‘I’m Still In the Race’
He's got a delegate deficiency. But don't start asking Mike Huckabee about the veep slot just yet.
Report From the Front
Running on little cash, Mike Huckabee manages to get much free publicity because of his preacher's gifts and garage-band showmanship. (Trouncing John McCain in the Kansas caucus on Saturday didn't hurt, either.) After taping "The Colbert Report" in New York last Thursday, he sat down with NEWSWEEK'S Howard Fineman. Excerpts:
Fineman
:
How do you answer people who say that you ensured John McCain
'
s nomination by hurting Mitt Romney?
Huckabee: I find it amazing that people would say that I "hurt" Romney. Could it not be that he hurt me? Had he not been in South Carolina—and if Fred Thompson had not been there—I would have won. Would it have changed the universe for me? Yes, it would have. Why is it that my candidacy should disappear? Who is it that has the right to pull the plug on it? Is it my critics? My critics never supported me, so why would I sit around and act according to the chorus of critics? I'd rather act according to the chorus of my supporters.
Did you speak to Romney?
We had a pleasant conversation. I told him I thought he ran a great race.
Do you really think he ran a great race?
He could have done far better if he had run as he really is—which is a brilliant businessperson. He tried to present himself more as the champion of the social conservatives. That was tough for him to sell because of so many positions he had taken that were opposite of that. I was somewhat surprised at the attack ads that he ran. When a person is very loud about something, it may be that they're trying to compensate for weaknesses—in his case, on taxes, as one example.
But why did the talk-show hosts pick Romney over you as the conservative horse to ride?
I honestly don't understand that, because my record on conservative issues is truly unblemished. I think most of it had to do with their perception that, No. 1, I wasn't part of the establishment and, No. 2, I would never be able to raise enough money to compete.
Most of your wins have been regional ones. If you are mostly a
"
Southern candidate,
"
doesn
'
t that prove their point?
No, it doesn't. I think the significance of our [Super Tuesday] victory in those five states was that we won despite the headwind of all the talk shows, conventional wisdom and the pundits saying, "Huckabee doesn't belong on this stage."
Can you win the conservatives who were backing Romney?
We'll find out how true they are to their cause. If they look at the records of both of us, I think there's no doubt that I've got a more consistent record, not only in my rhetoric, what I've said, but, more importantly, what I've done.
Why do you think that McCain is so distrusted by so many conservatives?
I think [it's] the deals that he made on federal court nominees; his position on embryonic-stem-cell research; his unwillingness to support a Human Life Amendment, which has been part of our party's platform since 1980. I don't think that makes him a liberal.
Given that list, could you support him?
I could support me better, and that's why I'm still in the race. I think people need a choice, and I think I'm going to give them a choice—and that is why it's, to me, very important to stay in and not leave the field. Would I support John McCain over Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Of course I would. Because on his worst day, I think he's going to be a more conservative and, frankly, a more prepared president than either of the two Democrats.
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Member Comments
Posted By: J Druid @ 02/22/2008 10:37:44 PM
Comment: The leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties are moving us closer and closer to Socialism, away from our Constitution (the true Test of American Patriotism). Both major parties pushed through the Patriot Act (a direct violation of our civil liberties) allowing the Federal government (and the lawmakers) greater access in to our personal lives. We have welfare, medicare, and medicaid, all basically federal government subsidies for Americans as a socialist distribution of wealth and commodities. Then, we have the continuation of undeclared War (a direct violation of our Constitution), allowing the President (or socialist leader) the ability to unilaterally decide whether our country (our Americans) go fight in another country using military resources and costing volunteer military lives.
The very core values of America that the founding fathers of our country laid out for us are being destroyed, and our nation is moving in a perilous direction. The American people need to Wake up from their Slumber, and start helping educate their fellow Americans that we are not Socialists, but in fact we are a Nation of Patriots (people who live by and die for civil liberty as well as individual rights).
Our country sorely needs a third party that will rejuvinate and unify the 40% of Americans that usually don't vote, to overcome the two party system of the Socialist Democrats and Socialist Republicans. Individuals always care for other individuals through charity and good deeds, the Federal government steals from individuals to line the pockets of the Corporations and maintain power for itself, leaving whatever remains recycled back to the American people.
Stop sleep walking into Socialism --- Wake up and fight for our Founding Fathers core values of freedom and equality for all! Freedom from the Federal government intervention! Freedom from excessive taxation!
Posted By: J Druid @ 02/22/2008 10:37:28 PM
Comment: "There's only "a dime's worth of difference" between the Republican and Democratic parties, and they're fighting over that dime! "
Obama, Clinton, McCain, Huckabee --
1. All voted to continue funding the Iraq War.
2. All support "comprehensive immigration reform" -- Washington speak for Amnesty for illegal aliens. They want their big corporation buddies to be happy now don't they with their cheap labor. Meanwhile we pay higher taxes to offset the burden that would put on Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare. If you subsidize something you get more of it, the more we subsidize illegal immigration the more we will get of it, and the more illegal alien families will be affected and hurt.
3. All wish to enact some socialist program or another for the "greater good" -- Translation, we want you to pay higher taxes so we (the federal government) can spend it in the way that benefits our special interest group. Obama (Health care insurance companies), Clinton ( Pharmaceuticals), McCain (Military industrial complex including all military corporations), Huckabee (Military industrial complex).
4. All are for reforming Washington and ridding it of government and lobbyist control (well so they say).
5. All support the Patriot Act (a direct violation of our civil liberties)
Posted By: gohuckabee @ 02/13/2008 7:54:40 PM
Comment: Why would any one who is in the race for President not give people the choice to pick who they want as their President, and listen to them who say drop out? Great men don't listen to selfcenterness, or downright (ignorance)!! You have every right to stay in the race!! You go Mike Huckabee!!!