Is Maurice Clemmons Mike Huckabee's Willie Horton

Let's begin by clarifying I am NOT Sylvia Browne, but then again is she really psychic?



For all I know Obama will be re-elected and maybe the Republicans will just sit this one out. Then again, with Obama's popularity polls dropping, perhaps the Republicans do have a dog in this game. The question is, just who will the Republicans run against Mr. Charisma? The Democrats have their new JFK their Super-Star. Who then can the Republicans run against him in 2012 and expect to win? Let's face it, they have to have someone with charisma or they will be in the same situation they were when Bob Dole ran against Bill Clinton.

The Republicans expect to win? Wait a minute, isn't Obama the darling of the media? Isn't he Hope and Change? Oh and don't forget the number of disenfranchised Republicans who feel their party has used them, abused them, and left them in the dust. They had voted for a party of smaller government and watched government and spending grow at a frightening rate.

Even as I sit here right now, I know that there are some on the left who are extremely upset at Obama's plans to double down in Afghanistan. These people voted for Obama on his promise to get us out of the war, close down Guantanamo in one year. Others on the left are upset about the new health care legislation because it doesn't include a public option. Even Michael Moore, one of Obama's biggest supporters is upset.



What could, and I say could be a death blow to his Presidency could actually be the economy. While I realize that unemployment is a lagging indicator I think some people are putting too much faith on the artificial upticks in consumer spending. I say this because the government manipulated these numbers by making government money available towards this end. When the money dried up the uptick stagnated.

What could really hurt him would be a double dip recession, not to mention runaway inflation. People will stop asking who started the recession and ask "Why didn't you stop it?"



So does that mean that I think that 2012 will be a cake walk in 2012? No! Not by any means. Just who would the Republicans run for office? Sarah Palin? I doubt it. The media has done everything they can to make her a joke. Oh sure we could find quotes that she made that sure don't help her case. Believe it or not it's not too difficult to find such quotes from EVERY politician and with google they can easily be found.

Well what about Mike Huckabee. After all he has his own show now. He's doing everything possible to seem approachable including a bus tour and a book about Christmas.

"What about MIKE?" my father-in-law asks.

"Dave," I say, "don't you realize that he's a fundamentalist Christian? He talks openly and often about his faith. He will be branded by the media as a flat earther who hates women. I don't believe he will ever get the nomination." I said that wondering for the millionth time what's wrong with being Christian and why is it OK for Barack Obama to say he is Christian and he is not painted with the same brush. No I just didn't see Huckabee as being the Republican Superstar.

Then came this awful shooting in Washington. What does this have to do with Mike Huckabee? The ex-governor issued an unusually high number of paroles and commutations during his time in office, a practice that became an issue in the 2008 race.

Huckabee said he granted Clemmons' clemency request -- one of 1,200 that crossed his desk annually -- because of Clemmons' young age at the time of his conviction and the severity of his sentence. He said prosecutors never contacted him, though they did lodge a protest with the state parole board.

I truly believe that Maurice Clemmons is the final nail in Huckabees Presidential aspirations. Don't believe it think about what happened to Michael Dukakis when this Willie Horton Ad was run.



This ad drove home the point that Dukakis was soft on crime.

How then do you believe voters will perceive a man who not only granted Clemmons clemency but also granted it to DuMond, who claimed he was born again in prison. Huckabee never formally pardoned the convicted rapist, but met privately with the parole board. Shortly afterward, the board voted to free Wayne DuMond, 25 years before his sentence was to expire.

DuMond moved to Missouri and, two years after his release, was convicted of raping and murdering a 39-year-old woman. He died in prison as prosecutors were preparing to charge him with the rape and murder of another woman as well.

So do the Republicans have a rock star to go toe to toe with Obama right now? The Magic Eight Ball says no or at least not Mike Huckabee.

Maurice Clemmons Is Now Dead

He was shot dead by Seattle police officers this morning.

Clemmons, the man suspected of gunning down four police officers at a coffee shop on Sunday, had been charged with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told the News-Tribune that Clemmons indicated the night before Sunday's shooting rampage "that he was going to shoot police and watch the news."

Clemmons has received help since the shooting from a network of friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said. Officers detained a sister of Clemmons who they think treated the 37-year-old suspect's gunshot wound.

"We believe she drove him up to Seattle and bandaged him up," Troyer said.

Police believe people close to Clemmons have misled officers, and Troyer said anyone helping him could face charges. Clemmons' sister wasn't in custody late Monday, and her name wasn't released.

Authorities said the gunman singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before he was apparently shot in the torso by one of the dying officers.

More news coming.