Huckabee demonstrates his non-incompetence
by tdaxp ~ December 16th, 2007
Mike Huckabee’s article in Foreign Affairs, “America’s prioties in the war on terror: Islamists, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan” is striking for two things. The first is that the rhetoric is particularly harsh on Bush’s past actions while not disagreeing with his present policies. The second is that it contains little that can be either strongly agreed with or strongly agreed next.
Therefore, Huckabee’s article achieved its purpose.
Huckabee needed to demonstrate that he is not incompetent on foreign policy. That is, that he can toe the Republican line without attracting typical attacks against Republicans, and that he won’t make actually foolish policy prescriptions. By reading like a consensus documented drafted by the Senate Republican conference, Huckabee does exactly that.
At this point, Governor Huckabee’s main use for the party is as a Vice Presidential pick by Mayor Giuliani. Rudy’s weakness on abortion is a killer (potentially both for him and the unborn). Picking Mike would signal that Rudy would hold the party line on abortion, but first Huckabee must demonstrate that he isn’t incompetent on foreign policy.
Mike does exactly that.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I got to experience The Huck first hand in Arkansas.
His problems that both sides can agree on:
-Illegally accepted exorbitant gifts
-Took a state owned plane for his book tour
-Illegally deleted public emails and information
-Refused to release information to the Arkansas Times
-Dumond issue…
However, there were many positive aspects that many consider to outweigh his questionable ethics in office.
-Highway contruction
-Rural school consolidation (bold stance on controversial issue)
-Budget Surplus at time of national downturn
His biggest strength was that he, like Clinton, was willing to negotiate on many issues. Fred Thompson's ad has a clip of Huckabee saying that he'd be fine with raising taxes. Huckabee knows that to get things done, especially in a state with a democratic house and senate, you have to be willing to negotiate and think practically.
Huckabee is a consensus builder with charm and wit. While he may be conservative he certainly knows how to make deals and be bi-partisan.
Here's an interesting little quip he made:
He was at a press event in Iowa where throngs of reporters were asking him questions. Across the room a woman's shoe fell off. Huckabee immediately stopped asking questions, waded through the crowd to the shoe, bent down to one knee, slipped the shoe on the woman's foot, and said “should have been a glass slipper.”
Soob has a good piece on the Rise of Huck!
December 17th, 2007 at 12:00 am
At this point with Huckabee rising and Guiliani falling, I don't think he'd take the VP slot.