Posted on 11/09/2009 2:15:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In 2008, a charismatic right-wing populist Republican governor won the heart of the party's base despite being forced to take a backseat to a more respectable "moderate" Republican. He was Mike Huckabee, and he is sad, and mad.
Ben Smith followed Mike Huckabee around for a while as he sold his new Christmas book.
Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas. He used to be fat, and then he got skinny, and now he is getting fat again. He's also basically as crazy Christian as they come, but he masks this with a genuinely likable sense of humor, which is why he has a TV program on Fox now.
He won Iowa in 2008. He is raising a lot of money. He just won a Gallup poll of potential 2012 Republican candidates. But he has two problems: Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney.
Palin is the more marketable and exciting version of him, both because she says much dumber and insane things and also she is an attractive lady. Romney is the guy who will almost certainly actually win the nomination, because the sensible money guys in the party like him, despite the fact that he is Mormon Robot.
Here is Huckabee being totally not bitter about Sarah Palin stealing his gimmick:
"Some of the people who had excoriated me and really been very dismissive of me for views that I had taken, and labeled me anything from a populist to an ignoramus - the same people have been very defensive [of] and laudatory to Sarah Palin," Huckabee noted, adding that he'd invited her to appear on his weekly Fox show but "could never get any contact."
"I'm glad she's getting the props - I know I'm not nearly as attractive," he said with a guileless grin.
Now Huckabee is just eating his way across America, trying to get people excited about his book, insulting all the other Republicans who were and are mean to him. Pat Toomey and the Club for Growth—the Wall Street wing of the activist conservative movement—still hate him, which will make fundraising hard. And he still openly hates and ridicules Romney, which will probably prevent him from getting the VP slot.
You don't really need to worry about the Republicans in 2012. Unlike solar flares and earthquakes and volcanoes and stuff.
What a load of BS. Huckster was a pro-life LIBERAL. The National Education Association endorsed him and gave him money, and that is a hard-core Communist endorsement.
This goofy Huckabee guy didn't have a clue what "conservative" meant when he was in the primary race, and he has learned little since dropping out of the race.
No he’s not. He’s a big government social conservative.
“Hey Huck, I don’t give a damn about your weight, and I still can’t stand looking at your face.”
Agree with that for sure. And, I think ole Huck should give everyone who bought his book “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork” a refund, plus interest...
As opposed to bright and intelligent things like: Austrians speak Austrian, the US has 57 states, all wee wee'd up, giving 'shout outs', the Cambridge police acted stupidly, and practically anything else that isn't fed through a teleprompter. /s
Well, sort of. I liked some things he said at first, and it was true that the press immediately focused on his weight and started making him look ridiculous on that basis. Here in the South, there are lots of big guys...but apparently in the NE Corridor, this is a mortal sin.
Maybe he’ll get his act together. But I think that he’s a Bush-style Republican, and while I thought W was great on a personal level and even on a moral and intellectual level, he was a lousy politician and he kept courting the wrong people (his ideological enemies).
That’s what Huckabee did and it completely discredited him. But maybe he can make it up; you never know.
It won't be long and the MSM will be meeting to see who they want to run up against Barack Obama in 2012, just like they selected McKain in '08. My bet is that they are leaning toward the Huckster. They'll love him and play him up like he's the second coming and then when the convention is over they won't give him the time of day. Huckabee makes a great story teller and 3rd rated bass player, but I don't have much confidence of him as the President.
Schmuckabee lost me long before he even gave a thought about running to become the chief executive of the nation’s largest organised crime family. That oft-enough-forgotten jazz about taxing Internet sales . . .
Hey Huck, Thanks for McCain.
Jerk
Go Home.
Thompson-Palin?
Wouldn’t that have been so much fun?
Thompson-Palin?
Wouldn’t that have been so much fun?
“You should have endorsed Fred Thompson, and he could have won in South Carolina.”
That is true. Fred ran a terrible campaign, but he had momentum until Huckster started the “Fred isn’t against abortion and has a pretty wife meme.”
Why do we need enemies with Republicans like Huckabee and Michael “White Republicans Are Scared of Me” Steele?
“Sarah also has more balls than the Huckster.”
But the Huckster has bigger breasts.
Why am I suddenly reminded of Lloyd Bentsen?
He made a ton of money selling a book about diet and weight loss. He came by that criticism honestly.
Most anyone could lose weight if they had a Chef who cooked amazing fat free meals. Mike never was honest about that particular sin of omission.
sw
The fact he even makes a comparison to Sarah is proof this guy is a complete joke.
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He may be a joke, but what he intends to do isn't funny. It's a disaster. Between Huckabee and Romney, 2012 may be the end of our country as we know it.
Fred would have ripped Hussein to shreads.
Hmm - there seems to be quite a bot of the Huckster on FR today.
I’m out with him and immigration
Benteen, come on, big village, be quick. Bring packs. - George Armstrong Custer
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