# Huckabee drives the tank **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858 "2008-01-01T01:59:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/1 "2008-01-01T01:59:46Z")
A variation on jumping the shark, I guess. Remember Dukakis and the tank? It helped kill his run at the presidency. Too far back? Well, remember Howard Dean firing a shotgun blast into his chances with that rebel yell? Huckabee has committed candidate suicide with his “revelation” that he was not going to air a negative ad because he had a sudden attack of altruism. However, he was not so altruistic as to just do so without announcing it at a press conference, and then showing the ad to the reporters present. At least he didn’t hand out the stack of DVDs he had on hand for the occasion. I predict an avalanche of ridicule (isn’t The Daily Show coming back?) and a steep nosedive into obscurity very soon. What a putz. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/2 "2008-01-01T03:56:48Z")
Hillary Clinton made some pretty foolish remarks this week as well. After Benazir Bhutto’s death, she basically said it was it the fault of Bush and the Republicans. Then when Obama pointed out that she had supported some of the same policies, she said it was terrible how he was trying to politicize Bhutto’s death. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/3 "2008-01-01T07:17:04Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Hillary Clinton made some pretty foolish remarks this week as well. After Benazir Bhutto’s death, she basically said it was it the fault of Bush and the Republicans. Then when Obama pointed out that she had supported some of the same policies, she said it was terrible how he was trying to politicize Bhutto’s death. [/QUOTE] Do you have a link for this? The only thing I could find was her giving a speech somewhere before a crowd of would-be voters, and Obama wasn’t present. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/4 "2008-01-01T07:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] Do you have a link for this? The only thing I could find was her giving a speech somewhere before a crowd of would-be voters, and Obama wasn’t present. [/QUOTE] [This article](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7574.html) gives an overview of the incident: > [@](#): > > At a high school in Lawton, Iowa, on Thursday, Clinton said she had come to know Bhutto and was “profoundly saddened and outraged” by the assassination. In an uncertain world, Clinton said, “it certainly raises the stakes high for what we expect from our next president. I know from a lifetime of working to make change.” > > Obama adviser David Axelrod, however, later seemed to draw a connection between Clinton’s initial support for the invasion of Iraq and Bhutto’s death. “Barack Obama had the judgment to oppose the war in Iraq, and he warned at the time it would divert us from Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, and now we see the effect of that,” Axelrod told reporters. “Al Qaeda’s resurgent, they’re a powerful force now in Pakistan, they may have been involved — we’ve been here, so I don’t know whether the news has been updated, but there’s a suspicion they may have been involved in this. I think his judgment was good. Sen. Clinton made a different judgment, so let’s have that discussion.” > > That drew a retort from Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. “This is a time to be focused on the tragedy of the situation, its implications for the U.S. and the world, and to be concerned for the people of Pakistan and the country’s stability. No one should be politicizing this situation with baseless allegations,” Singer said. ETA: The incident was not a face-to-face exchange between Clinton and Obama, but was a series of comments back and forth between their respective camps. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/5 "2008-01-01T08:17:20Z")
What Clinton said was a call for an international investigation of Bhutto’s death and _“I do not think we should be giving the Musharraf government a blank check, and that’s exactly what the Bush Administration has done”_ - a pretty partisan political remark. Okay, fair’s fair, it’s a major news event, she’s running for office, and making political remarks about her opponents is part of the job. But after making a criticism of Bush’s policies on Pakistan, I feel it was hypocritical of Clinton to complain when Obama then made a criticism of her policies on Pakistan. [link](http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Senator_Clinton_No_blank_check_for_1229.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/6 "2008-01-01T16:49:56Z")
This has to be some sort of record: a thread that goes from Huckabee to Clinton in one post. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/7 "2008-01-01T17:25:49Z")
Huh? The things that make the tank driving and the Scream such shark jumping moments are that they a) looked really silly and b) were highly publicized. What you’ve described (sans link, natch) isn’t _that_ silly and I, a regularly NPR listener/Yahoo news browser, haven’t heard of. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/8 "2008-01-01T17:37:36Z")
Furthermore, there’s no audio-visual evidence to be repeated on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/9 "2008-01-01T17:42:41Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to The BBQ Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/10 "2008-01-01T17:42:43Z")
With out even trying I can conjure up a vision in my mind of Dukakis in the tank and Dean punching the air (I’ll never get that damn scream out of my head). Huckabee standing at a podium? Not the same impact. It’s not even on TV. Sorry I’ll amend that. It has no impact at all. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/11 "2008-01-01T17:46:23Z")
I think Huckabee is becoming the Clinton of the left - the relatively moderate guy (if you look at his policies, he’s practically a liberal economically and foreign-policy wise) that the opposition nevertheless loves to hate. I’m sure he has no chance in the general election - too Christian - but I kind of hope he does manage to stay afloat for most of the primary race, just to drive the left-wingers nuts. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/12 "2008-01-01T17:47:12Z")
Nope, not in the same league at all. It might even have been a brilliant tactical move on his part. If he takes a nose-dive in the polls, it’ll be because he gets outside the Bible Belt, not because of that move. Keep in mind that Dean’s problem with the The Scream wasn’t the the scream, itself, but the fact that he did worse than expected and so the media dropped him like a hot potato. I think that had he won in Iowa, The Scream would’ve been seen in a positive light. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/13 "2008-01-01T17:47:43Z")
> [@](#): > > This has to be some sort of record: a thread that goes from Huckabee to Clinton in one post. I apologize for hijacking the thread. In my defense I’ll say that I’m not just playing the “Clinton did it too” game - I’m actually a Clinton supporter overall. But I had just read the Clinton story and was thinking of starting a thread on her hypocrisy. But when I saw your thread about Huckabee’s hypocritical remarks I posted here instead. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/14 "2008-01-01T17:53:55Z")
[Here’s a link](http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/huckabee-pulls-negative-ads-vows-to-go-positive-2007-12-31.html). > [@](#): > > Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) told reporters Monday that he was pulling a negative ad designed to target his chief rival in Iowa, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). > > Then he showed the ad to a room packed wall to wall with reporters. He’s not the first to use this kind of tactic. “I will not make my opponent’s zoophilia and history of arson an issue in this campaign” is an old trick. Huckabee’s shameless transparence and obvious gamesmanship allegedly elicited laughter from the reporters, though. You have to be a LITTLE bit subtle about it. I can’t believe that anybody sincerely wants to vote for this clown. I’m not exactly a fan of the GOP field but a few of them (including Romney) would at least not be complete jokes. I guess you can win the hearts of the Republican base just by saying you believe in creationism and shouting the name of Jaysus a lot because I don’t know what else this buffooon has done to even pass the snicker test as a serious candidate. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/15 "2008-01-01T17:57:25Z")
> [@DtC](#): > > I can’t believe that anybody sincerely wants to vote for this clown. Agreed. But keep in mind that the Iowa caucuses are a peculiar type of bird. You only get the most active members of the party participating-- it’s something like 10% of eligible voters compared to about 45% in a state like NH. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/16 "2008-01-01T18:06:21Z")
[QUOTE=athelas] I think Huckabee is becoming the Clinton of the left - the relatively moderate guy (if you look at his policies, he’s practically a liberal economically and foreign-policy wise) that the opposition nevertheless loves to hate. I’m sure he has no chance in the general election - too Christian - but I kind of hope he does manage to stay afloat for most of the primary race, just to drive the left-wingers nuts. [/QUOTE] “Too Christian” my ass. That is not and never has been a liability for a candidate. Jimmy Carter was about as serious a Christian as has ever been in the White House. Bush is just as much a zealot as Huckabee and it’s only worked in his favor. Obama is a Born Again Christian. Hillary is a Christian. Romney and Guiliani are Christians. Everybody in the fight is a fucking Christian. 80% of the country is a Christian. You can’t get elected President WITHOUT being a Christian. Why the fuck would that be a liability? Huckabee’s problem isn’t that he’s a Christian but that he’s blatantly _theocratic_ about it. Actually, I don’t even think THAT’S such a problem anymore. A majority of Americans think Creationism should be taught in schools. There is no such thing as “too Christian” in American politics. It’s the non-Christians that don’t have a shot. The Christian Persecution Complex never ceases to amze me. Who exactly is it that you guys always imagine are out there repressing you? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/17 "2008-01-01T18:09:57Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] Huckabee has committed candidate suicide with his “revelation” that he was not going to air a negative ad because he had a sudden attack of altruism. However, he was not so altruistic as to just do so without announcing it at a press conference, and then showing the ad to the reporters present. [/QUOTE] “Do not think about a green polka-dotted elephant.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/18 "2008-01-01T18:42:45Z")
This isn’t the first time Huckabee has tried to [play it both ways](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/06/AR2007120601966.html). Earlier, he was busy pushing himself as the “Christian leader” candidate (in contrast to Romney, who some Republicans view as the Candidate of Weirdo Mormon Cultism). _"Huckabee has been asked about this view that Mormonism is a cult. He dodges and dances. “If I’m invited to be the president of a theological school, that’ll be a perfectly appropriate question,” he says, “but to be the president of the United States, I don’t know that that’s going to be the most important issue that I’ll be facing when I’m sworn in.”_ If Huckabee keeps playing this game of political exploitation while simultaneously pretending he’s far too nice a guy to do it, it may well torch that nice guy image. This particular incident doesn’t seem like it has the potential to constitute his Dukakis Tank moment. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/19 "2008-01-01T18:42:46Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] A variation on jumping the shark, I guess. Remember Dukakis and the tank? It helped kill his run at the presidency. Too far back? Well, remember Howard Dean firing a shotgun blast into his chances with that rebel yell? [/QUOTE] Yeah; and the idea that either of those would influence anybody’s vote is kind of disgusting. Dukakis would have been a good President; but he was short, so no chance. People thought he looked silly in a tank. (Do they think every tank driver in the Army looks like John Wayne?) Howard Dean did not, ever, inappropriately yell or scream; but CNN, over and over, played a tape that, because of the way it was mic’ed, made it appear that he was yelling for no reason instead of trying to be heard in a very noisy auditorium. People are fucking stupid. Does anybody have a link to the story about Huckabee? You know, the reason for the thread? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858/20 "2008-01-01T18:56:00Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Does anybody have a link to the story about Huckabee? You know, the reason for the thread? [/QUOTE] See post #14. It’s probably not on a par with driving the tank, but a thread titled “Huckabee stands at the podium” would be universally ignored, and we all know I’m an attention whore. I wouldn’t have voted for him, but at least I had more respect for him than Giuliani or Romney. He’s shown that he is no different than any of the herd. A smart pol would have had someone “leak” the fact that there was an ad that was pulled by Huckabee for the stated reasons. Then when asked about it, he could be all surprised that anybody heard about it, blahblahblah. This was strictly amateur-hour stuff and I think his chances in Iowa are dim. They’re not exactly politically naive out there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huckabee-drives-the-tank/431858.md?page=2)