Morning After Reflections

I am sitting here this morning with a tall cup of coffee. It is a very special occasion so whipped cream was added. There is much to be proud of so my "Celebration Coffee" was in order. More on that in a minute.

I woke up this morning with a pain that I hadn't felt in years. However it is all-too-familiar. It's the same pain that I woke up with the morning after The Atlanta Braves lost the World Series in 1991, 1992, 1996, & 1999. However as familiar as it is the pain is somewhat different this morning. Sure those times I was just a fan sitting on the sidelines but this morning the pain is more personal. For good reason. Over the past seven months I was not a spectator but I was one of the men running around on the field of play. I got my shirt muddy and my face bloody and I gave it my all, however when the final gun sounded the scoreboard was not in my team's favor. It's very hard not to be possessive of your favorite sports team as their successes and failures become your own. This time I can more fairly be possessive.

When that final gun goes off and despite your hardest efforts the outcome is not the one you desired or worked towards it is very easy to hang your head and cry. I won't lie to you. I have cried many tears between last night and this morning. I have been emotionally tied to this effort for so long that I just could not help it as I am an emotional person. That's how I operate. Despite that did I hang my head? Not just no but HECK NO! There's too much to be proud of to do that. Did we achieve exactly what we wanted to in this effort? No. However there is a ton of things we accomplished together in the past seven months that not only should we be proud of but we must celebrate when the time is right.

When I got involved (and the subject of this blog changed overnight) Mike Huckabee was an asterisk. There was more dust in his campaign coffers than there was money. Yet deep in my heart I knew he was the right candidate to support. Did I think he would get this far and that I'd be typing this today? No, I did not. I knew right off the bat that Huckabee was not the favorite of the GOP establishment. If I did not know that I realized quickly after the Iowa Straw Poll. Mike's 2nd place finish should have vaulted him to the first tier of the pack and help him out money wise. It did not. However that did not stop me at all. Why? Cause I knew that I had backed the right man. I saw Mike Huckabee as I see him now, the next Ronald Reagan. Remember that Ronald Reagan went down in defeat in 1976 and it took a long time before he really caught on with the American people. I also saw the political landscape that was similar to 1976. "1980" will be coming soon in 2012. And today I find solace and inspiration in that fact.

As I said before there is much to be proud of and much to celebrate at the right time. Never before has a candidate gone so far with so little. As a team we worked hard and left it all on the playing field. As a group we never really got somewhat organized until November. We were more like a "Chinese fire drill" instead of a well-oiled machine but look how far we got with just that! Not only that but we were part of a positive campaign that operated in the black and that refused to stoop to lowe levels of some of our opponents. We should be very proud of the campaign we were a part of. I know I am.

We beat the expectations of the media, pollsters, an pundits time and time again (if you look at last night's results we beat the pollsters even though we lost) . Almost every goal we met and fought hard to do so. Mike was not the "One State Wonder" that the media wanted to label him. Iowa took a great effort but we didn't stop there. West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kansas, AND GEORGIA are victories we should all be proud of. However we worked hard as a team in each state and we fought for each vote and each delegate and fought for them hard. We made thousands of calls, wrote tons of E-mails, waved signs on freezing street corners, and did countless other things to help the campaign along mostly at our own expense!

Yes there is no doubt that we are disappointed today but as we trudge back to the locker room we must hold our heads up high and know that we accomplished a heck of a whole lot together! I don't know about you but I am very proud! Also let us not forget that while this battle is over our fight is not. There is still fight left in this dog. We must stand tall for the principles that we fought for. We must continue to build the Huckabee Republican Coalition, just as Reagan did in a similar effort between 1976 and his great victory in 1980. We are the start of something big. We are not just a bunch of like minded people...we are part of a movement and we must continue to march together!


ONWARD TO BIGGER THINGS, BRIGHTER DAYS, AND TO MORE SUCCESS!! WE'LL BE BACK FOLKS....2012 WILL BE HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT!!!