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Monday, October 12, 2015

Presidential Candidates - #2 Mike Huckabee

The next candidate we met was Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.  Governor Huckabee swept the Iowa Republican caucus in the 2008 election after jokingly telling supporters to come out and caucus for him no matter how deep the snow was...and to shovel snow into the driveways of any of their neighbors who wouldn't vote for him, let the air out of their tires, and disconnect their battery cables.
 Besides being governor of Arkansas, this colorful candidate is also a Baptist pastor, an author, former radio and television talk show host, and former member of the rock-band Capitol Offense.  

The first time we met him was outside the First Baptist Church in Marshalltown, Iowa.  Huckabee was there early to greet and take pictures with supporters, as he had to leave to catch a flight after the meeting.  The second time we saw him at the Pizza Ranch in Ackley, Iowa.  He was 14 minutes late, but did stay afterward for people to talk with him.  Here I'll focus on the Marshalltown meeting.
The 641 Project, a local rock band, played Christian music while Huckabee talked with members of the audience.  Then Huckabee joined them on an electric bass guitar for a rendition of "Mustang Sally."  Next, the Marshalltown church's pastor introduced the governor, and he began his speech.

Miscellaneous Facts:  Huckabee is 60 years old, of English ancestry, with American roots going back to colonial times.  He is a Southern Baptist, has been married to Janet Huckabee since 1974, has three children, and is 5 feet 11 inches tall.
Mike Huckabee Timeline
Created with www.readwritethink.org's Timeline Generator.  Click to enlarge.
Huckabee's Speech
Huckabee began by saying this country has problems.  We need to be fiscally responsible.  He's had a successful life and isn't running so that he can write books, or have his own tv or radio show.  He's already done all that.  He's running to help save this great nation for his grandchildren and for the sake of the people in uniform who have served our country.

Right now the economic situation is bad, and our national security is not in good shape.  We need to be more prepared and to have the strongest military in the world standing behind our diplomats.  National security should be the first priority of the federal government.  National security and a strong economy are like the two wings of an airplane, they're both needed to keep our country going.

But an airplane also needs one more thing--a rudder or steering mechanism.  For us that's morality.  We need to have a moral compass to get God's blessings.  Our nation only exists by God's providence.

Kim Davis (a Democrat) was sent to jail for holding the same traditional view on marriage that you hold.  In 2008, Barack Obama said that in accordance with his Christian beliefs marriage should be a union between a man and a woman.  In 2012 he stated that same-sex couples should be able to get married.  Huckabee says that leaves us with three options, Obama was lying in '08, lying in '12, or the Bible was re-written between those dates, and only President Obama got the new version.  

How could Kim Davis be thrown in jail?  Who's next?  Your pastor?  We're witnessing the criminalization of Christianity.  We need to pray and seek God's face, and stand up for our constitutional rights.  

And...finally, regardless of whether there's 6 inches of snow on that cold caucus day this winter, we need to come out and vote for Mike Huckabee.  If for some unknown reason we get the notion to vote for anyone else, we should just stay home and watch tv, because really, it'll be way too cold to go outside.
Townhall Questions
Q: If you are the Republican nominee and you face Hillary Clinton in the presidential debates, what will you say to her?
A:  "I'll ask her about Benghazi." (And at the Ackley townhall he noted: Only one candidate has experience running against the Clinton machine, winning, and living to tell about it.  As Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee's office door was literally nailed shut for the first 59 days.  When he finally was let in, all his office furniture had been removed. 90% of the Arkansas legislature was Democratic when he took office as Lieutenant Governor.  But he's a fighter.)

Q: What can we do to ISIS now?
A:  We should turn their equipment into dust, and obliterate them by cutting off their supplies.  Shut down their internet access, so they can't recruit people over the internet.  If needed, even put boots on the ground to bring this mess to a conclusion.  We can't negotiate with killers.  We must give them no quarter.

Q:  College tuition is too high.  Can the federal government do something to cut the costs?
A:  Education is not the role of the federal government.  It's a state issue.  The federal government would only make things worse if they interfered.  Your community should be in charge of education, not some bureaucrat in Washington.

Q: How can judges be overruled (as in the Kim Davis case).  How can we turn around this judicial dictatorship?
A:  Thomas Jefferson warned of judicial tyranny, and we're on the brink of that with courts basically making laws on what the Constitution should say.  The courts have forced same-sex marriage on the country.  What we need is a president who never surrenders his executive authority to the judicial branch.  There should be term limits for judges on federal courts at every level.  And judges should take a litmus test before being appointed.  We can't allow the judicial branch to make laws.  As far as abortion goes, the big question is, is an unborn child a person?  Huckabees believes so, and as president he would use the 5th and 14th amendments to protect the lives of unborn children.  These amendments already protect life.  And he would make those who are pro-choice take him to court for enforcing them.

Q: Capitalism doesn't seem to be working so well.  Should we try socialism?
A: What we're doing right now is socialism, not capitalism.  There's a big difference between "assistance" and "charity."  It's not good to steal from some people to assist others.  It is good to be charitable with our own money.  If every believer tithed and every church helped the poor, the government wouldn't have needed to get into the charity business.  
Huckabee advocates the Fair Tax, a tax on consumption.  There would be no income tax.  Right now we punish the good behavior of people who work and make good investments with a lot of taxes, and reward those who make bad investments by making their losses deductible and reward those who do not work with entitlements.   If you want more of a certain behavior, you reward that behavior, and if you want less of another behavior, you punish it.  That's the opposite of what we're doing now in this country, and socialism is killing us.

Question about gun control.
A: Huckabee likes to go hunting, but the Second Amendment was not created to ensure our hunting rates, but to make sure citizens could fight against tyranny.  Revolutionaries were the ones who started this country.  Both he and his wife have concealed carry permits.  If anyone breaks into his house, he will call 911, not to ask them to come rescue him from an intruder, but to tell them where to pick up the carcass of the idiot who broke in.  After World War 2, someone asked the Japanese why they didn't invade the West Coast.  They responded that the American citizens were armed, and they would have had to fight door to door.  We should never give up our second amendment rights.
Further Resources:  Visit Governor Huckabee's website to learn more about him and read his stance on each of the the most important issues.  You can also read about him on Wikipedia.  


My remarks:  Governor Huckabee is a good speaker, and he's done a lot in his lifetime.  It's pretty neat he plays the electric bass.  And who wouldn't love a pastor who tells his audience to shovel snow into their neighbors' driveways?  There's nothing like a good Christian who believes in doing what's right even if it isn't popular.

Disclaimer: Candidates' speeches are reconstructed from my imperfect notes.  If you notice any mistakes, just let me know.  I would not intentionally misrepresent anyone's position.  I am not endorsing any candidate or candidate's position at this time, and no candidate has endorsed me.  And yes, I do realize that often speeches are to some extent propaganda, but it's interesting to me to see the points candidates consider as most important.
For my personal political views, please see this article.

28 comments:

  1. I like Mike Huckabee and enjoyed your post.
    Have a great week!

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  2. This was a great post, Bethany. I learned so much more about Mike Huckabee.
    Blessings... :)

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    1. It's good to know about our options when it's time to vote! Thanks for reading, Dee!

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  3. Thanks for the information Bethany! This taught me several things about Huckabee that I did not know. In answer to the question on gun control Huckabee spoke of concealed carry as an application of the Second Amendment. He did not mention open carry?

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    1. No, he didn't mention open carry, that I can remember, in that speech. I believe he did receive an A+ rating from the NRA in 2006 though.

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  4. Santorum gained considerable support last time as he was the "ultra-Christian" choice for the Republicans. Even though Rick is there this time again, it seems that Mike Huckabee is the biggest candidate to campaign for the votes mainly on religious issues. Though at about 2.4% he does need a miracle if he hopes to win the nomination.

    I think the biggest surprise about the whole Kim Davis thing was the fact that she ran as a Democrat. Though I'm not shocked that she defected so easily to the Republican party. Her and her hillbillie fourth husband (do you remember what he wore on the day of her release?) don't exactly fit the stereotype of a typical Democratic voter. Maybe 1895 Southern Democrats but not 2015 Democrats.

    Not long ago the Supreme Court struck down state laws that prohibited marriages, and conservatives called it judicial tyranny and tried to pass loophole laws where government officials didn't have to issue out licenses. That was in 1967 with Loving v Virginia which allowed two people of different races to get married.

    Which includes my own marriage as my wife is Asian and I'm white. According to old South Carolina law we cannot get married. But the Supreme Court settled it years ago. If the county clerk at the courthouse had denied us on religious grounds (the bible was used as an argument back then too) and got told several times by higher courts to do her job or resign, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up in jail for contempt of court. A minister/preacher/etc or minister of the peace perform a marriage not the clerk who filled out some paperwork for the government.

    As for Obama in 2008, he's was like the majority of the Democratic party back then. Without a backbone about marriage equality. In 2012 Joe Biden accidentally said he supported it and Obama backed him. Along with the rest of national democrats for the most part


    As for Mike Huckabee you can already guess that I'll never vote for him. I think he does some of things he does for show. I've seen him far more reasonable talking to Bill Maher.

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    1. Santorum won the Iowa caucus last time around, though it was such a close race that at first Romney was declared the winner. Huckabee seems optimistic this time, at least in public, despite his low polling numbers. Last time I went to hear him speak he said his polling numbers at this time of year in 2007 were hardly better than they are now, but he won anyway. We'll see. It would be tough to pull that off again.

      I was surprised when I learned Kim Davis was a Democrat. But not long ago almost everyone was against homosexual marriage. It was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law.

      It is hard to understand how people could use the Bible against interracial marriage. I've read the Bible many times and though Jews were not supposed to marry Gentiles, and believers are not supposed to marry unbelievers, there are no verses that specifically forbid other "interracial" marriages.

      On the other hand, there are some very specific verses against homosexual relationships in the Bible.

      I very much would like to see the government taken out of marriage altogether. What grounds exactly can be used at this point by the government against polygamous and other currently unconventional marriages? (A person could even make an argument that polygamous relationships are Biblical.) [For the record, I don't advocate polygamous marriages or claim the Bible actually supports them, but a person could make an argument.]

      And, yes, I am afraid I might have suffered from shock and/or heart failure if you had said you were planning to vote for Mike Huckabee. ;) Thank you for sparing me from a potentially unpleasant experience.

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  5. I'm enjoying these posts Bethany. By the time Michigan votes, the field will be narrower, but I like to check out all the candidates and this is helpful!

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    1. It's pretty neat to live in the first state in the nation to caucus; you could move to Iowa! But I guess in Michigan you'll hopefully have a slightly easier decision than we Iowans face.

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  6. Loved this post, Bethany. It is always fun to see YOUR take on the candidates. Love the snow shoveling bit. xo Diana

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    1. As long as I keep my remarks on the candidates to a couple short sentences, I think I'll (probably) be safe. ;) But oooh, I will eventually have to decide on one--and have a good reason for picking him or her!

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  7. I don't know much about the election process or the candidates in your country (just what ends up in the news), but your posts are very informative. It's nice to see young people taking a real interest in voting.

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    1. Thanks Martha! I am sure you know more about U.S. politics than I know about Canadian politics.

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  8. It's good to see many people are becoming more knowledgeable of candidates and making it a point to know who may be running the country next. It certainly no longer seems to be "by the people, for the people"

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    1. Our government certainly wouldn't work well on automatic pilot; we need to pay attention to where our country is headed.

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  9. Well done Bethany! I am enjoying this series:) I agree with Gail. This nation has changed so much since I was your age...
    Blessings, Aimee

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    1. From what I've heard, it certainly has. The nation has even changed considerably since the '90s and early '00s when I was a little girl. Glad you're enjoying the series. Thanks for stopping by!

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  10. Lovely post to read from a young, wise lady like you. Lovely photo and you look exactly like your mom :)

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  11. Thanks for sharing the info, Bethany....his snow shoveling advice gives me pause.... :)

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  12. Hi Bethany, Another good report, this time on Huckabee. I have to ask you what you think about his comment on taxes. He says we should do away with the income tax and have a consumption tax. The trouble with consumption taxes is that they are "regressive" ... that is, they hurt the less fortunate among us. Those who earn less will spend more of their earnings on consumption than those who have large incomes. Compare that to a flat tax. Everyone would pay the same rate and the wealthy would pay their fair share. What do you think?

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    1. The bottom line is I don't like taxes at all, but I think either a flat or a fair tax would be better than the progressive income tax. The good part about a fair tax would be we wouldn't have to report our incomes at all to the IRS. That said, at the moment I am not decided as to which is better. Perhaps I should give it more thought and research.

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  13. Wow! I watch Huckabee on TV sometimes and I have always been very impressed with him. He was badly misinformed about Common Core in the beginning but finally got the correct info (AZ by the way just repealed Common Core! YAY!) I really like the analogy of the airplane! Not sure about flat or fair tax or whatever yet either, but abolishment of the IRS would be a GREAT thing! He sounds great. So did Bobby Jindal. How do we choose!!!??? :-) On to the next candidate....

    By the way, Bethany, I am so impressed that you got great photos (and mostly WITH you!) of all the candidates! Whoever wins should contact you for a job in their office somewhere. Did you tell them you were available? I'm serious...you would be great. You are a Christian young woman with a go-getter attitude and all the right thoughts about the important issues. You would be an asset!

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    1. Ha, thank you! I've thought it would be neat to work for someone's campaign and help a good candidate win the nomination. But...I've yet to decide who is the best candidate! Hopefully next time around I get an earlier start on meeting the candidates, so I can decide sooner.

      Good to hear Arizona repealed Common Core!

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