Huckabee worries Republicans will 'Balkanize themselves' (Huckabee smears Reagan)

The Hill, Washington DC ^ | 2011-05-06 | Shane D'Aprile

[rabscuttle385]

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday he's "definitely undecided" on another run for the White House next year and is increasingly concerned Republicans will "Balkanize themselves" ahead of 2012.

A day after the sparsely attended first debate of the GOP primary season, Huckabee said in an interview on Fox News that he had no regrets about missing the gathering and that he's still working toward a decision on 2012.

"First of all, I've got to come to a place where I believe I should run, and I'm not there yet," Huckabee said. "My feeling is I'll be there by the summer one way or the other. And I may not. That's just the reality."

Part of that decision-making process, said Huckabee, is concern over emerging factions on the right he suggested Friday could get in the way of defeating Obama in 2012.

"Do I really want to put my family and myself through this process?" Huckabee asked. "And do I believe that Republicans can do something other than Balkanize themselves? I worry about that ... because there seems to be this sense of fracture where people want you to be everything or nothing."

Former President Ronald Reagan, Huckabee argued, would find it next to impossible to make it through a modern day Republican primary given that he "raised taxes as governor" of California and "made deals with Democrats."

"People speak of Reagan as if he was absolutely steadfast," he said. "He was in his convictions. But you have to govern in a way that is different than you can campaign."

[SoConPubbie]

"People speak of Reagan as if he was absolutely steadfast," he said. "He was in his convictions. But you have to govern in a way that is different than you can campaign."

That statement alone should be enough for all serious conservatives to sink this charlatan's hopes for running for POTUS.

[JLS]

So to you telling the truth is smearing Reagan? Or do you not know that Reagan:

1. Agreed to the largest tax increase in US history up until that time.

2. Signed an actual illegal immigrant amnesty bill.

3. Cut and ran in the middle east after an attack on Marines in Lebanon.

4. Appointed a very weak Justice to the US Supreme Court in O’Connor.

Reagan was a very good president, to my mind second only to G.W. Bush during the part of my life I have been politically aware, but Reagan was not perfect nor was he able to do anything that he wanted. He was a politician. He had to make compromises like all politicians.

To admit who the real Reagan was by those of us who were alive and aware during his presidency is not to smear him. It is to recognize who he was and to give future GOP candidates a realistic goal to aim for not some false claim of perfection.

[mmercier]

Is “balkanize” like blowing off your little toe while cleaning your gun...?

[Hunton Peck]

"But you have to govern in a way that is different than you can campaign."

So where do you go, Huck, when you start by campaigning to the left of where Reagan had to govern?

[runninglips]

Huckabee, the name starts with a P and ends in a K. The many loves taxes, he begged for a tax increase in his state. He didn’t care in what form it came, JUST RAISE TAXES he said.

[onyx]

“There you go again...”.... distorting the facts late at night.

Obviously you didn’t see Huckabee uttering his pompous words.

“Candidate Reagan” would have no problem winning election today, and Huckaboob is NO Ronald Wilson Reagan.

NOT EVEN CLOSE.

[SoConPubbie]

Reagan was a very good president, to my mind second only to G.W. Bush during the part of my life I have been politically aware, but Reagan was not perfect nor was he able to do anything that he wanted. He was a politician. He had to make compromises like all politicians.

Well given the way you have posted your "Facts" with the same learing smearing manner of the Left-wing press, it's not hard to see how you would come up with such a unintelligent opinion such as that.

Here are some other facts you need to know:

1. Reagan's amnesty included severe punishments that to this day have not been enacted or enforced by the feds.
2. Reagan confided to his son Michael, that his Amnesty bill was probably the worst mistake he ever made.
3. Reagan had no reason to believe that Sandra Day O'Conner would become the RINO/moderate she became.
4. G.W.B. was in no way a fiscal conservative.
5. G.W.B. had an opportunity to learn from Reagan's Amnesty mistake, and he did not, instead he doubled-down.

Better than Reagan???

Don't be a JackAss!

[RitaOK]

But you have to govern in a way that is different than you can campaign.”

That seems true to me but applies even more to the campaign strategy. Otherwise your last stop on victory trail is winning your primary. Winning a general election calls for reaching outside your own kitchen. You dump your base over and go for the rest of the country or you don’t win.

[SoConPubbie]

That seems true to me but applies even more to the campaign strategy. Otherwise your last stop on victory trail is winning your primary. Winning a general election calls for reaching outside your own kitchen. You dump your base over and go for the rest of the country or you don’t win.

Sorry, but I became politically aware during the election season of 1980.

What you are stating is the myth used by RINOs/Moderates/Karl Rove.

Reagan governed as he campaigned, with his limited-government, constitutional government principles intact.

Don't repeat the propaganda of the so-called elites of the GOP, they're wrong.

[tallyhoe]

Lets see he had a Democratic House and Senate. He had Paul Volker as the Fed Chairman The economy was just turning around when he increased taxes...

With the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Reagan and Congress sought to broaden the tax base, eliminate many deductions, and reduce rates. In 1983, Democrats Bill Bradley and Dick Gephardt had offered a proposal to clean up/broaden the tax base; in 1984 Reagan had the Treasury Department produce its own plan. The eventual bipartisan 1986 act aimed to be revenue-neutral: while it reduced the top marginal rate, it also partially “cleaned up” the tax base by curbing tax loopholes, preferences, and exceptions, thus raising the effective tax on activities previously specially favored by the code.

[aruanan]

Huckabee worries Republicans will 'Balkanize themselves' (Huckabee smears Reagan)

Huckabee is to conservative politics what Bertie Botts earwax and vomit-flavored jelly beans are to candy.

[tallyhoe]

In his stated intention to increase defense spending while lowering taxes, Reagan’s approach was a departure from his immediate predecessors. Reagan enacted lower marginal tax rates in conjunction with simplified income tax codes and continued deregulation. The federal deficit fell from 6% of GDP in 1983 to 3.2% of GDP in 1987.[3] The federal deficit in Reagan’s final budget fell to 2.9% of GDP.[2] The rate of growth in federal spending fell from 4% under Jimmy Carter to 2.5% under Ronald Reagan

[He Rides A White Horse]

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday he's "definitely undecided" on another run for the White House next year and is increasingly concerned Republicans will "Balkanize themselves" ahead of 2012.

I would suggest that 'big tent' politics has not produced any fruit. The real problem is not 'Balkization'. The problem is the idea that we have to compromise with Democrats to make any gains. The result is that Republicans are letting the Dems whittle away at them.

Look at how Democrats operate. They rarely if ever compromise.

Part of that decision-making process, said Huckabee, is concern over emerging factions on the right he suggested Friday could get in the way of defeating Obama in 2012.

That is the defeatist attitude that is killing the Republican Party. 'Right wingers' are an obstacle to defeating a man like Obama? I don't know what 'bounce' Zero received because of the Bin Laden affair, but even a rock will bounce under the right conditions. It settles quickly however.

"Do I really want to put my family and myself through this process?" Huckabee asked."

That is your call Huckabee. Let me state that I am tired of the process as well. My perspective is that Republicans seem to think that they can only win by appeasement. Which is a terrible option in itself.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The New White House annex under Gomer Huckleberry.

[mas cerveza por favor]

Huckabee resents that the voters are tired of politicians who favor the elite over the interests of the American people.

[JLS]

I did not distort facts. Name me one distortion in what I said. Are you claiming Reagan:

1. Did not nominate S.D. O’Connor to the US Supreme Court?

2. Did not sign the largest tax increase up to that time? He of course was promised $3 of spending per $1 of tax increases, but alas bought a pig in a poke and signed on with no mechanism to get any spending cuts. Of course I guess he could have vetoed any spending bill that did not include those cuts, BUT HE DIDN’T.

3. Did not sign an actual illegal immigrant amnesty bill? I don’t care what other pig in a poke he bought with it, he signed it and got nothing.

4. Did not cut and run after the Marine bombing in Lebanon?

You are right, I did not hear Huckabee and I dont even care for him as a candidate for the nomination. But that does not make saying Reagan was not perfect a smear. It is merely a fact.

Making the perfect, particularly a false claim of perfection, the enemy of the good, gives you President Obama, Obama care, Justice Kagan, Justice Sotomayor, stimulus slush funds, etc. You should recognize that going into this election.

[JLS]

Example of someone doing good, does not erase the fact that they did other things, ie were not perfect. I said Reagan was the second best president in my political memory.

But I was alive while he was president. I remember those times. I know that he was savaged by the Dims as much as G.W. Bush. I remember he made bad deals and waivered on things like taxes and the middle east that G.W. Bush did not waiver on.

[Tempest]

I don’t really see the error in what he’s saying. Although I tottally get that it will upset some people.

[HHFi]

Don’t bother using the truth to defend Huckabee from the Freepers who swallowed the Romney-paid Club For Growth hit piece lock, stock and barrel. As usual, Huckabee was right and perfectly reasonable, and his comment was twisted 180 degrees by the headline.

He didn’t “smear” Reagan at all. He also wasn’t even referring to Reagan’s presidency. He was talking about getting the nomination, and Reagan would have had to run on his record as California Governor, when he was saddled with one of the most liberal legislatures in America. If I listed the stuff Reagan had to okay when he was governor of California without revealing his name, I’d get 300 replies on FR, slamming him as a socialist RINO who shouldn’t be allowed within a mile of DC.

As for his comment about Republicans losing by balkanizing themselves: One of the most popular and electable Republicans makes a perfectly true and reasonable statement, and all the people on here pile on with the tired “I’ll just stay home or write in Ayn Rand if the Huckstar is the nominee!!!” nonsense. So thanks for proving his point.