{"id":14153,"date":"2008-01-07T11:11:04","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T16:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14153.html"},"modified":"2008-01-07T11:11:04","modified_gmt":"2008-01-07T16:11:04","slug":"kristols-signals-the-end-of-the-huckabee-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/kristols-signals-the-end-of-the-huckabee-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristol signals the end of the ‘Huckabee Panic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first blush, Bill Kristol’s inaugural column<\/a> in the paper of record confirms the concerns of critics. It’s filled with the kind of far-right talking points that one has come to expect from the Weekly Standard editor.<\/p>\n

He laments the “nanny state”; he warns that Democrats would lead us to “defeat” in Iraq; and just to drive the point home, Kristol quotes Michelle Malkin. I imagine the New York Times’ readers have come to expect better.<\/p>\n

Having said that, Kristol’s column is not without a certain political salience. <\/p>\n

[T]he most interesting moment in Saturday night’s Republican debate at St. Anselm College was when the candidates were asked what arguments they would make if they found themselves running against Obama in the general election.<\/p>\n

The best answer came, not surprisingly, from the best Republican campaigner so far — Mike Huckabee. He began by calmly mentioning his and Obama’s contrasting views on issues from guns to life to same-sex marriage. This served to remind Republicans that these contrasts have been central to G.O.P. success over the last quarter-century, and to suggest that Huckabee could credibly and comfortably make the socially conservative case in an electorally advantageous way.<\/p>\n

Huckabee went on to pay tribute to Obama for his ability “to touch at the core of something Americans want” in seeming to move beyond partisanship. And, he added, Senator Obama is “a likable person who has excited people about wanting to vote who have not voted in the past.” Huckabee was of course aware that in praising Obama he was recommending himself.<\/p>\n

I was watching the debate at the home of a savvy, moderately conservative New Hampshire Republican. It was at this moment that he turned to me and said: “You know, I’ve been a huge skeptic about Huckabee. I’m still not voting for him Tuesday. But I’ve got to say — I like him. And I wonder — could he be our strongest nominee?”<\/p>\n

He could be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given Kristol’s position as a member in good standing of the Elite Republican Establishment, this isn’t what he was expected to say about Huckabee. Not even close.
\n
\nIndeed, Kristol’s column goes on to praise Huckabee as “likable regular guy” with a compelling personal narrative who may appeal well to younger voters. He concludes that the “Republican establishment spent 2007 underestimating Mike Huckabee,” and insists that “Huckabee is a talented politician.”<\/p>\n

Kristol didn’t go so far as to endorse the former Arkansas governor — he said, “I’m certainly not ready to sign up” to back Huckabee’s campaign — but that he was willing to be as laudatory as he was should be enough to raise a few eyebrows.<\/p>\n

As regular readers know, the Republican establishment, especially throughout the month of December, experienced what John Cole aptly labeled the “Huckabee Panic<\/a>.” All of a sudden, it seemed to dawn on the party that the GOP nominee may be a former governor who raised taxes, supported immigration “amnesty,” has a record of making extreme comments, and whose understanding of foreign policy and national security issues rivals that of a small child. <\/p>\n

Rush Limbaugh, the National Review’s Rich Lowry, Charles Krauthammer, Peggy Noonan, and Stephen Hayes (of Kristol’s own Weekly Standard) all said that a Huckabee nomination would be a calamity the Republican Party must avoid.<\/p>\n

And yet, here’s Kristol, effectively giving Huckabee his blessing. It suggests the Republican establishment freak-out, at a minimum, is subsiding, and the party is coming to grips with the former governor being a reasonable alternative to their preferred candidates.<\/p>\n

I guess the “panic” is over?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first blush, Bill Kristol’s inaugural column in the paper of record confirms the concerns of critics. It’s filled with the kind of far-right talking points that one has come to expect from the Weekly Standard editor. He laments the “nanny state”; he warns that Democrats would lead us to “defeat” in Iraq; and just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}