I guess this shouldn't be surprising coming from a former minister, but it is highly disturbing...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NSQNSlUUoOc

I have to come to the conclusion that American presidential candidates are selected by Loki.

As an aside, I'm amused that the Amazon ads in the lower left of the page are all books by Huckabee.

Seriously - if Huckabee wins any early primaries, we should probably make some noise about this video...

Here in the UK, some of us are watching your elections with great interest, because, like it or not, the result is going to effect us.

God might not help or favour individual candidates, but looking back at history......we sure as hell seem to get the governments we bloody well deserve.

Let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater!!!

A) I don't think Huckabee really stands much of a chance.

and

B) I don't think it's possible to judge from this one particular instance whether or not he'd try to wield his presidency like a theocracy. He is, after all, playing to a crowd that wants to hear exactly what he said. The question almost looks like an intentional softball. So yeah, you guys could make a big stink about it, but I'm not at all sure that would bring the level of election scrutiny up to any sort of responsible level.

If anyone's interest (and I'm not sure anyone is), the NYTimes Magazine had an interesting article on Huckabee a few weeks back (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/magaz ... f=magazine). I'd much rather read articles of this sort rather than make my assessments of candidates based on clips from YouTube. Over the holiday I was reviewing the whole Howard Dean fiasco and was dismayed to recall how such a petty, insignificant episode sold his whole bid short. Surely we don't have to be that ridiculous.

Would this bring the wrath of the Flying Spaghetti Monster upon him? If things go sour he'd have to have something to blame. I'm not in the US nor am I an American citizen because of a small difference of opinion in some taxes due, back in Boston some centuries ago. Of course I also believe the outcome is of huge importance to the rest of the world. And I think a video clip like this is more a bit of amusing trivia than a serious assessment.

Q

MadArchitect wrote: Over the holiday I was reviewing the whole Howard Dean fiasco and was dismayed to recall how such a petty, insignificant episode sold his whole bid short. Surely we don't have to be that ridiculous.

Sorry, I think comparing a scream to rally support to someone zeroing on a one specific religion is a bit off Mad. And if he IS pandering to a specific mind(less)set, that is even more reason to distrust him IMO.

This is not a bad clip on Huckabee caught in emotion, it is his position and he is speaking very clearly and from the heart.

Mr. P.

Mr. Pessimistic wrote:Sorry, I think comparing a scream to rally support to someone zeroing on a one specific religion is a bit off Mad.

The incidents are different, yeah, sure. That isn't my point. My point is that American politics is distorted and short-changed by people's willingness to judge the candidates on single enchanges viewed with no sense of context.

Raise your hand if you know Mike Huckabee's stance on any particular issue. What's his view of foreign policy? How does he intend to handle immigration? What's his tax policy? It wouldn't shock me to learn that most people know little more than that he's a former Baptist minister and that he's credited a boost in support for his campaign to divine will.

And if he IS pandering to a specific mind(less)set, that is even more reason to distrust him IMO.

Sure, I'd agree with that. Now point me to a politician that doesn't do the same thing. That's what passes for campaigning, and I don't see any reason to level particular blame at Huckabee. He's playing the game. I don't like it, but it's the same game being played by all the candidates, so I'm not sure there's anything to be done about it.

This is not a bad clip on Huckabee caught in emotion, it is his position and he is speaking very clearly and from the heart.

His position on what? The question has nothing to do with his politics. He was asked how he accounts for a surge in support, and he basically did the same thing that half of all baseball players do when they cross home plate -- thanked God. Personally, I don't see how this is cause for concern.

What is cause for concern is how little Huckabee seems to know about foreign policy. But no one's talking about that. They're all to hung up on his religious background.

I'd kill for a genuine issue.

Penelope wrote:Here in the UK, some of us are watching your elections with great interest, because, like it or not, the result is going to effect us.

Penelope, what exactly do you mean by "like it or not, the result is going to effect us," if you don't mind me asking?

Mr.P. wrote:And if he IS pandering to a specific mind(less)set, that is even more reason to distrust him IMO.

Mr. P. it's pretty common for candidates to focus their talking points to their audience. I don't think that's a terribly distrustful practice. If I went to hear a candidate speak, I wouldn't want to hear her talking about, say, unions, so I wouldn't go to a speech that targeted a union audience. A candidate, or politician for that matter, hell any public speaker if she's good, is only going to hit a handful of major talking points in any one speech. That the audience knows what those talking points are ahead of time helps audiences to see candidates they want to see, talk about issues they want to hear about.

Mad wrote:What is cause for concern is how little Huckabee seems to know about foreign policy. But no one's talking about that. They're all to hung up on his religious background.

Come now, Mad, outside of whatever religious rant the above YouTube segment contains (I haven't watched it), Huckabee is a loon. While running for a Senate seat, he advocated halting federal funding on AIDS research and proposed, in the alternative, quarantining people infected with AIDS. Granted that was back in the 90s when the right still defended the notion that AIDS was the gay-man's virus and gay men could transfer it to the innocent population just by looking at them with impure thoughts. But, to this day, he hasn't fully distanced himself from those statements.

In truth, some of Huckabee's domestic work as a Governor was interesting, but until he stops efforts like the Covenant Marriage Act, or advocating that creationism be taught in public schools, I won't pretend to take his platform seriously. It's likely that a lot of his crackpot issues revolve around his religious beliefs, but they still have significant political and social implications.

Huckabee is a whackadoo, and to pretend that every fruitcake running for his party's primary should be given serious consideration