Thread: MANY IOWA CONSERVATIVES STILL UNDECIDED

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Many Iowa Conservatives Still Undecided

By LIBBY QUAID

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee would seem to be the answer to their prayers, yet for many Christian conservatives in Iowa, he has not closed the deal for the Republican caucuses.

Do they still like Mitt Romney? Are they intrigued by Fred Thompson? As always, voter uncertainty comes with the Jan. 3 caucuses, now just a week away.

Huckabee, the former Baptist minister, is leading in the Republican polls here, though his advantage has narrowed. Perhaps, that's due in part to the negative TV commercials Romney is airing.

"I think I'm leaning toward Governor Huckabee," says Lori Brown, who works at an accounting firm in Sheldon. "I guess I'm not sure who else I really like. But he seems to be just a real guy. I'm a Christian, too, so I see eye-to-eye with him.

"At this point."

On Huckabee's final swing through Iowa before Christmas, many found him funny and charming, especially when he borrowed a bass guitar to play "Takin' Care of Business" in the Sioux City High School auditorium.

"I thought he did a good job of emotionally connecting," said Michael Andres, a college theology professor in Orange City. Andres is "warming to Huckabee," although he has also been interested in Arizona Sen. John McCain among the Republicans and in Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

"I didn't know if there was a whole lot of substance," Andres said of Huckabee. "He didn't explain what he was going to do. I felt like he spent a lot of time separating himself from Romney."

Huckabee is spending time responding to criticism from Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has flooded people's mailboxes, telephones and televisions with negative information about the former Arkansas governor's record on immigration and other issues. Romney has spent millions of dollars pumping up his own profile and organizing supporters.

Huckabee tells audiences he is being outspent 20-to-1 by Romney. In Orange City, he joked about mailboxes stuffed full of campaign mailings: "I know you normally look forward to Christmas cards this time of year. This time, you go and _ 'Huckabee's a bum, Huckabee's a bum, Huckabee's a bum, Huckabee's a bum.' "

"My wife could've told you that and saved the postage," he said, to laughter.

But some of the criticism is sticking.

Of Romney, retiree Judie Cain of Council Bluffs, Iowa, says, "I like his take on immigration."

"I'm on Social Security now, and I don't like the idea that it's going to immigrants when I paid in it all my life, and they just swam across," says Cain. In fact, only legal immigrants are entitled to Social Security benefits, and illegal immigrants pay millions of dollars a year in Social Security taxes.

"Now, I know Huckabee is probably a good candidate, too, but I don't think he's as intelligent," she said.

Thompson, the "Law & Order" actor and former Tennessee senator, has the most ground to cover because of his late, sluggish entry to the race.

He brought a campaign bus to Iowa for the final two weeks of the campaign, with a short break for Christmas, but he hasn't spent as much time as Romney or Huckabee in a state where, because of its first-in-the-nation caucuses, voters insist on face time with the candidates.

If people could see him, "I think they would follow right along with him," says Bob Knowler, the county treasurer in Woodbury County, which includes Sioux City.

"He tells it like it is, he's a straight talker and he's got good ideas," says Knowler, an early Thompson supporter. "I don't know what he needs to do different. I don't know whether starting late is hurting him. I don't know what his problem is. We just know he's not doing well in polls. But how much faith do you put in polls?"

Thompson's biggest problem seems to be that Huckabee has taken his place as the easygoing, Southern charmer who could make anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, pro-gun voters comfortable, as opposed to Romney, who supported abortion rights before running for president, and Rudy Giuliani, who has supported abortion rights since he became mayor of New York in 1993.

At 52, Huckabee is younger and more energetic than the 65-year-old Thompson, and has obvious speaking skills from his years as a preacher.

Huckabee also seems nice, so nice that people often don't notice a zinger. Instead of talking about Romney's privileged upbringing, he says: "You know, growing up a Huckabee didn't exactly open up all the doors for me as a kid," he said in Sheldon, describing his hardscrabble upbringing. "It wasn't like, `Oh, are you of the Huckabees of Hempstead County?'"

Not everyone is undecided. All Ed Krosschell, an Orange City retiree, needed was for Huckabee to rise in the polls.

"I like him because he's a Christian, and he's in the right community for that," said Krosschell, who is retired from the Greyhound Corporation. "I was kind of up in the air when he was like an asterisk, like he said. I really didn't know who to vote for. I was part of the Christian Coalition thing. I was waiting for the right thing to come along."

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12 ... omu0o0.txt

If these folks don't know by now... 1 year after these goof balls started campaigning.... this country is truly lost

If here on Alipac , where we have so many information on hand to search, people are still chosing CFRs ? Are you surprised ?

"I thought he did a good job of emotionally connecting," said Michael Andres, a college theology professor in Orange City. Andres is "warming to Huckabee,"

Will the majority of voters vote with their heart or with their brain? Americans need to stop voting on emotions in order to save this country from increasing illegal alien invasion, increasing welfare, sending our troops to foreign lands to die for other countries, etc., because it feels like the good thing to do.

I'm not for changing the electoral college, but it's scary that we rely on a few voters in Iowa at this time of year to determine the outcome of the race for us ... just scary.

Its like I've said all along

Joe and Jane 6 pack pick the presidents in this country

Not a couple of million "well informed" people like the ones
on this site and others

They also will have many stupid reasons why they make their pick
also, They "like his haircut" , "shes a woman" , "hes a Christain" " I won't vote for a mormon" , "but he's Americas mayor" , "Oh , he's an isolationist"

The millions of Joes and Janes are still going off what they see on
msm

Then we NEED to do a better job of EDUCATING THEM!!!!

I can understand the indecisiveness because I too am not 100% sure. The more I read and listen to, the less I care for any of them. I don't think we will ever see another true "conservative" again. The special interest groups have seen to that.

On Huckabee's final swing through Iowa before Christmas, many found him funny and charming, especially when he borrowed a bass guitar to play "Takin' Care of Business" in the Sioux City High School auditorium.

Oh no, not another former Governor from Hope Arkansas who thinks his talents with a musical instrument qualify him as the next leader of our country!

Bill Clinton on the saxaphone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alv7N6Ynm1Y

Originally Posted by AirborneSapper7

If these folks don't know by now... 1 year after these goof balls started campaigning.... this country is truly lost

I've been on and off on 3 candidates. I still can't make up my mind. I feel Hunter is the most qualified, but his numbers are too low. I guess I am hoping for miracle.