Out in Greene County, Iowa

Chuck Offenburger: Mike Huckabee for president

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
December 24, 2007
COOPER, IOWA

Mike Huckabee is my choice and recommendation among the Republican candidates running for president of the United States in the Iowa Political Caucuses.

And, oddly enough, I feel like Mitt Romney has talked me into it.

Huckabee, the 52-year-old former governor of Arkansas is emerging as a consensus builder in the GOP. The so-called Christian conservatives are lining up for him. I’m a moderate to liberal member of the GOP, and he appeals to me, too.

His rise to the leadership of the Republican field in Iowa, while being so out-spent and out-staffed, is a thrilling political story. He is a fun, happy candidate. He often gets up and plays bass guitar with his rock’n’ roll band “Capitol Offense.” All of that seems so rare among conservatives, who are so often such sourpusses. He has said several times that one thing that really sets him apart from other conservatives is, “I’m not mad at anybody!”

I’ve known Huckabee for eight years, going back to when he and I spent some time on the trail together in Iowa supporting the presidential campaign of our mutual friend Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor who now serves in the U.S. Senate.
Huckabee was a delight during that campaign, often flashing the quick wit for which he’s now become legendary.

But I haven’t talked to him during this 2007 campaign. Very early on, I suspected I would support him. But then he seemed to take a hard right on me, fawning all over the home-schoolers while seeming almost dismissive of public education; championing the cockamamie idea of a “Fair Tax,” which is just never going to happen, and then pandering to the right wing about how tough he’d be on illegal immigrants. Perhaps you remember him saying that his answer to U.S. problems on the border with Mexico is two words, “Chuck Norris.” Being as un-hip as I am, I had to look up just who this Chuck Norris is. When I discovered that he is some martial arts cult hero, it really turned me off. Huckabee did not seem very presidential to me. And then later he aired the TV commercial which heralded himself as a “Christian Leader.” Many took that as a slap at his rival Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. My thought then was, “This is not the Mike Huckabee I remember.”

So for a time, I said to heck with Huck and felt good about that decision.

Besides, I was happily supporting Romney, whom I perceived as a moderate, progressive Republican with excellent credentials in business, public service and politics. I mean, if the guy could be a Republican and a good governor in Massachusetts, as he was, he has to be able to build consensus, doesn’t he? I voted for Romney at the Iowa Republican Party’s Straw Poll in Ames on August 11.

But later this fall, when Huckabee began his quick rise in the polls and Romney started leaking support, Romney took his own hard right turn. And when he started his attacks on Huckabee – painting him as some kind of closet liberal – I discovered that many of the Huckabee positions or actions being criticized, are things I actually favor.

That’s especially the case when it comes to illegal immigration, a reality which I think has to be dealt with in a thoughtful, humane, civil and efficient way. I’ll tell you this – the agricultural economy of the United States depends upon that happening.

On that issue, Romney rips Huckabee for giving children of illegal immigrants in Arkansas in-state tuition breaks in Arkansas colleges and universities, and he also says that Huckabee supported taxpayer-funded college scholarships for those kids. Romney says Huckabee fought a legislative action forbidding public assistance to illegal immigrants. Romney says Huckabee spoke out against an immigration raid on a poultry plant.

Those things may bother Romney, but I think they sound like progressive, compassionate moves by Huckabee, dealing with a very complicated issue in a realistic way.

Of course, Huckabee’s great weakness is his inexperience in international affairs. I must take it on faith that, if elected, he will surround himself with wise people who have plenty of experience in diplomacy and defense.

On this topic, it made big news earlier this month when it was learned that the January/February 2008 edition of the respected journal “Foreign Affairs” carries a policy paper by Huckabee with his views on the “War on Terror.” Here is how he started that essay:

“The United States, as the world’s only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised. American foreign policy needs to changes its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States’ main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists…”

Romney exploded over that, saying it sounded like something one of the Democratic candidates would say, not a Republican candidate.

Bull.

I think Huckabee pegged the situation exactly right. And that gives me reassurance that he will steer our international relationships back to policies of respect and cooperation, instead of constantly picking fights, as has been the case during the Bush administration.

All that came when I had been waiting, hoping, that at least one of the Republican candidates would talk candidly about the failures and shortcomings of President George W. Bush. They have been so egregious it’s almost hard to imagine any Republican being able to win the general election this year, especially over the Democratic nominee that will come from a very respectable field of candidates.

That’s another reason to like Huckabee. With the way he’s come from nowhere to lead the Republican field, maybe he can do it again in the general election campaign.

Six more quick hits, other things I like about Huckabee:

-- He is a fresh face on the national scene, young enough to be part of the next generation of governmental leaders, and it’s time the torch is passed. You know, every once in a while you’ll hear a quick political quip from somebody that gets your attention, and the more you think about it, the more you agree with it. For me, that happened in early August when I met Audubon grocery Mike Fassino in a political discussion at Sam’s Barber Shop there in that southwest Iowa town. “Don’t you just feel like you need a shower after all these years of Bushes and Clintons?” said Fassino, as Sam The Barber Kauffman gave him a haircut. “I feel like it’s time for somebody new.”

-- Huckabee has the experience of being a governor – overall he was a great one in Arkansas – and I find myself buying into the idea that governors usually make better presidents than senators or congressmen do, Bush notwithstanding.

-- I’m glad Huckabee has a strong religious faith – he is an ordained Southern Baptist minister – and I’m also happy he is at ease talking about it. He’ll need it. I think that after all his years in public life, he also has more tolerance of other faiths, and certainly more than he has occasionally shown toward Romney’s Mormon faith.

-- You have to admire the personal discipline Huckabee has demonstrated in losing 100 pounds in the past year and becoming a marathon runner.

-- I like his visionary advocacy for strengthening the music and arts programs in our schools.

-- And, although I’m listing it last here, it’s actually the foremost consideration I have when deciding whom I’m voting for, at least on the federal level, and that is Huckabee’s firm pro-life position on the abortion issue.

The statistics reported by the Iowa Department of Public Health show that in Iowa alone, there were 6,230 abortions in 2002. There were 5,916 abortions in 2003. There were 6,022 abortions in 2004. Those are shocking, heartbreaking, breathtaking statistics, especially in a state that is begging for more young people. And the worst part of it is, there are far fewer abortions in Iowa than in most other states. All of us alive today share in the guilt that we have allowed the decimation of two or more generations since the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court that legalized abortion in the United States. Maybe you’ve found some way to be at peace with all this. I have not. I flatly am not voting for pro-choice candidates on the federal level. One more point on this: Many of my Democratic friends, some of whom are pro-life themselves, say the Republicans have not done anything to change the situation with abortion in this country. That is simply not correct. One of the best things George W. Bush has done in his presidency is make Supreme Court appointments that I think will lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We’ve already seen the Court uphold a ban on partial-birth abortion, earlier this year.

I also considered, and re-considered, Senator John McCain, of Arizona. He is an American hero. I have the utmost respect for him. But he skipped the Iowa Straw Poll. He does not favor subsidies to help grow the ethanol industry, which is so important to Iowa. He doesn’t seem to mind continuing to pour billions into subsidies of the oil industry – I consider some of our exorbitant defense expenditures to be subsidies of Big Oil since part of our defense policy is protecting access for us to oil from other countries, including many that are hostile to us. And bottom line, the 71-year-old John McCain is too old to be elected president now.

Fred Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee, is no spring chicken, either, at 65 years old. He skipped the Iowa Straw Poll and has done little campaigning in the state, but his TV persona is apparently vaulting him up among the leaders in the Republican race in other places across the nation. Last week, he told the Carroll Daily Times Herald in our neighboring town that America needs a “tough guy” president right now, and he’s it. That is exactly wrong, on both counts.

Rudy Giuliani, 63, former mayor of New York City during the terrorist attacks of 2001, is pro-choice, skipped the Iowa Straw Poll and seems out-of-place seeking the presidency.

Then there is the quirkiest candidate of 2007, Congressman Ron Paul, of Texas. He is the darling of a lot of young people and has raised $10 million on the Internet. He is 72 years old. Go figure. And go away.

So, final thoughts:

-- Romney blundered when, trying to head off Huckabee, he took the sharp right turn and portrayed himself as much more conservative than his lifetime record portrays him to be. I liked the Romney we were seeing back in July, August and September. That may be his biggest problem: There are too many Mitt Romneys.

-- Romney’s attacks on Huckabee wind up making Huckabee look the more sensibly moderate and compassionate of the two. The door was already opening for Huckabee, and Romney just helped push it wider open.

-- I have never seen such defections from the Republican Party in Iowa as I have seen in the past year to 18 months. People have had it with “cowboy diplomacy,” with the U.S. being hated around the world, with the outrageous spending of the Bush administration, with the hollowness of the Bush tax cuts, with a posture of meanness in the Oval Office and in GOP leadership. You might win the Iowa Caucuses sucking up to the far right of our party, but you will not win general elections that way.

It’s time for a lot of changes, and I believe Mike Huckabee can best make them.