"Nice Guy" Huckabee's real appeal.

[annabanana]

He comes across as the ultimate nice guy. He seems reasonable. He got the "Colbert Bump" and even offered Stephen the Vice Presidency (sort of).. He "gets" the humor.

He has moved up in the Repug polls for other reasons. His ideology is as wacko as they come. He raised his hand when asked "Who does NOT believe in evolution?"

And now he has gotten the endorsement of Tim LaHaye, author of the Raapture Ready “Left Behind” novels. Le Haye's big bucks have supported every single anti-democratic, theocratic ideal for the last 30 years. He's got big pull in freaky circles.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/23/huckabee-picks-up-another-endorsement-left-behind-author-tim-lahaye/

[frogcycle]

1. and yet... and yet...

of all the wackos the pugs have vying for dictator-in-chief, I'd take this creationist wacko over all the rest

he just MIGHT not think immolating all Muslims is godly

he just MIGHT think that summary executions of all undocumented workers are a bit over the top

the rest - I'm not so sure

[pnorman]

2. I too had" warm" feelings about Huckabee.

He came across as an intelligent and decent sort, and this item further increased the "warmth": http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/21/huckabee-bushs-role-in-plame-leak-should-be-investigated/ Perhaps he may also look at the Iraq invasion in a more critical eye.

But that endorsement by that "Left Behind" crowd, makes me wonder.

pnorman

[KatyaR]

3. You might be interested in this:

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/11/13/huckabee/

He's not as "pure" as everyone thinks he is.

[annabanana]

6. Those are EYE OPENING articles!

You would never get "thin-skinned" from the coverage he's been receiving from CorpoMedia over the past few weeks.

Also the use of public stuff as his private property does not square with his "moral" bonafides.

It's past time for a little real journalism to bubble to the surface about this guy.

[pnorman]

9. The "American Spectator" isn't a publication I'd place high confidence in by itself.

I'd first subject anything in it to DEEP scrutiny. Here's some background on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Spectator But if it puts out stuff than be researched deeper, then I'll go for it. Salon of course is a different matter altogether. I subscribe to it, and get it on my PDA. But I'll STILL research it all.

Thanks for those two links though. As an agnostic, I was trying hard to NOT be too "judgemental" of people like Huckabee. But it looks like several hours of very fruitful digging!

pnorman

[KatyaR]

11. Post your findings, will you?

We need all the info we can get on these guys. None of them are as virtuous as they claim, and if the MSM is touting them, that's usually a sign that there's more there than meets the eye.

Thanks.

[greenman3610]

8. "the kind of guy I'd like to have a beer with"

[B Calm]

4. My brother who lives in Arkansas says Huckabee is a damn crook.

The people in Arkansas hate him!

[Blackhatjack]

5. When he left Gov Office he spend taxpayer $ to destroy 100 computer hard drives...

... sounds like he would fit right in with the present Administration and it's policies.

He is way out of the mainstream in his ideas, but you won't hear him mention them in interviews.

This is why DUers need to carefully examine and debate the positions of the candidates running and not be taken in by platitudes and emotional appeals. Then we can communicate the truth with others who are less politically plugged in than we are.

Who is right on the positions?

[chelaque liberal]

7. From article about Religious Right?s ?Values Voter Summit?

The demands for a continual supply of raw meat led some candidates to reinvent themselves. At last year?s meeting, Huckabee presented himself as a ?compassionate conservative,? lauding the crowd for its anti-abortion stance but gently chiding them for caring too little about the plight of the poor.

That Huckabee was nowhere in sight this year. After opening by ridiculing Gore?s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, Huckabee vowed to secure the U.S. southern border, abolish the IRS, impeach judges who cite foreign law and stop taking direction from the United Nations.

The former Arkansas governor pledged to outlaw same-sex marriage and amend the U.S. Constitution to state that life begins at conception. He asserted that the reason the U.S. relies on so many undocumented workers is that we have aborted so many children who could have grown up to hold jobs, blasting ?the holocaust of liberalized abortion.?

?We do not have the right to move the standards of God to meet cultural norms,? Huckabee said to rousing applause. ?We need to move the cultural norms to meet God?s standards.?


http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&page=NewsArticle&id=9471

Doesn't sound too nice to me....

[Don Claybrook]

10. He's not the hypocrite that the rest of the GOP candidates are

I think the less dense in the GOP's base sense that he's the real deal. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the "real deal" means religiously insane. But the rest of the field is tripping over themselves trying to act more batshit than their opponents. I think the religious right GOP base sees that they're being pandered to by Rudy, Romney, and Thompson. Of course, not all Republicans are religiously insane, so a Huckabee nomination might not sit well with them. It's fascinating to watch the train wreck that is the GOP hewing to the policies and mindset of Bush, when I think relatively few Americans actually want those policies and that mindset. The religious right has an inflated view of their own importance, and the GOP candidates don't see this. The GOP is fracturing badly. Final note: watch for a McCain resurgence. They've rejected him, and now they've cycled through the other rejects; he might get a second look from the right.