There are a handful of times in life where you get to experience something that has the feeling of brushing the presence of greatness. In my life at various times that has been something I didn't always realize up front. But having returned from a day and a half and a sum total of nine events over that period of time with one person in particular I have to tell you... I think I did this weekend.

In December of 2006 I wrote a column in which I was the first pundit in America to predict that Barack Obama would be president in 2009. I predicated that theory on a number of variables, but specifically foreseeing the possible match-up against a candidate John McCain, I felt that the overwhelming historicity of the race, the lack of specifics that the substance would come down to in the debate, and the inability for a candidate like McCain to take Obama on squarely would work against him, and in favor of Obama. Boy did I call that one...

Knowing that McCain as a candidate would have a squleching effect on the base, and more or less finish him off, was primarily due to one large reason. He did not wish to embrace evangelicals. He was offered significant help by major marketing firms that could have put him directly in front of evangelicals, and should he wish to champion the issues, character, and enthusiasm they would have brought to the trail, it was well within his realm of influence to reach out to them.

Instead he chose badly. He made a strategic decision NOT to offer the hand to faith based people, and as a result Obama was given free reign on the matters that people of faith cared about. McCain never even challenged, nor disputed blatant statements made by Obama that violated the basic conscience of the Bible-believing Christian.

Riding the wave of that bit of history, running a campaign on nothing but empty words of "hope" and "change", and being left unchallenged intellectually, and spiritually on his messaging, Obama ran the table, and my prediction came true.

I saw it all in December of 2006...

I'm a wee bit weirded out by what I'm about to tell you, mostly because there is so much time to go until the campaign for 2012 begins, but I believe that Governor Huckabee will win the nomination, and in a very possible scenario President Huckabee will place his hand on the Bible in January of 2013.

But like my impressions about Obama, this is not a random feeling I have but rather an atuned set of circumstances that would pave the way for it to happen. (Some of which I've even begun referring to on this blog...)

Here they go:
1. Unlike the 2008 contest - the conservative message will be the ideas that the American people will be seeking. In only 75 days President Obama has distinguished himself as the most progressive, least values oriented, furthest left, most hostile to faith, risk, productivity, national welfare, border security idealogue the nation has ever seen. His attempt to devalue the American currency alone sets him in a class already of running the risk of being perhaps the most anti-American President to reside in the White House. His love for the limelight, his empty suit/no experience abilities in solving real problems are unable to hide his leftist principles/tendencies and he is being exposed. Buyers remorse is high, and the move towards sound economic policy will be the screams from every sector of the economy. In unison, the employee, the business owner, the manager, marketer, producer, and seller will all be screaming for financial policy overhaul. America presently has the second most punitive tax policy towards business in the world. This cannot continue to be the case and expect our economy to rebound any time soon. President Huckabee's financial policy message for the foreseeable future will be the fair tax. Taxing consumption is an equal opportunity tax, and people pay only on what they consume, the need for the IRS would be history, businesses would feel the freedom of venture, risk, and opportunity to return and the growth cycle economy would see historic achievement.

2. Unlike 2008 - the genuine believers in the social/moral causes of the day will be empowered. Barack Obama has turned out to be a lie of historic proportions. He has not championed the inclusion of Christians nor their perspective in his cabinet. (There is not a single born-again Christian advising him in any capacity.) His view of morality is absent, and his moral judgement is then flawed because of the absence of values in his own soul, much less his Godless policies that he's already pushed far harder than any Christian who voted for him ever believed he would. The persecution that is already being unleashed on the American Christian culture will continue to grow, but Christians will benefit from this in the purification of doctrine into action. In doing so, genuine believers will develop greater conviction on living faithfully, and their stewardship in their portion of "We The People" will be taken far more seriously. They will look for and expect from those they support to deal with the issues of the day with transparent honesty, individual decency, and lasting integrity. In short Megan McCain is NOT the future of America and the McCainish disdain for moral clarity will in turn be disdained. President Huckabee will be someone the nation will be proud of in terms of his personal character, his pragmatic insight into solving problems, and his ability to help those who even dislike him initially to be swayed with humor and humanity.

3. Unlike 2008 - a base will emerge and rally to the Governor's aide. Unlike the non-enthusiastic campaign of Senator McCain, Governor Huckabee will have vibrant, faithful, and enthusiastic volunteers who form armies in every state. It is an easily provable fact that had Senator Fred Thompson not remained in the race in South Carolina (thus doing a favor to Senator McCain) Huckabee would have steamrolled McCain and taken the momentum in Florida. To lose to McCain by a single point in South Carolina stole the momentum away, allowed McCain to claim the mantle, and head to Florida with a lead in last minute fundraising. This will not happen in 2012. Huckabee's brand will be the most established voice and brand of the GOP by the time the primary elections get underway. And hopefully this time National Review will not be bought off by alias PACs funded by the Romney camp to create abjectly false impressions and misrepresentations of Huckabee's platform while overlooking significantly noticeable gaps in Romney's. (As an aside, I spent more time with Romney and Huckabee in the 2008 primary than any two of the other GOP candidates... I like both men personally. And would've supported either of them in the general election. But make no mistake about it, Huckabee is the more electable of the two.) These impressions formed outlandish mischaracterizations by some conservative icons of Huckabee in 2008. But by having his own talk vehicle, platform, and extended reach through ABC network commentaries and the Fox News Channel's television network, Huckabee is avoiding any future dependency on a singular conservative outlet getting his message out. He's taken control of the message, and the distribution rights of the medium, and he won't be bullied in 2010,11, and 12. The home-school groups will return, so will the college kids, so will African American and Latino voters -- all of whom share a natural affinity with Huckabee that will be lacking in every other GOP candidate. They will volunteer for him, they will walk districts for him, they will pull all-nighters for him. Because they will see their efforts in doing so as them being able to take charge of their own future.

Long story short I've just completed two days and nine events with Governor Huckabee. In multiple settings from private meals to public speaking, from morning church to a University convocation service (pictured above) he was embraced and given standing ovations in every location. (Including the 10,000 college kids picture above!)

The reason is clear... no one believes Governor Huckabee walks on water, but they have learned that his word is his bond. They hear from his heart and they see that he is more like the everyday guy than any man to ever run for President.

They also value his judgment, and his ability to speak to what they are feeling.

The combination to do those two things, combined with his taking control of his medium and message is demonstrating that even only 75 days into THIS administration Pastors across America are already telling their congregations they wished Huck had been the candidate, and knows he will win in 2012.

And after spending this past weekend watching him, talking with him, and being with him up close... all I can say is, I see what they are feeling, thinking, and saying... and there is something happening *ALREADY* that will not be able to be countered!

Hello 176

Resources: The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips (Stephen's BRAND NEW novel)
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith.

Aren't you being a hypocrite Mr. President by leaving behind a far bigger mess than the one you continually remind us that you inherited?

Bu-ah-ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

Cool Brutha in Chief's answer: "*blink, *blink, uh... well... uh... 'OF COURSE I AM! *blink, *blink..."

Priceless... nice job Mr. Henry!

Within the first opening moments of his yet ONE MORE prime time presser, Cool Brutha in Chief stated that the mortgage bailout programs should only go to "responsible mortgage holders who need help" and then claimed that "up to 40% of all mortgages are now eligible for his bailout plan..." (transcript not available at time of posting...)

(UPDATE: the exact wording as referred to in the above graph from the transcript:
"The second step we took was to launch a plan to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes. This plan's one reason that mortgage interest rates are now at near historic lows. We've already seen a jump in refinancing of some mortgages, as homeowners take advantage of lower rates. And every American should know that up to 40 percent of all mortgages are now eligible for refinancing.")

Are 40% of all mortgages in default?

Are 40% of all mortgages in default but also held by "responsible mortgage holders?"

And closer... how does one maintain the title of responsible mortgage holder and simultaneously go default on one's mortgage?

Anyone wanna take a stab at this?

...or talks about the ramifications of it at least...

Monday's we chat. Here's today's line-up:

Today, on the Ed Morrissey Show (3 pm ET), Today, on the Ed Morrissey Show (3 pm ET), Kevin McCullough joins us again to discuss the crossroads of faith and politics. Kevin and I will talk about his latest column, in which he calls Barack Obama “President Gaffe”. What does Obama’s Special Olympics joke say about him? Is this similar to his DVD gift to Gordon Brown? Is Obama “punch drunk”? We’ll also talk about Kim Basinger and her newfound embarrassment over 9 1/2 Weeks, and the role of nudity in art and culture. Expect Notre Dame’s invite to Barack Obama and Bishop Chaput’s scolding of the Catholic Church to be a topic today, too.

Ed's got a nifty chatroom experience as well, so come and join the fun between 3p-4p today! (Or now just watch the podcasted version below:)

Kim Basinger, the actress who last left her imprint on America by leaking a voice mail from her ex-husband yelling incoherently at his daughter (after she had likely prevented the daughter from being available per court instruction for his phone call), has shared with all of us her newest embarrassment these days.

Her naughty naked past, is catching up with her.

In an interview with Yahoo News, Basinger 55, tells the world how "mortified" she is to know that her daughter's 13-16 year old male friends have all seen her private parts. She claims to feel "vulnerable" to know they've seen her naked.

Making one incredibly hard to believe claim after another she states that she's never seen the raunchy films she starred in. She claims "mortification" over the idea that these teen boys have seen her films. But with a bit of a wink she adds:

"At my daughter's school these boys are now 13 or 14 years old and they know more about my business than they should.

"Now when I drop her off at school I'm not allowed to get out of the car. But it's funny because these boys will recognise me and wave.

"Sometimes, Ireland will come home and tell me stories I just don't want to hear. Sometimes you do feel vulnerable, especially when you have a movie coming out."

Wait, she's had a movie come out... recently? And by recently I mean - since she was say... 45?

I have to say I don't believe her. I think what she's saying is the sort of thing that she feels she should be expected to say. But are you honestly telling me that she never contemplated when making said raunchy films, some with her husband, some with other men, at the time that she wasn't aware of the lasting impact movies have?

And forget her movies...

If she was "so worried" about 14 year old boys not seeing her ta-tas and hoo-ha would she have been featured three times in Playboy magazine?

And I don't think that the 14 year old boys at her daughter's school are all that obsessed with a 55 year old's setting star power. At least not enough to go around renting all her old films. What she should be most "mortified about" if anything are the 100's of 1000's of pages of her privy bits on the internet that aren't even protected from children who would like to find them.

Of course given the contentious nature of her divorce from Alec Baldwin a few years ago there is a likely a public angle as to why she claims to be blushing at the thought of these hormonal teens obsessing over her form.

Unfortunately the courts don't care one bit if your wife has six different specifically sexual affairs within the final two years of your marriage. In their eyes this doesn't impact their view of whether or not you should have your parenting rights impacted by the choices and decisions you make to pull off such dishonesty.

Count me in the column of "not buying it" when it comes to Basinger's protests.

It's almost enough to make me want to ask her the advice she would give these women...

In my syndicated column we've renamed the President. And in an outpouring of e-mail today I've been compared to Mark Steyn. (An honor... completely misguided to be sure... but on honor nonetheless.)

But I'm not the only one noting the President's remarkable lack of... um... wherewithal...

April 1st!
(What does it mean?)

Resources: The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips (Stephen's BRAND NEW novel)
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith.

Ok Drudge just slapped up a leak from tomorrow's NY Times. He's reporting that President Everywhere is going to call for increased federal regulation for all banking system, Wall Street, and other corporate firms...

Just remember that it was his cronies that fought to include the AIG bonuses, that his Fed guy knew about them on March 3rd and said nothing, and that even he himself knew about the inclusion of the bonus loophole but said nothing.

And we're supposed to think that this bunch of crooked-keystone-cops will oversee Wall Street exec pay honestly?

Does anyone smell a few shakedowns a la Jesse Jackson in the near future?

Perhaps to ACORN?

My listeners know that I'm the father of a special needs son. Those who know me also know just how proud I am of him. He may never be able to read fluently, or do many of the things that many of us have the chance to do in life. Yet he faces each day with a sense of optimism that inspires me and causes me to be mindful of the many blessings I have to be thankful for.

My current President is not one of them.

Cool Brutha in Chief last night went on Leno to try to save his already flotsam record as President from descending into shreds. Since the man is better at campaigning than anything else his advisers said, "why not?"

Never mind that it completely demeans the office of President.

He was there for a purpose. Sell the "raise the taxes" or "give out the stimulus" or "pass the omnibus" rhetoric and to try to create in the public's mind the idea that he still has some semblance of an idea that he knows what he's doing.

Too late.

If that had been the case, then when his buddy Chris Dodd was busy AUTHORING the AIG bonus clause that Obama's administration members had instructed him to include in the legislation, he might have tried to put a stop to it. (Or at least mentioned it was in there.)

He was also throwing out one-liners about how he opposes his party's view of taxing the AIG bonuses back into the federal coffers. (good one...)

The level of fake shock on Capitol Hill is starting to resemble a three stooges film.

But since it was the liberal Democrats that fought to keep, and were able to include the language for the bonuses in the bill in the first place, no one in the entire nation should take one thing that any of them say at face value for the duration of the terms in office.

But back to Leno...

So President "cool guy" dons his pair of USC collectable sunglasses and has his tripped out caddy pull up to the backlot where he strides in looking all Versace and proceeds to insult retarded kids.

Literally the term means "slow" and one would think this guy might know that given how fast his economic recovery plans are working. (Has the unemployment rate hit 10% yet?)

Now he has the Kennedy clan on his back, Maxine Waters kvetching at him, and a mentally disabled athlete who can bowl a 300 game with some regularity throwing down at him.

Of course the contrite thing to do would be to resign and just let Joe Biden become President, but out of fear that would create a scenario by which a supremely more stupid, and much more deeply entrenched case of hubris would be controlling everything in the free world -- I would just settle for Obama shutting his yap -- and actually doing some work on behalf of the Ameican people.

And let it be understood folks that I was the first pundit in America that predicted he WOULD BE President today...

When he began to fully understand this morning that the American people were going to go Tsunami on his approval ratings for his poor choice of humor he then cowers to the moment and insists that now he would like a photo op at the White House interacting with special needs citizens so that everyone can see that O'Jebus cares "about the least of these."

Right after that he recorded his morning YouTube to the leadership in the now nuclear-boasting Iran... begging them to play nice and sit at the table and talk to us about things... (the laughter emanating from Tehran is still being captured by satellites.)

Good luck with that...

Meanwhile this odd, bizarre, disturbing game of non-reality-reality-show-(un)presidential behavior continues. President Clueless yaps on, but eventually one has to believe that even the most ardent supporter will begin to say, "hey wait a second - what's happening doesn't resemble in any way whatsoever what he's saying."

There's been a good deal of gloating by the crazies who still oppose Abstinence education programs in the last 24 hours over the release of the 2007 birth rate numbers.

They shouldn't be though...

Yes it's true that women aged 15-19 increased by possibly a single percentage (41.9-42.5) point in the number of births per 1000. But that in and of itself accounts for a gigantic pile of "so what" when you look at the overall trends. Because it counts both married AND unmarried women giving birth.

Teens used to account for nearly 50% of births from all unmarried women. They now account for roughly 23% of births from unmarried women. That's an amazing 50 % reduction.

The news media coverage of these numbers has been appallingly dishonest with most stories using the wording of the piece to imply that abstinence efforts have failed the teens of our nation.

In reality the birth records sky rocketed from women in their 20's, 30's, and 40's - thus setting the record number of human births in the U.S. at over 4,000,000 in 2007.

When you add to the fact that abortion has also dropped for the fifth straight year (an industry that specifically targets the sexually active teen female) a very CLEAR picture begins to be painted.

Unmarried teens are abstaining more than ever...

Only one of the several dozen stories I saw on the numbers even mentioned abortion as a factor, and none of them put it into honest context.

Abstinence is a message about self control. Liberal morons, abortion providers and all the other gutter dwelling trolls are the only ones who attempt to misrepresent it for "the people" who are "too stupid" to not be "trusted" with "doing the right thing."

Abstinence is also something else... effective. It has a 100% success rate of reducing teen sexual activity, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases etc... EVERY SINGLE TIME it is used.

And one last bit of compelling evidence from the side of big government control programs - like Planned Parenthood which targets black communities in the nation's inner cities... the African American unwed birth rate surpassed its previous high and is now 71.9%.

Now I would like to do some hard pressing against the pro-condom/abortion community that have been telling these girls how to use those "tools" to reduce pregnancy to see what their answer is to that "success" rate.

In today's Washington Times Gov. Mike Huckabee throws down the gauntlet. Conservative principles didn't lose the last two elections for Republicans... it was the lack of adherence to them:

Conservatives aren't challenged because of the basic principles that define us, but by the failure of the principles being translated into policy and practice.

Ghandi once said, "If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today."

I would be so brazen to say that if conservatives would really live according to the principles of classic conservatism, all of America would be conservative today.

The crisis is not one over the precepts, but the practice. It's not that we've failed in our doctrine, but our "doing."

And...

Over the past few years, Republicans have been either acquiescing in or encouraging the acquisition of more power and control by the federal government - in policy shifts in education, health care, and even how a driver's license looks.

Plus...

Perhaps no other example is more glaring than having painfully watched so-called Washington conservatives abandon the most fundamental principle of conservatism - fiscal restraint. A Republican administration pushed for and got the authority to spend $700 billion that we had to borrow from our grandchildren's future so we could do what government has no business doing - picking out winners and losers in the private sector marketplace.

It was especially disgusting to me to watch some of the very leaders who had smugly dismissed my candidacy for president because I had the audacity to speak out against the excesses of Wall Street and Washington as early as February 2007 now stand up and flop-sweat as they explained why they were about to support the government taking off the striped shirts of the referee and put on the jersey of a team to play the game for one team against another all in the name of "saving the markets."

I've said this before, to many people's chagrin.

Mike Huckabee is now the front runner for the nomination for conservative voters in 2012. He has done the little things to position himself there. His platform at Fox gives him access to Americans every week. And a wide array of people at that. Last week his featured interview was with Keshia Knight Pullam (Rudy of the Cosby Show, and now with Tyler Perry), he closed the broadcast with some guy who had been singing for 60 years that I had never heard of, but had great appeal to the 60 plus among us.

He is also doing exactly the opposite of what John McCain did. He is making the argument in public policy discussions that Reagan was right! He is unafaid to speak to the moral crisis facing America, and pointing out that its repercussions loom as large as any economic ones. And he is unafraid to unabashedly embrace the base of the conservative majority of America.

When Reagan lost the nomination in his first run for President to the incumbent Ford, times were very similar. A lunatic leftist had taken control of the White House, and the GOP was in a shambles. Reagan began a conversation with America about the principles that were distinctly American, freedom, limited government, personal responsibility, and national security.

Huck has now started that conversation all over again, and largely all on his own.

What Limbaugh, Coulter, and the National Review did to Huckabee was in large measure unfair. They mischaracterized his positions and misrepresented his past votes.

And none of them would have even been able to dream of the right to do so, had Reagan not given Huckabee the blueprint to do so.

I'm the voice crying in the wilderness I realize. (I was also the only pundit in America in 2006 to proclaim with some pretty surgeon-like precision who would take the oath of office in 2009.)

But Huck IS the front runner, and with his television show, books, radio commentaries and his willingness to embrace the voters that John McCain viewed as pains in the backside, his advantage is becoming sizable!