Ground Game

A few more reactions to the Huckabee and Obama victories:

The American Spectator’s Hunter Baker provides readers with a respite from the anti-Huckabee hyperventilating:

When has the GOP last seen a candidate like Mike Huckabee? This man is talented, driven, and hungry. The same personality that decided to defeat diabetes has locked onto winning the nomination and he has achieved far more with far less than anyone thought possible.

We need more candidates with that kind of desire. If Huckabee should fall short, I hope he still has time to get in for the Arkansas U.S. Senate seat. Give that guy four years or so on the national stage and he'd be unstoppable.

Meanwhile, nearly every blogger on National Review’s The Corner seems blind with rage at Huckabee’s triumph. The Corner is flooded with posts insisting he can’t win the nomination, including one from Mark R. Levin, whose one-word thesis is “relax.” But the counter-arguments lack much evidence or reasoning, pushing rosy forecasts that imagine comeback scenarios for Fred Thompson, Romney and even Rudy Giuliani.

Some might say at least they are sticking to their guns. But it’s more like they aimed the gun, pulled the trigger, found it wasn’t loaded and are instead just making “Bang, bang!” noises and hoping for the same result.

The Obama praise continues to center on how his victory is good for America as a whole, as opposed to Democrats or African-Americans in particular. There are some over-the-top proclamations, like this one from Ezra Klein, but most fall into the theme outlined by Arianna Huffington:

Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.

Talk Left’s Big Tent Democrat dissects how Obama's message is telegraphing and to whom:

What to make of this? Some say it shows that Obama was perceived as a strong progressive. Some say it shows that Obama is selling progressivism to Independents and Republicans. I have a different take. I think it shows that Obama is able to convince people that he agrees with them or that his views are not anathema to them. How did he do it? I believe he did it by blurring his policy views, which are largely mainstream Democratic. Indeed, I find that Obama's views match up with my own more than any other candidate.

But many in the progessive blogosphere remain opposed to what they see as a Clintonesque triangulation on the part of Obama. It doesn't quite rise to right's level Huckabee antipathy, but it does reflect some level of discomfort between Obama and the left.

MyDD’s Jonathan Singer:

It's becoming increasingly difficult to come to the conclusion that Barack Obama understands the stakes of this fight and/or that he really stands on our side when he bashes Democrats, tries to gin up fears of a crisis in Social Security, and now kowtows to some of the basest elements of the Republican machine.