Mount Virtus

I have written little here about the Presidential campaign. While I have no horse in the race, I do have some clear opinions and preferences. For the most part I’ve been sitting back and watching things unfold as the frontrunners vie for my support.

However, the recent overpublicized “Huckabee Surge” has stirred me from my silence. That’s because the thought that the former Arkansas governor and would-be Preacher-in-Chief could actually secure the Republican nomination is quite disturbing.

Largely well known has been Huckabee’s very apparent fiscal liberalism and economic populism. The problem is about more than taxes and spending – his positions on trade, regulation, and school choice leave a lot wanting, as well. (Not to mention how they blend incoherently with his record on immigration.) Altogether, his record on these issues is the weakest in the GOP field.

Michael at Best Destiny brings up the other major problem with Mike “Shucks”-abee: his Democrat-like unseriousness about our nation’s important foreign policy threats and challenges. With the exception of Ron Paul, he again is less preferred than all his Republican rivals in this very crucial area of national leadership.

Third, Huckabee’s inability to respond coherently to the recent 1992 AIDS “quarantine” controversy (covered in detail by Hugh Hewitt) demonstrates that he is not only unprepared for anything resembling a primetime fight with Hillary Clinton but also that his candidacy’s “surge” may quickly be nearing a crash. And as more Republican primary voters take a closer look at the former Arkansas governor, it would be nice if they could go a little deeper than his stances on life and marriage. The only good news about Huckabee’s surge is that it probably already has reached its peak.

Then there’s the national general election strategy. With a fiscally liberal Huckabee at the top of the ticket, the GOP would cede a lot of crucial ground in the Western states to the Democrats. Why else are Clinton-supporting Democrat strategists only saying nicer & nicer things about Huckabee as he “surges” closer to becoming a plausible candidate for the nomination? Welcome the Clintons back to the White House, my friend.

Fellow Republican voters, including those who will join me in casting a caucus ballot here in Colorado on February 5. We can do a lot better than Mike Huckabee. How about Fred, Mitt, Rudy, or McCain? All to be preferred in my estimation. And this coming from a conservative Baptist. From the current field, I’d choose Huckabee to my pastor, but someone else to be my President.

In case you care to read them, below are my two latest published pieces for your perusal, and they strike a common theme: transparency in government.

On Nov. 24, the Rocky Mountain News published (printed in the Sunday Denver Post, of all places) my Speakout submission in response to Gov. Ritter’s unionization executive order.

This Sunday, the Pueblo Chieftain published my op-ed calling for greater online transparency of school district budgets. Want to figure out as a taxpayer just how much your local schools are spending on different items? Think it’s easy? Hence, the purpose of the op-ed.

So yes, I’ve been writing on a transparency in government kick lately. It’s an important issue more people on both sides of the aisle might rally around, if given the chance.

Two weeks ago I wrote about Congressional candidate Jared Polis’ impending visit to Iraq:

Look, Polis’ trip to Iraq may turn out to be all for show. But then again he may be genuine, in which case I hope he takes time to meet with some of our enlisted troops, our young officers, as well as local Iraqi leaders and tribal chiefs.

Was the trip all for show? Blackfive has the answer:

So, here’s Mr. Richie Rich, scratching for Congress, looking for an ‘in’, and decides to fund a trip to Iraq; see the natives, bash the Bush, just to say ‘been there, seen that’. Unfortunately, about all HE saw was the inside of a hotel and the view from a car window. So, he’s ready to be ambassador, now?

So why do I care about this? Because I despise people showboating about the situation over there; needlessly putting themselves at risk, and saying their experts because they’ve seen 1/1,000th of what actually goes on over there. Its like going to the zoo for the afternoon and then claiming you’re an expert zoologist because you spent time in the chimp exhibit.

Two weeks ago I also wrote:

This could turn out to be an interesting race in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. But only if one or more of the candidates is willing to make a grown-up assessment of our Middle East foreign policy by going to really look for himself.

I may have been right, but looks like we’ll never know. Hoping for Democrat Congressional candidates – especially those wooing the votes of Boulderites – to have serious, grown-up, well-informed views of Iraq. Nothing more than misguided optimism, I guess.

This is off topic from what I usually write about here. But after tonight’s 1-2 knockout of Missouri & West Virginia, I think college football fans of all political stripes can agree that the time for a playoff system is now! No matter who ends up being selected for the BCS Championship Game at the end of this wackiest of all seasons, unending controversy will ensue. If it leads us to a playoff system next year, it will be well worth the result.