Huckabee is Republican Flavor of the Week

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has emerged as the hot property in the Republican Party’s race for the White House. The reasons are threefold. First, he isn’t one of the frontrunners. Second, he hasn’t had his proposed platform scrutinized. Third, he’s a happy guy, and of the three, that matters most.

The painfully long campaign to succeed George “LBJ” Bush has already burned up the novelty of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. John McCain’s went up in smoke some years ago. None has really convinced potential voters that he can retain the White House for the GOP. As a result, Republicans have buyer’s remorse even before they have made the purchase. Mr. Huckabee is new, and that can’t be bad – or so the thinking goes.

On policies, he’s all over the place. He wants to replace the federal income tax with a regressive national sales tax (he says 23% is enough, most economists will say 30% is a minimum) and rebate money to the poor, which would require a bureaucracy every bit as invasive as the IRS he wants to abolish. He’s a free trader who wants independence from foreign oil and food. A quick look at the Council on Foreign Relations website will show that his stances on India, domestic intelligence, North Korea, Cuba, defense, military action against Iran, and the UN in general are all “unknown.:”

William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'” and George F. Will stated, “Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.” Both observations are true, and as a result, conservatism tends to be expressed in negativity. A philosophical grumpiness looms over it. The American voter is turned off by such pessimism about life.

Like Ronald Reagan before him, Mike Huckabee has found a way to be upbeat in his approach – conservatism with a smiling face. In taking about Medicare, he warns of a demographic time bomb by explaining the problem of what happens when “all the old hippies find out that they get free drugs.” A former Baptist minister, he joked that Jesus of Nazareth probably wouldn’t approve of air travel, punning , “‘Lo, I am with you always.’ But He said nothing about up high.” In talking about how he lost 100 pounds, he said he went to the doctor who told him “You’re fat.” Mr. Huckabee says on the stump, “I wanted a second opinion,” and the doctor offered, “You’re ugly, too.” The joke is older than Groucho Marx, but could any of the other GOP candidates get away with it? That’s why he’s tripled his support in Iowa to 24% since July.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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