Candidate Review - Assassination of Benazir Bhutto - Mike Huckabee

You have to go to Huckabees newsroom page to find his statement on the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto. He also labels it "Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Issues Statement On Breaking News From Pakistan" which fails to mention Benazir Bhutto - not sure about that. Anyway, here's the statement.

“I am deeply troubled by the news accounts this morning of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in a suicide attack. This is devastating news for the people of Pakistan, and my prayers go out to them as we follow developments regarding this dire situation.

”The terrible violence surrounding Pakistan’s upcoming election stands in stark contrast to the peaceful transition of power that we embrace in our country through our Constitution. On this sad day, we are reminded that while our democracy has flaws, it stands as a shining beacon of hope for nations and people around the world who seek peace and opportunity through self-government.”

Yeah I don't know about this. Seems cold and impersonal compared to many of the other statements; and I don't like the tone of American Exceptionalism at the end. Yeah America is great, but this doesn't seem like the right moment to rub that in.

Candidate Review - The Environment - Mike Huckabee

Following some of his compatriots, Mike Huckabee has more of an energy page than an environmental page. Basically he wants us to get a lot more energy.

We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass. Some will come from our farms and some will come from our laboratories. Dwindling supplies and increasing demand from newly-industrialized countries of fossil fuels are driving up prices. These price increases will facilitate innovation and the opportunity for independence. We will remove red tape that slows innovation. We will set aside a federal research and development budget that will be matched by the private sector to seek the best new products in alternative fuels. Our free market will sort out what makes the most sense economically and will reward consumer preferences.

Well it sure doesn't sound like protecting the environment is a priority does it? I guess it's something he'd like to do so long as it doesn't get in his way towards energy independence.

Candidate Review - Electoral Reform - Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee has a 9 point plan to stop Illegal Immigration. He's going to build the wall, increase border patrol, prevent amnesty, enforce the law on employers, establish an economic border (which means passing the Fair Tax, which Immigrants won't like), empower local authorities, ensure document security, discourage dual citizenship (not exactly sure why this is a big problem), modernize the process of legal immigration (the sop for the Hispanic voter (but it's not much of one, honestly)).

Pretty bog standard for Republicans, really. And not really quotable.

Candidate Review - Electoral Reform - Mike Huckabee

Vertical Politics. I don't like the sound of it - because it makes me think of a hierarchical system - people at the top running what happens down below. But when Mike Huckabee uses the term, that's not what he means.

Everywhere I go on the campaign trail, I meet voters with a real thirst for a healthy discussion of the issues. Ultimately, people don't care whether an issue comes from the left or the right. What they want to talk about are ideas that lift America up and make us better. It's what I call "Vertical Politics" and it is why we felt it was so important to set a "Vertical Day" aside to focus on the issues.

One of the goals of Vertical Day, is to give you the ability to promote our campaign and my positions on the issues within your extended network of friends, family members and co-workers.

Hmmmm. So Vertical day is a day for people of all political creeds to get together and support Mike Huckabee? You know people say that Huckabee is an optimistic guy; I guess they are right.

Beyond that, however, unable to find comments on Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Machines or Electoral Reform. A few of his supporters take shots at McCain-Fiengold but other than that not much.

Candidate Review - The Iraq War - Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee is in favor of continuing the war in Iraq to victory. His Iraq Page says that this war is very important and generational.

Iraq is a battle in our generational, ideological war on terror. The Democrats delusionally deny that the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror even as we fight Al Qaeda there.

. . . General Petraeus and our troops are giving their all to provide a window of opportunity for the Iraqi government to succeed, while the Democrats are running for the exit doors. The surge has only been in place since the middle of June, but progress has already been made. It's way too early to write an obituary for the surge as the Democrat defeatists are doing.

Huckabee is a skillful politician, but usually he doesn't come off as didactic as this. The Republican gamble is this - right now people aren't keen on the War on Iraq, and think it was a mistake; but a year from now they might realize how great it is. A year from now Mike Huckabee chastising Democrats for lacking faith in our glorious success in Iraq might play very well. Today it is a gamble, necessary to hold the base (who loves bashing Dems), but not certain to play with the larger electorate.

At any rate, it certainly does seem that where Iraq is concerned, electing Huckabee is a lot like more of President Bush.

Candidate Review - Health Care - Mike Huckabee

Well Mike Huckabee strides the line very skillfully; he is, I have to say, quite a skillful politician. He says that Government doesn't need to mandate health, but that does need to encourage preventative medicine.

The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a "health" system. We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict or funded through ever-higher taxes. We do need to get serious about preventive health care instead of chasing more and more dollars to treat chronic disease, which currently gobbles up 80% of our health care costs, and yet is often avoidable. The result is that we'll be able to deliver better care where and when it's needed.

I advocate policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs and improve the free market for health care services. We have to change a system that happily pays $30,000 for a diabetic to have his foot amputated, but won't pay for the shoes that would save his foot.

I'm not sure exactly how he's going to accomplish this; Insurance companies won't pay for anything not covered; they have an incentive to turn down services. I don't know how you change that through logic.

I also don't know how this helps people who don't currently have insurance. But then again, maybe it's not supposed to.

Candidate Review - Fair Trade - Mike Huckabee

Well Huckabee comes out in favor of Fair Trade. What's interesting is that the split between Free Trade and Fair trade is not a party line split - there are both Republicans and Democrats who think we should move towards more isolationist policies, and there are both Republicans and Democrats who favor free trade. Anyway, Huckabee is a populist, and so favors protecting American jobs.

I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed. Behind the statistics, there are real families and real lives and real pain. I'm running for President because I don't want people who have worked loyally for a company for twenty or thirty years to walk in one morning and be handed a pink slip and be told, "I'm sorry, but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here."

I believe that globalization, done right, done fairly, can be a blessing for our society. As the Industrial Revolution raised living standards by allowing ordinary people to buy mass-produced goods that previously only the rich could afford, so globalization gives all of us the equivalent of a big pay raise by letting us buy all kinds of things from clothing to computers to TVs much more inexpensively.

Well that's populist - I note that he doesn't spend much time considering what our trade policies are doing to other nations; but I suppose his audience isn't much interested in that.

Candidate Review - Foreign Policy - Mike Huckabee

Were I not stuck with this post titling system, I would change the title of this post to "Set Yourself on Fire," the stars song. In a moment you will see why.

Huckabee has three seperate foreign policy pages, all dealing with issues - he has Foreign Policy Iraq (which, as previously noted, is a subject for another week), he has Foreign Policy Israel, and Foreign Policy War on Terror. Foreign Policy War on Terror has most of the relevant bits, talking about the balance between war and Diplomacy, and an interesting mythological reference.

I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. I will fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves.

. . . While I prefer America to be safe and secure within her own borders rather than loved and appreciated abroad, I believe we can accomplish both goals. We can resurrect relationships with our allies and neighbors. With a focus on renewed diplomacy and inclusion, we can accomplish the goals of our nation without having to go it alone.

When the sun rose on September 11, we were the only superpower in the world; when the sun set that day, we were still the only superpower, but how different the world looked. During the Cold War, you were a hawk or a dove, but this new world requires us to be a phoenix, to rise from the ashes of the twin towers with a whole new game plan for this very different enemy. Being a phoenix means constantly reinventing ourselves, dying to mistakes and miscalculations, changing tactics and strategies, rising reborn to meet each new challenge and seize each new opportunity.

So you see President Bush's self-immolation foreign policy strategy makes sense after all. He wants us to rise from the ashes.

At any rate, while Huckabee wants you to know about the other tools in his foreign policy toolbox, War still seems to be the big one.

I'm going to forgo on Israel for now; that might well make a subject for another week as well.

Candidate Review - Abortion - Mike Huckabee

I missed up a chance to riff on "I Heart Huckabees" a few days ago, but I'm sure the opportunity will arise again. Frankly I think Huckabees star is on the rise, which is nice for him but probably not so great for the rest of us.

His website seems clean and reasonably stylish. His issues page has Faith as issue number one and Sanctity of Life (which means Abortion) as number two.

I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.

. . . I first became politically active because of abortion, when I helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it legally can to protect life.

Presumably that without equivocation or wavering bit is intended for Mitt Romney, who's position on Abortion has been a bit wavering. Actually if I were Huckabee I'd be going after Romney, since they have some similarities. The pro-choice Guiliani and the hated McCain aren't great options for COnservatoid Christians, so who's next on the list. Well Romney, despite his lack of consistency on the only issues, is next in line. But isn't Huckabee a better fit?

Presumably Huckabee thinks so.