Sunday, February 10, 2008

Huckabee discloses he is unfit for U.S. presidency

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park, according to this Reuters report.

So the way I see it, he could run for Pope. He could run for Chief Rabbi. He could run for all sorts of things, but as the presidency of the United States, he would be a total disaster. We don't need believers in miracles. We need believers in rational thinking, logic....math.

By the way, I think the way this race is going demonstrates a big difference regarding the "extremes" of the Democractic and Republican parties.

On the Republican side, Huckabee is strongly supported by the Christian evangelical, fundamentalist, extreme right element of the party. They continue to give him money and he continues to fight.

Why? Not because he can win, but because they want to pressure McCain to move further to the right and to pick a harsh right-wing VP running mate.

On the Democractic side, left-wingers are too easily content to simply jump on a Clinton or Obama bandwagon (mostly Obama) and hope for the best. The result will be that there will be little pressure to take up more progressive viewpoints (Clinton and Obama both mouthed concern about poverty as long as Edwards was in the race making an issue of it) and they will be more likely to pick a VP candidate to the right of them.

Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. And a major strategic error.

4 comments:

James said...

Disclosure: A British citizen, and by American standards, very left wing.

There's an asymmetry here - you're castigating Huckabee supporters for trying to move McCain away from the centre ground and towards a more distant wing of his party. But you're lamenting the fact that the more progressive (less mainstream) wing of the Democratic party is content to let its candidates move towards the centre.

Now, from an idealistic point of view, I would agree with you as to which would be the best result. But do you not also believe that:

1) more progressive talk from the Democratic candidate is likely to alienate a large number of swing voters, and

2) a Democratic victory is always preferable to a Republican victory?

Steven Feuerstein said...

I should have been more clear: I wasn't castigating Huckabee's "team". They are playing politics and playing it well/right. They are using what little power/influence they have to gain more. The left tends in my view to throw away the little influence it has by rolling over and asking to be petted at the first sign of a less-than-horrible candidate.

NO, I definitely do not think that more progressive talk is alienating. Not at all. I think that many many people are hurting and pissed off - so (a) they are attracted to Obama's vague but hopeful talk of changing the status quo in DC and (b) they really do want corporations to be restrained and they really do want wealthy people to stop picking their pockets.

Democratic always better than Republican? Well, no, I don't necessarily think that. I could see a Republican getting elected who has enough integrity to not be a total sellout...hell look at the relationship between Israel and US. Only two Repub Presidents had the guts and self-respect to actually put any constraints whatsoever on what the IDF was doing to Palestinians. Clinton? Terrible. Very one-sided, while making it sound like he carried about 'em all.

Chris said...

Hi Steven! I'm also following the unfolding presidential race with interest from a British perspective. The idea that someone such as Huckabee who is a creationist could hope to stand as president is quite amazing. Tony Blair, despite being a devout Christian, made a point of never talking about God in public. To have done so would have been politically unwise. So I guess his team knew how to play the game too...

Unknown said...

I think all of you might be missing one point when it comes to politics and religion in the US; THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO BE SEPERATE!!!!!!! :-) It kills me today that someone like Huckabee can have any ground or followers what so ever. It just goes to show how degraded that American population has become. I usually vote on the Democratic side but look at the two choices I am being force fed this time... I can not believe where the American politics have gotten we should just go back to the days when the Mobs were running the states.

PS: Missing Edwards I might just write him in because neither Democratic candidate has nor any of the Republician candidates look good to me.