October 19 - Why Your Country Needs YOU in Washington

Reported today in the Washington Times:

Fifth-ranked in the polls, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has backing of the leaders of many small-to-medium sized evangelical congregations and interest groups but not the most widely influential leaders like [American Family Association (AFA) Chairman Donald Wildmon] and Dr. Dobson.

"It would seem that Christian leaders could well rally around Mike Huckabee if they are in search of a candidate they like," said Republican election-law attorney Cleta Mitchell. "It isn't as though there isn't any candidate they could support." Mrs. Mitchell supports no candidate but thinks Mr. Huckabee "is actually a pretty impressive candidate and is doing a credible job of making his presence felt in this race."

Mr. Wildmon agreed. "Could the social-conservative leaders support Huckabee? Yes. Have they done so yet? No," he said, adding that he is "part of a group who have pledged not to go public to endorse anybody until the end of October." If current alignments haven't changed by then, however, public declarations of fealty will reveal a badly splintered Christian right.

My friends, why do you think they're holding out until the end of October? I'd venture to say because the biggest national conclave of Christian conservatives is slated for October 19-20 in Washington, DC, and they want to test the waters there first.

If you read the rest of the Washington Times article, it discusses how Fred Thompson has failed to become the rallying point for Christian conservatives, and Evangelicals are afraid of Romney's Mormon faith, leaving them deeply divided or undecided between the two not-so-attractive candidates.

Our country needs us to do everything we can to get the Christian conservative bloc to rally around Mike Huckabee. If you're pro-life then anything else will be a disaster. Neither Thompson nor Romney can rally the base well enough to beat Hillary Clinton, and of course Giuliani is openly contemptuous of pro-lifers and family values. If Giuliani is nominated, then approximately half of Americans will have no party head to voice their deeply-held belief that all human beings possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, a third party candidate would only guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton.

How can we do this? I hate to admit it, but blog discussions won't get us very far because very few undecided people read them. We need to get out there and talk with these very Christian conservative leaders who are waiting until the end of October and tell them why we think they need to get behind Huckabee. Moreover, we need to talk with and convert their employees and members, who the leaders will listen to more than some faceless person sending an email.

The place to do this is the FRC Action Washington Briefing on Friday, October 19! This is worth the financial sacrifice. (And conference registration is very reasonably priced, at $95/$50 for students.) People on the ground are worth far more than money when it comes to grassroots action. If there is any way you can come to DC and "work the rooms" for Huckabee, and you're weighing the cost of taking a day off of work and/or coming to DC versus donating the same amount to the campaign, come here! You can leverage your money and efforts for so much more by showing up, wearing a Huckabee pin, and telling numerous GOP activists (who will never read a Huckabee blog otherwise) why our nation needs them to give Mike their support.

Important Note: The Presidential straw poll voting concludes on Saturday at 1 pm, according to the latest schedule posted online. Gov. Huckabee's scheduled speaking time has also been moved to the Saturday morning session. This means that conference-goers will not hear Huckabee speak on Friday, making it all the more important to prime them to wait to hear him speak and not cast an ill-informed vote on Friday.

Moreover, after Q3's disappointing fundraising numbers, we need to demonstrate the power of Huckabee's grassroots network. It's one thing to vote online in the straw poll (which you definitely should do if you absolutely can't come to DC, by joining FRC Action and then casting your vote), but it's entirely another to demonstrate that Huckabee's grassroots are committed to trecking long distances for him, and not just in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Please see my post from yesterday if you would like tips on where to stay if you're coming in from out of town. Regardless of whether you're local or coming in from out of town, if you do plan to attend please email me to let me know, so we have a sense of how many Huckabee supporters are coming and have an opportunity to meet up.

Please register for the conference ASAP, because the original print form had a deadline of September 15, and who knows when they will close the online registration.

Between now and October 19, I plan to provide more coordination information as the situation develops. Moreover, I plan to post my best "lobbying" tips -- expert advice on how to persuade political types. I do this for a living, and am happy to share the tricks of the trade to help you be more effective in persuading other conference-goers to put their votes, money, and efforts behind Mike Huckabee.

Let's win this one for the Gipper!!