I don’t particularly like Townhall’s Matt Lewis.

He is one columnist who milked the Huckabee/Romney camp rivalry for all it was worth, writing provoking commentary designed to earn him hundreds of hits and hundreds of comments.

I guess that made him feel good about himself.

He’s at it again in his reaction to and ‘analysis’ of Huckabee’s advice to the GOP that we not try to win the election by ‘demonizing’ Obama.

http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/1b348839-9530-4db1-99a9-9b1986f2a9bd?comments=true#comments

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Message to Huckabee …

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 3:42 PM

Mike Huckabee has warned Republicans to lay off Barack Obama.  My thought:  This is a bit patronizing.  Why should Republicans treat Obama any differently than any other candidate?  … Of course Republicans shouldn’t make racist attacks — that’s a given.  But politics is rough-and-tumble – it has always been that way, and, in my estimation, it’s healthy for Democracy.  We will have achieved equality when Obama is free to be (as Huckabee might say) “demonized” – just like every other presidential candidate in the history of America has been …

 

Hummm.. patronizing?

It’s not patronizing if the republicans really need to hear the warning and apply it. We like to think we are above those types of obviously ‘cross the line’ tactics:

Try telling that to republicans forwarding emails that Obama is the Anti-Christ,

Or to talk show hosts who pretend that calling him Barack HUSSEIN Obama is not intended to produce a knee jerk negative response i a post 9/11 world.

Or to those same talkers doing everything in their power to imply that Obama hates America.

How about telling that to the Texas republicans at their convention who wore buttons saying ‘If Obama wins the white house, will it still be called the white house?”

I could never vote for Obama in a million years but we HAVE to find a way to fight him on the Issues, and not on his ‘patriotism, or try to play ‘guilt by association’  or by saying the terrorists will be dancing in the street if he wins, or by asking, is Barack really a muslim?

I don’t expect that McCain’s campaign will fight that front, but we ALL know the 527’s are going to find a way to go there, directly or indirectly.

Yes, these will evoke an emotional reaction, but it will happen on both sides of the isle. Sure you may convince a few republicans sitting on the fence to vote McCain, but at the same time you will convince millions more democrats who may be sitting on the fence that the GOP is playing true to its percieved fearmongering/bigoted form.

Obama will ALWAYS win if we try to battle him in the realm of emotion.. One soaring, ‘Still I Stand’ sppech will wipe away every doubt planted by 527’s dirty work. We cannot win on his turf.

He has to be defeated in the realm of REASON. Hillary took him to school on policy, she waited too late to find the key, but we would do well to learn from her mistakes.

Matt Lewis’s little dig at Mike produced the usual plethora of Huck Derangement Syndrome responses, including this little number:

The problem with what Huckabee said is that it reveals what he thinks of conservatives, that he believes that conservatives are racists that will resort to racist attacks on the first black presidential candidate, unless he staves them off with his pastoral wisdom.

So it’s not that I think he supports Obama or anything. He’s just once again revealing his contempt for conservatives, just like he did back in the primary.

Uhhh.. what?

Mike didn’t  ‘reveal’ his secret contempt for conservatives.

He made an observation based on tangible evidence of the direction that the GOP is thinking of taking in this election. He listen’s to talk radio, he saw the GOP ads that were run in the Southern special elections, which the GOP LOST, because they tried to run a negative campaign based on emotional guilt by Obama association.

I cannot emphasize enough how right Huckabee is on this subject. The GOP will LOSE in a landslide if they try to make this a character defamation ’swift boat’ campaign. Obama is no Kerry to take a hit laying down, and the backlash could propell him into the whitehouse.

And for the record, as once again Lewis’s post intentionally tried to make Mike into an Obama sympathizer, here is a comment from Jarrod, on the site, to provide some context of the further development of Huckabee’s thoughts on Obama.

Jarrod writes:	Wednesday, June, 18, 2008 5:50 PM
Favorite Pastime
It seems one of the favorite pastimes here at Townhall is demonizing Mike Huckabee, posting quotes in order to point out once again what a idiot traitor to Republican principles ‘Huckles’ is. Here are some other quotes from the same story: “I am grateful for Barack Obama and his magnificent climb and the journey that he has taken. But then I will tell you, he has gone far enough this year.” Ultimately, he said the election should be about substantive issues, not symbolism. Huckabee hit Obama on higher taxes, his inexperience, and foreign policy. . . . . . Issues of national security and foreign policy-not necessarily the Supreme Court or tax rates-are paramount in this election, he suggested. “This election is not so much about whether our great grandkids will live in a nice house. This election may well be whether our great grandchildren live at all. That’s how serious it is and we need a serious candidate for president, who understands what we face and how to face it.” He said Obama could not point to a single accomplishment in his time in the U.S. Senate or Illinois Legislature that advanced national security or aided the economy. He contrasted that with the experience of Republican nominee John McCain. “Frankly, this is no time for driver ed,” Huckabee said. “This is a time for a seasoned, serious person behind the wheel of the country.” Maybe it is his experience as a Christian pastor, but what a lot of non-conservatives notice, and appreciate about Huckabee is that he has the ability to condemn the sin (like he condemns Obama’s policies above) but not the sinner (Obama himself). I don’t understand why so many conservatives find that ability so contemptible.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.