Questions for the Huckster
Did I just call him that? Really, I didn’t mean it that way.* Anyway, Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard wonders when someone is going to get a straight answer out of Huckabee on the pressing foreign policy issues of the day. He doesn’t much like the ones he’s been hearing:
Just moments into the third Republican presidential debate, last June 5, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about Iraq. “Governor Huckabee, do you have confidence in the government of Iraq, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that he’s going to do what needs to be done?”
Huckabee responded:
I think there’s some real doubt about that, Wolf. But I want to remind all of us on this stage and the people in the audience that there’s a reason that this is such a struggle. And I think we miss it over here in the West. Today’s the birthday of Ronald Reagan. We all would believe that Ronald Reagan is the one who ended the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan is the one who helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union. But there’s a group of people who don’t believe that, and that’s the Taliban. They believe they brought about the demise of the Soviet Union because of the way they fought in Afghanistan. And what I want to just mention is that it is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog.
…
The United States, he said, is like the exceptional kid we all knew growing up. If only the United States were not such a braggadocio and spent more time encouraging other countries to be their best–helping them with their spelling tests, as it were–these countries would spend less time wishing us ill and more time emulating us. (Does that mean we should be doing more to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq? Huckabee didn’t say.)
Huckabee also curiously suggested he would “beef up our human intelligence capacity” because he would “rather have more people in Langley so we can have fewer in Baghdad.”
…
The Bush administration is guilty of a “bunker mentality,” said Huckabee. The war in Iraq has “distracted” the administration from pursuing al Qaeda.
* But he’s really going to need to be a little less coy and get to the point if he wants anyone to see him as presidential.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 6:01 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2007
10 Responses to “Questions for the Huckster”
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December 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Did I just call him that?
You sure as hell did. ‘Tis right here in print.
Really, I didn’t mean it that way
Yea, right..
What we don’t need, is another guy from Arkansas. Two is enough. You know, Bill AND Hillary!
December 15th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Hucka–who?
December 15th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Not just Arkansas, but born in the same town as Bill Clinton, Hope, Arkansas.
Another boy from Hope.
When Hillary recently said we need more than (the Huckster’s) hope, she should be reminded that her husband used the slogan “the man from Hope”.
The H displayed a distinct lack of intellectual breadth in the debate this week, moderated by the editor of the Des Moines Register.
If that’s the draw for evangelicals, God (or someone) help us.
Now The H is joining the long tedious train of bashers of GWB foreign policy.
Arriving somewhat late at that particular party.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
When Hillary recently said we need more than (the Huckster’s) hope,
Maybe Hillary was ragging on Obama’s hope.
Anyway, someone’s hope.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:11 am
If the GOP chooses Huckabee to go up against Hillary I may just vote for the wicked witch of the south. Huckabee’s foreign policy sounds Carteresque and his economics is infantile, positively Democratic in that respect.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:57 am
So, no one likes the Sgt in “Stripes”?
Cheers
December 16th, 2007 at 2:46 am
All the slick of Willy and all the vacuous naiveté of Jimmah! What a two-fer that is!
December 16th, 2007 at 2:46 am
JM-
That’s Sgt Hulka…..
December 16th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Yep …
Cheers
December 17th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I can hardly believe this guy is rising in the polls the way he is. He’s no conservative, he’s not even a compassionate conservative, heck, he’s not even a moderate. He’s a pro-life liberal. If, heavens forbid, he somehow manages to win the nomination, I won’t vote for him. The Democrats would love nothing more than to push their socialist agenda through a Democratically controlled Congress, then make it “bi-partisan” by having a Republican president sign it into law. Forget that. Let them take credit for their own bad ideas.