Rich Lowry Fails to Do His Research Again

Rich Lowry, columnist for the National Review, blogging at townhall.com cautions the GOP that it is about to commit “Huckacide” if it continues down the path of supporting Gov. Mike Huckabee for President. In the past I have enjoyed watching Lowry fill in for Sean Hannity on Hannity & Colmes, and the reason is probably that Lowry had show staff doing research on the topics of discussion for the particular episodes in which he appeared thus making his commentary factually based. Unfortunately, when Lowry is writing and blogging on his own, the onus of research falls upon him, and he apparently is averse to doing much original research.

Recently, Lowry excoriated the FairTax proposal as unfeasible. The problem is that his entire article was riddled with errors and inaccuracies. Even his subsequent mea culpas, retractions and clarifications couldn’t clean up the article enough to remove it from the fiction aisle. Lowry failed to understand the basic premises of the plan and certainly didn’t understand the nuances of how the FairTax has been designed to work. Any reputable publication should think long and hard about publishing a Lowry article without at least having some unpaid interns review it for accuracy. For an example of Lowry’s failure to even learn about the FairTax before trashing it click here.

So, with that said, read Lowry’s hit piece on Gov. Huckabee. If you’re a Huckabee supporter you’ll immediately recognize some of the factual errors. For those of you not as familiar with Gov. Huckabee, let me quote and discuss some of the fallacies in Lowry’s article:

Like Dean, Huckabee is an under-vetted former governor who is manifestly unprepared to be president of the United States.

Lowry fails to mention what it is about Gov. Huckabee’s gubernatorial service that makes him unprepared for the presidency. However, in the 20th century, eight of our Presidents have first served as governors.

The GOP’s social conservatism inarguably has been an enormous benefit to the party throughout the past 30 years, winning over conservative Democrats and lower-income voters who otherwise might not find the Republican limited-government message appealing. That said, nominating a Southern Baptist pastor running on his religiosity would be rather overdoing it. Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.

Gov. Huckabee is most definitely not running on his religiosity. Instead, his appeal and his message cuts across economic policy lines, domestic policy lines and even foreign policy lines. Gov. Huckabee has a very well developed campaign platform upon which he is running. The problem for Mr. Lowry is that Lowry just doesn’t agree with many of the issues in Gov. Huckabee’s campaign, thus Lowry promotes a logical syllogism that is based upon a false premise.

Huckabee has declared that he doesn’t believe in evolution. Even if there are many people in America who agree with him, his position would play into the image of Republicans as the anti-science party. This would tend to push away independents and upper-income Republicans. In short, Huckabee would take a strength of the GOP and, through overplaying it, make it a weakness.

In the GOP of Rich Lowry’s mind, those who believe in creation, or intelligent design, or are Biblical literalists need not apply for candidacy. ‘Give us your votes but don’t run for office’ is the mantra of Lowry’s ilk.

Then, there’s national security, the Republican trump card during the Cold War and after 9/11. Huckabee not only has zero national-security credentials, he basically has no foreign-policy advisers either, as a New York Times Magazine piece this Sunday makes clear.

Mr. Lowry, will you make the same criticism of Gov. Romney? Did you make the same criticism of Gov. Bush in 2000? Of course, Gov. Romney worked on the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee so I’m sure in Lowry’s mind that makes Gov. Romney a foreign policy expert.

Do Republicans really want to enter what is already a tough political year with a candidate apparently allergic to preparation, and who has shown no predilection for organizing or fundraising, when he can do cable TV appearances instead?

Unfortunately for Lowry, he must have cut and pasted the above question from a piece he has been planning to write about Fred Thompson. This certainly is not descriptive of Gov. Huckabee’s campaign.

The establishment wing of the GOP is making a very serious miscalculation with the way in which they are attacking Gov. Huckabee and his supporters. On one hand they say that social conservatives are necessary if the Republican coalition is to be solidified and successful in winning the election; yet, on the other hand they want to refuse entry into the candidacy field to anyone who actually comes from the social conservative wing of the GOP.