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Rockin' Huckabee
Friday October 12, 2007
The following is from a web only interview in Newsweek conducted by their Washington Bureau. I've excerpted a few questions and answers that spotlight the Gov's thoughts on education, fundraising and experience. My personal favorite is the final Q&A about his name -- great stuff!
Why don’t you seem to be doing better with the Christian conservative crowd? They’re out there saying they are desperate for a candidate; they don’t like Giuliani or other people. You seem to fit in most ways what their ideal candidate might look like. And yet when we raise your name with them, they say, “Well, he can’t win.”
Well, you keep telling them that and that will help a lot. [Laughs.] It’s beginning to change: In Iowa I’m tied with [Fred] Thompson; I’m several points ahead of [John] McCain. People are beginning to realize that with a very limited level of resources, we’re in the same hunt as these guys ... Sometimes people will pose the question to me: is it disappointing about the money you’ve raised? And I say, “No, from my perspective, I’m amazed at how far we’ve gotten. When I look at how much money some of these guys have spent, if I were them, I’d have to be on a couch getting some serious counseling, because it would be very depressing to [have spent] tens of millions of dollars …” In some cases they’ve written checks out of their own accounts for a bunch of dough, and they’re barely polling ahead of a guy who has been tagged as "he’s not raising much money."
The first argument they seem to making about you is, “He can’t beat Hillary. He doesn’t have the chops to beat Hillary. He doesn’t have the money to beat Hillary. He can’t do it.” Lately, we’re also hearing, “He doesn’t have the foreign-policy credentials, he can’t fight the war on terror.”
Well, I think I would probably be poised to beat Hillary more than any other candidate in the race. One, because among the things I’ll bring to the race will be a more intimate knowledge of her and what she’s likely to do. I know her better than any of the other people running for president … and therefore have a healthier respect for her. On foreign policy … a lot of people underestimate the exposure that governors have to an international stage. We’re dealing with trade issues and cultural exchanges, and in the case of the war, we’ve all been responsible for being a part of helping send out National Guard troops into Iraq. Most of us have been there—I’ve been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait.
If we’ve got to win [in Iraq], and generals are saying we need more troops, and we don’t have them—where are going to go from there? That seems like a pretty bad situation.
It isn’t a great one. Part of what has happened is we’ve done so much of this on our own, and we haven’t had the support of the other nations. [We] haven’t had the support of, frankly, one group of people that ought to be financing most if not all of it, and that’s the Saudis. Our purchase of their oil has made them obscenely rich, and the tragedy of it is that while the Saudis take our money for oil, most of the terrorism against us is actually funded by that very money, which is the ultimate irony. I don’t think we’ve been nearly as forthright and tough on the Saudis as we should be.
Let me ask you specifically about money, because some people say that money reflects an ability to manage well and to lead well. If you can’t raise money, it’s indicative of an inability to manage well and to lead well ...
Au contraire! See what I would tell you is this: if I’m able to get as far as I have with the resources I have, I think it shows a great level of management skill, because I would say, wouldn’t you hate to have a president who had his hands on the federal treasury and spent the money of the taxpayers like he’s spending on his campaign? That to me would be more dangerous.
Is there a way for the Feds to take on the teachers' unions? Would you get into that?
I certainly did in Arkansas where I thought they were wrong, but I also found that there were times when it wasn’t [a matter of] “taking them on.” It was doing things that were good for the students. And I always told them, “I’m not a school person, I’m a kid person. And my focus is not going to be about what is good for the school. This isn’t about perpetuating the institution.” But we raised teacher pay, we improved benefits, we created some incentives; forms of merit pay that would give incentives to people that did well. I think those are important factors. The [unions] don’t like all of them, but they don’t hate everything, either. I think it’s a matter of finding the common ground and being honest when you disagree with them, and I certainly did ... they worked against me in every election I had in Arkansas.
Dan Bartlett, former counsel to President Bush, recently remarked that you have "obvious problems" as a candidate. These "problems" were your last name, Huckabee, which he apparently thought was flawed in some way, and the fact that you're from Hope, Ark. What is your response?
My last name has never opened doors for me because it's not the name of a prominent, wealthy or heralded political family. But the Bible says that "a GOOD name is more to be desired than great riches." And my name represents the sacrifice, hard work, and old fashioned discipline that my Dad gave me when he didn't have the education, wealth or position to give me anything else. It's a name I wear proudly—not just for myself, but all those who like me have fought their way beyond poverty to live and love the American dream.
Read the entire interview here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21252944/site/newsweek/ | | Posted by postaldog at 9:30 AM - | |
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NEWS RELEASE
STATEMENT BY FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE REGARDING MEDIA COMMENT ABOUT FUNDRAISING
Little Rock, AR – Former Arkansas Gov. and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee has issued the following statement in response to a comment he made involving campaign fundraising:
“I would never intentionally hurt the feelings of anyone for any reason, and I certainly was not making light of suicide, but of the excesses of campaign spending. During my years as a pastor, I counseled dozens of people who were confronted with suicide and I am well aware of the seriousness of the issue. Suicide has touched many families, including mine, and I would never do anything that would hurt others or add to their grief."
Note:
This release is in response to comments made in a Washington Post interview excerpted below in a blog dated 10/5. | | Posted by postaldog at 8:52 AM - | |
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Sunday October 7, 2007
NEWS RELEASE
Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Refutes Romney Ad on Focusing Signing the “No-Tax” Pledge
Little Rock, AR – Former AR Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee today refuted an ad by Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign in which Romney claims to be the only major candidate who has signed the American’s for Tax Reform (ART) Presidential Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Huckabee signed the pledge on Friday, March 2, 2007 at the annual conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. and delivered it to ATR President Grover Norquist.
“Gov. Huckabee signed the ATR pledge. He signed on the dotted line seven months ago because he wants people to know where he stands on the issues and he has no problem pledging not to raise income tax rates at the federal level,” said Huckabee Press Secretary Alice Stewart. “Gov. Romney needs to do his homework before he goes out and makes claims of standing alone in signing this pledge when Gov. Huckabee has received praise from ATR for his support of reining in federal taxes.”
By signing the pledge, Huckabee agreed to oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses. He also pledged to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.
“Gov. Huckabee has a long history of being a fiscal conservative, having cut taxes and fees more than 90 times during his ten-and-a-half years as Governor of Arkansas,” said Stewart. “He is also a longtime supporter of ending the death tax.”
“You have to question Gov. Romney’s claims of being a fiscal conservative when he’s contributing $20 million of his own money and is polling nationally at 11%,” said Stewart. “Gov. Huckabee has sustained his campaign with a strong conservative and consistent message, results-driven record and vision for America 's future – and we’re proud to say he’s at 8% nationally in the polls, and climbing.” | | Posted by postaldog at 1:30 PM - | |
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The Gov. was on PBS Friday and did a nice interview with Margaret Warner. I've excerpted some of their exchanges with a little editing to save space.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you have won all kinds of accolades as a governor, small g, as a manager. You were once named by Time magazine as one of the five top five governors in the country. Do you think that's what the American voters are looking for in a president?
MIKE HUCKABEE: I think they want somebody who really believes in something and can stand by it and articulate it, but they do want somebody who is a competent manager, a pragmatic person who understands that you're not elected to be an ideologue and stand on the steps of the Capitol and just make speeches. They want you to be able to solve real problems that touch them every day.
So being a governor is a great advantage. You've run a government. You've balanced a budget. You've had to do things for which there were measurable results. People could see: Were schools better? Were roads better? Was health care better? Did we bring more jobs than we lost? Those are measurable things that I think best prepare someone to be president.
MARGARET WARNER: Do you think that the current administration hasn't led on [the environment, health care]?
MIKE HUCKABEE: I think there's been some challenges, and it's not that they don't care. I think particularly the president is a man of incredible integrity. I like him personally; I think he's genuine. I think he's also a man of deep conviction, and I respect that very much.
But there's also a difference between, let's say, the way he grew up and the way that a guy like me grew up. And it does shape us, not just in how we would govern, but it shapes us in how we understand the impact of our decisions that reach out there and touch the ordinary family, who's struggling not so much with where they're going to summer, but whether or not they're going to be able to pay the rent at the first of the month.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you spent a good part of your life, actually, as a preacher. You led Baptist congregations in Arkansas. How has that pastoral experience and background shaped both your approach to issues and also how you view the presidency?
MIKE HUCKABEE: During my tenure as governor, I was often asked, you know, was this sort of an unusual preparation? I said, no, it was a wonderful preparation. And here's why.
There's no social pathology that exists in this country that I couldn't put a name and a face to. I've dealt with people of every level of life, from the cradle to the grave, and everything in between. And because of that, I know that there is an enormous level of human hurt, even deep beneath the surface, of virtually everybody out there we see.
I know that there are real challenges that people face. And I've seen them, again, not from reading about them, but from actually seeing them up close and personal. Whether it's a 14-year-old girl who's pregnant and hasn't told her parents, whether it's an elderly couple who are faced with cutting their medicine in half and having enough food to eat, or that young couple just married and overwhelmed with debt because they made some really bad decisions, and now it's really putting a strain on their marriage, again, there's nothing out there that I haven't seen up close and personal.
And, therefore, when I try to think in terms of public policy, I remind myself: There are very human people out there that are going to be affected by this. How will they be affected? And what can we do to make sure that it's a positive, not a negative impact?
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you have made your mark, of course, in domestic policy, but what do you say to voters out there who express concern that, in the post-9/11 world, we can't afford a president who doesn't have experience in foreign affairs and/or defense?
MIKE HUCKABEE: Franklin Roosevelt didn't have experience in foreign affairs. Neither did Ronald Reagan. Many of our great presidents who dealt with the greatest challenges of history, the same thing could have been said of them.
What they did have: They had convictions. They had creativity. They had leadership skills. You don't elect a president to know everything. You elect a president to make tough decisions in a crisis.
Frankly, from having been a governor, I can tell you that every day you have a lot of things that are planned and on your schedule. You don't get paid to do those. You get paid for the exceptions. You get paid for the things that nobody could have imagined happening, whether it's a school shooting, or a tornado, or a hurricane.
MARGARET WARNER: Let's take an issue that has been splitting the Republican Party, immigration. Now, when you were governor, you actually advocated making the children of illegal immigrants eligible for state tuition and state scholarships, yet you didn't support the Bush administration bill creating guest-worker programs and so on . . . Where are you on immigration?
MIKE HUCKABEE: Well, I think the failure of the government has been they haven't sealed the border. It's harder for me to get on an airplane in my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, than it is for an illegal to cross the border. That's what makes Americans mad.
They're not mad at immigrants. They understand immigrants want to come here for the same reason their ancestors did. But here's where the failure is: You can't allow people to break the law and then have no consequence.
My reasons for supporting the idea that, if a student had been in our schools, had performed academically and behaved, and had done everything that we asked of one of the students in our school to qualify for a scholarship, then it's in our best interest to let the student apply for the scholarship because they would -- part of the provision was they'd have to apply for citizenship.
But here's the other part. You don't punish the child for the parents having broken the law. We don't do that. We don't say, "OK, your parents broke a law, so we're going to punish you for it." I just don't understand why anybody would think that that's a good thing to do.
But I'm a person who believes in strong border security. I don't believe in amnesty. But neither do I believe in, again, doing something that is ultimately harmful to a person who didn't break the law. You know, a kid who comes here who's 3 years old, I don't think he had a whole lot of choice about saying, "Hey, Dad, let's break the law. Let's cross the border." He didn't even know where he was going. So let's not punish him.
MARGARET WARNER: I have to ask you the question everyone will be dying to hear your answer to, and that is your incredible weight loss. You lost 110 pounds...while you were a governor. You became a marathon runner. Did it change you on a personal level?
MIKE HUCKABEE: Oh, most certainly. . .I'll tell you another way it changed me. It reminded me that the real challenge in this country is not a health care crisis. It's a health crisis.
We have a system that's upside down. It's based on waiting until people are really, really catastrophically ill, and then we intervene. What we need to do is to put the focus on prevention.
We don't cover $150 visits to a podiatrist, but we'll cover a $30,000 foot amputation. I mean, there's so many things in our system that have to be rerouted, because right now we spend just over 75 percent of all our health care dollars on chronic disease.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, as governor, you actually got the state government in the business of encouraging healthy behaviors.
MIKE HUCKABEE: Absolutely. You have to create incentives... Ending the co-patient deductibles for mammography, colonoscopy, and prostate cancer exams. You want the screenings. You want people to get screened, early detection, early treatment.
We did weight loss programs. We covered those. Because we found that, even at the point of bariatric surgery, which is pretty expensive, most people can't afford it -- it scared me to death -- but, you know, a lot of people, they're morbidly obese. They need it. There's a 60 percent to 80 percent financial return in terms of fewer health care costs after the surgery than there were with a person who has a situation of being morbidly obese.
The same thing happens when you get people off tobacco. We paid for the smoking cessation programs. We gave employees up to $500 discount on their health insurance if they would do a health risk assessment and not smoke.
So what we found was, if we want to drive better behavior and lower health care cost, you've got to create some incentives. It's not enough to just say, "You ought to." Say, "If you do, here are the benefits that you get, not just the employer, the employee gets."
MARGARET WARNER: So when you talk about this on the campaign trail -- and I gather you do quite a bit, your own personal experience -- what do you think it's saying to voters that's important to them in choosing a president?
MIKE HUCKABEE: That I'm trying to find different ways of solving this problem other than just raising taxes and spending money and that I've been there myself. I'm not asking them to do something I haven't done.
You know, I think the first quality of a leader is leaders never ask of others what they're unwilling to do themselves. I had to make a complete lifestyle change. And, frankly, if this southern fried boy who ate everything in the world battered, fried, and gravied before he ate it, if I can make a change in my lifestyle, I think it's proof positive that it's possible.
And if we don't do it, we don't just lose the economics of this nation -- and we do, it will bankrupt us -- but we're now seeing the first generation of young Americans who are being born who are expected to live a shorter lifespan than their parents and grandparents, largely because of obesity and all the resultant health problems from it.
Read the entire transcript here:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec07/huckabee_10-05.html
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Friday October 5, 2007
New poll results out via RealClearPolitics.com show the Gov. gaining steadily and even passing other candidates. As he has mentioned all along, Huck has a plan to maintain an upward pace in the polls, spending his funds wisely along the way. The results are showing and it is an excellent example of his planning and leadership.
On a personal note, I'm distressed at the low standings in my home state. Let's get moving Florida!
IOWA
Romney - 24%
Giuliani - 16%
Huckabee - 13%
Thompson - 13%
McCain - 10%
SOUTH CAROLINA
Thompson - 21%
Giuliani - 16%
Romney - 16%
McCain - 16%
Huckabee - 11%
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Romney - 28%
Giuliani - 20%
McCain - 17%
Huckabee - 8%
Thompson - 8%
MICHIGAN
Giuliani - 19%
Romney - 16%
McCain - 15%
Thompson - 14%
Huckabee - 6%
FLORIDA
Giuliani - 29%
Thompson - 19%
Romney - 16%
McCain - 10%
Huckabee - 6% | | | |
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