MIKE HUCKABEE IS A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE

by Dick Morris,

Published on TheHill.com on November 28, 2007.

 

As Mike Huckabee rises in the polls, an inevitable process of vetting him for conservative credentials is under way in which people who know nothing of Arkansas or of the circumstances of his governorship weigh in knowingly about his record. As his political consultant in the early '90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative.

A recent column by Bob Novak excoriated Huckabee for a "47 percent increase in state tax burden." But during Huckabee's years in office, total state tax burden — all 50 states combined — rose by twice as much: 98 percent, increasing from $743 billion in 1993 to $1.47 trillion in 2005.

And he can win in Iowa.

When voters who have decided not to back Rudy Giuliani because of his social positions consider the contest between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, they will have no difficulty choosing between a real social conservative and an ersatz one.

Romney, who began as a pro-lifer and switched in order to win in Massachusetts, and then flipped back again, cannot compete with a lifelong pro-lifer, Huckabee.

But Huckabee's strength is not just his orthodoxy on gay marriage, abortion, gun control and the usual litany. It is his opening of the religious right to a host of new issues. He speaks firmly for the right to life, but then notes that our responsibility for children does not end with childbirth. His answer to the rise of medical costs is novel and exciting. "Eighty percent of all medical spending," he says, "is for chronic diseases." So he urges an all-out attack on teen smoking and overeating and a push for exercise not as the policies of a big-government liberal but as the requisites of a fiscal conservative anxious to save tax money.

So what happens if Huckabee wins in Iowa? With New Hampshire only five days later, his momentum will be formidable. The key may boil down to how Hillary does in Iowa. Hillary? Yes. If she loses in Iowa, most of the independents in New Hampshire will flock to the Democratic primary to vote for her or against her. That will move the Republican electorate to the right in New Hampshire — bad news for Rudy, good news for Huckabee. But if she wins in Iowa, there will be no point in voting in the Democratic primary and a goodly number will enter the GOP contest, giving Rudy a big boost.

And afterward? If Romney wins Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina, sweeping the early primaries, Giuliani will have a very tough task to bring him down in Florida or on Super Tuesday. It can be done, but it's tough. But if Romney loses in Iowa (likely to Huckabee) then Rudy can survive the loss of Iowa and even New Hampshire without surrendering irresistible momentum to Romney.

In any event, neither Hillary nor Giuliani will be knocked out by defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Their 50-state organizations, their national base and their massive war chests will permit them to fight it out all over the United States. Even if they lose the first two contests, they will remain in the race and could well come back to win.

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20 percent of election printouts were unreadable

The problem is the the Democrats want everything counted and re-counted and counted again. they created the problem and now they can't fix it. Simple solution. elimanate the over kill of paper trails.
Mark G Pogue



from the Plain Dealer

Officials fear disaster in Cuyahoga County during primary vote Wednesday, November 28, 2007Joe GuillenPlain Dealer Reporter
A recount after next year's presidential election could mean disaster for Cuyahoga County based on problems discovered Tuesday with paper records produced by electronic voting machines.

More than 20 percent of the printouts from touch-screen voting machines were unreadable and had to be reprinted. Board of Elections workers found the damaged ballots when they conducted a recount Tuesday of two races, which involved only 17 of the county's 1,436 precincts.

The recount lasted more than 12 hours. Reprinting the damaged records and hand-counting them created an extra step that added hours

"If it is as close as it's been for the last two presidential elections and it's that close again in 2008, God help us if we have to depend on Cuya- hoga County as the deciding factor with regard to making the decision on who the next president of the United States is," said County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, a longtime opponent of the county's touch-screen voting system.

Board of Elections Director Jane Platten said recounting the entire county for the 2008 presidential election could take more than a week.

"The high number of paper audit trails that need to be reprinted was at best a difficult task to have to work through," Platten said. "I think that's going to be an indication of future recounts."

Tuesday's recounts were for a North Royalton City Council seat and positions on the Bedford Heights Charter Review Commission. The recount upheld the official results that showed Dan Kasaris won the North Royalton race. Results were not available Tuesday night for the Bedford Heights election.

Cuyahoga County uses touch-screen voting machines that store votes on a memory card inside each machine. On Election Day, a paper record of each ballot is printed inside each machine on long reels of paper.

The printout is the paper trail used during recounts. If it's damaged and unreadable -- usually because the paper jammed when printing -- a new copy is printed from the machine's memory card.

"It's workable, but tedious," said board member Rob Frost after watching Tuesday's recounts. "I think that's, in part, the nature of recounts."

Election workers inspected 70 paper printouts, which represented nearly 4,400 ballots cast Nov. 6 in North Royalton and Bedford Heights. Election workers found 15 of the 70 printouts damaged and those had to be reprinted.

"This is very much a cause for concern," board member Inajo Davis Chappell said. "All the technology issues pose a challenge to us, especially given the volume of voters we expect in the primary."

Diebold Inc. made the county's voting equipment. The company renamed its elections division Premier Election Solutions. The high percentage of damaged paper trails seen on Tuesday is not typical, Premier spokesman Chris Riggall said. "That is a percentage that prompts us to do further investigation," he said.

The board has two more recounts scheduled to begin today: A race for Olmsted Falls City Council and a seat on the Solon Board of Education. The recounts on Tuesday and today were automatically triggered because the margin of victory was one-half of 1 percent or less.

The damaged paper records found Tuesday were another problem for the board following the Nov. 6 countywide election.

The county still doesn't know why its vote-counting software crashed twice election night. An investigation into the software problem could begin next week, once the county's recounts are finished.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner hopes to answer concerns about the county's voting system. She has initiated a statewide voting equipment review. A report expected Dec. 14 could recommend changes.

Meanwhile, elections officials must determine the best way to hold elections with their current machinery.

"I wish those paper trails would come out pristine -- and they don't, and they're not going to," Platten said. "We're going to have to deal with it again."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jguillen@plaind.com, 216-999-4675

The dumb and dumber ticket:Kucinich suggests a Republican running mate

This is a perfect ticket for stupid voters, this is lower than liberal.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Monday, November 26, 2007Sabrina Eaton and Stephen KoffPlain Dealer Washington Bureau
Acworth, N.H. -- Call it the liberal-libertarian ticket, where left meets right and Democrat Dennis Kucinich picks Republican Ron Paul to be his vice president.

Kucinich, the Cleveland congressman running in a longshot bid to become president, suggested it himself Sunday.

"I'm thinking about Ron Paul" as a running mate, Kucinich told a crowd of about 70 supporters at a house party here, one of numerous stops throughout New Hampshire over the Thanksgiving weekend. A Kucinich-Paul administration could bring people together "to balance the energies in this country," Kucinich said.

It would create a stunning, if dizzying, blend of beliefs, wedding two politicians who hold different views on abortion rights, the role of government in providing health care, and the use of government in fostering -- or hampering -- the public's greater good. Those are among the reasons it would never work, said a spokesman for Paul, a Texas congressman and doctor.

"Dr. Paul and Rep. Kucinich are friends and there is a lot of mutual respect," Paul communications director Jesse Benton said in an e-mail when asked whether a running-mate spot on the Kucinich ticket would be attractive to Paul. "They have worked, and will continue to work, together on ending the war and protecting civil liberties.

"However, Ron wants to substantially cut the size and scope of the federal government. There are too many differences on issues such as taxes and spending to think a joint ticket would be possible."

Kucinich and Paul are gadflies to their parties' establishments. Kucinich challenges Democrats to stop cozying up to corporate interests, while Paul challenges Republicans to shed the trappings of big government.

Both frequently cite the Constitution as providing the authority for their agendas. Paul never votes for legislation unless the measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution, his campaign says. Kucinich keeps a pocket-size copy of the Constitution handy, taking it out to invoke its authority over such proposals as the impeachment of Vice President Cheney, one of Kucinich's signature issues.

Speculation of a Kucinich-Paul ticket has surfaced on the Internet, where it also has been shot down. But Kucinich's wife, Elizabeth, did not dismiss it when asked about it after a recent Democratic candidates' debate in Las Vegas. Speaking to the Web site RawVegasTV, she called Paul "a great truth-teller," adding that Paul has "voted 100 percent right on the war."

On Sunday, her husband said, "Think of how you could unite the country, having a Democrat and a Republican on the ticket."

To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:

skoff@plaind.com, 216-999-4212,

seaton@plaind.com, 216-999-4212

State of Ohio Blogger Alliance HQ: Campaign season 08

State of Ohio Blogger Alliance HQ: Campaign season 08

Polls reveal region's sour mood

FROM THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Posted by nbye November 15, 2007 06:03AM

Several recent state polls offer Republican and Democratic presidential candidates something more valuable than money: a window into Ohio's psyche.

While these polls, including one from The Plain Dealer, are only snapshots in time and limited by sample size, they are the closest thing they can get to political ESP.

The candidates, however, don't need special powers to read voters' minds about President Bush's leadership and his handling of the war in Iraq.

Voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with both, according to three polls released in the last week

These reflect a strong national trend, says Karlyn Bowman, who studies opinion polls at a Washington think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

"There is a pretty clear sense that the public wants change," she said. "There is a very sour mood."

At the same time, the Ohio polls suggest that voters are not willing to hold Bush's problems against Republican candidates at all costs.

And the parties' respective front-runners -- Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani -- also still face considerable challenges from voters.

A Quinnipiac University poll of 1,231 registered voters, conducted Nov. 6-11 and released Wednesday, shows Clinton and Giuliani have commanding leads within their parties and are deadlocked in a head-to-head match-up.

But 41 percent of voters surveyed by Quinnipiac say they would never vote for Clinton, and 39 percent say they would never consider Giuliani

A Plain Dealer poll of 625 likely voters, conducted Nov. 5-7, shows similar sentiments: 55 percent of voters say they would never vote for Clinton while, 43 percent say they would never vote for Giuliani.

Richard Bartel of McDonald, Ohio, who participated in The Plain Dealer poll, said he would not vote for either one.

"I wouldn't vote for Hillary, but not because she's a woman," says Bartel, a Teamster who describes himself as an independent.

"I think she's very smart, but we saw her true colors already."

About Giuliani, Bartel says he "is a too far left-leaning conservative."

Both Giuliani and Clinton receive support from more than 90 percent of voters within their respective parties. But independent voters, who could swing the election in a highly partisan contest, are more leery of Clinton. Fifty-nine percent said they would not vote for her; 42 percent said they would not vote for Giuliani.

Voters surveyed in The Plain Dealer poll are the kindest to Bush, who earns a 40 percent approval rating in the survey.

Just 31 percent of 713 registered voters interviewed in the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll, conducted Oct. 19-31, approve of the president's performance.

The Quinnipiac poll puts Bush's approval rating at 29 percent.

Looking within the University of Cincinnati's numbers, Republicans might worry because evangelical Protestants, a key Republican constituency, are split over whether Bush is doing a good job.

Bush earns poor marks for his handling of the war in Iraq in The Plain Dealer and Cincinnati polls.

Though the Quinnipiac poll did not ask the same question about the war in Iraq, it tries to weigh the influence of the issue in the presidential race.

The poll shows 60 percent of voters disagree with the notion that Democrats are going to win the White House because of weak support for Bush and the war in Iraq.

"At some point, Bush will become part of the past, and voters will judge the candidates for themselves," Bowman predicts.

The Plain Dealer poll suggests Ohio's voters -- who backed Bush over Democrat John Kerry by two percentage points in 2004 -- may still look to the GOP to guide them on national security, immigration and taxes. Voters appear to trust Democrats more on health care, education and the economy.

Bowman says many national polls show Democrats leading Republicans on even national security, which is a top issue in the campaign.

Of the three recent Ohio polls, Quinnipiac's probed an issue that has become a parlor game among pundits and Democratic leaders: If nominated by her party, will Clinton tap Ohio's Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland as a running mate?

Ohioans really like Strickland, but they really don't think he's veep material, according to the poll.

Only 29 percent said he was qualified to be vice president of the United States, whereas 49 percent said he wasn't. Fifty-three percent said they don't want him to run.

And only 13 percent of Ohio voters said they would be more likely to vote for the Democratic ticket next year if Strickland were on it.

In the end, the three polls should tell the candidates at least one thing about Ohio voters: Their hearts and minds are not made up.

Plain Dealer Washington Bureau Chief Stephen Koff contributed to this report.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mnaymik@plaind.com, 216-999-4849

Gov. Strickland's utility plan fizzles out

Legislature dilutes energy rates proposal Monday, November 12, 2007John FunkPlain Dealer Reporter
What if your bank suddenly changed your mortgage rate? Bet you would do what it took to find out why.

That's kind of what's happening in Columbus. Lawmakers are trying to figure out how utilities should calculate what you pay for electricity.

A lot of people find the topic is easy to ignore. The discussion is loaded with jargon like "rate stabilization" and "electric security plan." And it practically takes college math to figure out a utility bill, anyway.

Legislature dilutes energy rates proposal Monday, November 12, 2007John FunkPlain Dealer Reporter
What if your bank suddenly changed your mortgage rate? Bet you would do what it took to find out why.

That's kind of what's happening in Columbus. Lawmakers are trying to figure out how utilities should calculate what you pay for electricity.

A lot of people find the topic is easy to ignore. The discussion is loaded with jargon like "rate stabilization" and "electric security plan." And it practically takes college math to figure out a utility bill, anyway.

What's at stake

When other states have allowed utilities to base rates on wholesale prices, consumers have immediately seen increases - as much as 70 percent higher in Maryland over the last year. That's great news for utility shareholders but a nightmare for customers and politicians who let it happen.

Rate shock in Ohio probably would be worse for consumers served by Columbus-based American Electric Power than for FirstEnergy Corp. customers, who are used to rates 20 percent to 50 percent higher than in other parts of Ohio. FirstEnergy insists consumers' rates would go up only slightly.

Ohio Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander said market rates could be less than what FirstEnergy would negotiate with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. She wants the PUCO to figure out which is less for each utility - the market rate or PUCO rate - and customers would pay that.

Hidden changes

The power companies fumed over the governor's proposal and sent an army of lobbyists, public-relations specialists and big-gun attorneys to head off the bill in the General Assembly.

After more than 50 hours of public hearings, the Ohio Senate approved a substitute bill 12 days ago. Buried in 87 pages of legal-speak are dozens of subtle amendments. Among the changes: Consumer rates - including FirstEnergy's, the highest in the state - will never decrease.

Senators added language to the bill that sets February 2008 rates as the starting point for increases, which would be negotiated with the PUCO.

That change was far different from what Strickland proposed. In his version, new Ohio rates would be determined by what it actually cost utilities to generate the power, including the value of power plants and a rate of return - the way it always was when utilities were regulated.

The thicket of Senate alterations also means manufacturers and other big industrial users would keep their deep discounts indefinitely. They had argued that without them, Ohio manufacturing would be unable to compete.


Renewable energy

Other last-minute modifications probably will dash the governor's vision of wind farms and other clean-power plants.

The original bill required utilities by 2025 to produce 25 percent of the power they sell with wind, solar and other "advanced energy" systems such as fuel cells, high-tech coal and nuclear plants. That would create "tens of thousands" of jobs in new industries, jobs that are already being created in states with similar renewable rules, the governor argued.

When senators were done with it, the bill still required the PUCO to make annual reports, but the commission couldn't set interim benchmarks.

Instead, the PUCO would be required to hold only one hearing - in 2025. If utilities drag their feet, they would not be required to expand renewable-energy sources if doing so would raise overall average rates more than 3 percent.

The city of Cleveland, environmental groups and the consumers' counsel argue that the new language means no wind turbines will be built here, no wind turbine manufacturers will come to Ohio, and no jobs will be created.

The Strickland administration counters that renewable energy would be on the table every time a utility asked the PUCO for a rate increase.

An Ohio House committee began hearings last week and plans a leisurely pace - one hearing a week - through January, a slap in the face of the governor, who asked lawmakers to approve his bill by Dec. 31.


In the end

Rates will increase in 2009 - but not skyrocket. Assuming the governor's bill is enacted, don't look for FirstEnergy to immediately bully its way past the governor and the PUCO in 2009.

Instead, FirstEnergy will negotiate rate increases while holding out the prospect to stock analysts that its negotiated rates will move closer to what it could charge by basing rates on wholesale markets. And as the gap narrows, wholesale markets will ultimately become the standard. Profits will increase.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138

Ohio likely important in 2008 election

Cleveland Plain Dealer
Posted by nbye November 12, 2007 06:46AM
Washington -- The road to the White House "goes through Ohio," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday, using an adage deeply ingrained in national politics.


It's why she sought Gov. Ted Strickland's endorsement, and he gave it. It's why President Bush and his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, stopped in Ohio so often in 2004 -- bringing crowd-drawing stars such as Bruce Springsteen (with Kerry) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (with Bush) -- that the state's press corps didn't have to travel the country to cover the campaign. The campaign came to Ohio, and Ohio decided the narrow outcome.

Ohio is likely to be a bellwether for the nation again next November, when for the first time since 1952, there will be no incumbent president or vice president on the ballot.

I saw a UFO and E.T.will be my V.P.