Mike Huckabee says that he wants us to stop consuming energy within a decade. Damn straight it’s time we had a candidate willing to stand up against the laws of thermodynamics!
In all seriousness, even if Huckabee meant that we should switch to all renewable sources within a decade, it’s still a silly argument. Even if you try to make sense of the statement, there’s just no way it doesn’t come off as being silly. We need a President who actually understands basic issues of policy. Mike Huckabee constantly comes off as someone who is clueless about the world around him.
Gaffes like this, and his statements which either sly anti-Mormon innuendos or signs he slept through his comparative theology classes demonstrate why Huckabee isn’t ready for prime time. He will probably win Iowa, but the reality is that Mike Huckabee is not a strong candidate, he’s not a conservative, and if he gets the nomination Hillary Clinton might as well start picking out drapes for the Oval Office. The Democrats have been holding their fire against him for months now because they know damned well that Mike Huckabee is a carbon copy of George W. Bush with all the same faults. He’s the sort of guy you want to have a beer with, but he would be a lousy President and his instincts are dead wrong on key issues.
Huckabee is a rising star, but his star will fall just as fast when Republican voters realize that he’s simply unready for the job. His appeal is understandable, but it’s all skin deep. Sooner or later Huckabee will crash, and when he does it will be a hard crash—in this race, Huckabee is playing the role of Howard Dean, and while he has some strong support, at the end of the day he is not electable and Republican primary voters need a candidate who can stand up to Hillary Clinton. Mike Huckabee is not that candidate.
“the reality is that Mike Huckabee is not a strong candidate, he’s not a conservative, and if he gets the nomination Hillary Clinton might as well start picking out drapes for the Oval Office.”
Once again, you radically overestimate the number of Americans who think like you. Of all the candidates running for President in both parties, Mike Huckabee is more like Americans both personally and politically than any other candidate in the race. As long as Huckabee was able to temper his association with the radical Southern Baptists, he would absolutely spank any Democratic challenger. If ever there was a Republican who could successfully outreach to the black community, it’s Mike Huckabee, who got more than 40% of the black vote in Arkansas in 2002. Against Hillary or Edwards, Huckabee’s brand of social conservatism and economic populism would catapult him to 15-20% of the black vote, a feat which would in itself assure him of a higher margin of victory than George W. Bush would ever be capable of. Republicans have very easy choices in this election. They can either nominate McCain or Huckabee and win in a 2-1 rout…..or they can nominate Giuliani, Romney, or Thompson and turn a sure thing into a nail-biter. It’s nice to see that Democrats aren’t the only team capable of making the exact wrong political choices time and time again.