Rethinking Huckabee; Why I No Longer Endorse Huckabee.

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With all the conversation about Huckabee, all the heat from conservatives, I have decided to sit and think nice and hard about my decision to endorse him. As a Christian, social issues are on the top of my list. If a candidate isn’t pro-life I won’t even consider voting for them. When I first started investigating the candidates for the 2008 elections I started with the most socially conservative to find my pick. Sure it’s best to have an all around conservative but I was mostly concerned with abortion. My first choice for awhile was Sam Brownback, I even helped out the campaign a little and was really supportive of him.

As time went on I started to like Mike. He had good things to say, his now famous one liners were always great and I even liked most of his stances on the issues—most. Only recently have I started to think that Mike isn’t the best guy for the job. Sure he’s a great speaker, very funny, a Baptist minister and very socially conservative but is that enough? Will I vote for the next President of the United States because he is funny? Of course the answer is simply no, I can’t and I am pretty sure I won’t be choosing Mike either.

Why? What has changed your mind?

Most Huckabee supporters will never catch wind of the fact that they are being played and will continue to support him. I think Mike winning the nomination would be very bad for the Republicans. I happen to believe now that it would be as bad as Rudy winning, way worse in reality. Why? Rudy because he is staunchly pro-choice, Mike because he wouldn’t be able to hold his cool once the Democrats started to hammer the issues out and make people realize he is pretty liberal himself. Mike may be a smooth talker but he can’t hide his illegal immigration track record or his other bumps in the past, nor will he be able to ride it out simply with the evangelical voters’ support.

I’m not one of those Christians, the ones that will jump for anyone that praises Jesus.

First and foremost in my life I am a Christian. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think for myself. I was duped for a little while by Huckabee because of my Christian lifestyle. He sounded great, was a Christian, spoke some great thoughts and seemed like the one person that reflected who I was the most accurately. But because of my respect for those that have come against Mike I have rethought things and realized I have been wrong. Mike is a great guy, a great speaker and would be a great friend probably. However, I was sucked in by his words and now see that he is no where near the best choice for the Republican nomination.

What issues specifically bother you?

Immigration.

From CNSNews.com:

When he was governor, Huckabee held the following positions on illegal immigration: He supported higher education benefits for children of illegal immigrants, opposed a federal roundup of illegals from his state in 2005, opposed a 2001 bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote in the state, and in 2001, a member of his administration pushed for legislation to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

Read more about Huckabee and immigration.

He tends to contradict himself.

Imparent7777-2.blogspot.com lists some interesting contradictions before the Iowa caucus.

_He decided not to air a commercial attacking Romney but played it for journalists, anyway.
_He said he supports the Hollywood writers’ strike but crossed the picket line to appear on the Jay Leno’s “Tonight” show.
_He campaigned at a casino in Burlington, Iowa, despite his opposition to gambling.
Even his senior aides have had trouble keeping their story straight. Asked about Romney saying he’d won the “silver” in Thursday’s caucuses, campaign manager Chip Saltzman said he wouldn’t go there.
“You know, one of the things that we try to do as a campaign is always worry about our campaign and not necessarily comment about what the other folks have done,” Saltzman said at a news conference outside Huckabee’s victory party. “And we’re going to try to continue to do that.”
Moments later, campaign chairman Ed Rollins leaned into the microphone and went there.
“I’m glad that Governor Romney is happy with his silver, but my experience in politics is there are no bronzes and silvers,” Rollins said.
“You win, and you get to go on and govern. You lose, you go home. He doesn’t, obviously, have to go home. There’s more states to compete in. But I think to a certain extent, he’ll have to rethink more of what he does than we’re going to have to rethink what we do.
“Because he had the best consultants, the best media people, all the polling in the world, all the money in the world, and he just lost and lost fairly badly.”
Rollins, a political brawler who managed President Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984, joined the Huckabee camp only three weeks ago and has contributed to some of its growing pains.
It was Rollins who persuaded Huckabee to go negative with attack ads against Romney; ultimately, Huckabee decided not to run the commercial. And it was Rollins who recommended playing it, anyway, at a news conference where the campaign had planned to unveil the attack.
In the end, the gambit seemed to have worked; many voters said they liked that Huckabee decided not to run attack ads.
Rollins is hardly the only reason for the campaign’s problems. Huckabee’s shoestring operation has struggled to keep up with his swift ascent in the polls, scrambling with tasks that other campaigns are accustomed to, like booking buses or a plane for the throng of journalists who cover him.
Huckabee himself has struggled to keep up. Last month, he was unaware of a report the White House had released saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program, and he flubbed his response to the assassination of Pakistan’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, expressing apologies when he meant to say sympathies. He also warned that Pakistan is second only to Latin America in the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, which is not true.
Clearly, Huckabee is still adjusting to the spotlight that accompanied his unexpected and improbable rise. But if he performs well in New Hampshire and continues to gain momentum, he will have to become more disciplined.
“You can get away with making some mistakes with voters, as long as they’re not huge — sometimes when the establishment picks on you because of a minor mistake, it benefits you,” Mueller said. “Mistakes are going to be made in every campaign. The key is to limit mistakes and maximize opportunity and let the candidate’s message drive everything.”

Respectable conservatives railing against Huckabee.
Several, if not most, respectable conservatives have come out strongly against Huckabee. Rush Limbaugh has made it a point to rail against Huckabee and will tell you plainly how he feels. Michelle Malkin has come out against Mike for his stances of immigration several times. Matt Drudge makes a point to post whatever he can against Huckabee it seems. I can’t simply ignore those that I have always went to for advice and opinion, doing that would be the equivalent of sticking a finger in each ear and screaming, “I can’t hear you.”
Club for growth criticism.

“Governor Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative,” Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said, “but his ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation. To be sure, Governor Huckabee’s record displays an occasional deference to a pro-growth philosophy, but that is only a small slice of a much bigger picture. The Club for Growth feels citizens deserve a full picture of where Governor Huckabee stands on the critical economic issues of the day.”

Read more here.
Pardon record.

If you’re wondering how Gov. Huckabee’s hundreds of clemencies compare with neighboring states, get ready for a shocker.
Huckabee leads the pack. He has issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined.
Governors seldom reduce sentences in other states – and almost never for murderers serving life without parole or for rapists or for habitual drunk drivers, while in Arkansas it’s a regular habit with Huckabee.

Read more here.
I’m sure there is a mountain more, I know there were a lot accusations pertaining to ethics but I don’t need anymore evidence to change my mind about Mike.
Final words.
Mike’s past cannot be ignored. My decision to endorse Huckabee did not come out of research it came of the fact that he was a great speaker and makes great one liners that make you think. Thanks to many people speaking against him I finally did some research and realize I have been fooled. Mike is someone that would be a good friend, a good pastor, perhaps a decent Governor but surely not a good President. If Huckabee were to win the nomination he would be torn apart in the elections and the Republicans would be looking at four-to-eight years of Hillary or Obama. I can’t take back my arguments for Huckabee and I’m sure it makes me seem confused. I have to admit it seems that way but I wasn’t foolish, I was simply fooled. Look into things yourself, Huckabee is a funny guy but not the best choice for the nomination, not by a long shot.
Who do I support now?
A simple one sentence answer; I am not quite sure but I know it’s not Huckabee anymore.

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Tags: 2008 Elections Mike Huckabee