Mike Huckabee

[Marblez]

Mike Huckabee is my Presidential candidate of choice. I personally have never been tempted to campign for anyone, but this is SOOO the one that I think can change our world for the better.

I found this in an old thread. I am curious to know what everyone, including brass, thinks about Huckabee now. Check him out at www.mikehuckabee.com, click on the issues link if you haven't already and let me know.

... Has anyone seen that Huckabee guy? I heard about him doing something with Clinton about advocating health and fitness in schools, and that seemed cool. If he runs, against say... Hillary, I'd check out his civil liberties platform before I voted straight ticket Dem again.

[torn asunder]

vote nader!!!

[Marblez]

vote nader!!!

No.

[torn asunder]

[the eternal]

I admire both of you for your idealism.

I used to have convictions, and be open to supporting a candidate with no chance of winning, simply because he/she was the right person for the job.

If I had my druthers, I'd vote in the leprechaun from Ohio

I truly love his ideals and that he doesn't let popular opinion or the gold at the end of the rainbow keep him from always saying and doing what's right.

BUT, I'll probably just end up waiting for Hillary to wipe Obama off the map, and then hope the Dems don't blow their best chance in AGES to take back the presidency

[Marblez]

I used to have convictions, and be open to supporting a candidate with no chance of winning, simply because he/she was the right person for the job.

The funny thing is, I believe that Huckabee is underestimated. If everyone that silently supported Huckabee would actually SUPPORT him, back him and vote for him, he could win. He has gained an unbelievable amount of ground just in just the last few months. As a matter of fact in Iowa, he is now #2, gaining on Giuliani. Many of Giuliani's supporters are only voting for him because they think only he has a chance to beat Hillary.

[torn asunder]

in my case, i always vote 3rd party - here's why... (selected quotes from a Q&A session with Ralph Nader)

Presidential Debates designed to exclude third parties

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a private corporation created in 1987 by the Republican and Democratic Parties to seize complete control over the Presidential Debate process. Its principal objectives are to exclude competitors from 3rd parties or independent candidacies, and to control the number and format of debates.

Since 1980 only Ross Perot has gotten on these debates. After gaining 19 million votes in 1992, he was kept off the debates in 1996 by his two major competitors.

Source: In the Public Interest: "Citizens' Debate Commission" Jan 17, 2004

Allow voting for “None of the Above”

[i think people] are overwhelmingly supportive of a binding none-of-the-above law. So if you don’t like who’s on the ballot, you can go down and vote for None of the Above in your voting precinct. If None of the Above wins more votes than any of the other candidates, it cancels that particular election, sends the candidates packing and orders, within thirty or forty-five days, a new election and new candidates.

Source: Alternative Radio interview with David Barsamian Feb 23, 2000

Concentrated party power weakens democracy

In a January 17 column, Nader accused the major parties of purposely keeping small political parties off the ballot. In a subsequent column, he took on the media for failing to ask tough questions of candidates. “Every 4 years, a half-dozen campaigns issues are drably questioned and drearily answered,” he wrote. “Too much power in the hands of the few has weakened our democracy. People need stronger civic tools to band together, learn together and act together to make the Big Boys behave,” he wrote.

Source: CNN.com Feb 17, 2000

No private money in public campaigns

Q: Who should be allowed in the debates?

A: If you get over 5% of the vote, and you get funds for the next four years, you should be qualified to get on the debate. So we believe in a 5% threshold.

Q: Even if it was a hate-mongering organization?

A: Yes of course. I don’t think that kind of organization would ever get 5% or higher.

Q: Why does it help you?

A: It doesn’t. It pushes the whole movement toward public financing for public campaigns. We want no private money in public campaigns.

Source: CNN: “Burden of Proof” Aug 9, 2000

Goal is 5% of vote, to qualify Greens as a recognized party

Nader knows he’s not moving into the White House, but he has a concrete goal: 5 percent of the vote so the Green Party will become a recognized third party and can reap millions in federal campaign matching funds in 2004. He defines victory as “getting tens of thousands of people into political activity and hundreds of candidates running. We become the third political party in America, with the fourth way behind.“ Nader says his chief aim is a ”shift of power,“ which would help him achieve his agenda: universal health insurance, public financing of campaigns, and the shifting of tax dollars from ”corporate welfare and a bloated military budget“ to services for people.

Source: U.S. News & World Report Oct 25, 2000

Vote conscience rather than choosing between drab and dreary

Nader asked supporters whether the town had made any progress under eight years of Clinton. “One of the greatest disemployers of Flint, Michigan, is William Jefferson Clinton.” Urging supporters to “vote your conscience,” Nader warned residents against picking the lesser of two evils. “If you reward both parties, those parties will only get worse every four years. We’re not going to hear much about issues in the upcoming presidential debates between the drab and the dreary.”

Source: AP Story, NY Times Sep 21, 2000

The DemRep duopoly obstructs citizenship

The foundation of our campaign [is] to focus on active citizenship, to create fresh political movements that will displace the control of the Democratic & Republican Parties. They are simply the two heads of one political duopoly, the DemRep Party, feeding at the same corporate trough. This duopoly does everything it can to obstruct the beginnings of new parties including raising ballot access barriers, entrenching winner-take-all voting systems, and thwarting participation in debates.

Source: Green Party Announcement Speech Feb 21, 2000

until a 3rd party gets into the presidential debates *on a consistant basis* i will vote for the 3rd party candidate most likely to garner 5%.

i can't stand republicrats!!