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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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8

Huckabee's Plan to Revive GOP Doesn't Add Up

Nate Silver shows why party shouldn't play to social conservatives

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(Newser) – Perhaps it's Mike Huckabee's admitted distrust for math, but he's dead wrong about the best strategy to bring back the Republican Party's power, writes Nate Silver on his blog. To make the case that the party shouldn't move to the middle, Huckabee says, "People that are social conservatives are also economic conservatives, but a lot of the economic conservatives are not social conservatives." Statistician Silver disagrees, and he's got diagrams to back up his point.

In reality, some people are socially conservative but economically liberal, some are the reverse, and some are conservative on both fronts. The latter group is now the GOP's base, but the party is losing a lot of the others to the Democrats. Ironically, says Silver, Huckabee's greatest support is probably from socially conservative economic moderates (or even liberals), a combination he claims doesn't exist.

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaks during a
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaks during a "fair tax" rally Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008, in Duluth, Ga.   (AP Photo/Gregory Smith)
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Throw the social conservatives, the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs. - Mike Huckabee

Security issues, indeed, may have been the glue that was helping to hold the fiscal and social conservatives together into a winning electoral coalition. - Nate Silver, citing a third variable in the problem of where the GOP's voters went

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8 comments
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Robert_Dada
May 11, 09 12:45 PM CDT
"...admitted distrust for math" - Should be grounds for immediate and permanent disqualification from public office. Reply
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+6
IN RESPONSE:
AnnieChrist
May 11, 09 1:21 PM CDT
Math is the one pure truth in the universe, so it is no wonder that a leading republican distrusts it, it can't be manipulated for their political agenda. Note to huckaby hound: when your PR department is comprised of coulter, limbaugh, gingrich and cheney, you have already become the Whigs.
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+1
Derni
May 11, 09 12:49 PM CDT
Don't throw them overboard-make them move to Alaska. Reply
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+2
Circusdog
May 11, 09 1:13 PM CDT
I always thought Math was a tool of the devil too! I'm pretty sure my 8th grade math teacher was the Dark Prince. Reply
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0
TerrifiedCitizen
May 11, 09 1:40 PM CDT
A regionally experienced Baptist Minister / politician... yup, that's who we need to solve national problems alright. Reply
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+2

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