First, I should clarify that I find Mr. Huckabee a devout, genuine Christian. That said, there are no doubt many Christians who may beat me to Heaven, but cannot be entrusted with a Boy Scout troop, let alone with the United States. I have yet to find any real evidence that Mr. Huckabee is cut out for the latter position.
Regarding his use of Christianity: I do not know if that “floating cross” image was intentional. I don’t really care as I find it manipulative either way. If that ad was just a “merry Christmas” message, then why was it funded by Mr. Huckabee’s campaign (which is not flush with cash), and why was it only shown in early primary states: New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina? S
Sir, we celebrate Christmas in Pennsylvania as well! Why did we not get your best wishes? Mr. Huckabee has done a lot of coasting on his Christianity, and this ad is a particularly disingenuous example of that.
I have looked for signs of real substance in Mr. Huckabee, and have been worried by what I have found. For instance, in Iowa, a little girl asked him who his favorite author was. Huckabee said it was Dr. Seuss.
Either this was an attempt to please the girl, which seems phony, or it is the mark of a rather stunted intellect in a 52 year old man. Neither sounds palatable after 7 years of President Bush.
What makes this worse is the fact that this Dr. Seuss fan wants to enact grand federal schemes for education and already has a history of expanding governmental control of homschooling. Homeschoolers have a strong love affair with Huckabee; the sooner the rose-colored lenses come off, the better for everyone.
But at least he could be better in foreign policy than Bush or Giuliani, right? So I would have thought, but I seem to be wrong. Mr. Huckabee has published a statement outlining his foreign policy. The bland, unsupported generalizations sound like a high schooler’s essay—but this is at least an improvement over Dr. Seuss! Less promising is the doubling of the military budget and expanding the war to Pakistan. A blogger has already fisked this mess here.
Mr. Huckabee has good intentions but a bloated, overly ambitious mess of a platform. He is an able demagogue, but as a statesman he has every sign of being a sort of Bush III in terms of expanding the war abroad while crippling us at home with further federal intrusions and spending.
I would be glad to work with Mr. Huckabee if he were a pastor in some ministry to the poor, but I do not want to be led by him at any level of government.
Technorati Tags: Huckabee, Ron Paul, Iraq, Pakistan, Floating Cross, Education
Popularity: 2% [?]
Jerry