Mike Huckabee, Christianity, and the rest of the world
So, I've been reading a lot of flak about Mike Huckabee and his faith on other websites, especially blogs and such. Some say he wants to turn our country into a theocracy. Others compare him to Pat Robertson, an tele-evangelist hawking for dollars. Some say he isn't even "conservative", whatever that means.
Listen, do I think that Huckabee is the savior of this country? No, I don't. I honestly don't think if we elect him that the skies will be blue, the rivers will run clean, and frogs and rabbits will dance an Irish jig in glee with each other. In other words, Mike Huckabee isn't the second coming of Jesus. Who would believe Jesus came from Arkansas, anyway? (Well, the Mormons believe(d) that the Garden of Eden was in NC Missouri, but that's another story).
No, I don't think that all will be well when Mike is elected. But guess what? The same problems will exist if/when Hillary, Obama, Mitt, Rudy, Fred, or Mark Klein MD is elected.
But, I believe Mike is the right guy to unite this country and bring us back on the right track. He is not devisive, or nearly as much Hillary or Mitt. He has a proven track record of working with both sides of the isle. He has improved conditions for people of his state.
Mike Huckabee is not without flaws; I don't think anyone is claiming that. But when such flaws are found, they are usually less of an issue related to leadership than other candidates. Was he a "true conservative?" Probably not, but neither was Ronald Reagan during his entire political career, either.
Huckabee has real leadership experience. He's a likeable guy who has not separated himself into an elite ivory tower, but rather can relate to people on their level. He's a Christian that doesn't show his beliefs off to others, but shows it through his faith and works.
But go vote for whoever you want; we get an opportunity to help select our next leadership only every four years. Who knows, it might be the last time, if Hillary is elected.
Listen, do I think that Huckabee is the savior of this country? No, I don't. I honestly don't think if we elect him that the skies will be blue, the rivers will run clean, and frogs and rabbits will dance an Irish jig in glee with each other. In other words, Mike Huckabee isn't the second coming of Jesus. Who would believe Jesus came from Arkansas, anyway? (Well, the Mormons believe(d) that the Garden of Eden was in NC Missouri, but that's another story).
No, I don't think that all will be well when Mike is elected. But guess what? The same problems will exist if/when Hillary, Obama, Mitt, Rudy, Fred, or Mark Klein MD is elected.
But, I believe Mike is the right guy to unite this country and bring us back on the right track. He is not devisive, or nearly as much Hillary or Mitt. He has a proven track record of working with both sides of the isle. He has improved conditions for people of his state.
Mike Huckabee is not without flaws; I don't think anyone is claiming that. But when such flaws are found, they are usually less of an issue related to leadership than other candidates. Was he a "true conservative?" Probably not, but neither was Ronald Reagan during his entire political career, either.
Huckabee has real leadership experience. He's a likeable guy who has not separated himself into an elite ivory tower, but rather can relate to people on their level. He's a Christian that doesn't show his beliefs off to others, but shows it through his faith and works.
But go vote for whoever you want; we get an opportunity to help select our next leadership only every four years. Who knows, it might be the last time, if Hillary is elected.
posted by bgunzy at 12/23/2007 03:09:00 PM
15 Comments:
Some say he isn't even "conservative", whatever that means.
I will tell you what that means...it means that he is for spending more and raising taxes to compensate for that increase. He is for increased government control. Believes that we should be friends with Iran and Syria that have vowed to destroy Israel and the US. Wanted to lift the trade embargo on Cuba. Granted clemencies to over 1000 inmates. Ethically and financially impaired leading to the almighty vice....GREED (example of him taking $25,000 commission for speaking at churches while campaigning). I can keep going...the only thing that makes him a conservative is his staunch support for life and traditional marriage...which is the only reason that i could conceivably vote for him if he got the nomination, but on other issues he is even more left than Billary, which makes it more of a toss-up between the two, and if he gets the nomination, you will see a large number of CONSERVATIVES sitting home come November 2008.
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Jaaron, "some" say Huck isn't a conservative?
Talk about an understatement.
Huckabee and his supporters always seem to point out that Romney's attacking him. The already nascent Huck-a-bust will undoubtedly be blamed on Romney by Huck and his supporters. However . . . I don't think that Romney had anything to do with the fact that essentially every conservative with a microphone or blog has been railing against Huckabee for the last few weeks. Need some evidence?:
Rush Limbaugh
Condoleezza Rice
Michelle Malkin
Ann Coulter
Phyllis Schlafly
Bob Novak (others here & here)
Peggy Noonan
Charles Krauthammer
Sean Hannity (kind of . . . not frontal attacks, but plenty of comments expressing concern with him as the potential GOP nominee)
Laura Ingraham
Fred Barnes
Joseph Farah (Founder/CEO/Editor of World Net Daily also expresses concern for homeschoolers who support Huck)
Michael Barone
Mark Steyn
George Will-- ( these comments too on a TV news show)
Michael Reagan
Glenn Beck (semi "reconciliation" ---- but then he's still not too impressed)
Kim Strassell
Matt Drudge (it's obvious that he has a bone to pick with Huckabee given his coverage of late)
Pat Buchanan
David Limbaugh (another here)
Donald Lambro
Jonah Goldberg
John Fund (an interesting video here)
Jim Geraghty
Kathryn Jean Lopez (another here)
Tony Blankley
Howie Carr
James Taranto (also here too, and don't forget Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 of the "No Truck with Huck" series)
Clarence Page
Dean Barnett
Rich Lowry (this one too)
Mark Hemingway
Austin Hill
Tom Bevan
Jack Kelly
Deroy Murdock
David Frum
Jonathan Alder
John Hinderaker
Bruce Bartlett
Victor Davis Hanson
Johnathan Tobin
Hugh Hewitt (and another)
Walter E. Williams
Frank Gaffney (who Huck claimed was one of his Foreign Policy advisors)
Lori Byrd
Peter Wehner
Douglas MacKinnon
Paul Mirengoff ( here and here too)
Jerome Corsi
The Editors of National Review (Oh yeah, this one too and both were written BEFORE the NR endorsed Romney)
Mitt Romney :)
Fred Thompson :)
Rudy Giuliani :)
Ron Paul :)
You can just hear and feel all of these conservative/GOP icons pleading with the voters: "PLEASE DON'T MAKE US TRY TO DEFEND THIS GUY!!!" (should he be the nominee).
Conclusion: Huckabee's not a full-spectrum conservative and the GOP would be unwise to give him the nomination. Romney has had to point out the un-conservative spots in Huck's record because the MSM/DNC axis sure hasn't been (they want him as the GOP nominee) and because McCain and Rudy want Huck to win Iowa to stifle Romney's path to the nomination. However, Romney is hardly alone in pointing out Huckabee's worrisome record.
And to Bgunzy . . . nice that you put a little dig on Mormon Theology in your post. Unfortunately, this seems to be a unifying principle for Huck and most of his supporters. It's just sad.
But I'm glad that you've clarified that "you don't think Huckabee is the savior of this country" . . . however, that you even feel compelled to state such is a sad commentary on Huck's whole rise to prominence.
The conservative true believers are up in arms that Huckabee is stealing their support base, so they lash out at the things he has done which don’t fit their rigid ideology.
Mercy for convicted criminals? True conservatives only favor punishment, the more the better, and they use criminals for scapegoats just as other fascists do. Mercy and human kindness are not in the political conservative belief set. They reserve their acts of “Christian” charity for their own kind only, like Scooter Libby. The mean-spiritedness of these people is amazing.
Huckabee wanted to lift the trade embargo with Cuba? Shocking! Perhaps Huckabee noticed that our biggest trading partner is Red China, and he remembers that we were told that trade with the Communists was good for normalizing relations with them. It seemed to work there. So he’s not afraid of little Cuba.
Iran and Syria would be much friendlier if we weren’t in their territory constantly inciting them, threatening and toppling their governments in the interest of our continued control of the world’s oil or our completely uncritical support of Israel, where time and time again the whole world has voted against the US/Israeli position in the United Nations.
I’ve heard Americans say we should nuke some Arab countries off the map. Romney’s ads denouncing “Islamo-facists” amount to morally corrupt warmongering designed to appeal to such Iowa fanatics who have no knowledge of modern world history, nor any greater awareness than their desire to act out their frustrations and ignorance with the assistance of the U.S. military.
It’s the same simplistic emotional appeal that denounces mercy for criminals, a black and white mindset that requires an enemy to be evil so that the conservative can claim the moral high ground. Jesus didn’t think like that else he would have never blessed the peacemakers or given the Golden Rule, or died in the company of common criminals.
So these black and white thinkers denounce Huckabee for not being a “full spectrum conservative”. He fails the ideological purity test. He’s not a true believer, he’s not a pure Aryan.
The other problem with Huckabee, and the reason so many establishment conservatives denounce him, is that many of the conservative rallying points they stir up the faithful with are essentially just scams. Elite conservatives don’t care about abortion, except as a means to get the rubes to vote for them and their schemes for lower taxes. Never mind that the conservative elites are sending the rubes’ children to Iraq while theirs go to fancy private schools or "serve their country" supporting daddy Mitt's candidacy in Iowa. Never mind that elite conservatives are preventing meaningful health care coverage for many lower class conservative voters while they buy the world's best for themselves, just keep the base stirred up about gay marriage and Islamo-fascists and abortion and they’ll keep giving government power to the rich who will use it for themselves.
But now someone who truly tries to act on the Christian values he believes in has come up out of the masses and stolen the votes. His act is not a scam. Voters sense this and are flocking to him. Scary business for elite conservatives.
Fuller - gosh, that little piece of history lesson bothered you? Hey, it's an historical FACT that Joseph Smith considered the a bluff on the Grand River just north of Gallatin, MO to be the exiled Garden of Eden. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam-ondi-Ahman
Trade with Cuba? Sign me up! What's wrong with a little free trade, eh? Oh, I guess it's a bad thing if it's with poor country 60 miles off our shores.
You can rage all you want about how Huckabee isn't "conservative" enough...he's alright in my book, however, and come to think of it, a good majority of Iowans who will be voting in 8 days. Deal with it and the fact that your boy Mitty will be going home to his sanctuary mansion and cry about it to his illegal gardners.
By the way, Fuller - How much are you getting paid by Mitt? I see that you are a retinal surgeon, but it appears you are doing some astroturf landscaping on the side as well? Must pay good, especially to keep it green this time of the year.
Mango...(reminds me of the SNL skit with Garth Brooks)
Dude, you sound like John Kerry...obsessed with world opinion (specifically European opinion)...who cares what they think? they make our liberals look like neo-cons. Also with a little John Edwards class warfare thrown in for good measure ("elites"). Also remember that Jesus 'was too smart to have run for politics, and therefore too smart to have given policies...
Also if Huckabee was so enlightened, then why did he say that he saw the light and has now changed his opinion on Cuba. Heartless conservatives...no just people that think that when a person is convicted of a crime, given a sentence they should do the time, it's hard enough to convict someone nowadays (i.e. OJ Simpson) without governors springing them out cause they've been "saved". Maybe you should read about Huckabee's compassion when in 1992, he advocated quarantining all people infected with HIV, specifically gays. Despite the fact that HIV had been shown only to infect individuals during sex or needles or whatnot. That is the kind of compassion that this country needs...concentration camps for the gays...give me a break, mango.
"Who cares what they think?" ....Spoken like a true empire builder. If you stop to consider why we have terrorists to deal with instead of just blindly plunging ahead to create more of them, then you might want to take some other viewpoint into account. Even Hitler was canny enough to take world opinion into some account, and his generals urged him to consider it more often.
Or you might want to consider what China thinks, since they are currently supporting our economy and could drop the U.S. into a depression if they sold their dollars.
Huckabee's crack about Jesus was cute, but it completely dodged the question. It was a slick escape from his obvious hypocrisy. Still, I just find him quite a bit more sensible the most of the rest of the warmongering, immigrant-bashing (or gay-bashing) pack of Republicans. What makes you think that I support Huckabee's HIV comments? And what, BTW, does the "bear" refer to in your handle? Are you a one-issue Huckabee hater?
If Huckabee has changed his opinion on trade with Cuba, and now rejects it, as you seem to be saying, then he's definitely been browbeaten into ideological conformity instead of common sense.
Read the post again...European opinion is specifically what was mentioned, and you don't think that terrorists hate them too. Yep, no Madrid or London bombings, recently. Basing your policies on world opinion is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard...might as well have the whole world vote in our elections, since that is exactly the same thing. US of A not the US of world opinion. World opinion pre-world war 2 was "prevent war at any cost" so instead of removing Hitler when we had the chance, we appeased him with the Sudetenland and Czecheslovakia and the end result...50 million dying. that is one of many examples of world opinion. Let America make their own policies that are supported by the American people. Assumed you were a Huckabee supporter so i thought it was funny that you were pointing out things that Huckabee is more guilty of. The jarebear was just a nickname i had as a kid (my name is jaaron)...No, i hate all of Huckabee's liberal policies and issues, only ones i like are his pro-life and traditional marriage stances. As for his reasonability, did you read what he wanted to do with people infected with HIV (especially gays)? I think that if you are looking for gay-bashing, take a 2nd look at huckabee. As for immigrant bashing...illegal, yeah don't think people should break the law, sue me.
I didn’t say we should BASE our policies on European opinion, but I do think that when most of the rest of the Christian world is complaining that we are a bigger danger to world peace than the terrorists, as a recent poll in England revealed, then it might be smart to listen a little bit. Maybe they are telling us that we are arrogant, belligerent and stupid-- that we are inciting the Arab world to violence by grossly improper meddling in Arab affairs, and getting them, the English, caught in the crossfire.
Or maybe we should listen to two of our former Nuremberg prosecutors of the Nazis, who have said that our leaders--Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc,--should be liable for international war crimes prosecution. http://thewell-armedlamb.blogspot.com/2007/06/nuremberg-prosecutor-says-gitmo-trials.html
and http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/38604/
Uneducated Americans who support freedom and liberty everywhere but don’t care about world opinion didn’t notice that in 1953 the United States overthrew a modern, progressive democracy in Iran and installed a monarch called the Shah to run the country, AND took over Iranian oil production. Then we trained his secret police who kept up a reign of terror (internal terrorists) in his country for 25 years while we supported him. How do you expect the Iranians felt about us? Every Iranian I knew hated the Shah. Eventually they set up a government that hated us. Surprised at their opinion, or just don’t care?
Uneducated Americans, who think we are the champions of liberty and justice around the world because that is all we ever tell ourselves, thought we’d been unjustly attacked by Osama bin Laden. We didn’t notice Osama’s complaint that our sanctions against Iraq had killed over 500,000 Iraqi children. Nor did we notice his complaint that we’ve been giving massive military aid to Israel for 60 years, which Israel has used to grab and defend more and more Arab land and keep the Palestinians in virtual concentration camps where they live to this day. Jimmy Carter was being polite when it called it “apartheid” in his recent book.
This is not to justify 9/11, or other terrorism, but to explain it, because if you don’t pay some attention to other opinions, then you run the risk of going crazy.
How would you feel if the Chinese decided that Mexicans should take over Iowa (or your state if you’re not an Iowan) and set up their own government, excluding you? You would be forced to live in a concentration camp dependent on U.N. food contributions and surrounded by Mexican soldiers. You might become an anti-Mexican terrorist, even if it meant breaking a few laws.
You have got to be kidding me...England (with the opinion polls) set up the Isrealian state not the US...I'll respond to the rest later...it's late.
Sure, some of Israel's roots stretch back to the WWI era and a thing called the Balfour Declaration by a British foreign minister, but after WWII when the Jews began to seriously agitate for their own country it was the British military who opposed them. Back then the Middle East terrorists were Jews. They were attacking British soldiers, and they bombed a popular hotel, not caring, apparently that they would also kill civilians. The British put a death sentence on Menachim Begin's head for that one, if they could have caught him. (Years later he became Israel's prime minister and was seen with Carter on the White House lawn.) British soldiers were so outraged that they were defecting and helping the Palestinians fight back with other acts of terror against the Jews.
But the British were crushed in the aftermath of their Pyhrric victory in WWII and were cutting back their empire everywhere. They gave up on India and they gave up on protecting the Palestinians and themselves from Jewish terrorism, largely because they couldn't keep it up, and because of lots of other pressures, including a very strong Jewish lobby in the country that had just come to England's rescue, the USA.
Then the sole, undefeated, ultimate powerhouse of the entire world, the United States, headed at the time by Harry Truman, decided to recognize Israel as a legitimate country, the Palestinian Arabs be damned.
The supreme commander of the U.S. Army, 5-star General George Marshall, who had been Eisenhower's boss during the war, was now Truman's Secretary of State. He told Truman that he would resign if we recognized Israel. He soon resigned.
Ever since then we've been pouring foreign aid into Israel, especially since the 1967 six-day war. Some people call it our 51st state. That war, by the way, was initiated by the Israelis, not the Arabs, and in order to maintain the stealth of their attack on Egypt they strafed a flag-flying U.S. intelligence gathering ship FOR SEVERAL HOURS. I believe the ship was called the U.S.S. Liberty. They killed over 30 American sailors. In order to avoid a public incident or embarrass the Israelis, our Secretary of Defense CALLED BACK American carrier-based aircraft we were sending to defend the Liberty. (One hand of the government doesn't know or agree with what the other hand wants to do.)
After that war the UN passed Resolution 242 calling for Israel to give back the land it grabbed with its attack. They never have. In fact they have continued to encroach on more Arab land with illegal settlements. And the U.S. has stood alone with Israel time and time again and opposed UN votes calling for enforcement of 242. Even Britain has voted against Israel on those occasions.
So who is it who keeps throwing mud in the Arabs' eyes?
Mike Huckabee will ruin the GOP. We will lose 50 states with him as a nominee. He has used Jesus to win a political campaign. He has turned the GOP primary into a Sunni/Shiite Muslim doctrinal dispute of hatred.
He is so devious too with his I'm not going to run a negative ad but I'll show it to you anyway. He is so unbecoming.....its embarassing.
Anony 1:18 - Which home in the Hamptons is yours? Do you winter with the Rockefellers or the Morgans?
Sounds like you're a Northeastern blue blood RINO to me...
Huckabee seems to want fundamentalism. It could never happen, even if Huckabilly really wanted to do it. I don't think he does, he just wants the votes from those who do. He's not stupid enough to want it or to try to do it as POTUS, he's just stupid enough to say it.
Huckleberry is too conservative on religion and too liberal on criminals and the economy and immigration.
Huckabye? Huckabee wants to have adulterers, homosexuals and rape victims stoned to death. He also wants to make alcohol and music videos illegal, and make women 2nd class citizens and to take all girls out of school.
Oops, my bad, that's another 'religion'.
Hey, anybody but the PIAPS!
if you’re MAD
punish your country
VOTE for Hillary
http://haltterrorism.com/
http://absurdthoughtsaboutgod.blogspot.com
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