What do Americans want? Mike Huckabee has got it down cold:
“They want government to leave them alone, let them live their lives: They want government to do the job that it’s supposed to do, and that’s protect us, give us the capacity to be free, and then beyond that, let us live our lives”
Absolutely right. Now, can – and will – he act on that knowledge?
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I think that’s right too, of course, though I’m not sure I agree that this is what most Americans want. Conservative Americans, yes, but does the rest of the country "get it" as well?
I was thinking of this a short while ago while listening to Neal Boortz talking about Hillary Clinton’s emotional response to the NH voter yesterday. His commentary on that basically was that to her, all solutions for problems that Americans face come from the government; later in the program, he also asked Terri McCauliff (sp? Hillary’s campaign manager, who’d called into the show) whether or not Hillary has ever uttered the word "freedom" on the campaign trail, and does she believe in freedom as a means of people solving their OWN problems.
This, I feel, is the big difference in Huckabee’s attempt to connect with lower middle class voters and Clinton’s. She is saying, "you are hurting, so let me tell you what I’d make the governement do to help you with your troubles" (or as Reagan famously put it, "I’m from the government and I’m here to help."
) Huckabee is saying, "you are hurting, so let me show you how government is standing in the way of you helping yourself." He needs to continue to clarify this message, because the narrative that many of his opponents (including those in the conservative blogosphere) have for him is that he’s a big government economic populist, and I don’t believe that’s true.