“I am a conservative but I am not mad at anyone.” That statement is a paraphrase of Mike Huckabee’s most famous statement and one that describes what is so likable to many about the ex-governor of Arkansas.
Mike Huckabee announced over the weekend that he would NOT be running for president. In many polls, Huckabee was the front-runner. Some analysts believe he is the only Republican who can beat Obama. So why did Huckabee decide not to run? Some folks say he lacked the fire in the belly to do what it takes to run for president.
That’s OK. Huckabee has a pretty decent show on Fox News. (one of the few I will call FOX rather than Faux.) He gets to play music with his band and be a nice guy. He is making good money and he might not want to give it all up. That’s OK too. I still like and respect him. He isn’t a guy I could ever vote for. But I can watch him on TV and listen to his ideas. He isn’t beating me over the head with them.
After this announcement, Mike Huckabee is now a true Freebird!
Mrs. Huckabee says that the Governor will never have too many guitars in his own mind. One gets the impression she would tote half of them off to the dump if his back is turned.
Mike Huckabee has always seemed like a decent sort. His politics are too conservative for someone like me but I have always respected his sincerity and his decency. He also plays a mean guitar.
While promoting his book, ‘A Simple Christmas,’ he took the time to speak out against his fellow Republicans taking a swipe at simply everything President Obama has done. He said he hated it when it was done to Bush and he hates it being done to Obama:
Appearing before the Hudson Union Society to discuss his forthcoming book, “A Simple Christmas”, Huckabee took umbrage with the criticism levied by some conservatives over Obama’s visit to Dover Air Force base to see the coffins of returning soldiers.
When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say “Aw, that’s just a cheap photo-op.” No, I think it was the Commander-in-Chief of our military paying respect to a dead soldier, and I’m grateful that he did that, and I was proud of him for doing that. And I think we all — as Americans — should give him credit for doing that.
He continued:
When he and Michele hosted the tricker-treaters on Halloween, quit finding something wrong with that. Say “Good, I’m glad that he and the First Lady are treating children to an experience at the White House.” And I just find it deplorable that some people on my end of the aisle want to find everything wrong and nothing right about the man as a man.
The underlying point, Huckabee concluded, was that knee-jerk criticism to the president was counter-productive to civil debate. “I hated it when people did that to George Bush,” he said. “They couldn’t even laugh at the man’s jokes they found something wrong with everything and if we do that to Barack Obama, then shame on us, shame on us. No wonder our country is so divided when that happens.”
Mike Huckabee is also an ordained minister. Perhaps that is what gives him a sense of decency. Maybe he is just a southern gentleman. At any rate, he serves as a model for the rest of us. He raises the political bar to where it should be. He is not an ad hominem attack kind of guy.
We may see a lot more of Mike Huckabee in the upcoming years. By the time the next presidential election rolls around, people might just be ready for ‘nice.’
