Iowa Defense Alliance

From his book From Hope to Higher Ground:

Chapter “STOP Being a Selfish Citizen”:

“Worthwhile battles in the political arena are not for the easily discouraged or the faint of heart. Politics can be a full-contact sport…. If you can’t stand the sight of your own blood, your role may be limited to helping others and not actually putting your name on the ballot and your neck on the line.”

I thought of these quotes from Huckabee last night while I was watching Larry King Live. A group of women were shouting at each other all to get their points across about Sarah Palin. Many of the expert women were sure that Palin’s star is already falling, that real women are seeing her for the woman she really is. It went on and on and on. Watching was an endurance contest.

While Mike Huckabee’s comments were intended for those thinking of entering a political race, I think his words also speak to me as a grass roots person. As the heated debates and ugliness of this political season enter the home stretch, I find being an informed, interested, and committed voter is not for the ‘faint of heart’.

It would be much more pleasant to shut off the TV, only read the comic page in the paper (tho there are a lot of mean comics these days!)… just do anything to tune out the media, pundits, and spokespeople for the candidates. Ignore the polls and nasty comments left on blog sites.

But Mike has more words for me, and perhaps you will learn from them, as well:

“If you decide not to be a candidate, then you should decide to fervently and faithfully support those who share your core convictions and who are likely to act on your behalf if elected. Support means more than voting for, although it won’t help much if you don’t vote. Don’t expect to find perfect candidates because there aren’t any! Judge more by a candidates spirit than his or her speeches.”

My interest in Mike has gotten me to this place in my political life so I am in for the duration and plan to stick around to help make sure that those elected are staying true to the promises made to the voters. I will keep “fervently and faithfully” supporting the candidates who believe in the family values that are important to me.

I will keep posting on the Iowa Defense Alliance site and doing all I can help candidates like Christopher Reed get elected.

And finally, more from Huckabee:

“I am not where I am today because I was the greatest candidate or because I had all the answers to all the questions. I am where I am today only because extraordinary people believed in an ordinary candidate who was willing to articulate shared beliefs. Whatever victory was attributed to me was truly the result of people on whose shoulders I was carried.”

“Extraordinary people” – able to discern the labels given to candidates- too old, too young, black, white, male, female, tied to Bush, gives a good speech, has the money coming in, star is rising, star is falling, makes a verbal slip up, looks handsome, looks cranky, tying to appeal to moderates, independents, democrats, republicans… as you can see- it takes a lot to be EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE- able to think for ourselves and vote our convictions.