Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

It is now official, Sen. Sam Brownback has dropped out of the 2008 Presidential race. At the press conference in Topeka, KS he put it this way: "My yellow brick road came just short of the White House this time."

The news reports suggest that #2 finisher in the Iowa Straw Poll, Gov. Mike Huckabee will be the candidate to gain the most from Brownback's dropping out. Time will tell. I know that I will be giving Huckabee as well as Congressmen Tom Tancredo & Duncan Hunter & others a closer look to see which 1 best fits where I am at. The only definite no-start is Giuliani because of his strong pro-choice stands. The others are all Pro-Life. Some stronger than others.

Some people have commented that Huckabee's biggest negative is that he is a former governor of Arkansas from Hope AR, just like Bill Clinton. The Clinton negatives may rub off on him. Something he is dealing with by showing that he is nothing like Clinton.

Tancredo can sometimes come accross as harsh & anti-immigrant rather than anti-illegial immigrant.

Hunter is supported by some people who's opinions I respect. I haven't had a chance to meet him yet, so I haven't gotten any strong impressions about him either. The question I have is, can he overcome the same low #s that did in Brownback. (This is also true of Tancredo.)

Congressman Ron Paul has a lot of good stands. He has upset some people with his strong (& apparently accurate) claims that the Iraq War is unconstitutional because the Congress never actually declared war. He has some strong support in some Catholic circles. There is even a blog, Catholics for Ron Paul. 1 of the contributors is Thomas Woods Jr, whom I have mentioned before.

Ron Paul is actually more of a libertarian than a conservative. The biggest weakness with Ron Paul is that, to put it bluntly, a percentage of his supporters are flakes. Unfortunately, they give a bad name to the majority of his supporters who aren't as well as Congressman Paul himself. Yes, the flakes are the heirs of John Birch but at this point I see no need to put Ron Paul & the majority of his supporters in that camp like some in the conservative media have. There are some areas in which Ron Paul IS very far from what a Bircher believes. & a couple of my friends who a big Ron Paul supporters are definitely NOT flakes, nor could you by any stretch of the imagination put them in the Bircher camp.

Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney & John McCain all have a few stronger negatives with me. None of which are, as yet, insurmountable Like Rudy & his support of abortion. So, at this point, if any of those 3 ended up being the nominee, I could support them.

The Iowa GOP has ste 3 Jan for the Caucus dates, now New Hampshire is talking about a Dec primary. So, there is a lot still in the air, including who will still be arround when the IA Caucus & NH Primary actually take place.

Stay tuned . . . .