Friday, February 27, 2009

Conservative Contenders

So a new poll by CNN shows that, in 2012, social conservatism will be the driving force behind who will be the Republican nominee for president.
Twenty-nine percent of Republicans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday say they are most likely to support Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the next GOP presidential nomination. Right behind the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and well within the poll's margin of error, is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Twenty-six percent of those questioned say they are most likely backing Huckabee, the surprise winner of the 2008 Iowa GOP caucuses.
Sarah Palin is likely to get the guns rights crowd as well as the "security moms" who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 amid fears of another terrorist attack. Huckabee, a former minister, will likely get the die-hard religious vote.

Are they a threat to Obama? Palin is very popular with the Republican base, and Huckabee certainly shook things up for the Republican Party in the early days of the campaign -- he took Iowa. But neither represent the shifting change that Americans want to see. It's clear that mainstream Americans see Palin as unintelligent -- see her interview with Katie Couric as exhibit A -- and much of mainstream America would probably be uncomfortable with "amend[ing] the Constitution so it's in God's standards" as Huckabee proposed in 2008.

Am I scared? Only of what these two would be capable of if elected president. But I feel that the American people are happy with Obama -- his honeymoon period is still going strong -- and if he can deliver on his promises, we don't have anything to be worried about.

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