Yes, evangelicals and churches mobilized in Iowa and that certainly helped Huckabee.  But the assumption that they mobilized because Huckabee is “one of them” is, I think, misleading.  The fact is Huckabee came in a strong second in the Iowa Straw Poll several months ago, not because of churches and evangelicals, but because of his strong support of the FairTax.  It just so happens that for the most part evangelicals are also strong supporters of the FairTax.  but they are not the only strong supports of the FairTax.

It may well be that Huckabee won’t win in New Hampshire.  But I think it quite likely that he will do well even if he doesn’t win.  Moving on the South Carolina puts Huckabee back in the drivers seat again because there is an incredible FairTax organization in South Carolina and the vast majority of those FairTax supporters are also Huckabee supporters.  I know this because I’m part of the South Carolina FairTax organization.

I was at the FairTax rally in Columbia, SC back in May.  It was held across the street from the Koger Center where the Republican debate was taking place the same night.  We had something like 9,000 people at that rally.  We marched around the Koger Center, silencing all other groups while we marched.  Indeed, small groups of supporters of the various candidates were in awe of the crowd we had.  Many spoke to me, completely amazed that we had such support and so many people there.

The media virtually ignored that rally.  Watching debate coverage that night it was striking to see video of numerous pockets of supporters for each candidate and no video whatsoever of the FairTax marchers.  We were ignored.

We are still being ignored by the pundits on both sides and the media.  With few exceptions the FairTax and its supporters have been given virtually no credit for Huckabee’s meteoric rise.  But the reality is it is FairTax supporters that brought Huckabee that strong second place in the Iowa Straw Poll and it is FairTax supporter who have lifted Huckabee to the national stage.  And so long as Huckabee continues to be the most articulate supporter of the FairTax, they will continue to lift him up.

I heard this verbalized yesterday on a radio talk show.  I can’t remember which show it was but the guest was saying that both Thompson and Romney has looked at the FairTax and liked it but bowed to advisors who convinced them it was a losing issue.  He claimed that both regretted listening to that advice.  I don’t know if that is true or not.  Having attended a couple of Thompson events it seems unlikely to me that Thompson ever even understood the FairTax, much less liked it.  All I know is, the FairTax is a winning presidential issue and Huckabee has tapped into it.

To be sure there are lots of other very important issues and over the next few weeks Huckabee will be thoroughly scrutinized on all of them.  He may or may not survival that scrutiny.  But so far the myriad charges against him haven’t stuck and he’s continued to rise in popularity.  Rush has said that Huckabee supporters aren’t interested in hearing anything negative or factual about Huckabee because they’ve made up their minds.  Perhaps.  But the same could be said (and I will say it) about all those “conservative” pundits who have been slamming Huckabee the last last few weeks.  Some of them have slightly moderated their tone in the last few days.  I suspect that’s because they are realizing that not only have they been unsuccessful in derailing Huckabee but they are going to have to deal with him going forward and that might be a little easier if they don’t have such an adversarial position but that’s pure speculation.

That bottom line is, the pundits and opponents of Mike Huckabee will continue to underestimate him so long as they don’t understand why he’s doing as well as he is.  The FairTax is the biggest key.  Yes, evangelicals support him and that helps.  But that wouldn’t support him if there wasn’t a lot of common ground on key issues and one of those issues if the FairTax.

I’ve discovered what appears to be a very good news aggregator site. Memeorandum.com is a news aggregator that seems to focus on news from a conservative perspective. The Drudge Report is a news aggregator but Memeorandum seems different. For one thing, Memeorandum also lists conservative blogs in their featured posts section.

From Memeorandum’s “About” section:

Online news is changing. Increasingly, stories are broken and analyzed in near real-time and away from established news sites.

memeorandum offers you a window into this new world of news, focusing primarily on U.S. politics and current affairs.

It auto-generates a news summary every 5 minutes, drawing on experts and pundits, insiders and outsiders, media professionals and amateur bloggers.

The site is somewhat customizable. You can choose to have links open in a new window, for example. You can also choose whether or not discussion excerpts are displayed and you can choose your font size. If you’ve been looking for a good all-in-one news aggregator, this could be it.

News is coming out this morning that Thompson has said he was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma in 2004. Thompson says he is in remission and that his life expectancy is not affected by the lymphoma. It is not clear whether the announcement will affect Thompson’s possible bid for the presidency. Considering the diagnosis is three years old, Thompson would have considered it already when he announced he was considering a run.

Stay tuned for breaking news.

UPDATE:

It looked for bit as if Thompson wouldn’t make it on Cavuto today because of the press conference with the Duke Lacrosse players. But appear he did and it was an enlightening interview. To start, Thompson did not announce his candidacy. He did make it clear, however, that he is serious about this. The announcement about his lymphoma was precisely because he is so serious about his possible run. Thompson said he knew it would come out and he wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings about it. Thompson’s lymphoma is, apparently, a type that is extremely non-aggressive and he said it doesn’t impact his life at all.

Thompson did say that if those of us who have been encouraging him to run decided that, as a result of this announcement we weren’t so comfortable with him running, he would decide against a run. I do not expect that possibility to come to fruition. I remain convinced that Thompson is the best man for the job and I expect others in the blogosphere who have supported him will continue to do so.

Thompson said we have the money issue backward when it comes to presidential campaigns. He said that if the people support him the money will be there. He also indicated a willingness to do what Reagan did should he become president, that is, go directly to the people rather than make deals with Congress. He said that we live in perilous times and that the country needs to understand that. He seems to think he can help the country understand that I I agree with him.

I have the impression that Fred Thompson is close to making a decisions. The lymphoma announcement takes him that much closer to doing so.

Question after question, reporters are trying to convince Snow that Kerry’s explanation is valid, that he was making a joke about President Bush and he did a lousy job of it. Kerry himself, on Imus this morning, claimed he left out the word “us” which, in his view, changes the whole meaning of his remark. So I went back and tried the statement with the word “us” inserted and it simply doesn’t make sense. Yet the reporters stick to the party line that Kerry simply misspoke. They believe him when he says as a veteran he’d never say anything to denigrate the troops. You would think they could remember the numerous examples of Kerry doing just that. How about his charge that soldiers in Vietnam acted like Genghis Kahn? How about his charge that soldiers in Iraq were terrorizing women in children in the middle of the night? Don’t those examples count as Senator Kerry, military veteran, denigrating the troops? Kerry went to Hanoi and gave aid and comfort to the enemy during a time of war. Does anyone think that didn’t harm the troops? How can anyone actually believe that Kerry has the slightest respect for the troops, the military and anything to do with them? He gives lip service to the troops because it is politically expedient but make no mistake, he has nothing but disdain for them. In truth his only reason for serving in the first place was because of his political aspirations. Pretty much everyone who served with him agrees with that assessment.

Now another reporter accused Tony Snow and Republicans in general of trying to exploit the Kerry remark in order to divert attention from the war in Iraq. You may recall that Kerry said the exact same thing. Are these reporters working from Democrat talking points? How can anyone with a brain believe that the press is unbiased? It is blatantly obvious to anyone who is actually paying attention. Additionally, as Snow just pointed out, he did not bring up Senator Kerry once in the press conference. The press brought it up every time it was discussed. Yet they then turn it around and accuse Snow of using it to divert attention from substantive policy issues! Unbiased media my eye! They are so biased they wouldn’t know bias if it bit them. To them, fairness appears like bias. If it isn’t slanted to the left, it is biased to the right in their minds.

So in the end, Kerry’s defense is that he intended to insult the President, not the troops. He ended up insulting everyone who has anything approaching critical thinking skills. Privately, even Democrats are furious with him and his unwillingness to apologize. Yet for the most part they can’t speak out because they must tow the liberal party line. To date, the only Democrat I am aware of who has spoken out and said Kerry should apologize is Harold Ford Jr and he has little choice considering how conservative Tennessee is and how close his race is. Other Democrats have remain silent or actively defended Kerry. And their willing accomplices in the MSM are helping them along. Unfortunately for them, every step they’ve taken so far has worked to help Republicans. They just never learn. The liberal press continues to act as if they still hold a monopoly on the ability to sway public opinion. I hope they continue to believe that and act as if it were true. So long as they do, conservatism will continue to grow.