Saturday, March 5, 2011

Huckabee and the page 183 controversy

It’s been a bad week for Mike Huckabee. I’m a Huckabee supporter, but it’s undeniable

First, he blurts out that Obama grew up in Kenya. Then, he tries to correct it by saying he really grew up in an indonesian madrassa. And then, that he of course knew this and wrote about it on page 183 in his new book, A simple government. To make matters worst, he didn’t actually say that on page 183. No reason why he should; the book wasn’t about Obama anyway. But it doesn’t say Obama grew up in Indonesia, which he said it did.

As a matter of fact, if you’re looking for a condemnation of birthers, you don’t have to look far: On page one, Huckabee writes:

Since Barack Obama was elected, plenty of books have been written criticizing his administration and accusing him of all sorts of things – from being a Marxist, to lying about his citizenship to being a muslim.. But if you know me or if you’re familiar with my commentaries on TV and radio, you know that I don’t like to make politics personal. That’s because I was raised to believe in the Golden Rule, and I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t like being called names or ridiculed. So I want to start out by saying that if you’ve come here looking for a personal attack on President Obama and those in Washington, you should head to another shelf in the bookstore.

Here, he clearly says that saying Obama is a muslim and/or lying about his citizenship is a form of namecalling and ridiculing which he doesn’t engage in. Why would he condemn birthers more than that – the book isn’t about them after all?

On page 183, he writes (regarding why Obama had given back a bust of Winston Churchill):

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph explains Obama’s strange behavior: “Churchill has less happy connotations for Mr. Obama than for those American politicians who celebrate his wartime leadership. It was during Churchill’s second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion… Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama

The point is that Huckabee is saying that Obama has ties to Kenya, but not that he grew up there. After the disastrous interview, he corrected himself and said Obama’s grandfather grew up in Kenya (which is true). On this page (183), he proves that he already knew that since he mentions it.

No, he doesn’t say directly that Obama was born in the US, or that he spent some of his childhood in Indonesia. If he said that information was on page 183, then he was wrong. Still, I think the whole controversy has blown way over proportion.

Obama was born in America. Unfortunately, his ideas were born in Russia.

The second question I’d like to clarify in this post is: Why is this happening now? Why is the media making such a big thing out of everything that Huckabee says all of a sudden? Not just this Kenya stuff, but also the thing about Natalie Portman. The media seems to be really harsch on him, all of a sudden.

My theory is that they want to remind Huckabee of what a campaign feels like. Huckabee has said several times that he dislikes campaigning, but also that he feels he can win. The media is now telling Huckabee “This is what you’ll have to go through every day if you run – is it really worth it?”. They are trying to demoralise him; he has been sounding more like a candidate lately and they think that maybe he has forgotten about what he had to endure during his 2008 campaign. The media is trying to remind Huckabee about how badly he was treated in the last campaign, they are telling him “We’ll be even worst on you this time”.

Hopefully, Huckabee won’t fall for that one. I think he’s stubborn and the more people try to scare him, the more likely he’ll be to jump in. I think there are few things Huckabee want more than punching these media people in the face, and what better way to do that than being elected President? Yeah, I know what you are going to say, “You shouldn’t run because of that, you should run because you love your country etc”. But Huckabee has always loved his country. If that was the only issue, he would have declared his candidacy the day after ending his last bid. Now, he has been confronted with the evil forces in America once more, and I am confident this will only make him realize even more how needed he is.

Congratulations, supporters of Romney and Palin. You may just have pushed your worst enemy into the race.

John Gustavsson

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

John, I admire you admitting he's had a bad week and made a mistake, but it was not just a mistake, it was a lie. He has yet to explain it.

We've seen Huck play the 'he's not one of us' game before. The left didn't mind it so much when he did it to Romney, but now he's doing to their guy, and they're not going to let him get away with it. Great! I'm all for Huck getting the attention he deserves.

He skated last election. I don't know how you see that the media was hard on him. They wrote glowing article after glowing article. They loved him--at least as much as they could love any Republican.

For the record, I hope Huckabee runs. I continue to believe that his support in the polls is a mirage, and that he would be easy for Romney to beat. Having him in the race holds a place that another candidate might take--who would really challenge Romney. (Daniels, Pawlenty, etc.) Remember, in 08 Romney had a million more votes and twice as many delegates as Huckabee before he dropped out. I don't know how Huck makes up the difference. Add in Clemmons and a few other problems, and I don't see it.

Anyway, thanks, John. I'm glad at least one Huck supporter has the courage to face the controversy this week.

-Martha

Anonymous said...

John, over at race you said,

"Huckabee just misspoke regarding Obama’s upbringing, and then he said that single parenthood isn’t ideal. What’s so controversial, really? Like Stephen said, it’s just like the floating cross."

Since I'm banned for life over there, I have to respond here. First, he didn't simply misspeak! He lied, and also stirred the poison pot against Obama and his origins.

Second, he didn't just say single parenthood is less than ideal! He singled out a pregnant woman for ridicule!

Come on, John. I expect a little more intellectual honesty from you.

-Martha

kelly said...

Huckabee has has an easy time of it with the media. THE REAL Huckabee seems flustered over his new found attention. Not a quality one seeks in a POTUS.

Pablo said...

"Obama was born in America. Unfortunately, his ideas were born in Russia."

What is that suppose to mean?

Bill589 said...

Palin’s “worst enemy” is the Obama regime.

Huck’s worst enemy, recently, has been Huck.

Anonymous said...

John stop wasting our time. Huckabee is a LIAR, a slimeball, he's crooked and the kind of christian that will go to hell. He will not run because he cant win despite where he's at in the polls. He's too lazy to campaign and he's a fraud. Most of all he never takes blame for what he does, he just plays the victim card and lies his way out of it.

Anonymous said...

YEAH PUSH HIM INTO THE RACE JUST SO HE WILL LOSE. FATBOY HAS NO CHANCE.