I have refrained from writing an article about Mike Huckabee and the release of his new book, “Do The Right Thing”, simply because I have yet to read the book. From the excerpts I have read, it appears Huckabee was honest in telling us about his campaign and how it all went down, from taking his campaign from darkhorse, to winning eight states, to finally bowing out after the Texas loss to John McCain. The release of the book and his subsequent book tour has led a lot of blogger, pundits, etc. to speculate that Huckabee is already mounting his Presidential campaign for 2012. It remains to be seen if that is actually true, whether he will actually run again, but it amazes me at the resistance I am already seeing against the man. Yes, he does have a lot of supporters, more than most people would give him credit for, but he also has his detractors and most of them simply do not want Mike Huckabee to run for President.

During his run for the nomination in 2008, Mike Huckabee was accused of a lot of things and he was asked a lot of questions that were never asked of the other candidates. The debate moderators seemed to want to ignore his ten and a half years of experience as Governor of Arkansas and focused on his years as a pastor. He was accused of playing the religion card, when all he was trying to do was show his background and where he came from. From one question to a reporter, he was accused of playing the Mormon card against rival Mitt Romney. Even though he was simply inquiring of the reporter, Romney supporters have never forgiven him for it.

Another gripe some people have had with him has to do with Fred Thompson. He has been accused of stealing the true conservative vote away from Thompson, but excuse me for not buying into that scenario. If Thompson wanted the nomination, he didn’t show it in his campaign, so he has no one to blame but himself. If he had shown some of the fire during his campaign that he has shown while campaigning for other candidates, then I might have supported him myself. As it was, Huckabee drew my support and I never looked back.

It has also been said that John McCain’s winning of the nomination was a result of Huckabee’s own campaign, but that simply isn’t true. Was he supposed to just drop out because someone asked him to? I think not. There was several reasons McCain won the nomination, chief of which is the Republican primary system itself, but Huckabee was not to blame.

It appears that there are two kinds of people when it comes to Mike Huckabee. You either really like him or you really don’t. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground when it comes to his political aspirations. I have tried to be objective about the man, even though I did support him in his campaign and fully expect to support him in 2012, if he decides to run. I do believe he needs to cut back on some of the jokes and be a little more serious, especially when it comes to discussing important issues. The easy talk and one liners is part of his charm, but he can articulate his points very intelligently, if given the chance. However, the amount of scorn I have seen for the man, as his book comes out, still amazes me. Consider this image that I came across at Race 4 2012.

Those are some of the same accusations that were leveled at Huckabee during the Republican primaries and even a couple of new ones. I haven’t heard the one about him compromising on national security, so someone may have to explain that one to me. Again, I do my best to be objective, but I really question where these people come up with some of this stuff. I can not help but question if Huckabee really deserves this.

He has been accused of sniping at his fellow Republicans, John McCain included, when in fact, he campaigned so much for McCain/Palin, that he lost his voice in doing so. He has been accused of being off on a book tour, instead of campaigning in Georgia for Saxby Chambliss, when in fact, he was campaigning for Chambliss before the general election and has been there since. For some reason, the people who do not support Mike Huckabee can not see anything good the man does or attempts to do. You can accuse him of sniping if you want, but what he has been saying about the Republican Party is true. The reasons he gives for the Republicans losing so badly in this election are the very reasons we lost. We have strayed from our standards, from the very issues that used to make us the party of the people.

Let me explain something about Mike Huckabee. He has a different way about him, a willingness to work with the liberals, but unwavering in his beliefs. He is unapologetic when it comes to his positions, whether it be pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, or just plain pro-people, but he also has a grasp on the issues that Republicans seem to want to stay away from, such as the environment and he has a desire to make the government work for the people. This is not to say he is for government handouts, he is vehemently opposed to the bailout of Wall Street, but he does want government to do it’s job.

He had a picture frame in his office when he was Governor of Arkansas. That picture had a label under it that said “The Boss”. Every week, he would put a picture of a different Arkansas citizen into the frame and made sure his office knew that they were working for the citizens of the state. He actually believed in doing his job of governing the state and he was able to pull Arkansas out of the terrible shape it was left in by Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker. He also streamlined the state government, making it easier and cheaper to do things like register your vehicle or renew it’s license. Yes, he did raise some taxes during his tenure, but other taxes were cut and things were actually approved in the state. I contend that all tax increases are not created equal.

Mike Huckabee was the only Republican candidate, outside of Ron Paul, who recognized the shape the economy was really in, during the debate in Michigan. The rest of them went on and on about how great it was doing and he let them know they were looking in the wrong place, to look at the people who were pumping the gas and carrying the bags, working two jobs just to make ends meet. He has a grasp of what the regular citizens of this country are really going through.

When the economic stimulus package was being sent out, he was asked about it in the Florida debate and he was again the only one who saw the package for what it really was, a loan from China, going back into buying more Chinese goods. He put forth the idea that it would be good to invest that money in the infrastructure of our country, using American workers, American steel, and American concrete to build new roads and bridges. While the rest of the candidates smirked and thought he was being funny, some of the economic experts later agreed that would have been better for our economy in the long run.

As for Huckabee running against Obama, I think you would have seen (and hopefully will see in 2012) a completely different kind of campaign. Obama would have had no ammunition when it came to the economic meltdown. How would he have been able to blame Huckabee for that one, as he did McCain? People like to talk about how great of a speaker and a debater Obama is, but I would have loved to see a debate between Obama and Huckabee. In my honest opinion, it would not have been a fair fight. Kind of like me trying to take on Adrian Peterson, of Oklahoma Sooner football fame. Huckabee would have been all over him and still been friends with him at the end. I don’t know if he could have won, but Huckabee stood as good a chance as anyone in this election cycle.

So, is Mike Huckabee already running for 2012? I can’t answer that and neither can anyone else. That’s his decision to make and our decision to support him or not. However, I contend he does not deserve the outright scorn he is receiving from some in the Republican Party. I don’t mind people disagreeing with him on the issues, that is their prerogative. However, it is beginning to sound like some have their own version of Bush Derangement Syndrome and his name is Huckabee. To hear them tell it, he is the bane of the Republican Party and has done nothing but raise taxes in Arkansas, lied about that, freed every Arkansas criminal who ever asked for a pardon, lied about that, and played dirty politics during the Republican primaries, lying about that as well. From listening to the tales some people tell about Mike Huckabee, it makes me wonder if they are talking about the same Mike Huckabee I know.

That’s my take!

Larry

Tags: 2012, Arkansas, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Do The Right Thing, Fred Thompson, Jim Guy Tucker, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Race 4 2012, Republican Party

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under News/Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.