Mike Huckabee: Everything I learned about how to run a country I learned from Floyd.
Posted on 12/14/2007 4:03:45 PM PST by mdittmar
Mike Huckabee, who has joked about his lack of foreign policy experience, is criticizing the Bush administration's efforts, denouncing a go-it-alone "arrogant bunker mentality" and questioning decisions on Iraq.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor now running for the Republican presidential nomination, lays out a policy plan that is long on optimism but short on details in the January-February issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. A copy of his article was released Friday.
"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "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."
In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops to invade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. "I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighed his advice," Huckabee said.
He said this year's troop increase under Bush has resulted in significant but tenuous gains, and he said — much as Bush has — that he would not withdraw troops from Iraq any faster than Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there, recommends. The military has now slowly begun to reverse the troop increase.
Huckabee has previously joked about his lack of experience in international affairs. "I may not be the expert as some people on foreign policy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night," he said earlier this month.
While the Foreign Affairs article is missing the one-liners he is known for, it does have a few folksy comparisons to illustrate his points. On Iran, for example, he makes a case for diplomacy by saying, "Before we put boots on the ground elsewhere, we had better have wingtips there first."
He adds that the U.S. can exploit the Iranian government's hunger for regional clout, saying, "We cannot live with al-Qaida, but we might be able to live with a contained Iran."
Last week, Huckabee missed a report the White House released saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program; one day later, the candidate said he was unaware of the report and had been campaigning too hard to read the newspaper or be briefed. The Foreign Affairs article seems to have been written before the report was released, citing "urgent concerns about Iran's development of nuclear weapons."
In his article, Huckabee also thumped Bush for failing to pursue al-Qaida in Pakistan, noting recent terrorism plans, since thwarted, that were planned there: "Whereas our failure to tackle Iran seems to be leading inexorably to our attacking it, our failure to tackle al-Qaida in Pakistan seems to be leading inexorably to its attacking us again."
Earlier Friday, on another topic in Boscawen, N.H., Huckabee said eliminating federal income taxes in favor of a national sales tax would help save Social Security — an odd pitch in a state where residents pay no state income or sales taxes.
"Instead of basing our national budget off of payroll taxes for Social Security ... it means the base of funding is much broader," said Huckabee, whose shoestring campaign has surged nationally and in Iowa, which holds caucuses five days before New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary.
The tax plan Huckabee has proposed, called the "FAIR tax," would eliminate federal income and investment taxes and replace them with a 23 percent federal sales tax. Even the backers of the tax admit it is unlikely to get through Congress, and other leading GOP candidates have been critical of the idea.
It's a tough sell in New Hampshire, where residents do not pay state income taxes or general sales taxes. Scott Sweezey, a programmer at the plant where Huckabee spoke, said he doesn't know how to make a consumption tax treat people fairly.
"Low-income or retired would pay the same tax as somebody who has a million dollars," said Sweezey, an independent. "I guess if you don't buy anything, you don't pay any sales tax, but if you do buy something, you pay sales tax."
Separately, Huckabee also named Republican political strategist Ed Rollins as his national campaign chairman. Rollins was national campaign director for Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential electio
Mike is playing to the BDS crowd to much for my liking.
Yup,this whole thing is a Cluster
the more he talks, the less I like him
Welcome to the club.
You and me both.
Ditto for me.
This Snake Oil Salesman’s 15 minutes is about up.
Thankfully.
He’s for closing gitmo, he’s against water boarding, he thinks he knows better than Bush on how to conduct the war, and he wants to negotiate with the axis of evil. He’s pro tax, pro spend, pro illegal alien. How does Mike differ from Hillary or Obama? Oh, that’s right. He’s pro life.
..and with that..Huckapunk just lost any chance that i’d ever vote for him. I’ll write-in a candidate rather that vote for this backstabber.
He makes my flesh creep in the same way Jimmy Carter did. I remember disliking him from when I first heard him speak in 1975, and I feel the same about Huckabee.
Political pundits often attributed Bill Clinton's likability to his "averageness." Maybe, it's the same with Huckabee. His rise gives hope to all the mediocrities: Despite their inabilities, they too could be presidential material.
Huckabee sounds like a friend of the clintons, to me.
Huck sucks.
Cue 80s sitcom laugh track.
I don’t understand why his poll numbers are so high. I have a deep distrust of polls in the first place, maybe an irrational one, but this has me absolutely stumped.
The Huckster’s record in Arkansas did him in with me he is a true RINO. He should be running as a Democrat candidate.
I heard Ann Coulter call him the republican jimmy carter this afternoon. She didn’t even know where to start on his multiple gazillion flaws.
I read the quotes to my wife and asked her who said them.
“I don’t know - could be any of the democrats”, she replied.
Pretty well sums it up.
He is a media created GOP frontrunner....nothing more.
I’ve had kind of an open mind as I didn’t know a thing about him. The more play he gets, the dorkier he seems to me.
Hunter
Thompson
Romney
The more I see of Huckabee, the less I consider him capable of assuming the duties of POTUS.
Huck off.
If he wins the nomination, we will bending over for Hillary or Obama.
Huckabee is a slick politician, too slick by half. He goes in the out box with Rudy.
Yes. It's really starting to sink in.
I really hadn't focused in on how laughable his foreign policy credentials were (other than thinking, "more trailer trash from Arkansas running for POTUS?") until reading this article.
I don’t like Mike either, and, given the lack of support that I see for him here where we have a wide variety of conservatives from all points on the spectrum, I am becoming very suspicious of these polls, even more than I usually am.
I [HATE] HUCKABEES
Ok, even my kids know we are not in anything along. Seems like someone running for commander in chief oughta have a clue. No vote from this family, Coulter is right on target.
The idiots in Iowa are kissing his formerly fat ass.
Huckleberry schmuckleberry.
Nobody likes Mike.
We liked Ike.
But we don’t like Mike!
Here here!
That's McCain's job.
Huckabee.. yuck. what is this? another revenge of the south routine.
He is Not fit nor worthy of the use of Cheney’s bunker.
Just what the GOP doesn’t need... hillary tanking or not.
how in the hell did he get this far? I just don’t get it....make me understand
Well any of our candidates differ considerably in matters of degree from Hillary and Obama on any and all issues but that is not the point. He doesn't differ enough which is the problem. Huck isn't fit to wipe Bush's arse when it comes to foreign policy. Incredible that he could make such a stupid statement.
Never, ever, ever forget Jimmy Carter. And never, ever, ever do it to this country again. The more I listen to the Huckster, the more I think he must be a not to distant relative of the disgraced peanut farmer from Georgia.
No thanks.
Huckabee Sees WH ‘Bunker Mentality’
I see MH ‘Gomer Mentality’
He’s getting so full of himself that he may need to diet all over again.
Sorry, Walker, Texas Ranger.
“American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out,” Huckabee said. “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.”
This statement could be made by any democrat running for president today. If I didn’t see his name there I would assume it was a statement made by Hillary.
I used it in arguing factually, against several strident pro-illegals, who falsely claimed no USA citizens were willing to perform honest manual labor as a maid in a modest hotel.
The pro-illegals attempted to misuse my statement of fact in a vain attempt to ridicule me, due to the fact that I did not vacation at a more “elite” hotel.
It was implied that my opinions, based on actual recent observations, were of no value, due to my limited financial means.
(I’m still here, while most of “them” have been exposed and/or banned as trolls, in the past few years.)
Cue the laugh track indeed, but we needn’t reach as far back as the 1980s.
And IMNSHO, Huckabee is an ignorant buffoon.
While it was indeed possible to factually refute the liars who claimed “only illegal aliens” were willing to perform manual labor for low wages at hotels and resorts, staying at a “Holiday Inn Express” does not impart any particular added value to ones comprehension of foreign affairs.
I am obviously a little over sensitive to the missuse of the now popular, once personally derogatory phrase...LOL!
Mike Huckabee: Everything I learned about how to run a country I learned from Floyd.
He’s on dangerous ground here. Bush is very popular...huckster will kill his chances without Bush’s base. If he keeps this up...he has committed suicide.
Thanks.
Huckabee v. Rodham or Obama is an open invitation to an independent conservative candidacy—Fred, Newt, really anybody with even modest credentials. Santorum? Somebody should get themselves geared up for this disastrous Huckabee thing now, just in case it happens. It’s a nightmare.
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