I can read people's souls that well, and I've spent a lot of my life looking at people and talking to them. But I look at people's actions, because you can look into their eyes and their eyes can lie, but their actions don't.

And when people take actions that cause us to give concern to human rights violations, to oppression -- and I don't care what their eyes are saying -- their actions are speaking a whole lot louder than their eyes ever will. And we need to be looking at what people are doing, not just what they're saying, and recognizing that our foreign policy needs to reflect an extraordinary strength.

We need to make sure that the rest of the world knows that we're going to have a military that they're not wanting to engage for any purpose. And I do believe that President Reagan was right, you have peace through strength, not vulnerability.
We've got to an Army that is well-staffed, well-trained, well- financed, and that is prepared for anything. And hopefully because it is so well-prepared, it never has to be used.

We can't continue to have one that is stretched and pulled, and particularly -- and I'm very sensitive to this having been a governor and watched some of our National Guard troops spend three out of five years in active duty -- if we're going to engage them, we have to make sure we've got enough troop strength of regular Army and our Air Force and Navy that we don't have to have extended deployments out of our guard and reserve units."

***
"COOPER: Governor Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh says if you or Senator McCain were nominated, would be the nominee, you would "destroy the Republican Party."
Your reaction?

HUCKABEE: You know, I wish Rush loved me as much as I love Rush. I think he's a great voice for conservatism. It doesn't mean he's infallible. And on this he's very wrong.

And I want to make sure everybody understands, this isn't a two- man race. There's another guy who would like to stay down here on the far right of the stage.
You want to talk conservative credentials? Let me get in on that.

I created the first-ever broad-based tax cuts in the 160-year history of my state when I became governor with a 90 percent Democrat legislature. I also balanced the budget every one of the 10 and a half years. I'm the only person that's sitting here today that has consistently supported a human life amendment that's been part of our Republican platform since 1980, and also supports the marriage amendment to our Constitution, two conservative hallmarks.

I believe in less government. I believe in lower taxes, not higher.

I think it's important to streamline the federal government like we streamlined some services in Arkansas. Simple things like getting a driver's car tag, because it used to take a couple of days and about seven pieces of paper. We streamlined it so it could be done on the Internet in 4 and a half minutes.

We consolidated state agencies. We cut 11 percent out of the budget.

One of the things that Rush Limbaugh once praised me for was creating what I called the No -- Tax Me More Fund. And the way that worked was that we had a lot of people in our legislature that wanted us to raise taxes. And I said we don't need to raise taxes, we need to cut our spending.

And so I created a fund called the Tax Me More Fund and said there's nothing in the law that says that you can't just pay more if you want to. And I had envelopes printed, and I said, anybody who wants to pay more taxes, just fill it up with whatever will make you feel better and send it right in. And it proved that a whole lot of people didn't really want to pay more taxes after all, because after about a year and a half, there was only about $1,200 in the account, $1,000 of which had been given by a liberal legislator.

So if we're going to talk conservatism, I'd like to be in on the discussion."

* * *
"COOPER: Let me just give the question now to Senator -- I'm going to ask everyone.
So, Governor Huckabee, if you can, briefly: Are we better off than we were eight years ago?

HUCKABEE: I don't think we are. And the real issue, though, let's not blame President Bush for all of this. We've got a Congress who sat around on their hands and done nothing but spend a lot of money and they're spending, leaving us $9 trillion in debt that we're passing on to our grandchildren.

I don't blame the president solely for that. So I think if we're asking is George Bush responsible for all this, no. But are we better off? Well, let's look at some factors.

Right now, home sales are -- new home starts, anyway, are down 40 percent. That's going to have a cascading impact on everybody who sells lumber, who is in the building trades.

If you talk to people who are driving trucks across America today, their fuel prices are significantly higher than they were a year ago. They're hurting because they're not making a lot more money to haul something, but they're spending a lot more money to get it done.

And all over our economy, with unemployment up to five percent across the nation, that means there are a lot of families today that don't have a paycheck and if you don't have a paycheck, then it's hard to put groceries on the table and it's hard to pay the rent.

And I think what Americans are looking for is somebody to just honest with them and straight with them and tell them that, no, it's not better and it's not going to get better unless we have some serious leadership in Washington that says that we're going to have to start having policies that touch the people not just at the top, but the people at the bottom.

And they feel like they're invisible to a lot of people in government today."

* * *
"COOPER: Governor Huckabee, the idea of a 100-year involvement of the U.S. -- the idea of a 100-year involvement by the U.S. in Iraq?

HUCKABEE: Well, first of all, I didn't come here to umpire a ballgame between these two. I came here to get a chance to swing at a few myself. So I'd appreciate maybe a question that we could talk about that would involve some of us down here at the end who've been left out of the discussion for the last few minutes.

COOPER: The question right now is John McCain had at one point talked about a 100-year involvement by the U.S. in Iraq as being OK. If it does...

HUCKABEE: Let's hope it doesn't take that long, but the one thing I do agree with is that we need to leave with victory, and we need to leave with honor.

And the reason we need to is because, if we leave a bigger mess in Iraq than is there now, it is not just going to affect Iraq. It's going to affect the rest of the Middle East. It will erupt in a completely destabilized environment into which that vacuum is exactly the kind of situation that al Qaeda can build a strong base.

Iran would love to be able to see a destabilized Iraq, because they've been fighting in Iraq and for Iraq for a long time. If we leave it vulnerable, all we've done is create a situation that the rest of the world is going to have to be back into sooner or later for all of our interests.

And with all due respect, Congressman Paul -- and I do think you're right, we don't want to be there for 100 years -- but however long it takes to get out of there with victory and with honor, we owe it to those who have gone to make sure that they did not go in vain.

And we need to make sure that future sons and daughters of America don't have to go back and do it over."

* * *
COOPER: Governor Huckabee, what makes you qualified on economic issues, on the military?

HUCKABEE: Well, first of all, let me say -- a while ago, you said you were going to shower me with questions, and I think then you turned the spigot off, so I want to make sure I get a little time in here to get some time.

I want to just say that I agree with something that Governor Romney said. He talked about that governors are well prepared to be presidents. And I think he's right about that. And if that's the case, then I appreciate his endorsement, because I've been a governor and led a state longer than anybody running for president, Democrat or Republican. I've actually managed a government for 10 and a half years.

There's something a lot of people don't think about. When you're a governor, you actually manage a microcosm of the federal government. Every agency that you have at the federal level, you have at the state level. You are familiar with the whole game board. You understand what those agencies do, because you interrelate with them as a governor every single day.

But you know what the biggest frustration is? Washington doesn't understand how states operate, but states understand how Washington operates, and that's the fundamental difference. We understand, because unfunded mandates come stomping down on top of us, wrecking our state budgets, creating a complete imbalance of power, ignoring the 10th Amendment.

And that's one reason that a lot of us are ready to say it's time for a new type of leadership that respects the 10th Amendment, that respects the fact that governors are out there fighting to try to build a decent education system, create jobs, make sure that we can give families a chance to have a decent way of living. And that we get governments off the backs of mothers and fathers who ought to be raising kids without a whole lot of government interference.

Those are the reasons that I think when a governor gets to the White House, he does understand that leadership is about looking at all of those issues and realizing that there is no such thing as an isolated issue. Education, health care, economic development -- they're all tied together, Anderson. And this is something that I don't hear coming often from people, who, with all due respect, in the legislative branch, have the luxury of picking out particular issues that they can specialize in.
Governors don't get to specialize. They have to be able to handle on any given day several dozen different issues and see how they integrate together for a strong economy, a strong sense of security. And that's how it works.

COOPER: You've said repeatedly you want a presidential candidate -- or you think voters want a presidential candidate, quote, "who looks more like the guy they work with than the guy who laid them off." What exactly do you mean by that? I mean, what about leadership, ability, experience?

HUCKABEE: That's exactly -- real leadership recognizes what your decisions do to people at the bottom. That's what I mean by it, Anderson.

You can't have a president who sees a whole bunch of America as invisible. If you make a decision at the top and you don't understand how it affects the person all the way at the bottom, then you're not ready to lead. Leadership is about seeing the whole field.

And that's what I'm talking about. And that's why -- listen, our Republican Party is going to be in trouble if we creating policies and acting like we don't understand what those folks are feeling out there waiting the tables, handling bags, driving the trucks, and moving the freight around."

One suspects that when Mitt Romney was cutting jobs at Bain Capital, he lacked such understanding (he gave a little "Hillary cackle" when McCain alluded to "some people lost their jobs" when commenting on Romney's private sector leadership experience)

LOSING JOBS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER. But it does illustrate powerfully why Mitt Romney lost the Califonia debate. He's just not ready.