Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan has posted the transcript of an interview with Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who now is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
It's a highly substantive interview in which Huckabee discusses many topics ranging from Iraq war and terrorism to taxes, illegal immigration, his record as governor, and the need to restore America's optimistic spirit. Huckabee's sense of humor also shines through, as in this exchange regarding the role of money and name recognition leading the media to crown "front-runners" this early in a long campaign...
RCP: How do you feel the campaign is going so far, you've been in the race for what, six weeks officially now?
HUCKABEE: I think it's going very well and I think we're gaining momentum. The issue now is that this is such a long, protracted presidential campaign - unlike any other ever - and people tend to think that when the punditry has declared someone a front runner that makes it so. Right now the race is really sort of being framed by celebrity and money, but if celebrity and money are the only two criteria to be President, then Paris Hilton would qualify as our next President if she could just get to the age of 35. She may never make it to the age of 35 at the rate she's going, I don't know.
But that's not the criteria for being president. It's about leadership, it's about ideas, it's about the capacity to inspire and encourage Americans to do their best, be their best, and to solve the problems that people really feel like are in their way.
Huckabee comes across as a guy clearly qualified to be president, and clearly thoughtful about the issues facing this country rather than just a recycler of soundbites and talking points. But, like it or not, it does take money and name recognition to run for office, and if you don't have the latter you need to raise a lot of the former in order to stay in the race long enough to acquire the latter.
But it's been done before, as Huckabee said Monday.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee compared his campaign Monday to that of another former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, who was hardly a front-runner when he started his ultimately successful run for the White House.
"Clinton was not deterred," Huckabee said Monday as he started a two-day fundraising tour of North Carolina. "He didn't stop when people were saying that nobody was going to nominate an unknown, southern governor."
Clinton had his saxophone, of course. And Huckabee's got a guitar.
NO Huckabee,
I'm from Arkansas, and I'm a Conservative. Huckabee was a good Republican governor in his first term, but he decided to "grow" in office in his second. He is now nothing more than an open-borders, tax-raising nanny-stater.
He is not Conservative, no matter what he says. His record in his second term proves otherwise.
Look at the ratings on Huckabee, from either Club for Growth, Heritage, or Cato(can't remember which) - he scored in a tie for WORST Republican governor in his second term on fiscal policy, and was even behind many Democrat governors.
Also, he's an illegal immigrant apologist, calling people for strong borders "un-Christian", and he is an overt nanny-stater, signing a statewide smoking ban into law.
I am a Republican from Arkansas, who voted for Huckabee twice. I won't make that mistake again, no matter who he is running against.
Posted by: David | March 27, 2007 4:21 PM | Permalink to Comment