via Mike Huckabee says he’s ‘very serious’ – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com
Huckabee is unceasingly pleasant and mild, even in relating his grievances. The same sense of humor is there, too. But so are an obvious frustration and a barely concealed bitterness, as well as the underlying question of whether Huckabee really wants to go through with this again or, instead, succumb fully to the showbiz side that he began polishing as a teenage disc jockey in Hope, Ark.
Gallup’s survey of Republicans found that 71 percent would consider voting for him, more than for Palin, Romney or others. The same survey found that he’s the only Republican whom even 50 percent of Americans say they think is qualified to be president.
Chuck Norris and Mike Huckabee on the campaign trail
It’s a bizarre fact that he and President Clinton are from the same small town in Arkansas. Yet, everyone knows that is where the similarities end. Huckabee does have ten years gubernatorial experience without much controversy, but the problem with Huckabee is that likes to go out on a limb, politically. Here’s what I mean.
If you go to FOX Entertainment’s Huckabee page today, there is a rant above the fold by Huckabee complaining, whining rather, about a perceived problem with people hating the American flag. Even at first glance this has “straw man” written all over it. Here’s the lead-in quote: “If the American flag offends people in America, they should take the next flight to where they fly a flag they like better.” Is this a real issue?
The rant about flag haters begins with a short anecdotal tale of a man fired by Home Depot for wearing a button that says “One Nation, Under God” set on a background of the American flag. It is true. The man was fired for wearing the button. But the man, Trevor Keezor, was not fired for what the button said, but for violating Home Depot’s dress code. There are to be no unapproved buttons worn in Home Depot no matter what the message on the button is.
A Home Depot spokesman said Keezer was fired because he violated the company’s dress code.
“This associate chose to wear a button that expressed his religious beliefs. The issue is not whether or not we agree with the message on the button,” Craig Fishel said. “That’s not our place to say, which is exactly why we have a blanket policy, which is long-standing and well-communicated to our associates, that only company-provided pins and badges can be worn on our aprons.”
Huckabee has attempted to make an issue out of something that is so easily debunked even I can do it. What everyone should notice right away is that the statement on the button that the man wore to Home Depot was not religious in nature. Rather, it was an attempt at a political statement in support of yet another non-issue. It is about an issue that cries out that somehow, somewhere, in this country there is this big hullabaloo about changing the pledge of allegiance that, in reality, no-one is complaining about, doesn’t care about, and just flatly doesn’t exist.
This is where Huckabee slides further out onto that limb. He believes that the beating the dead-horse non-issue of “hating” the flag will somehow earn him political capital with the right wing base. It might earn some, but it is nowhere near the tidal wave he needs to overcome his frumpy persona and plastic ideals. (His major economic message during the campaign in 2008 was to tout a flat tax idea borrowed from Americans For Fair Taxation which, according to the CBO and most experts, won’t work and is just a huge give-away to the rich.) Huckabee must have went hunting for a cause and ran into the flat tax and, since nobody was talking about it, he decided that this bad idea was his ticket to the top. Stupid.
And what is up with his infatuation with Chuck Norris?
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Obama Schools Republicans on the Box In Which They Put Themselves (Video)
Re: Obama Goes To GOP Lions’ Den — And Mauls The Lions, Sam Stein, Huffington Post, 01/29/10
Somehow, Obama knew beforehand that he could win the arguments that these Republicans are hurling at him in the media most everyday, arguments like, “The Republicans have a health care plan, but Pelosi ignored it,” and “Our health care plan would insure all Americans at half the cost.” He went in to the Q & A confidently. Obama took on the worst and most vitriolic talking points that the right could throw at him and volleyed back with clear and concise logic and fact. President Obama did more than that, he went to the heart of the tea bagger talking points that have Republican constituencies in such an uproar and shined a bright light of truth on them. You can read the entire transcript of the question and answer session here.
The President was asked by US Representative Jason Chaffetz (R) UT-3:
The President explained to the Congressman that over the course of the health care debate most of it was actually on CSPAN. There were so many committees that it was impossible to cover them all live because of logistical difficulties. The best part comes toward the end of his answer when be skillfully pivots and begins addressing the vitriolic health care talking points that have been repeated by the right wing fringe from tea baggers to FOX Entertainment. (I refuse to call it news.) It was here that President Obama explained to the GOP audience the fact that they have boxed themselves in by working up their constituents in such an anti-Obama fervor, than any attempt by them to sit down with him for any meaningful discussion would be treated like treason to the party.
Now, the next step is for President Obama to attend a gathering of the Progressive Caucus and take their questions in the same manner. They throw as much vitriol at Obama as does his political opponents. The left attack Obama just as much as the right. The far left radicalize nuclear power, gay rights, Obama’s economic team, and a host of other issues. He must confront them next.
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