TennesseeTicket.com

Huckabee was on "The Tonight Show" the other night, and had this to say, interestingly enough, about Obama:

“I think he’s a person who is trying to do in many ways what I hope I’m trying to do and that is to say let’s quit what I call ‘horizontal politics.’ Everything in this country is not left, right, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. I think the country is looking for somebody who is vertical, who is thinking, ‘Let’s take America up and not down,’ and people will forgive you for being left or right if you go up.”

I know I've forgiven several things in Obama's platform, some of which could be considered to my right, and others to my left. Is this wise? I don't know. I do know that the perfect candidate does not exist. I also believe that Barack Obama is aiming upward.

Obviously there are many more state contests to go, and facts could change minds (including, to be clear, my own).

I read Audacity of Hope last year. Pretty good book. It's kind of funny to hear some of Obama's current rhetoric come straight from his previous speeches and writing. He sounds unrehearsed (in a good way) on the stump, but I can't help but cringe a little when he's simply repeating himself verbatim.

Obama/Huckabee prove that populism is the new black.

They pretty much all repeat themselves verbatim, all the time. I'm numb to it, I guess.

When you have to give 15 speeches a day, it gets kind of tough to shake it up. I figure they work out the short, medium and long versions of their talking points every few days or so and then keep repeating it ad nauseum.

Neither Huckabee or Obama will get my vote (primary or otherwise) but I have gotten the impression that they are a "different" kind of politician than, say, Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, or Romney ... and your comment put into words pretty much how I feel about them (and haven't been able to express). I would like to see more of the attitude that I see from them in politics ...