These are my honest and heartfelt reflections. And that's all they are.
From the beginning, I've listened and watched and thought hard about who is the right candidate for pro-life leaders, who say the issues of Abortion & Marriage are the two absolutes beyond any other consideration. Those two issues and those alone, are the only issues that are "deal-breakers." It was agreed that finding the 'best' candidate on those two issues is why the meetings were convened.
Along with several others, I sat in meetings where the merits of various candidates were discussed back and forth. Every consideration was put on the examining table for discussion among those who gathered for that expressed purpose. And I never heard anyone in those meetings say the issues of Abortion & Marriage were simply two of many other issues of equal weight.
As important as taxes, national defense, the economy and even immigration were during these discussions among that group of leaders, no one ever expressed that Abortion & Marriage were no longer the only two issues that would dictate our final consensus as to who was therefore most worthy of our collective support.
There were one or two who were already so settled on giving their support to Mike Huckabee, because of his unbroken pro-life credibility, they didn't care to even discuss any of the others. But for the most part, everyone else showed great interest in considering all others in an honest attempt to determine who was the RIGHT candidate -- not necessarily who was the most likely to WIN!
But as time passed, it became clear to the vast majority that Mike Huckabee was the one candidate our group could support with complete confidence.
It was then, however, the group was encouraged, by a few 'leaders' to postpone any collective decision until a special Values Voters Summit could be held in Washington where grass-roots values voters citizens could actually hear for themselves each of the Republican candidates and then cast their votes for who they thought was the clear choice. Even though postponing a consensus-vote would delay the action of the group of assembled leaders, it was finally agreed that no collective action should be determined until after the Values Voters Summit was held.
And the rest is history. Determining the consensus of the group from then on was derailed. The thought seemed to be that no determination was better than having to acknowledge that Mike Huckabee was the candidate of choice. Any candidate other than Mitt Romney would not be permitted to surface.
When the Values Voters Summit was held, after hearing all of the candidates speak for themselves, the values voter grass-roots attendees voted five to one for Mike Huckabee. Huckabee gathered more votes than all other candidates combined, including Mitt Romney. Even when the ballots of those who voted on-line before the Summit were included in the final tally, Mitt Romney was just a point or two ahead of Huckabee. It was never made clear why the on-line voting was mixed-in as part of that tally, because including the on-line votes distorted the meaning of the outcome. The outcome of those at the Summit, who voted "after" actually hearing the candidates speak, was not credited with the true meaning it deserved.
And then it became very clear to me, and to many others, that Mitt Romney was being pushed along into a presumed front-line position beyond any understanding as to why that was happening. Mike Huckabee was the ONLY candidate whose past record on Abortion & Marriage was totally consistent and unbroken -- and therefore totally trustworthy, and therefore totally supportable by those pro-life leaders who had publicly said those two issues were the primary and paramount issues for them to weigh.
Now whether or not Mike Huckabee could actually win was not my major concern. This is not a horse-race where handicapping a winner is part of the process. My concern has always been WHO is the most pro-life and pro-marriage candidate to support and most trustworthy on those "Two issues."
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