Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy (or any other president for that matter)

If trends mean anything then the presidential race boils down to two candidates of the same party. No Senator has been elected president since JFK and I don’t think we’re going to see a change in that statistic any time soon…or ever (LBJ and Nixon were congressmen and even though Gerald Ford was a Senator he was never elected). Senators have very public voting records and the bills they vote on are so convoluted and bloated with pork and nonsense that it’s just like shooting fish in a barrel when putting together a negative campaign ad against a running Senator.

That takes Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain and Thompson out of the race (the other unmentioned candidates can be dismissed and return to their classrooms). The only glimmer of hope for a Senator might be in Obama’s short tenure — the fact that he hasn’t had as much time as others to taint himself.

So, that brings us to Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. The two religious candidates who stand for the same conservative values this country embraces but who stand as religious opponents. I only wish, for the sake of the salacious television entertainment, that these two could run against one another in the general election. I’m no Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, but if I had to put money on it I’m going with Romney. He’s clean, he’s pretty and the man has proven he can straighten some shit out and that’s what this country needs.

Romney / <insert running mate> 2008!

The sandbox is over crowded…

…and Hillary got some in her snatch. Yeah, it’s disgusting but I said it. Hillary is losing big time and she doesn’t know how to handle it. Now she’s pointing fingers, telling Obama he’s no MLK while her introductor, Francine Torge, reminded us that JKF was assasinated and LBJ was the one who actually signed the civil rights act.

The claim is that Torge was referring to Obama, and because there are fears of a black president being assassinated those comments were completely out of line. The Hillary camp publicly disapproved of the comment but I have a feeling they knew what was coming. I wouldn’t put it past her to throw something like that into the discussion via a scapegoat.

I have a dream too. My dream is that the democrats shut the hell up, go back home and come up with some sort of strategy that will actually help our country. You know, something along the lines of a foreign policy plan, border security, an admission that there is a real terror threat and that Islam IS the enemy…stuff like that.

The media is focusing so closely on the Democrat race and playing it up to be so critical but in the big picture I don’t see any one of those candidates having a snowball’s chance in a real presidential race. I don’t expect a Reganesque 49 state landslide in the general election but you have got to be kidding me if anyone believes this United States of America would vote in Hillary Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama or John Edwards as president.

I made a prediction about a year ago that our next president would be Mitt Romney and I haven’t seen anything that has made me change my mind. I think most of the Republican candidates would be great presidents except for Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul (Ron Paul is a extreme right wing kook and Huckabee seems like a passive-aggressive cool aid drinker). That leaves us with McCain, Giuliani and Romney. If Fred Thompson were a little more inspiring than a thorazine induced drool-off he might have a chance but he’s too far behind to make an impact.

Fasten your seat belts, the ride is going to get bumpy!

Politics and religion reprisal…

Mike Huckabee is starting to scare me. OK, for the record, lest any of you wonder, I’m a Mormon and have been for most of my life. I’m not exactly the standard of purity at this point in my life, I may fall under the category of Jack Mormon, but that doesn’t change what I believe. I like Mitt Romney. Not because he is LDS, he just happens to be, and I find a lot of common ground with him.

I like Rudy Giuliani a lot too. The problem with him is his scandals and the mistakes he’s made. I mean, he abused his privilege as mayor while hiding his mistress and recommended Bernard Kerik to be homeland security secretary among other things. He was a great mayor and a great leader but I’m not so sure he is what America needs at this point in its history. I’m just not sure if he can rise to the challenges before us.

The real reason I’m making this post is because Huckabee is really starting to look kooky, and here’s why.

The man is an ordained Baptist minister and had a congregation of over 400,000 before his political career. He has founded his life on his beliefs in Christ and the teachings of the bible as he understands them. He is a man who would say that character counts. He is a man who will defend what he believes. He is a man who lives by his religion and wears it on his sleeve and shares it liberally. The problem I am having is that his campaign and former church are reluctant to release much, if any of his sermons for public review. Does anyone else smell something stinky there?

I don’t believe for one second that he has anything unethical or scandalous to hide. I think the reason there may be some reluctance is because sometimes the Southern born-agains get a little carried away in their exuberance and from time to time his preachings likely contained things that can easily be used against him to make him look like an extremist wacko. If he said those things as a minister for Christ why can he not share them now as a presidential candidate? Why do they become such separate issues now that his life is in the public eye?

What really pisses me off is that, while he tries to hide his potential to look silly, he deflects the spotlight of scrutiny onto Mitt Romney by asking in the New York Times, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”.

The answer to that question is an entirely separate issue. I do find it to be an incredible opportunity to explain the Mormon understanding of our literal relationship to God as His children to the world. Most mainstream Christian churches contend that Mormons are not Christian because we believe that Christ and Lucifer are spirit brothers. I find that to be ridiculous and really just laugh when I hear a statement like that tossed out with the intention of making us seem like blasphemous heretics.

For some reason people just find it abhorrent to think that God might have created the spirit that became Satan. Was Lucifer not an angel in heaven before the fall? Could God not have created him as a spirit child as he did me, you and Christ? Did God not create all things? Where in the bible does it clarify this point of doctrine?

I’d like to hear Huckabee explain where Lucifer came from and who created him if he expects Romney to do the same. Is it really an issue at the end of the day? What it really is, is just another notch in the belt of sensationalism for Huckabee and the mainstream, fundamentalist Christian right to say that Mormons are a non-Christian cult.

For Huckabee to try and embarrass Romney rather than open his vault and share the words he preached from the heart, his core beliefs, the teachings that were supposed to be salvation to the souls of hundreds of thousands, is cowardly.

Politics and religion in the 2008 race

Why Mike Huckabee will never be win the presidency

We often hear people say never to mix politics and religion. For people of faith, that is impossible. Those who don’t follow any particular religious tenets may be able to separate the two issues. But because their lives are not founded on a faith in God they misunderstand that faith inherently guides every ethical and moral decision. Therefore politics and religion go hand in hand.

The arguments for separation of church and state are taken to unreasonable extremes by factions who are opposed to religion based morality, faith in God and the structure that adherence to the ten commandments brings into the lives of Christians. Those on the outside looking in see it as restrictive. Those on the inside see it as safety and comfort in a world of turmoil.

That brings me to the recent happenings within the GOP presidential race. We have Mitt Romney, an LDS man with a squeaky clean record but with a controversial fath, and Mike Huckabee with a seriously right wing Christian history who tends to fan the flames that the left wingers carry for their hatred of the Christian right.

I think Mitt Romney’s recent address to us about his faith flipped a switch in Huckabee that has caused him to start speaking as a man of faith more than a politician. The problem I see for Huckabee is that his extreme right wing whacko tendencies are coming out and unfortunately for him, I see it being his demise.

I think Mike Huckabee is a good man with a good moral compass. The one thing I find difficult, and this goes for all of the ‘fundamentalist’ Christian types, is that they come down with such black and white, judgmental force on certain moral issues facing America today that they draw a dividing line rather than uniting people. Issues like abortion, homosexuality and sin in general make guys like that spew hellfire and brimstone rather than hope and unity.

America needs some change and I personally believe that America’s moral compass is broken, but the last thing that is going to help is someone from the Southern bible belt wagging his finger and telling everyone that we’re all in a spiritual darkness and that God is punishing us with earthquakes, floods and the plague of AIDS. That is not the job of a president and that is why he is never going to be the president.

Mitt Romney’s speech defending and clarifying his faith was one of the best political moves he could have made. Not only did it distinguish him as a man with a firm resolve for what is right and what is wrong but it made his most formidable opponent step up and promptly shoot himself in the foot with his whacky Christian right rhetoric.

I’m not saying I necessarily disagree with Huckabee’s views, but his heavy handed preaching is too rich for my blood and it’s definitely no way to win the GOP nomination. I sure don’t want that in my president and America would never go for it either. Can you imagine a guy like that in meetings with Ahmadinejad? Nukes would be flying in no time.

A president needs to be a leader, to uplift and bring people together. If Mike Huckabee wants a chance he has to stop ringing that division bell and show himself as a man of compassion and understanding. I can see him following in the footsteps of our favorite right wing Pats, Buchanan and Robertson, working the talking head circuit to pimp their latest writings on why America is doomed.