| Politics

“It's true that speeches don't solve all problems but... ."

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - The Primary campaign for the Presidency will soon be over; at least in the Republican Party.

Short of a miracle (which Governor Mike Huckabee certainly believes in) Senator John McCain will be the Republican Nominee. The noble and inspiring efforts of Governor Mike Huckabee seem destined to propel him to being a much needed voice at the Republican convention.

Huckabee is an eloquent defender of the dignity of life, the primacy of marriage and the family founded upon it and our obligation in solidarity to the poor.

Some supporters and observers hope his efforts may also lead to his being the Vice Presidential choice for the Republican Party. However, it is seems more probable to this observer that he is now positioned to rebuild what is left of the Republican Party.

As my articles, interviews, editorials and commentaries over the weeks of this Primary campaign have demonstrated, I have been impressed with Governor Huckabee. His is a clear, logical, longstanding and consistent position on the Right to Life and the primacy of Marriage. He supports the necessary Constitutional amendments on both issues.

Of course, because I am committed to the full social teaching of the Catholic Church, I disagree with the Governor in his support of capital punishment. However, among all of the candidates, he at least showed some caution in that area.

He has also shown a genuine concern for the poor in a Party that has never shaken its identification with one end of the economic spectrum. He has appealed to regular folks, demonstrating a refreshing populism lacking in the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan. As his interviews with Catholic Online have demonstrated, he is also NOT anti-Catholic. Those who passed on such a thought were wrong.

Mike Huckabee may well lead a new Republican Party, one which emerges out of the devastation of 2008 much like the Grand Old Party re-emerged after the fiasco of 1976.It took Ronald Reagan then, and it may take Mike Huckabee in 2008.

Like Reagan, the former Governor from Hope Arkansas is an outstanding communicator and is seen as the “real deal” by the real people. One cannot help but smile when he re-enters the campaign this weekend, by bowling.

However, the campaign for the Democratic nomination is still being waged, and, it is getting increasingly intense. There are now daily exchanges between the two candidates, Senator Hilary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. It is to those exchanges and their implications that I now turn.

The most recent skirmish arose over Senator Obama’s response to a stinging rebuke from former President Bill Clinton. The surrogate in chief was condescending in his criticism of Obama’s message of hope and repeated calls for National unity.

He suggested that the message of the Senator from Illinois was “just words”. The candidate herself has made similar comments, regularly telling her supporters that whereas Obama offers words, she offers action.

In response to these attacks, Senator Obama came out with his rhetorical sword sharpened, telling his increasingly large crowds that “Words do matter.”

Speaking this weekend, the Democratic frontrunner told a packed house at an event sponsored by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, "Don't tell me words don't matter! 'I have a dream', just words? 'We hold these truths to be self evident that all me are created equal' - just words? 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself?' - just words. Just speeches?

He continued: “...It's true that speeches don't solve all problems, but what is also true is if we cannot inspire the country to believe again then it doesn't matter how many policies and plans we have...That is why we just won eight elections straight, because the American people want to believe in change again. Don't tell me words don't matter!"

Further, in responding to former President Clinton’s comments that he needed a “reality check”, Obama proclaimed, “Martin Luther King didn't stand on the steps of the Lincoln and say 'go home, ya'll need a reality check.'"

Then, on Monday, the Clinton campaign sought to stop the Obama momentum by leaking that the phrase was similar to another speech, given by someone else. Opposition research was at work overtime this weekend it seems. That effort, launched by the Clinton war room, to insinuate that the superior orator among the two Democratic candidates was a plagiarist, does not seem to have developed any legs.

That is because Governor Deval Patrick is one of Senator Obama’s leading supporters.

Governor Patrick told a reporter who inquired about the similarities in his campaign message and Senator Obama’s: “Senator Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language....The argument ...