Posted on 08/23/2007 9:35:13 PM PDT by no dems
In a packed room at The Beacon Drive-In around lunchtime Wednesday, a crowd of about 150 people was listening intently to Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's stump speech when someone's cell phone rang.
Without missing a beat, Huckabee smiled and said, "That's probably Dick Cheney, wanting to take me duck hunting."
It was just one of several laughs the Baptist minister received in an hour that was entertaining and, for those who don't know him, informative - and included no less than three specific biblical references.
Huckabee wrapped up a two-day tour of South Carolina in Spartanburg on Wednesday, riding the momentum of his second-place finish in the recent Ames, Iowa, straw poll. With money and a bigger organization, political observers say, Huckabee could enter the top tier of candidates. And Huckabee says those things are coming.
He cited attack ads aired against him in Iowa as proof that he was gaining ground, repeating words of wisdom he was told as a boy: "Don't worry when the devil's kicking you from behind, just praise God that you're still out front."
While most candidates who come through here attack the opposing party, Huckabee mentioned several times that Republicans had lost their way, that "Those of us in this room came to be Republicans not out of convenience, but out of conviction," and called Congress "polarized, paralyzed and out of touch with the American people."
He added: "We don't want the government to do something for us. We just want the government to stop doing things to us."
Huckabee, who supports the so-called Fair Tax, said that income and savings taxes should be eliminated and replaced with a sales tax. He called the current tax code "a 177,000-page disaster" that "even duct tape" couldn't fix, and quoted a study that said more Americans fear an audit by the IRS than they do getting mugged on the street.
His platform
The former governor touched on several of his campaign themes - themes like life beginning at conception, free trade needing to be fair to all parties involved, and the belief that marriage between a man and a woman is sacred - but centered them around this country's need to become self-sufficient when it comes to food, fuel and fighting.
In other words, America must grow enough crops to feed the people in this country; develop alternative energy sources within 10 years to end reliance on other countries; and build the manufacturing base so all weapons and armaments used by the U.S. military - and their parts - are made here.
"We should never be beholden to anything but our own hard-headed will to be free," Huckabee told the crowd.
He dismissed predictions by experts that the widespread use of alternative fuel sources is 25 or 50 years away, saying he heard the same arguments during the gas crisis of 1973.
In his speech, Huckabee came close to labeling oil as the reason for the war in Iraq, though he later clarified his position: "We're not fighting the war over oil, but it is a key issue."
Warfare in the future doesn't have to be "shock and awe" or "cut and run," Huckabee said. Rather, it should be "snatch and grab" - small, focused strikes backed by intelligence to take out terrorism cells wherever they may be.
"We cannot be the police force for the world," Huckabee told reporters afterward. "And we should not export our form of government. Instead, we should create an appetite for our form of government so that other countries want to adopt it."
Touching on the hot-button immigration issue, Huckabee - who opposed the reform measure that failed in Congress this summer and said he believed it to be "amnesty" - said that it shouldn't be harder to get on a plane at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport than it is to cross the border with no paperwork.
A mixed crowd
Not everyone at The Beacon was a Huckabee supporter. A smattering of Ron Paul supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd, with one man handing out T-shirts and literature attacking Huckabee at the restaurant's entrance. Several people were undecided. A few supporters of Mitt Romney were on hand - one called Huckabee her No. 2 pick - and a handful of the county GOP regulars were there.
It didn't matter to Huckabee, who stopped to chat with everyone between the doorway and the podium before giving his speech, and spoke one-on-one with everyone who approached him afterward.
"At this moment, he would be the front-runner for me," said Al Phillips, associate pastor at First Baptist North Spartanburg.
"His values are conservative values. I like the fact that he's consistent. He seems to be the only genuine, authentic candidate that I've met so far. And I've met a lot of candidates."
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright was in the crowd, and got a picture of himself shaking hands with Huckabee autographed afterward.
Wright would not say he was endorsing Huckabee, only that, "He has good moral standards. He tells you the truth."
Huckabee called South Carolina "ground zero for this campaign and the future of this country."
Huckabee recounted his upbringing in a low-income household in Hope, Ark., and said, "I'll make my fair share of mistakes. But I won't forget where I came from. ... People don't elect a president to be a king. They elect a president to be on his knees, a servant to the people."
I think your assessment is correct.
I Like him too, but when you research him a little you will find he is a relatively new convert on some of the issues. His past in regard to illegal immigration was the closer for me. Most of what he was saying seemed to be lifted from Duncan Hunter.
I will dig around and see if I can find anytime before this he was speaking about “fair trade”, “manufacturing bases” etc, and let ya know if I come up with anything.
I am not sure about your assessment, and can only speak for myself. His being a former Baptist minister would be a plus for me, if anything. His former positions on some issues would tend to stir me someone else’s direction, but not his being a minister.
Huckabee must be defeated. He supports open borders, higher taxes, and big government intrusion into your personal life. Libertarian and swing voters will not vote for the GOP if Huckabee is the nominee.
I’ve heard some bad stuff about him, but he really seems like a decent guy to me. Not my first pick, but I wouldn’t mind if he won.
Also, he did offer Stephen Colbert his pick of either VP or chairman of the FCC.
Where your evidence that Huckabee supports open borders, higher taxes and big government? I’m serious. Just asking....
""Governor Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative," Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said, "but his ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation.""
Huckabee is open border, amnesty, speaking to LULAC.
No military or national Security background and open border.
He has no clue and this type not needed when we are at war.
From the Arkansas News Bureau:
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005
By Wesley Brown
Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - In a impassioned speech before hundreds of influential Hispanic civil rights leaders from across the nation, Gov. Mike Huckabee told a captive audience Wednesday that America is great because it has always opened it doors up to people seeking a better way of life.
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” Huckabee said, citing the Golden Rule. “I have tried to govern that way and it stands to reason that I really do believe that what made this great country so great and so unique is that it has always been a place for people to run to - and not run from.
“I would hope that no matter who we are, or where we are from, that America should always be a place that opens its arms, opens it heart, opens its spirit to people who come because they want the best for their families …,” Huckabee said as the largely Hispanic audience gave him a standing ovation.
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