8 reasons to pick Mike Huckabee
October 19th, 2007 at 3:07 pm . by nukeDavid Brooks on the op-ed page of the NYT has some interesting obersvations…..(h/t n2l) SUPPORT MIKE
The first thing you notice about Mike Huckabee is that he has a Mayberry name and a Jim Nabors face. But it’s quickly clear that Huckabee is as good a campaigner as anybody running for president this year. And before too long it becomes easy to come up with reasons why he might have a realistic shot at winning the Republican nomination:
First, Republican voters here and in Iowa are restless. That means that there will be sharp movements during the last 30 days toward whoever seems fresh and hot.
Second, each of the top-tier candidates makes certain parts of the party uncomfortable. Huckabee is the one candidate acceptable to all factions.
Third, Huckabee is the most normal person running for president (a trait that might come in handy in a race against Hillary Clinton). He is funny and engaging — almost impossible not to like. He has no history of flip-flopping in order to be electable. He doesn’t seem to be visibly calculating every gesture. Far from being narcissistic, he is, if anything, too neighborly to seem presidential.
Fourth, he is part of the new generation of evangelical leaders. Huckabee was a Baptist minister. But unlike the first generation of politically engaged Christian conservatives, Huckabee is not at war with mainstream America. As a teenager, he loved Jimi Hendrix, and he’s now the bass player in a rock band that has opened for Willie Nelson and Grand Funk Railroad.
Fifth, though you wouldn’t know it from the past few years, the white working class is the backbone of the G.O.P. Huckabee is most in tune with these voters.
He was the first male in his family’s history to graduate from high school. He paid his way through college by working 40 hours a week and getting a degree in two and half years. He tells audiences that the only soap his family could afford was the rough Lava soap, and that he was in college before he realized showering didn’t have to hurt. “There are people paying $150 for an exfoliation,” he jokes. “I could just hand them a bar of Lava soap.”
His policies reflect that background. At the recent Republican economic debate, he was the candidate who most vociferously argued that the current economy is not working for the middle class. As the others spoke, he thought to himself: “You guys don’t get out much. You should meet somebody who’s not handing you a $2,300 check.”
He condemns “immoral” C.E.O. salaries, and on global trade he sounds like a Democrat: “There’s no free trade without fair trade.” (Polls suggest most Republican voters are, sadly, with him on this).
Sixth, he’s a former governor. He talks about issues in a down-to-earth way that other candidates can’t match. For example, he’s got a riff on childhood obesity that rivets the attention of his audiences. He asks them to compare their own third-grade class photos with the photos of third graders today. Then he goes down the list of the diseases that afflict preteens who get Type 2 diabetes.
“The greatest challenge in health care is not universal coverage,” he argues while introducing his health care plan. “It’s universal health. A healthy country would be less expensive to cover.”
Seventh, he’s a collaborative conservative. Republicans have tended to nominate heroic candidates in the Reagan mold. Huckabee is more of an interactive leader. His Legislature in Arkansas was 90 percent Democratic, but he got enough done to be named among the nation’s top five governors by Time.
He endorses programs that are ideologically incorrect for conservatives, like his passion for arts education. He can’t understand how the argument over the size of the S-chip funding increase became an all-or-nothing holy war. He also criticizes the Bush administration for its arrogance. “There was a time when people looked up to the U.S. Now they resent us, not because we’re a superpower but because we act like one.”
Huckabee has some significant flaws as a candidate. His foreign policy thinking is thin. Some of his policy ideas seem to come off the top of his head (he vows, absurdly, to make the U.S. energy independent within eight years).
But Huckabee is something that the party needs. He is a solid conservative who is both temperamentally and substantively different from the conservatives who have led the country over the past few years.
He’s rising in the polls, especially in Iowa. His popularity with the press corps suggests he could catch a free media wave that would put him in the top tier. He deserves to be there.
Oh yeah….#8, Mike plays a mean bass. Heh
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Daughter says Mitt is hot.
Does she recommend short sleeves and a/c?
Or does that mean that is the sum total of her voting prerequisites?
Nuke, did you see this story?
I started reading it yesterday, but there’s just something about the boring writing style of liberals….
I didn’t finish it. Was it pretty good?
Was it good?
Enh!
A little dry.
There’s my only problem with Huck. Mostly this part.
Dang it! It used to be a lot busier here on a friday night. Guess I’ll say g’nite early. See ya tomorrow…..
I wish Mike wasn’t so darn weak on illegals and the border.
Here is his stand on immigration.
I’m watching Mike on Glenn Beck … he is impressive. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather see Mike over Guiliani, Romney, or Thompson. Well, all but Hunter. I think he is definitely better presidential material than any of the front runners
Thanks for the link.
You’re most welcome!
You guys have a great evening. It’s getting late, even in the mountain time zone. I’m headed to bed.
Re Mitt: The hot was the daughter’s observation. She bases her voting on her evaluation of the candidate’s character, his/her values, and committment to family, God, and country.
Needless to say, Hillary is not on her list of candidates to vote for.
Hi Swampwoman,
We must of done something right raising our daughters because Hillary is not on my daughter’s list of candidates to vote for either! Good kids.
A Japanese doctor says, “Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can
take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him out looking for
work in six weeks.”
A German doctor says, “That is nothing. We can take a lung out of one person,
put it in another, and have him out looking for work in four weeks.”
A British doctor says, “In my country medicine is so advanced that we can take
half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have both of them out
looking for work in two weeks”
The American doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, “You guys are way behind.
We are about to take a woman with no brains, send her to Washington where
she will become President, and then half the country will be out looking for work.”
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