Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was the first choice of participants in a straw poll held today at the Values Voter Summit sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council. Huckabee, a Baptist preacher who finished second in total delegates in the GOP nomination contest last year, took 28 percent in the straw poll easily outpacing the other presumed contenders for the GOP nomination in 2012.

Second place was effectively a four-way tie between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who ran for president in 2008 finishing third; Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty; former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee; and Indiana Congressman Mike Pence. Each of these received between between 12.4 and 11.9 percent of the vote.

Rounding out the field were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the favorite of 6.7 percent of straw poll voters; Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal at 4.7 percent; former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum with 2.5 percent; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, with just 2.2 percent.

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Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota spoke on Friday night to the conservative Values Voter Summit hosted by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council in Washington DC delivering a partisan attack on the policies of the Obama Administration.

The story in the New York Times:

After warming up by discussing his record back home and the importance of faith and values, Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican in his second term as governor, struck at the Democrats' attempts to overhaul the health care system.

"This proposal needs to get killed," Mr. Pawlenty said. "It is a bad idea."

"With all due respect, Mr. President, if we're out of money, stop spending it," he also said.

Mr. Pawlenty also referenced -- and seemed far from upset about -- a new campaign from the Democratic National Committee that he was the first target of. The campaign is titled "Call `Em Out," a reference to Mr. Obama's vow during his address to Congress last week.

The Minnesota governor elicited a standing ovation by retorting, "I'll respond by calling out the president back tonight."

Earlier in the speech, Mr. Pawlenty had stressed his pro-life bona fides, an important topic in a conference sponsored by, among others, the socially conservative Family Research Council.

And he touted his record in Minnesota, where he said he turned a "left-of-center state into a fiscally responsible state."

If that can be done in a state that produced well-known liberals like Hubert H. Humphrey and Walter Mondale, he said, it can be done anywhere.

At a time when his official public events as governor have been few and far between, Governor Pawlenty has been stumping across the country, speaking to GOP audiences and offering the party's critique of Democrats on TV talk shows. Tonight, he all but announced his candidacy for President.

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I have been kind of puzzled on why repugs seem to be favoring Hillary Clinton. Everywhere I look there seems to be a good story on Hillary by the MSM.  Hillary Clinton has gotten more good press than all the other democratic candidates so far.   I will admit that there has been some storys that were not so good for Hillary, but they were written with a positive slant for Hillary.

Today I was reading an article on Real Clear Politics today.  The story is about the Values Voter Summit that the repugs are having, and how they can't decide on a candidate to endorse.  The writer of the article talked to Gary Bauer who ran for president and was the head of the Family Research Council.  He goes on to talk about how none of the repug candidates were favorites of the values voters.  One comment he made jumped out at me.  Here is the quote:

"For others, it's three or more." Or more! I ask Bauer whether some lists have as many as four or five names on them. Yes, says Bauer. "And I just don't understand that. I've even heard speculation among good people that four years of Hillary [as in Rodham Clinton] would be just what the doctor ordered. But I think the country will need more than a doctor after four years of Hillary. Too much is at stake," starting with, in Bauer's view, the future of the Supreme Court."

I now understand why the repugs favor Hillary over the other democratic candidates.  The repugs are becoming resigned that there will be a democrat who will be president.  The repugs want to make sure that it is only four years of a democratic president, and they are betting that Hillary will give them the presidency after four years of her.  

The repugs are betting that after four years of Hillary that they have a chance to reclaim the presidency and take back the congress.  I now have my answer of why the repugs are giving Hillary a free pass so far.  They don't have a great repug candidate and they are betting on Hillary to give them back congress and the presidency in four years.  

This is something I think that the democratic voters should think about.  I don't think it is necessarily true that Hillary could lose the presidency in the second term, but I do think that she could lose the congress for the democrats after four years of her.  The reason why is because the Clintons are hated  so much by the repugs that Hillary will not get anything done while she is president.  The repugs will never give the Clintons any rest and everything Hillary does or does not do will be blamed on the democratic congress.  Does this sound like a replay of the Bill Clinton years?  I am afraid that the repugs are playing by the same playbook they played during the Bill Clinton years.  And I am afraid that the democrats still are playing by their same playbook too.

I know that the Hillary supporters will say that I am too biased for JRE.  That is true, but I also think that JRE will be much better for the democrats in the long term, rather than just the short term.  I think the democrats will pick up more congressional seats with JRE and that means that they will have a better chance of keeping congress even after four years of JRE.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/CampaignStandard/2007/10/eastland_bauer_speaks.asp

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