Huckabee’s Last Hurrah: Iowa Caucuses
Governor Mike Huckabee took time to garner hunting garb for the photos appearing in the local media before tomorrow’s Iowa Caucuses. Image is everything in his campaign to capture the votes of Evangelical Christians and gun rights advocates that dominate Republican politics in the state of Iowa, particularly among caucus goers. When substance finally comes into play the folksy vanier will wear thin and his support will wither.
Huckabee is prone to grand suggestions that have little basis in reality. He touts education in his state of Arkansas even thought it would rank last in student testing if it weren’t for a neighboring state which has given birth to the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi.” Addressing the lofty goal of higher education Huckabee once asked
“Do you realize that if we could increase just by 50 percent the number of adults who have a college degree, it would add $5 billion to the economy and it would result in a net income to the state of Arkansas of $340 million a year?”
Those who respond with a dumbfounded look of wonderment without considering what profession in his state has a demand for that many positions are those he can count on. Hopefully there are more Americans dumbfounded by the question itself.
Huckabee is an ordained Baptist Minister. At age 23 he became a staffer for television evangelist James Robison. He would go on to become pastor for several baptist churches across Arkansas. Some 20 years latter he would be elected president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention and serve through 1991. His political career would begin in earnest in a losing effort to take Democrat Dale Bumpers U.S. Senate seat in 1992.
Huckabee would win a special election 1993 for the Arkansas Lieutenant Governor resulting from Bill Clinton’s vacating the Governorship for the Presidency. At this time he would enjoy the council of none other than Clinton adviser Dick Morris who recommended a more progressive campaign inclusive of a wider array of Arkansas voters than traditional Republicans. Morris stated
“So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans.”
Huckabee would become Governor 1996 with the resignation of Jim Guy Tucker. He would win the 2002 election to serve his first full term. While he would win praise from Time magazine in 1995 as one of the nations top governors he would receive scathing reviews from a variety of sources including Judicial Watch which named him to their list of “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007.
His conservative stance on such issues as marriage, gun ownership and abortion may endear him to Iowa voters, but his statements on immigration will carry grater weight in populous border states like California, Arizona and Texas as well as other states where illegal immigrants are straining public services, law enforcement and the courts. Huckabee supported higher education benefits for the children illegals and opposed voter ID requirements intended to stem the tide of illegals voting in elections nationwide.
Using a flimsy excuse to cover past policy decisions, as in the above interview with George Stephanopoulos, is common practice for Huckabee. When the explosive CIA National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] went public last month claiming Iran had ceased it’s pursuit of nuclear weapons the liberal media used it to mount a series of wide ranging attacks on Bush Administration foreign policy. In an interview with David Paul Kuhn of Politico.com it became painfully clear Huckabee was unaware of the NIE on Iran. After Huckabee admitted his ignorance, Kuhn would brief him on the report, after which Huckabee would try to muddle through with the opinion
“I’ve a serious concern if they were to be able to weaponize nuclear material, and I think we all should, mainly because the statements of Ahmadinejad are certainly not conducive to a peaceful purpose for his having it and the fear that he would in fact weaponize it and use it. I don’t know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it. … And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought.”
This incident got very little coverage in the media which hopes Huckabee’s success will diminish the momentum of more viable Republican candidacies of Romney, McCain and Giuliani.
While much of his past seems of little concern to Iowa Caucus goers, indecision over a response to an attack ad from Mitt Romney seems to have dampened his momentum. In a press conference Huckabee stated he would not engage in negative campaigning then offered to show the negative ad targeting Romney that was held back to those present. He claims to be ignorant of how the ad has subsequently appeared in the media and on the Internet. Public sentiment in Iowa over the ingenuous press conference has been negative. By tomorrow night we’ll know if those who professed support for Hucabee in the polls are committed enough to look past his foibles and actually brave the cold in his honor. [ro_28]