The following are excerpts from recent Internet articles:
HUCKABEE SURGES, OBAMA GAINS IN IOWA
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has vaulted over his major GOP challengers to take a commanding lead in the race to win the Iowa caucuses. The ordained Southern Baptist minister now leads Romney by a two-to-one margin, 39 percent to 17 percent, among likely GOP caucus-goers. In the last NEWSWEEK survey, conducted Sept. 26-27, Huckabee polled a mere 6 percent to Romney's 25 percent, which then led the field. Meanwhile Barack Obama continues to edge ahead of Hillary Clinton among Democrats likely to participate, a new NEWSWEEK poll shows.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74215/output/print
HUCKABEE PLAYS THE RELIGION CARD
Huckabee has exploited Romney's Mormonism with an egregious subtlety. He is running a very effective ad in Iowa about religion. "Faith doesn't just influence me," he says on camera, "it really defines me." The ad then hails him as a "Christian leader." Well, Huckabee is running against Romney (the other GOP candidates are non-factors in Iowa) and he knows that many Christian conservatives, particularly those who have an affinity with Huckabee's highly paraded evangelical Christianity, consider Romney's faith a decidedly non-Christian cult.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/unfortunate_playing_of_the_rel.html
MIKE HUCKABEE IS FAR FROM BEING REAGAN'S HEIR
The yawning questions are Mr. Huckabee's stances on those other big GOP-voter concerns--national security and the economy. When he can get away with it, Mr. Huckabee is vague, broadly supporting "school choice," "health-care reform," "lower taxes" and a "strong America." It's when he's pressed for details that things get dodgy.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110010958
PEGGY NOONAN - MITT ROMNEY'S RELIGION SPEECH - HOW DID HE DO?
He had nothing to prove to me regarding his faith or his church, which apparently makes me your basic Catholic. Catholics are not his problem. His problem, a Romney aide told me, had more to do with a particular fundamentalist strain within evangelical Protestantism. I'd rather be governed by Donny and Marie than the Washington establishment. Mormons have been, in American history, hardworking, family-loving citizens whose civic impulses have tended toward the constructive. Good enough for me. He's running for president, not pastor. Mr. Romney gave the speech Thursday morning. How did he do? Very, very well. He made himself some history. The words he said will likely have a real and positive impact on his fortunes. The speech's main and immediate achievement is that foes of his faith will now have to defend their thinking, in public.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010955
CATHOLIC LEADERS RESPOND TO MITT ROMNEY'S SPEECH ON MORMONISM
George Weigel - Romney's speech "was an impressive and heartening performance"
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11215
MITT ROMNEY ON FAITH IN AMERICA - BY RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS
It was a powerful speech powerfully delivered. I don't do political endorsements but am on record as saying that I think Mitt Romney is in many ways well qualified to be president. There is nothing in the speech that prompts a change of mind on that.
Very notably, Romney did not do a JFK at Houston. He did not distance himself from his faith. "Some believe," he said, "that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it." A bold statement-almost Luther-like in its "Here I stand" resonance.
Few Catholics believe that a candidate is disqualified by being a Mormon. The reason is obvious: Catholics are accustomed to having heretics in the White House. Jews likewise are not offended that the president is not one of their own. This is and always has been a dominantly Protestant country. With the exception of JFK, who, sad to say, was not much of a Catholic, Catholics are accustomed to having presidents who are, in their view, religiously wrongheaded.
Mr. Romney has delivered one of the more remarkable political speeches of recent American history. It would seem to put Mr. Giuliani on the spot with the obvious theoretical, practical, and personal contrasts between the two candidates.
A candidate for president should be judged, I suggest, by four criteria: (1) his declared values and proposed policies; (2) his character and credibility; (3) his competence to deliver; and (4) his prospects of winning nomination and election. (Or "her," as the case may be.) On all four scores, I expect that, with yesterday's address on "Faith in America," Mitt Romney has also significantly advanced his candidacy.
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=918
JUST LIKE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS HILLARY CLINTON, JOHN EDWARDS, AND RUDY GIULIANI, OBAMA IS PRO-ABORTION AND PRO-GAY MARRIAGE
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1828&Itemid=48
RON PAUL LAUNCHES BLIMP
Supporters of Presidential candidate Ron Paul are excited to announce the launch of their very own privately funded Ron Paul blimp. In less than a month the idea has gone from a wishful post on a website to a full-blown and flying reality.
This is a historic event as no other candidate has ever had their own blimp, let alone one initiated by and paid for by their supporters. Paulites, as they are known, have pledged to donate over $420,000 to fund the blimp for as long as it is needed.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Ron_Paul_Launches_Blimp/2007/12/07/55495.html
