"If you want to know how to fix it, I've got a solution…Either give every American the same kind of healthcare that Congress has or make Congress have the same kind of health care that every American has."
Could these be the words of a conservative republican? In fact, they are the words of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee during a recent debate of republican presidential candidates. Although the New York Times seems to credit his second-place finish in the latest Iowa straw poll to humor and schtick, it could be argued that Huckabee’s approach to universal health care and a few other more populist positions are the reasons for his popularity. After the debate on Monday, August 6, republican pollster Frank Lutz said, “Health care is an issue that transcends politics and transcends ideology.”
But health care isn’t the only issue on which Huckabee separates himself from the GOP pack. To the chagrin of anti-immigrationists, Huckabee supported the opening of a Mexican consulate in Little Rock in 2006. In a meeting at the Political Animals Club in Arkansas he said,
“One of the great challenges facing us is that we do not commit the same mistakes with our growing Hispanic population that we did with African Americans 150 years ago and beyond. We're still paying the price for the pathetic manner in which this country handled that" and "I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before.”
Huckabee also believes that “Al Gore was not entirely wrong when he spoke of earth in the balance…All of us need to have a healthy respect for our resources, a responsible level of use of those resources, and a comprehensive plan for either preserving or renewing those resources.”Although he doesn’t go so far as to support the Kyoto Treaty, Huckabee promotes the Boy Scout Rule: You leave the campsite in better shape than you found it.
Further, while his fellow republican Newt Gingrich strongly believes in modernizing Social Security via personal savings accounts, Huckabee believes in maintaining its long-term solvency and opposes changes that could risk the long-term solvency of the nation’s Social Security and Medicare systems. Additionally, Huckabee opposed cuts to the Title XX/Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) program as included in the fiscal 2000 appropriations bill. In a letter addressed to the senate regarding the cuts Huckabee and three other governors wrote,
“SSBG provides services to needy populations, including low-income children and families, the elderly, and the disabled. While SSBG does have a strong connection with welfare reform efforts in states by providing valuable resources for child care and transportation, it also provides services to many individuals who are not considered welfare recipients. For example, in many states, SSBG funding is used to provide foster care assistance, meals on wheels for the elderly, and independent living services for the disabled -- programs which are not allowable uses of welfare funds such as TANF.”
Earlier today Bob Beckel guest co-host on Hannity and Colmes, asked Huckabee where he came up with the crowd-pleasing line, ”I can’t pay for you; I can’t even rent you.” Huckabee pleasantly replied,
“That was my line. I thought about it when I was out on an early-morning run Saturday before I went up to the straw poll, and I was thinking, "How could I compete with these people who were spending millions of dollars on this day and we're spending less than $90,000 on the day?" And I realized, you know what? The Iowa people, what makes them really important in this race is that they're politically savvy. You can't buy them. And then it occurred to me, you can't even rent them for the day.”
Trailing Mitt Romney by 18 percentage points in the latest Iowa straw poll doesn’t exactly put Huckabee in a position that worries Romney and other republican candidates – yet.
See Huckabee’s article "A Sick Nation" on gather.com.
Mike Huckabee On the Issues
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He supports the death penalty (albeit only reluctantly), does not believe in evolution and has referred to Wal-Mart as a case study in the genius of the American marketplace.
There's a link in the article to all his positions and here is a link to Huckabee's website.
Incidentally, I agree about Edwards.
Interesting, to see how Mitt is going to do in the other primary when you can't pay people to vote?? Great article, as always and thank you for the links. ~mo-zy
That is a good enough reason for me to dismiss him.
The problems this country has had over the past 8 years is becasue no prepublican were willing to question or stand up to this maniacal administration. I hold all of them complicit in the loss of civil liberties, the damage to the constitution and the deaths of close to a million people.
Please, never discount someone just because of their party. Let their actions alone speak for them. I don't know enough about about Huckabee, but I appreciated the way this article was written.
Liberal and Conservative need not be adversaries, but a collective reasoning.
Thank you Diana.
I find myself contrasting it with the Karl Rove bit, and it plays alot better than that with me. You know,
-we are good so always right, you are evil so always wrong
-loyalty over competence
-when you are always right, there is never any need to negotiate
- when in doubt, lick a boot and find your base
that kind of thing
and I hate that, because it makes me wistful over what could have taken place in the past 6 years, and the next 1.5 years as well. Not just comparing Gore, I find myself thinking mcCain would have made such a better president, Colin Powell too. Why did we end up with the worst of the bunch? I know the best of the bunch was too much to expect, but why the worst?
I will say one thing in his favor, he did a lot for education, as we were ranked 48th during Clintons term. We now stand at 37th...
The NW area of Arkansas in which I live is growing by leaps and bounds due to the Wal-Mart's presence. Most people here don't hold the low paying jobs Wal-Mart is known for but rather most are buyers, asst. buyers, tech jobs, etc.
"One of the great challenges facing us is that we do not commit the same mistakes with our growing Hispanic population that we did with African Americans 150 years ago and beyond. We're still paying the price for the pathetic manner in which this country handled that" and "I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before."
The "African Americans" were brought here by force and legally acording to the law of the time. The Hispanics are ILLEGAL GET THAT? ILLEGAL ILLEGAL how many times to people like him have to be told we are not ANTI IMMIGRATION we are ANTI ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
If the man is not smart enough to figure that out how does anyone expect him to be qualified to be President? Just another Bible thumping ignorant wannabe.
I hope to vote for someone who will shake things up by returning to the political middle grounds in our country and not continue sweeping conservative changes.
Not all Hispanics are "illegal" Colonel. I do know of many cases where perfectly "legal" immigrants suffered greatly because of government paperwork glitches or stereotyping.
There is often a great contribution to our society by Hispanics. As Theresa Martinez, a University of Utah sociologist (and "legal") said recently with regard to the mine collapse in Huntington, Utah:
"The fact that half of the [Crandall Canyon] trapped workers are Latino tells us a lot about the mining industry…I would hope that people come to terms with the fact that we have fuel and energy because of those mines and that may be thanks to men and women are considered illegal aliens."
Tommy Thompson would have made a great president.
do not think he is that stupid, he is making nice with the
Christians, but what is the answer to our educational
problem. Maybe we should outlaw cellphones and video
games! ;-)
I've been reading up on him.
conciliatory "uniter" ... I don't trust any of these guys, and with
Rove now in the background most likely full-timing and devising
dirty tricks for the Republicans I trust them even less. I mean,
even the name "Huckabee" just makes you think he's a big stuffed
animal or something.
Chris W. - we endeded up with what we did because Shrub did the same thing to McCain ( a true American Hero) that he did to Ann Richards ( A Great American and a Great Texan)
Bruce, et al. W. only appeared like Huckabee to those who were more appalled at adultery than violation of liberties. Rove limited his appearances especially having him speak off the cuff when he started campaigning. They also sat back and had other groups do some mud slinging and operate under names like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.....For truth...........really? Seriously???? Every time he used the terms "uniter not a divider", "compassionate conservative" I nearly became physically ill. He convinced Texans that Ann Richards was a lesbian, gun hating, abortionist. He convinced Republicans in the primary race that John McCain was a racist. He convinced less than 50% of all those who voted that Al Gore was stiff and boring and that was supposed to be more important than things like, education, our children, our health, our economy, our rights. Then he convinced everyone that Iraq was involved in 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction. Sorry for the rant but each election Governor, President and so on I saw right through it. When Collin Powell went on camera and said he was meeting with the UN and they had "proof" of weapons of mass destruction I turned to my husband, picked my jaw up and actually said "Oh God he is lying we dont have it!" My husband who does not support this admin, gave the benefit of the doubt. Guess what, that sixth sense of mine was on the money. Americans who are content to form a decision based on celebrity endorsement, muckraking lying adds, and so on need to stop it.
Not believing in evolution. When will these people stop pandering and state the facts. The Theory of Evolution is a scientific theory and the studying of such theory is not inappropriate in the science class room. It does not require the students to alter their belief system, drink blood, or dance naked under the moon.
What is going on welcome to the 21st century set your watch back to the 1600's?
Read, research, be real. Look at the candidates records. The real records not what they claim but what they have actually done!
Ok I am going to go breath now.
That said, my least criticism of him had to do with Afghanistand and Iraq. I was against Iraq, but he did it anyway. The problem was it was like he wanted to lose. Twisting the facts is understandable to me during wartime ... what isn't understandable is the almost 100% record he had of making all the wrong decisions, listening to all the wrong people, appointing all political appointees, while throwing out and demonizing the experts.
I just saw a new documentary yesterday about Iraq called "No Way Out" that goes back and reminds us of the many years we have been at this now, and the decisions that got us here ... and the Rumsfeld narrative along the way ... almost 100% wrong in retrospect. Even random chance would have them doing better than this.
Diana, I think you've coined a new term. One that rivals Colbert's "Truthiness. I think we ought to consider the implications of that. I think we will see a lot more of this should the Republicans take the whopping they deserve in the upcoming elections.
Great article. Mike Huckabee caught my attention during the last Republican debate. Being an independent no one has yet caught my imagination. The race is too early and unpredictable. With mixed economic picture and according to some economists and housing doom and gloomists a recession may be looming in America's future. Americans on election day may decide to vote their pocket book. Corporate America seems to be eager to hire anyplace else but America with the hopes of creating more consumers globally for their products.
Will Americans stop borrowing and spending? Do they have an alternative? Will we see more American assets be boughts by the Rich oil countries and China? Will the dollar keep sliding? Will the Fed keep the printing presses working overtime to rescue our economy. I say stay tuned for an interesting year - I see Republicans and Democrats crossing lines to confuse and confound us.
Surely you've heard the Comptroller of the U.S. ringing the alarm bell - actually it's more like an emergency at this point.