Just because Mitt Romney is pulling his ads in South Carolina doesn’t mean he’s not banking his candidacy on serious evangelical support. For the time being, though, it’s not Southern evangelicals he needs. A senior Romney aide tells God-o-Meter that the campaign, desperately needing a win in next Tuesday’s Michigan primary, will be focusing the evangelical-heavy western part of the state. Which helps explain Romney’s new Michigan radio ad featuring local Congressman Pete Hoekstra and his wife Diane:
CONGRESSMAN PETE HOEKSTRA: “These are serious times for America.”
DIANE HOEKSTRA: “And for the American family.”
PETE HOEKSTRA: “And that’s why our family took a hard look at all the candidates for President.”
DIANE HOEKSTRA: And if you care about the family, one candidate stands out.
CONGRESSMAN PETE HOEKSTRA: “Yup, Mitt Romney.”
DIANE HOEKSTRA: “Governor Mitt Romney represents the values that are important to us. He will fight for the unborn and traditional marriage.”
It’s worth noting that the Romney campaign doesn’t think it has to win evangelicals outright to triumph in Michigan or elsewhere. It just has to deprive Mike Huckabee of enough evangelical votes so that, combined with a large share of Republican establishment voters, it can create a winning coalition. The problem with that strategy in a state like Michigan is that Huck has a big advantage with values voters and John McCain has a leg up with the establishment. That leaves Romney an in-between space that has served him pretty well in Iowa and New Hampshire, but not enough to boost him to victory.
7
posted January 10, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I’m a Michigan resident and an evangelical homeschooler. Huckabee’s support here is not cash in the bank. His homeschool record in Arkansas is circulating and today the head of the one of the largest homeschool groups in the state spoke up about his concerns about Huckabee. He’s from the Grand Rapids area where Huckabee is supposed to be strongest so this is significant.
On Saturday there is a “Defending the Dream” Summit in the Detroit area (my side of the state). Romney and McCain are both scheduled to be there along with Duncan Hunter and some sort of Ron Paul presence. No word on Huckabee. I get emails from evangelicals and almost all are undecided with leanings away from Huckabee for one reason or another. It doesn’t take much to push them completely away from him. So this event coul sway a lot of people on this side of the state especially if Huckabee is a no show.
In a fun twist, I’ve been given a press pass so I’ll get a behind the scenes look at what’s going on. John Stossel from ABC’s 20/20 is also scheduled to be there so it will be interesting to see how this event affects the polls on Tuesday. If you’re in Michigan you can get the details for the event on my blog by clicking on my name.
posted January 10, 2008 at 5:20 pm
The more I look at Huckabee the more I DON’T like him. You really don’t have to do much digging to see quite a few hypocracies of his own. Interesting that he and McCain (and many on this site I might add) are sooo quick to point a finger at Romney.
The more I read from people he worked with in his state the scarier he gets for me. I know there is this big push from some evangelicals to vote for him. However, I think by not being willing to scrutinize his record the way he is so quick with is opponents that could blow up for many evangelicals in the future.
Found this latest today interesting.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/01/10/mike-huckabee-and-the-shiite-republicans/
Another thing. It was painful to watch him in Sundays debate. He is clueless on foreign policy, couldn’t say “Yes, I raised taxes”, and wants to bring gitmo to the US? Thompson had to explain to him why that was such a bad idea.
Anyway, I’m just having a tough time grasping, beyond the evangelical push, why in the world anybody would want this guy President? His whole routine about being the guy you work with as President..I don’t know about you, but the average person I work with fall in the idiot category.
posted January 10, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Hmmm
Wondering why my last post was “held up.”
posted January 11, 2008 at 11:52 am
Conservativegirl, the very things you find disturbing about Huck – basically his lack of solid conservative credentials – would likely work to his advantage once [if] he gets picked as the GOP nominee, as he would then be angling for the more centrist votes.