Jan 5 Presidential Debates by ABC: Mike Huckabee

Tonight I watched the Presidential Debates on ABC. The revolutionary thing about the debate is that it was closely tied with Facebook and the “US Politics” application. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again: the Facebook Platform is a winner, and Facebook is now the #1 way for college students to socialize online. They also published “thoughts” from random people throughout the debate. One person said it was interesting that the only candidate not referred to by last name is a woman. Well, duh: her husband has already been president, and using her last name would just be confusing.

I don’t think the candidates got to see the Facebook poll results while they were debating, but it’s worth noting that the Economy was, by far, the main issue people wanted to hear more about.

One thing I found very interesting is that almost every presidential candidate cites the internet as being crucial to their success. Yet the only one who has received genuine, grassroots online support is Ron Paul. At this moment, there are 806 active users discussing him on the Ron Paul Forums. He has 37.31% support on Facebook (versus 6% in the ABC News Poll), which is far ahead of Mike Huckabee, who is in second place with 17.87%.

Most of Ron Paul’s supporters are young people and independents, which means they have never voted before or they are not registered Republicans. This means they are not included in phone polls, like the one ABC News probably did.

On Nov 5, 2007, Ron Paul supporters raised $4.3 million in a single day, and then raised over $6 million in another 1-day drive on Dec 16th (Wikipedia). That’s seriously solid proof that people like his message of freedom, non-interventionism, and sound monetary policy. He is the only politician I know of who is trying to abolish the Federal Reserve (Ron Paul on the falling value of the dollar). The above poll shows that Facebook users want to hear more about the Economy, and that’s exactly what Ron is delivering.

But I’ve written about Ron Paul before. So tonight I’m going to focus some more on Mike Huckabee.

I first took a serious look at Huckabee when my mom asked what I thought about him. Then came the real shocker: he’s endorsed by none less than Chuck Norris himself. Watch this:

From that video, I learned about The Rebelution, an excellent Christian website for teens. Talk about appealing to young people! Chuck Norris heard about Mike Huckabee from two teenage kids who sent him an email. If you’re a young person unsure of whether you can make a difference, just consider this.Chuck Norris needs no introduction, but the Chuck Norris posts on my blog are some of the most popular ever. They have more comments than any other, and comments continue to pour in. One YouTube commenter wrote: “I don’t care about Huckabee, but if Chuck Norris endorses him, you can be sure he’s the right guy.”The Rebelution is truly a fantastic website. I’m currently reading the draft of their book, Do Hard Things, and I’m very impressed. I was even compelled to apply for membership on their exclusive forum.

Their goal is to empower teenagers and make us realize the being a “kidult” is psychological, imposed on us by society, and harmful. I remember as a kid thinking that being an adult sucked. I wanted no part of it and didn’t want to grow up.

Why? Because of what I saw on TV. Too much of the wrong kind of television is really harmful to your brain, I have no doubt about that. Toys R Us commercials come to mind. “I don’t want to grow up. I’m a Toys R Us kid!” to a catchy tune, repeated over and over until it was a subliminal belief. Unless we step up to the responsibilities and freedoms for adults, we’ll never realize our full potential. (I think being a kidult is what liberals are trying to convince us to be.)

On the other hand, the televised presidential debates are really quite good. Tonight’s debate on ABC was a little interactive thanks to Facebook, and Ron Paul was included (which can’t be said of tomorrow’s Fox debate). The Facebook interactivity trend is going to continue and expand, mark my words.

Mike Huckabee didn’t stand out a whole lot in tonight’s debate, but here’s an interesting video on Facebook. He supports the Fair Tax and is something of a “social conservative.” He wants to help the poor, and is “on the side of Rick Warren.” Apparently, he went to seminary with Warren.

For more on Mike, see Mike Huckabee.com.