Following up on civility and such …

I’m sure you can imagine my surprise at coming home from my Bible study group, turning on the computer, and finding a comment (since removed, as it deserved) swearing at me for not being a good enough Christian.

I then deleted the other worthless comments (including three identical ones listed from different people — either one liar who can’t keep his story straight or a pro-Ron Paul form letter written for spamming purposes … I can’t say I care which), and set about reading blogs from two wonderful bloggers who live-blogged this evening’s debate.

One of them, I’m unable to thank because spammers have persuaded her that it’s necessary to close her blog to comments.

I think she would know who she is … So, if you’re reading this, thank you.

If you’re one of these people with nothing better to do than bombard with whom you don’t agree with nasty comments … please, grow up.

Civility, courtesy, good manners, and other quaint notions

On Thanksgiving, Team Huckabee had a thread running on the blog simply entitled “Tell Us What You Are Thankful For.”

There are more than 100 comments on that post, from various people expressing thanks about something or another. Some mention Mike Huckabee, some don’t. Some mention the country, some don’t. They’re just expressions of thanks.

A few are plugging their own web sites, but generally positive.

But there are some who take on a critical tone … in response to a post attributed to Thomas Jefferson. A Ron Paul supporter felt the need to jump into a thankfulness blog to level charges against Gov. Huckabee, culminating in “I’m thankful that I’m dead so that I won’t have to pay all the dumb taxes Mike Huckabee will make,” or something to that effect. (The comment was removed eventually … one more thing for which to be thankful, I guess.)

Huckabee Wins Iowa

No, you haven’t done a Rip Van Winkle and suddenly woke up looking at my blog.

I’m just, way too late, putting up something that I predicted at least a month ago, but chickened out in terms of posting here. I expect Mike Huckabee to win the Iowa caucus — solidly.

I don’t expect any credit for this, since I haven’t come clean on it publicly here until now, when the Rasmussen polls show Huckabee now leading in Iowa.

So, this brings us to my own state. I think Gov. Huckabee will place a strong second here. I would love to be wrong, and see him win. But I think that the infusion of moderate-to-liberal Massachusetts types (and if you’re a New Englander, you know what term I didn’t use) will serve Gov. Romney and Mayor Giuliani well. Although New Hampshire has a strong Libertarian Party and strong libertarian streak in the Republican Party, I still don’t see Rep. Paul overcoming the strength of the other candidates, money aside.

Rasmussen is coming out with new numbers for NH in a few days, but I expect the final in NH will be roughly: Romney (25%), Huckabee (23%), Giuliani (15%), McCain (12%), and then Paul and Thompson in respectable single-digits. New Hampshire, of course, is Paul’s best and only shot to be taken seriously in the primary race.

I’m not going to say much more about that at the moment, except that Huckabee will place well in South Carolina — I don’t see a win being out of his grasp. After these early primaries, we start losing candidates, and it’s tough to say who will do what when, so I don’t want to make any more predictions right now. Giuliani’s unorthodox strategy of focusing on a large -scale national campaign instead of the early (and often more-conservative) states might well have repercussions, but I’m not at all sure that he can survive the loss of so many important states.

Once again … those who have been dismissing Mike Huckabee as irrelevant or a second-tier candidate have got to be wondering how they were so wrong.

The biggest reason: Mike Huckabee has ideas, and those ideas resonate with real people. He’s not a Club for Growth Republican, but neither are most people. He’s not a Bible-thumper, but he has strong morals and strong faith. People admire that. Nothing that Mike Huckabee does is for show or just to win votes. No finger in the air testing the wind, no focus groups. There’s just his heart, his soul, and his beliefs. People know that, and like it.