Ok.....I've been away since August, but I have a good reason.  It's called school work load.  Being invited to do the political science Honors program brings a heavy workload.  Anyhoo, I'm back, and I have things to say about this primary election season.  I am not going to really go back in time, instead I'm going to deal with the recent.  First, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  I was one of those who really liked him in the early debates.  Witty and quick, he was easy to like.  Then a little fact-finding came in to play.  Rush is exactly right!!  Huckabee is NOT a conservative.  Think of his line in the Foxnews debate on Sunday night.  "I made government work."(true conservatives don't put their trust in the government).  Then there was the whole refusal to answer Mitt Romney's repeated questions about raising taxes in the $500 million figure.  Whether his supporters like it or not, this is the truth, from a real conservative point of view.  He DID raise taxes and there IS video of his support for it.  He DID give illegal immigrant students priviledges that our own military families DO NOT receive, and he DID give over 1000 pardons and commutations to criminals.  Yes, there were some that can be construed as being "Christian" like, but there are others that are Dukakis like.  And more importantly to me, is the simple fact that he is so thin skinned it is not even funny anymore.  How dare anybody raise questions about him?  Mitt was so on Sunday night, especially when it came to the beginning question about taxes.  Huckabee's evasiveness and flat out refusal to admit that he raised taxes was appalling, considering that he's trying to sell his "conservatism."  Then Huckabee had the audacity to say that "even Reagan made mistakes" when it came to immigration.  To invoke Reagan is one thing.  To invoke Reagan and be wrong about it is worse.  Reagan agreed to the amnesty plan based on the idea that Congress would secure the border.  Um, maybe it's just me, but it didn't happen!  And for John McCain to say he "never supported amnesty" is such a CROCK!!!!!  Mitt hammered him on that perfectly, and did it great.  Huck is NOT A CONSERVATIVE, AND NEITHER IS McCAIN!  People may have problems with Romney switching positions, but he's been more upfront about it then John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) could've dreamed about ("I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it").  So, at the end of the day, where does this Reagan conservative stand?  First, I really, really like Duncan Hunter!  Unfortunately, he can't win and that is such a shame!  Secondly, I really like Fred Thompson.  I have to tell you, the Foxnews focus group after the NH debate was clueless!
Now, yes Mitt did well, but I can tell you for a fact that I was IM-ing a few friends while the debate was going on, and we ALL thought Fred was awesome.  And this debate was not the first time we've felt that way.  In a way, it seems like those of us on the Internet actually understand things better than these "focus groups." 
Ok...so where does this conservative stand?
I am an unabashed Fred Thompson supporter.  How anybody could watch these two debates this weekend and not realize how much more smarter he is than anybody else blows my mind.  Want an example, how about Fred smashing Huckabee on Gitmo and their getting habeus corpus rights if they come here?  How about the fact that he has actually offered plans for things, like social security?  Fred is my man....however, he is not going to win.  So, who do I put my support behind after him?  His name is Mitt Romney!
Huckabee is a nanny stater.  I love him on his social issues, but he is terrible on others, including foreign policy.  Closing Gitmo, being nicer to our enemies, not knowing about Pakistan's ending of martial law, not reading NIE's, and just flat out being weak on foreign policy, which include naming people who are "informing" him on issues, who actually are not (Gaffney and Bolton).  We conservatives are in search for the next Reagan.  We need to stop that search.  There is no next Reagan.  There will only be one Ronald Reagan.  We should appreciate that.  We should savor that.  But, we should also stop searching for the next one.  In this election cycle, there isn't one.  So, we need to find the next best thing.  Huckabee is not it.  Neither is McCain.  Neither is Giuliani.  Fred Thompson is the closest, but is not going to win.  I'm willing to trust Mitt Romney.  Are you?