According to a news program this week, most people are still neutral about the field of Democratic and Republican candidates sparring in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, and soon Michigan and South Carolina. We’re sitting back watching, waiting to see who’s standing at the end of the marathon, and then we’ll decide.
I’m one of the many who thought it was presumptuous of this fellow Baptist preacher–from Hope, Arkansas yet–to declare for the presidency. I mean, a preacher? Lo and behold, the more I hear from Mike Huckabee, the more I like him.
I’m leading up to sharing something from a Newsweek article, but first, in the interests of full disclosure, here is my take on the main candidates….
Hillary? I’d like to have a woman for president. This nation is long overdue. And I think she would make a good one in a hundred areas. But for me, these are the negatives: she’s too liberal, she has all this baggage (think: Bill and his cohorts) left over from the 1990s, and she is being supported by all the far left (scary) groups.
Mitt? He sounds so good. But, I’m afraid of his religion. I told you this is full disclosure. I am not objective toward his religion. It’s a truly bizarre twist on Christianity and a faulty interpretation of God’s revelation in the Scriptures. It’s based on a con pulled by Joe Smith and furthermore, many of its leaders know that and cover it up. I have trouble trusting anyone gullible enough to believe in that religion.
McCain? Pretty good. Solid citizen. I like a lot about him, but he’s 72 now, which is 5 years older than me and man, I can feel my “powers” diminishing. Not sure we ought to be electing someone at that age.
Obama? Untested. He’s just not been around long enough at the center of power, if you want to call the U.S. Senate that, for my taste. We have a way in America of electing novices (present occupant of the White House included) and letting them get on-the-job training. I do think this country is overdue for an African-American president, and if it happens, it would be good for us. I’m puzzled at John Kerry and others jumping on his bandwagon just because he can make a good speech.
Rudy? Nah. Fred? Nah. Edwards? Hah.
Mike Huckabee? Yep.
Now, here’s what made me decide to post something on this blog about it.
Joe Klein writes for Newsweek magazine. In the January 14, 2008, issue, he takes on Mitt Romney and then segues into Mike Huckabee.
Klein listens to the smoothness of Romney in his personal appearances. Good stuff. Positive, upbeat, impressive. However…
In New Hampshire, Romney was running television ads and mailings that were completely the opposite of the good-guy persona he was presenting at rallies. In these, he was nasty and brutal toward his opposition.
The Romney whom Klein sees at public rallies “is, literally, unbelievable and completely at odds with the Romney festering on television screens and in mailings throughout Iowa and New Hampshire.”
He adds, “That Romney is nonstop negative, and jingo-crazed about the perils of illegal immigration. He offers exclamations, not balm: John McCain wants to make ’em citizens! Mike Huckabee gave them college scholarships! And McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts! And Huckabee pardoned all these criminals when he was Governor of Arkansas, while Romney pardoned not a single one of his Massachusetts felons!”
Klein says, “The problem is schizophrenia.” Romney is sweet-spirited and upbeat on the stump, but angry and mean-spirited in his ads and mailings.
The newspaper in Concord, NH, wrote, “Pay attention to both, and you’re left to wonder if there’s anything at all at his core.”
Joe Klein quotes a campaign manager for one of the other presidential candidates. “I just hate the guy. If we can’t win, I want to be sure he loses.”
Then, Klein goes to a Huckabee rally and takes notes. The Arkansan spent most of the time railing against Romney, he writes, and was particularly incensed over the man’s misrepresentations of Huckabee’s pardons.
Huckabee told this story about pardons.
An Iraq-war veteran returned to the States and worked his way through college. He wanted to become a police officer but couldn’t because he had fired a BB gun at a friend when he was 13 years old. Huckabee looked at the crowd and asked, “Now, how many of you would have granted a pardon in that case?” Klein recorded that every hand in the place seemed to be raised.
“Well,” said Huckabee, “that wasn’t one of my pardons. That was a pardon Mitt Romney refused to grant in Massachusetts.”
No one ever asks my advice on presidential politics, not even my children. But if they did, I would offer them one piece of advice.
“Don’t pay a lot of attention to the candidates’ posturing on the various issues. A thousand things will change once he or she gets into office, and very little of any of what they say in debates and ads will still pertain. Look for character and integrity. Try to determine from what you hear and read whether anyone is at home inside the candidate’s smooth exterior and beyond the programmed speeches. You’re not buying a platform; you’re electing a leader for the free world. Nothing he or she has done up to this point will remotely prepare them for the next eight years in the White House. So, the main question at this point is: who is the best person with the strongest desire to do the right thing?”
That is probably the last thing I’ll say about this presidential race on this blog. Probably.
Bro. Joe,
Have you considered looking into Ron Paul? I know his chances at being the Republican candidate for president are still slim, but he is more of what America needs than any of the other “big, well covered by the media” candidates. His website is http://www.ronpaul2008.com
It is well worth looking at.
Ginger
Never asks your advice???? Well not in so many words — you’re always eager to offer it when we discuss politics, so we don’t have to “ask”…
I did ask some conservative online friends if they’d rather vote for a Democrat who was opposed to abortion and opposed to gay marriage, or for the Republican who supported abortion and supported gay marriage. Mixed response.
I brought up that question because the complaint they all have against Huckabee is that he’s not a “real conservative”. Maybe not as “real” as Rudy or Fred, in terms of taxes and foreign policy, but he’s certainly a true blue “social conservative” and the only one who is paying any attention to the “family values / evangelical” voters. You know, the ones who supposedly re-elected Bush 4 years ago…
“Nothing he or she has done up to this point will remotely prepare them for the next eight years in the White House.”
Did I miss a Consitutional change or something? I thought presidents served for four years, not eight.
I, too, like Mike.
You just thought people didn’t pay close attention to what you write. You make a mistake(see 8 years above) and someone will sure catch it. Keep up the good work.
Jimmy Griffith
I like Mike, too.
Ginger, Ron Paul scares me. I watched him in the debates, and he’s a libertarian and an isolationist. My Christian values would not let me support Ron Paul.
Dionne and Jimmy G. Methinks you miss the point. The last president to serve only four years was J. Carter. And that seemed like 15 years!! I have a feeling that the next elected president will be made from such a mold. God help us all.
Brother Bob, you think Ron Paul is scary? I think Mike Huckabee is scarier.
No one should under-estimate the danger he represents: a significant ratcheting up of the theocratic tendencies in contemporary Republicanism. This quote is particularly alarming:
“I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards.”
” And that’s what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards.”
Amen Amen and Amen!
Huckabee and integrity? Ya’ll never heard of Target-gate? Theocracy works so well in the middle-east, it should go over really big here!
Ron Paul will not get the nomination, but at least he is getting people to talk about his ideas on the real issues. He’s no lunatic. He may be the truest Christian of both bunches. Read his ideas on ending abortion and for federal support of home schooling. Small, limited, and not very powerful federal government is just what we need and what the founding fathers intended.
If you like globalization and everything else big business has had the United States of America doing around the world for the last 50 years or so, go with Huckabee. You may get more than you bargained for.
When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the Bible.
All I’m saying is make sure your eyes are really open and that your brain absolutely will not fall out of an open mind. Hitler convinced an entire nation of Christians and their 8,000 churches to follow him. How’d that happen? Not by force. He simply convinced them that they were in danger and he was the solution.
David Davis
Hmmm, I had to google it, but no — Target-gate doesn’t scare me much, and doesnt appear to have anything to do with “theocracy” either.
Oh, and you just proved Godwin’s law, so this discussion cannot continue any further.
Gosh I hate election-time…
😛
How about we as Christians try to live up to God’s standards and not try to force the entire nation to do the same by changing the Constitution, which is just fine as it is.
The choices we make today will affect our children and grandchildren’s future, may we all be careful to choose wisely.
What a man; what a preacher; what a politician….
desparately pandering for bubba’s vote….
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN)
Brother Joe,
Last one, I promise. Ain’t fair Marty, to invoke Godwin’s law as I was not comparing Gov. Huckabee to Hitler. I apologize if anyone thought so.
I was referring to a politician’s ability to move a mob, group, or entire nation in any particular direction by playing on their fears, passions or prejudices. Nazi Germany in the 1930s was the most evil example I could think of.
Unfortunately, other than maybe 2, the candidates of all stripes are increasingly playing this game. There’s the “war on Christians”, the “vast right-wing conspiracy”, “vote for the other guys and we’re all gonna die!!!” and on and on forever. I’m just hoping more folks will start thinking for themselves.
In the end, no matter what you and I agree (you may be surprised at how much we do)or disagree on, we’ll probably be disappointed in the last 2 standing and feel like we’re having to choose the lesser of 2 duds again. When will we get that “none of the above button”? 🙂
I’m always praying that all hearts and minds can find God though Jesus. The road I traveled to find God’s grace started with the love of a good woman and the preaching of a good man. You know him. I just truly do not believe government on any level should be entrusted with interpreting and enforcing the Lord’s will.
Your Dad does good and important work here on this site and we think the world of him so, I will quit stirring the pot.
Bless you and yours.
David Davis
P. S. I am admitting I had to look up Godwin’s law! But, Ginger knew it thanks to Rev. Jim Lancaster.
Ginger, Thank you for the contribution you have made to this discussion. You add critical issues to the mix and in a time when all we hear is who is going to give more than the other to “fix the problems” and “change” whatever. Obviously there will be change – anytime you change administrations there will be change. It is our job to determine who will change our country for the better. I see a lot a good in several of the candidates if I can take them at their words. But the pandering for votes turns me off. I, too, am looking for the “none of the above” choices. I agree, we all have much more to agree on than to disagree on. Keep your opinion coming.