Huckabee's populist message

[eridani]

OK, so who wins a Huckabee/Clinton matchup?

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/59706/

Leave it to the New York Times' crack campaign team to take what is a truly interesting story from the Republican presidential primary and boil it down into an uninteresting, hackneyed attempt to mimic People magazine-style nonsense (Suggestion for a new Times slogan: All the fluff that's fit to print). The Gray Lady - like almost every other major news outlet that is covering the campaign - uses former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's (R) surprising second-place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll as an excuse to write not about the unique nature of Huckabee's substantive message, but to make the claim that the only reason he is getting ahead is because his "humor amounts to a style of politicking that many audiences have found engaging."

I'm not saying Huckabee isn't funny, but I am saying that he also has an extraordinarily different message than any of the other Republican presidential contenders - a populist economic message that may be shunned by conservative operatives and K Street lobbyists in the GOP-dominated Money Party in Washington, but likely has an appeal among rank-and-file working-class Republican voters.

Though Beltway reporters are too insulated in their cliched views of politics to see how this economic populist appeal may be fueling Huckabee's candidacy, it is a phenomenon Democrats should be well aware of if they want to win the White House in 2008.

Here is Huckabee quoted on the AFL-CIO's webpage from the recent Republican presidential debate:

"The most important thing a president needs to do is to make it clear that we're not going to continue to see jobs shipped overseas, jobs that are lost by American workers, many in their 50s who for 20 and 30 years have worked to make a company rich, and then watch as a CEO takes a $100 million bonus to jettison those American jobs somewhere else. And the worker not only loses his job, but he loses his pension. That's criminal. It's wrong."

[sandnsea]

1. market-based, private sector health care

He is not an economic populist so can we please just quit posting this nonsense that says he is. Just because he rants about outsourcing, that doesn't mean he has a good economic policy for the people.


http://www.explorehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_ID=8

[eridani]

3. He is a Republican, after all

But if he makes calling out outsourcing on every possible occasion a focal point of his campaign, what effect will that have on a Democrat who doesn't?

[sandnsea]

4. Which Democrat isn't?

And yes, he is a Republican. So if you want to post his praises, go do it on a Republican board. This is getting ridiculous. He would be a horrible horrible President, easily as bad as Bush. Stop pretending there's anything redeeming about the man, there isn't.

[eridani]

5. Geez--where did you get the idea I was praising him?

I'm saying that if he keeps hitting on outsourcing, despite his horrible stances on just about every other issue, he could cut into our base. I say we fight that by putting this front and center ourselves.

[EST]

2. Keeping in mind a rather devastating campaign, driven by pubicker

misdirection and exaggeration, isn't Huckabee the very governor who insisted, nay, demanded, that a child molester be paroled, claiming the chap was rehabilitated.

If I recall correctly, three weeks after said molester was out, three weeks... the "rehabilitated" rapist raped and killed another child.
I think this story, as a cautionary tale intended to illustrate Hackaboos lack of serious judgment capability-typically republicker, would serve to derail any serious competition between them in a Clinton---Huckabuk pairing.

I am not a Hillary Clinton fan and am disappointed and annoyed that I will have to make a decision between her and someone who's much worse, but I would have to vote for senator Clinton far, far above Hickeybob. She's better qualified, undeniably smarter and has a better track record. She may not be more fun to have a beer with.

[trayted]

6. Of the current GOP field, Huckabee is the strongest GE candidate they have

He'd win all of the Christian voters, some of whom would vote for Edwards instead of Giuliani or Romney, and he's from a southern/midwestern hybrid state.

He wouldn't scare off GOPers like Giuliani and Romney could (especially when we start talking about what Mormons believe, such as that prophecy about a Mormon President rising up and how after they die, Romney and his wife could get a planet), and he's a "great" speaker. The way he weaved scripture into his speech at the straw poll, as shown on C-Span, was masterful.

Huckabee would be a strong GE candidate for the GOP. Hopefully they are too stupid to nominate him.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. He's the only GOP candidate that comes across as sane.

[trayted]

14. And yet he isn't, since he clearly doesn't believe in a separation of church and state

Christian fundamentalist voters should realize that if those barriers ever get totally destroyed, they will be the first ones that the government comes after.

[AtomicKitten]

8. He doesn't believe in evolution ..... Next!

[Totally Committed]

10. I was just gonna post that! --- Great minds, and all that...

But, that having been said, Hillary is no populist, either.

Anyway.... :hi:

TC

[AtomicKitten]

15. oh, and they must also wear pants (nt)

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Huckabee's BIG problem that cannot be overlooked is his religion

and all that comes form that.

6000 year old earth

Sanctity of marriage

Women as chattel

Etc.

He does, indeed, have a great populist economic message and he is an engaging guy, but that religion thing, it seems to me, is a complete and utter show stopper.

[Phoonzang]

11. As someone with a few connections

to the Huckabee campaign (not part of it of course), I can say that if Huckabee somehow wins the Repub nomination, we're most likely going to lose the election, no matter who we run. Besides his nutty religious views, there's no real dirt on the guy. The religion thing may be a problem for us, but will it be a problem for most of the voters? As mentioned, he's also extremely charismatic. Just....pray...that one of the other losers is the nominee.

[Inuca]

12. I completely agree

Huckabee is scary,, partly because on the surface he is so likeable. Is somehow he makes it to the top, he may be very dangerous.

[TwilightGardener]

13. There's not dirt on the guy? His son beat, tortured and slit a dog's throat.

He and his wife did some kind of weird and inappropriate gift-registry thing to score goodies when they left office. He capitalized on the Jonesboro shooting by writing a book about it, and then didn't share proceeds with the victim's families. Read above about the paroled rapist turned murderer who was set free because of political pressure. Not sure where you get your info from.

[msanthrope]

17. Wayne Dumond was the child rapist. Huckabee freed

him because he claimed that he was persecuted by the Clintons---

You see, one of his victims was a distant cousin of Bill. And Wayne's balls got removed while awaiting trial.

So Huckabee took up Wayne's cause, and for years claimed that poor Wayne was a victim of evil Bill and Hill.

Paroled him---and Wayne went back to raping, this time, killing a woman.

Bastard died in 2005..

http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/7.html

[TwilightGardener]

18. Good Lord. What excellent judgment on display there, huh?

That's way worse than a Willie Horton, for Fuckabee. He let this guy go for political reasons.

[Phoonzang]

20. Ok you're right....there is dirt, but

all he really has to do is smile and turn on the charm all that will be negated. America has fallen for the humble "aw shucks" routine before, and they will again. As we know, its very rare that facts matter to voters, it's how a candidate looks and whether they'd be fun to have a beer with. Huckabee doesn't drink, but you get my point.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a cynic, but I don't think that his problems are going to have much of an impact on his popularity, beyond Arkansas at least.

[Hestia]

16. Oh I am sure there is some dirt, like

destroying what 80 +/- hard drives in the Governor's office when he left. Totally destroyed systems that the taxpayers of Ark had to pay to replace. Plus some shenanigan's in the Governor's Mansion.
Ask the people of Arkansas about his policies - he is reviled here.

[OHdem10]

19. I have not recuperated from the fact that Huckabee

either panders heavily or really does not believe in Evolution.

What is his Market Based approach to solving the Trade Policy
Problem.


with the GOP they talk a good game of populism but no reporter
even burrows in and asks how would you do something differently

Huckabee has a charming personality and great sense of humor,
We NEED CHANGE. NYT should delve a little more deeply.

GWB said all the right things about SS, Medicare as a charming
compassionate conservatie. WE found out after he is President
he planned to Privatize SS, His Medicare Reform provided humongous
amounts of goodies to BIG PHRMA .

[Enrique]

21. Laura Ingraham asked him about the rising crime rate

she was interviewing him on her radio show.

His answer made my jaw drop, and I'm sure it made Ingraham's drop. She obviously expected him to blame rap music or whatever, but he answered by talking about the growing inequality between rich and poor that is enraging people. And he didn't just leave it there, he elaborated and stuck to it when Ingraham tried to steer him into more familiar territory.

Of course, Huckabee is no democrat. If he won the nomination, the dem candidate would have a pretty easy time exposing it as just a pose. It's totally inconsistent with being a republican during the Bush administration. They could simply list all the countless instances of GOP rapaciousness over the past eight years, and ask Huckabee what he did about it. Did he speak out? Whom did he endorse in 2004?

[seasat]

22. Huckabee supports raising taxes on the middle class

He supports the odious "fair" tax which would be a significant tax cut for the wealthy and a heavy tax increase on the middle class. It's a political calculation on his part since the Club for Growth has been gunning for him since he broke a read my lips promise on taxes as Arkansas Governor. He's trying to appear populist while at the same time supporting a highly regressive tax system that only appeals to libertarians and right wingnuts.

We shouldn't be fooled by his message. If he does get the nod, he is the most dangerous of the Repugs in the general election so everyone be wary of him. I'd rather our candidate face Rudy McRomney or Waffling Thompson than Huckabee.