My Beginning

I have been a conservative all of my life, but aside from voting and getting fired up over the talking heads on TV or left-leaning callers berating the hosts of my favorite talk radio shows, I've never been overly involved in the political process. I've never campaigned for anyone and I've certainly never taken a shot at blogging. So why do I now find myself going overboard?

Well, to make sense of it all, you might want to understand a little bit about me. I am the eldest of three children and I come from a working class home in my native Pennsylvania. I wasn't poor - could always pick somebody who had things a little rougher than we did - but I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, either. My parents worked long hours and stretched a lot of pennies to make sure that we were always clothed, warm, and fed. I was raised as a Christian and I identify myself as such, but you will not catch me on a soapbox telling you that my religion is better than yours or that your actions and choices are less holy than mine in the eyes of God. That's your business and the way I see it, we all fall short of the glory so we might as well leave the judgements up to Him. When I was 12, my parents separated and then divorced. My brother and I stayed in our home with my father and my sister moved away with my mother. I went through my teenage years as a pretty good kid (had my moments) and a decent student. I went on to college with the assistance of a merit scholarship and have since had a successful life in the business world. I am married and am expecting my first child in February.

So, now that we're all square on the background, I'll continue with the topic that caused you to stop at my blog in the first place. Why am I such an advocate of Mike Huckabee? Yes, I identify with his beliefs. I identify with his values. And I identify with his something out of nothing rise from the normal blue-collar American life that most of us know to his position as a leader today. I'll write about more of these great things in another post, but this is where my excitement about Mike Huckabee began...

I had my first opportunity to hear Mike Huckabee speak during the Republican debate in August. My initial reaction was, "Wow, this guy is actually answering questions honestly." The more I listened to him, the more I started to identify with his message. Before I knew anything about his history as a pastor or his beliefs, Mike Huckabee sold me with his stance on energy independence. He recognizes that our dependence on foreign oil is indirectly financing the extremists who seek to exterminate us as a people. I was hooked the moment that he said, "If we can feed ourselves, if we can fuel ourselves, if we can manufacture the weapons to fight for ourselves, we're a free people; if we can't do those three things, we're not free."

This was my beginning for Mike Huckabee and hopefully it'll be yours, too.

Republican Debate Clip, August 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAklv1Z-ZEg

Segment begins at about 3:00 mark