Listening to Mike Huckabee on CSPAN--this guy could be trouble

[bklyncowgirl]

Humble, articulate, with a sense of humor and a religiousity that does not come off as phoney.

He's a real right winger but does not come off as one.

Anyone know anything about him.

[Radical Activist]

1. All the people I know in Arkansas

don't take him seriously. He's kind of a joke and so is his candidacy.

[Catchawave]

2. He was on Daily Show last week.....

I liked him too, very "centrist", doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve, his book was called liberal by Jon.

Yes, we need to keep an eye on him. :hi:

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Huckabee was/is in the pockets of the NRA and the fundamentalists

He was a republican lieutenant governor under a Democratic governor (Jim Guy Tucker), and was installed as governor by virtue of Ken Starr's witch hunt. Starr relied on the testimony of two known perjurers to convict the Democratic governor and remove him office-- thus paving the way for Huckabee to occupy the governor's mansion-- or, as was the case for much of his reign, a triple-wide trailer in back of the mansion.

[ContraCommando]

3. He’s extremely right wing

As Arkansas governor he supported something called “covenant marriage.” It’s basically a super, fundamentalist inspired, form of normal marriage. Although, this form, I believe, makes it much harder to divorce.

[Sal Minella]

6. I believe divorce is not even considered possible by a couple in a covenant marriage.

[bigdarryl]

4. his biggest asset is he's a former Governor if he decides to run plus

he makes McCain look 90 years old standing next to him.

[Pirate Smile]

5. I know he is the candidate Kos said he is worried about and I can

see why.

All the other Republican candidates have obvious weaknesses either with the Republican base or for the General election. Huckabee doesn't. He could unite their fractured party and appeal to independents.

[antonialee839]

7. Wasn't he, or is he still, a Baptist minister?

[jgraz]

8. He's basically a fundamentalist theocrat

but, of course, there's no Democrat who will take on his Christianism directly. If he gets a pass on that, he may be able to con his way into the White House.

[PFunk]

9. Ah the Steath neo-con, the next generation neo-con.

You know, the one with a centerous skin. Yeah. Since thanks to Bush the old-fasion neo-con is now out of fasion. I was wondering when this version (i.e the republican version of a DINO) would start appearing.

(Now can we have some RINO's-Republican In Name Only please).

[bklyncowgirl]

13. Yup, this guy does not scream right wing nut job.

He comes off as a very nice guy and quite reasonable. He seems to fit the fundamentalist trend that is moving toward environmentalism and helping the poor. The question is could the business wing of the Republican party and what's left of the neocons get behind him?

Frankly, looking at him, put this seemingly sincere, nice man up against someone like, say Hillary Clinton and he could win.

[seasat]

11. He's a weird critter.

I did some research on him a while back and he is quite a mix. I am typing this from memory so pardon me if I get off a little. He is a hard core social conservative but on all other issues appears more like a Democrat. He is an ordained Baptist minister and plays in a rock band as a hobby. He has an interesting story because he used to be very overweight but got into jogging and dieting and lost something like 100 lbs. This led to him instituting a very progressive program of promoting healthy eating in Arkanasas' public schools. He campaigned originally on no taxes but ended up raising taxes to balance Arkansas' budget. This has promoted serveral articles attacking him by the idiots at Club for Growth. He left office with pretty high popularity ratings in Arkansas but his coat tails did not result in a Repug win. Instead a Democrat (Mike Bebe) is now governor. The bad news is that he would oppose gay rights, abortion, and stem cell research. IMHO, if he does well in the primary, it'll indicate how much sway the social conservatives still hold in the Repug party. Him and Hagel are the two dark horses in the Repug primary that could give our candidate a tougher run.

[bklyncowgirl]

14. Interesting, everybody loves a diet story.

Gives him a key to the hearts of millions of Americans--especially women who might be willing to overlook his views on social issues as they bond with a fellow dieter.

Stranger things have happened.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Yeah, he raised taxes

especially regressive sales taxes, which are now at 6% at the state level, and 9% or more in some locations.

[Pirate Smile]

18. Good to know. Great. He won't win the Republican nomination.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. Well, the fat cat republicans love regressive taxes

because they put more burden on the poor.

[Pirate Smile]

26. True but it sounds like he has enough of a history that the business Republicans

would hate for him to win the nomination.

It is an odd batch running for the Republican nomination. They all seem to alienate a significant portion of their base.

[hippiechick]

12. "President Huckabee" ?? yeee haw !

:rofl: :rofl: It won't work. :rofl: :rofl:

[bklyncowgirl]

20. Lots of people liked the movie.

I really can't see the business wing of the Republican party going for this guy nor the neocons but the fundies--especially those who've become disenchanted with the GOP--it's possible.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. Fundamentalist

and I don't trust him to keep religion out of politics. His wife ran for public office and lost-as I recall, she's more extreme than he is. He has done a good job promoting wellness, but he did raise taxes and he made certain services pay sales tax for the first time. He also forced consolodation of schools, supposedly to improve the quality of education--there was fierce opposition to this plan, and what resluted was basically another layer of beaurocracy at the local school district level, making it harder for individuals to have a say in their own school districts. Those two things are his greatest weaknesses.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. That mass covenant marriage thing was kind of creepy

like something out of the Moonie mass wedding playbook.

[bigdarryl]

17. He's only 51 years old WOW!!!

[NCarolinawoman]

21. I saw a poll taken last summer in Arkansas.

The poll had Hillary beating him in that state and Clark beating him by an even greater margin. I'm sorry I don't have the link.

I don't know if this makes you feel better, but I just thought you should know.

[bklyncowgirl]

22. Yeah, it does--maybe he doesn't wear well.

Other people's politicians often look better than our own. i could never see people's infatuation with Mario Cuomo, for example.

Still, he's one to watch.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

25. Like I said, he bucked the will of the people

when he insisted on school consolodation. They actually came up with citizen's groups (one in Valley Springs was called Save Our Schools), and there was a lot of negative publicity. Arkansas is mainly little towns, and the loss of the school meant the loss of town identity to a great extent. In the Ozarks, it is physically impossible to really consolodate the students into one school (some would be riding a bus for like 4 hours a day or more), so they put an overlay of a consolodated school board--the campuses and local administration remained the same. What did happen for many was that their school taxes went up because one or more of the consolodated districts had a bill for building or some other upgrade. This made a lot of people whose original district had low taxes and owed nothing really mad. For that reason alone, he was very unpopular in the northwest part of the state, which is the strongest Republican.

[grasswire]

24. he's a real, bona fide FREEPER

He's been a member of the despicable freerepublic.com for years. A living, breathing Freeper.

[bklyncowgirl]

27. I wonder if there are any interesting posts? Did he use his own name? nt