Mike Huckabee charmed Iowa with his playful personality, his gift of gab and his success at losing more than 100 pounds. But it was his conservative convictions on abortion and gay marriage that secured the vote of evangelical Christians, about 60 percent of Iowa's Republican turnout. ...more

January 11, 2008

Republican presidential rivals backed a blend of tax and spending cuts Thursday night to head off an election-year recession they generally agreed is avoidable. ...more

January 11, 2008

So Young, So Hateful; Rall Really Rails Every morning, I look forward to a good breakfast along with Hernando Today. I don't usually read Ted Rall's editorials, but today was the exception. In the first five paragraphs (that was all I could take) he said "Mike Huckabee may not be smart enough to hold a job; he's a crazy Christian and he won because crazy Christians motivated by anti-Mormon bigotry voted for him. In the Republican Party, hate trumps cash. If Huckabee were Muslim, he'd be a radical Islamist denying separation of church and state." Etc., etc., etc. ...more

January 11, 2008

It's a good thing, I guess, that nothing else important is happening around the world. The networks and news channels are almost completely devoted to the primary elections, especially after Barack Obama won over Hillary Clinton in Iowa. It was fairly close in Iowa when Obama finally took the lead in a close race with Hillary. And when Mike Huckabee won, I believe they were surprised. Now in New Hampshire they battled again and Clinton won, as did Sen. John McCain. ...more

January 10, 2008

Can Barack Obama be stopped? Quite possibly, as Hillary Clinton's startling win Tuesday night demonstrated. Can Mitt Romney be started? Doubtful, as the decisive John McCain victory showed. ...more

January 10, 2008

For all the hoopla over Barack Obama's post-Iowa bounce, in the end the Democratic primary in New Hampshire turned out to be surprisingly close. ...more

January 10, 2008

One of the reasons to doubt Mike Huckabee's judgment is the pardon of Wayne Dumond, and many of Huckabee's pardons have been questioned. Wayne Dumond was already a convicted violent rapist when he was accused of raping Bill Clinton's cousin, Ashley Stevens, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader. She survived the attack and he was convicted. One victim says that Dumond raped her while threatening her with a butcher's knife. ...more

January 9, 2008

Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire viewed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as more likely than New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to beat the Republican nominee in 2008, according to exit polls done Tuesday, a reversal of previous trends in national polls. ...more

January 9, 2008

After Sen. John McCain's victory here Tuesday, the Republican field is more scrambled than ever, with the battleground now shifting to a series of states where each of the leading candidates thinks he holds certain advantages. ...more

January 9, 2008

A buoyant Sen. Barack Obama, anticipating a victory in today's New Hampshire primary, told voters Monday that he is "riding a wave, and you're the wave," as presidential candidates started to look toward extended nomination fights through next month. ...more

January 8, 2008