I just saw Mike Huckabee on the Daily Show tonight, and, despite my liberal leanings, came away impressed. His name occasionally gets tossed around as a presidential candidate for 2008, and my impression is that he’d have a very good shot.
Things to like:
[ul]
[li]Improved health insurance for kids in AK[/li][li]Serious environmental leanings[/li][li]Very well spoken (he seemed very comfortable on the Daily Show, speaking in complete paragraphs and quite smoothly)[/li][li]Says (paraphrasing) “I believe life begins at conception, but doesn’t end at birth,” and talks about better health care, better schools, access to college education, etc.[/li][/ul]
Things not to like:
[ul]
[li]Socially, very conservative.[/li][/ul]
This is just a single bullet point, but along with it comes things such as “pro-creationism,” “pro-life,” etc. etc. This is more or less a deal breaker for me – I can find a lot of his good points in a Democratic candidate without settling for the social conservatism – but it will clearly appeal to a lot of people.
In some ways, he sounds like the prototypical “Christian Democrat” (as in European countries): socially conservative, economically populist. I think a candidate like that can do very well in a presidential election.
Also, just from seeing him speak the one time, I think if he were to run against Hillary, she would get crushed…
Thoughts?
Also: How amazingly weird would it be to have two presidents in less than 20 years from Hope, Arkansas (pop. 10,500)?
I think as people get to know Huckabee, some problems might emerge. As you note, he is a Christian conservative. There is also his odd decision to register for wedding gifts 32 years after his wedding day.
It seems that there are limits to the value of gifts one can give the governor according to Arkansas law, but those limits don’t apply to wedding gifts, so he and his wife registered for wedding gifts. Link
Well he claims he had no knowledge of it and that some family friends were trying to organize a housewarming party, but it doesn’t look great. The Arkansas press has done some reporting on this (my in laws live in Arkansas, so I know more than one would need to know about the Diamond state).
He did come across as very intelligent and competent. I agree (as a democrat) that he looks better than the other republican candidates I’ve seen. It sounds like he defended himself pretty well about the wedding registry stuff. I guess people down south (I’m from North Little Rock, where his new house is) do have housewarming parties, but it would never occur to me to register for one, especially if it meant that I had to use a wedding registry. His wife should have known better.
I record TDS, but didn’t watch last night. I’ll be sure and check it out tonight.
However, no matter how classy this guy is he’s still the opposite of what I think the GOP should be running with. We need somebody socially moderate and fiscally conservative, not the other way around.
To me, he sounded over-rehearsed and unlike other guests, he bolted off as soon the camera pulled away. All the other guests stick around a minute to say 'You’re welcome." to Jon’s thanks.
I wish I still had the link from Rick Mercer’s ‘Talking to Americans’ segment where Rick got him to congratulate Canada on something like their National Igloo or legalizing insulin. Mike was at least a hundred + lbs heavier then as well. Surely it’s on Youtube by now.
See, here’s the thing. I basically agree with you (although substitute “responsible” for “conservative”). But what we think is necessary is not what the majority of Americans will vote for. I think that there is a definite shift [back] towards populism underway right now, and I think there are more voters willing to vote for a socially conservative populist than candidates that you or I might prefer…
Does Arkansas STILL lead the nation in teen pregnancies and hookworm? I don’t think much changes in Ark-it’s still run by the same bunch of crooks, as it was in the days of Gov. Faubus.
The place is a backwater, and the payoffs to the politicians would make Bill Clinton blush! like Tyson Chicken-they get to overload their trucks, dump chicken manure into the rivers, and lock emergency exits in their plants.
“The people rule”-yeah, right!
