Posted on 05/05/2015 9:05:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Mike Huckabee had a pretty good record as governor. It’s too bad he can’t run on it. Better known in recent years for saying occasionally outrageous things as a commentator, Huckabee governed Arkansas for more than a decade as a pragmatist, devoting his attention to basics such as roads, schools and health care. On those issues, though, Huckabee generally took positions too liberal to suit a Republican presidential prospect in 2016—posing a conundrum for him as he plunges this week into the 2016 presidential race.
“Mike Huckabee was the consummate conservative populist,” says Jay Barth, a political scientist at Arkansas’s Hendrix College. “He was very conservative on social issues but pretty activist when it came to the role of government in people’s lives.”
In fact, his record as governor would likely surprise many of those who have come to know him only as a political commentator in recent years.
Just days after Huckabee won election to his final term in 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the state’s funding levels for education were inadequate. Huckabee launched a campaign to consolidate school districts and did not hesitate to propose a sales tax increase, telling reporters the figure he proposed was “the starting line, not the finish line.”
“He could have demagogued the court,” says Jim Argue, a self-described liberal Democrat who ran the state Senate during part of Huckabee’s time in office. “He could have tried to make political hay out of resisting the court. Instead, he recognized the schools were in fact inferior and that the court decision represented an opportunity to take some giant steps forward.”
Compare that to Huckabee’s remarks last week after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding same-sex marriage. “I respect the courts, but the Supreme Court is only that—the supreme of the courts,”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Talk about spending and immigration...
According to the article:
As governor, Huckabee supported in-state tuition rates and scholarships for students brought to the country illegally—a stance he continues to defend, even while taking a tough line against illegal immigration in general. When Arkansas was faced with some 75,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Huckabee took advantage of end-of-summer closings of Christian camps throughout the state to use as shelters, dispersing the influx and mitigating their impact on schools and other services. “He got the job done with a smile and a hug for those who needed help,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noted.
Huckabee’s major achievement was a health program known as ARKids First, which he pushed through in 1997, his first full year in office. It extended coverage to children whose parents earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but still couldn’t afford private insurance. The number of children without health insurance had dropped from 22 percent when ARKids First was created to 6 percent in 2012.
Huckabee is and always has been the Christian Welfare State — George Bush’s “Compassionate Conservatism” on steroids. Take conservative positions on social issues like abortion, gay marriage, gun control and prayer in school, but spend like a Democrat on social welfare programs.
He is a thug. Government is brute force and the Huckster can’t get enough.
Other than the liberal media who want him to win the nomination, and those uninformed voters who simply say "Huckabee" off name recognition - I don't think anyone is thinking much about this fool.
Hickabee’s love affair is with himself. I truly do not believe he loves this country in the same way I and others do, he is a marionette.
And the wost dictator Obama is about to get government to control the Internet.
We have 45 days of freedom left
Obama and his FCC thugs are about to destroy and take over the Internet in 45 days:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3284804/posts
Internet and thought control begins in 45 days!
Center for Individual Freedom
UPDATE: The implementation of Barack Obama’s takeover of the Internet is less than 45 days away. And as Marsha Blackburn says, if Congress does not take action to stop Barack Obama, the government will “control the Internet” in a little over the month.
should be “Mike Huckabee’s Love Affair with Mike Huckabee”.
Vote sucking ego trip.
The Gov told this group back in 94 or so that he refused to speak in front of them as they were a white supremacist group.
what happened to the council of conservative citizens post?
Yes. Plus he still defends releasing a convicted murderer to murder again. No thanks to Huckabee, and I’m a Christian fundamentalist.
That’s what I think. The ones like him and Graham can’t possibly believe that they have a real chance to win, they are just there to split the vote in order to get rid of any real conservatives.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.