First Obama and now this. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will visit Birmingham this weekend. This Feb. 5 primary thing Alabama invented seems to be paying off.
And what do both candidates have in common?
Both won praise in a Mark Kelly column one week before they won the Iowa caucuses (but not much since then, though).
The once-Southern Baptist preacher will have the home-field advantage at Samford University Saturday afternoon. He will speak there at 4:30. The event is open to the public.
So far this campaign season, Huckabee has found a following among Christian conservatives turned off by some of the other candidates for various reasons.
Mitt Romney: Mormon, governor of Massachusetts (the Kennedy state), used to be O.K. with abortion and gays.
John McCain: Radical conservative? No such thing.
Rudolph Giuliani: Hates guns. Likes abortion, gays. Divorced and divorced again. Cross-dresses.
Fred Thompson: Quitter.
In contrast, Huckabee’s optimism could sell well, even among some liberals. He’s the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with, if Baptists drank beer.
On the flip side …
Huckabee advocates the Fair Tax, which should be called the Screw the Poor and Turn America into Alabama Tax. In short, it’s a sales tax. On everything. Huckabee wants to replace the IRS with a national sales tax on goods and services. As Alabama has shown by example, basing your revenue on a sales tax impacts the poor the hardest and leaves the government incredibly vulnerable to recessions. Although, it would be funny to see what the Department of Defense would do under proration like Alabama schools.
Also, as Arkansas governor, Huckabee had a rocky, often bizarre relationship with the media.
Also, believes Genesis is the way it really happened, talking snakes and all.
Also, compares abortion to the Holocaust.
But back on the plus side, took control of his weight problem.
Finally, there’s this thing we found on the Internet. Funny, but NSFW.
Popularity: 26% [?]
January 24th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Mike Huckabee has the most executive experience of any candidate running. He was re-elected Governor of Arkansas until his term limits expired. He was their Lt. Governor prior to that. He was voted one of the Best Five Governors in America by Time Magazine. He is the best communicator since Ronald Reagan. Mike Huckabee is for real and he is authentic!
Congressman Duncan Hunter has now endorsed Mike Huckabee!
US Rep John Linder who worked on the Ronald Reagan campaign gives a great comparison between the Ronald Reagan and Mike Huckabee campaign trails.
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=10019&SectionID=17&SubSectionID=116&S=1
January 24th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Huckabee is the only candidate that does believe the Genesis story. all other candidates, including McCain believe in evolution. All made their statement on a CNN debate. Huckabee is also the strongest leader of the bunch!
January 24th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
BTW, the Fair Tax does not tax the poor. It does let us keep our entire paycheck! It also puts the IRS out of business. Anyone can check out the truth about fair tax at http://www.fairtax.org
January 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
The author of this has obviously never read the facts about the FairTax. In addition to a flat 23% consumer tax the FairTax makes a provision called prebates, which is money one receives once a month in order to ensure that those with a lower income are not taxed on basic necessities such as food. In fact the poor are the biggest beneficiaries of the FairTax.
http://www.fairtax.org
January 24th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Please learn about the Fair Tax before you criticize it. It is NOT a sales tax. It is a consumption tax. It would be regressive if it were not for the pre-bate. With the pre-bate, it is far less regressive than the current Social Security and Medicare taxes which are 15.5% of your income (I know most people think it is only 7.6% because that’s all that shows up on your paycheck; but the employer invisibly sends in a matching amount which YOU never see but he does and knows it is part of the cost of hiring you.)
It is also NOT just a sales tax because it is only a tax on NEW items, not used items. It replaces the personal income tax, corporate income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, taxes on savings and interest, taxes on gifts and inheritance.
But most importantly, it gets rid of the Byzantine maze of rules and regulations that have been put in for nearly a century to benefit large corporations and those that can hire lobbyists.
It would save Americans $250 million A YEAR in the cost of compying with these regulations that are so complex that even the IRS and CPA’s don’t understand it.
It was designed by economists at Harvard, Stanford, MIT and others. It was co-sponsored just last year by 70 members of Congress.
It has the capability to bring capital that has fled abroad back home because America would be a better tax shelter than any country on earth. It would allow Americans to work and save tax-free. It would allow companies manufacturing in America to enjoy a tax advantage over foreign companies when selling into their markets. And it would end all IRS audits — forever.
As an aside, please no religious bigotry about Genesis. The founders of this country said that political independence was based on the self-evident fact of a Creator God.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Please learn a little more about The Fair Tax before waxing eloquent on its supposed faults. What no one seems to get is that the poor already pay ALL those taxes.
If you work for a living, taxes are taken out of your paycheck before you get it. That’s obvious and everyone seems to focus only on it. However, the most incidious part is the taxes that are hidden from you by taxing corporations.
Corporations CAN NOT POSSIBLY PAY TAXES. If they did they would no longer exist. They have no choice but to add all the taxes they pay into the proce of their product plus what profit they need to survive.
When politicians tell you they are going to tax the rich, they are really saying they will have the rich (usually small business) levy the taxes on you so they can continue to hide their deeds. The Fair Tax rolls all those hidden taxes into one lump sum and puts it at the end of the stream where it can be seen, and where any change to it will be noticed and therefore would have to be justified politically.
It also does all the other things mentioned by earlier posts. Check out http://www.fairtax.org for more details. This is a change that can revolutionize our economy. And yes, it does get rid of the IRS, but that’s just a little extra icing on the cake, not the primary purpose. Although I’m sure to get a lot of disagreement about that prioritization.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:27 am
K. Whitmire,
I happen to be one of those (fools) who believes Genesis is the way it really happened. In fact I believe the WHOLE BIBLE (Talking Snakes, Axe Heads Floating, Donkeys Talking, Blind Men Seeing, Lame Men Walking, and Those Who Reject the Truth Spending Eternity in Hell). But in this country you have a right to not believe those things if you don’t want to. And I will fight for your right to not believe, if that is your choice. And I will not criticize you for your belief or non-belief. I would appriciate it if you would simply show me and Mike Huckabee the same consideration. Thank You
January 26th, 2008 at 8:21 am
How embarrassing, to see an article this poorly researched and utterly ignorant of the facts written in my beloved home state of Alabama! I won’t even comment on the ludicrous reference to Huckabee’s belief in the Bible (except to say: how, exactly, would that make him unfit to be President?). Many of us (who are decidedly NOT evangelicals or extreme far right Christians) support Governor Huckabee in great part because the Fair Tax is far and away the best plan to rejuvenate America’s economy! The pre-bate provision ensures that those with the lowest means will be elevated, not suffer a loss- and our national revenues would be well in place. Think about it- replace an outmoded, hideously complicated system with a flat consumption tax…suddenly, our manufacturers are competetive with foreign companies, trillions of dollars secreted offshore return to our economy, those who operate illegal businesses will actually pay taxes like you and I do (!), and everyone gets to choose how much they’re taxed, through their consumption of goods. Incentivize productivity, incentivize new businesses, incentivize savings- and throw away your shoebox of receipts and terror of the IRS…how could anyone with a brain reject this concept?!
January 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Kyle, you surely got them riled up with this one! These same people will be the first to back Larry Langford if (heaven forbid) he ever runs for President.
I must say that all the arguements here for the Fair Tax try to say that it isn’t a “sales tax”; but they are wrong, and you are right, it will be a national tax on retail sales. If it is going to be truly progressive, it must be a VAT, and not based on retail sales. See, someone else paid attention in Economics at BSC, too :).
Don’t get me started on evolution vs. Genesis. Darwin’s theory of evolution has been proven to be correct. That doesn’t mean that the Bible is wrong; who’s to say how long God’s “day” is? That could be millenia to us mere mortals. You can believe both and still be a Christian. Remember, the world once was flat and the Sun rotated around the earth!
Re-reading your article, you don’t necessarily attack Huckabee, you just give reasons why he “has found a following among Christian conservatives turned off by some of the other candidates for various reasons.”
January 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Oh, so much ignorance of the facts that I hardly know where to begin! I’ll start with Darwin’s theory of evolution. It has certainly not been proved (hint: That is why it is called a theory.) In fact, it cannot be proved, no science project can last for 650,000,000 years! Creation by God cannot be proved either. We cannot replicate creation in the laboratory under observable conditions. So we believe by faith in creation just as you believe by faith in evolution. Since none of us were there at the time of creation, or, for you, the long evolving of “goo to you by way of the zoo,” all of us would benefit if someone had observed one of these events and had written down a record about it. Oh, Someone did. Our great loving God wrote the story of creation down using inspired men(his highest creation) in a book we call the Holy Bible. I encourage you to get one and read it. By the way, a day was 24 hours on the first day just as it is today, and on a day soon, I shall confidently cast my vote for a man I believe God created for our country at this time in our world. That man in Mike Huckabee! May God bless him, his wife and family, his voters, and our country, the United States of America.