Elections 08

When I first heard of him, my first thought was something like this: "Okay, this may be really unfair, because he might be an excellent candidate, but do I really want someone with a name like 'Huckabee' to be the President of the United States of America?" That was a few months ago. Now, I don't care whether his name is Huckabee, Schwarzenegger, or Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo - I want this man to be our next president!

A word on how I was introduced to Mr. Huckabee. (Aside: For some reason, it I feel called to use the title "Mr." when speaking of Mike Huckabee, in a way that I don't with other candidates. I freely talk of "Mitt Romney" or just "Romney," "Hillary Clinton," and "Barack Obama." Here's why I think that is: I usually use the title when speaking of adults, but not of celebrities that I know only impersonally. Maybe I feel like I know Mr. Huckabee. End aside.) A few months ago, I was reading an editorial in WORLD Magazine where the author brought up Huckabee's name. At that time, he was not extremely well known. Well, I can't say whether that's entirely true - what I do know is that I had never heard of him. The author had some very positive things to say about Mr. Huckabee, and it sparked my interest in him.

Now, a few short months later, he is in a very different position, both in the public eye and in my personal view of him. He is no longer some obscure Republican candidate - he is the clear winner of the Iowa caucuses, and a serious contender for the Republican nomination. And in my view, he has gone from someone to consider, a candidate who has most of the qualifications except electability, to a good man and the best presidential candidate I've ever come across (which admittedly is not saying much since this will be my first time voting!). What follows are my reasons for supporting Mike Huckabee.

I am a conservative - you might call me an extreme conservative, if it didn't bother you too much to use oxymorons. I'm all for free trade, low taxes, limited government, the works. But absolute political conservatism is not my number one priority in looking for our nation's next leader. If it was, I would probably be pulling for Ron Paul, with whom I agree on most issues with the (not un-important) exception of the war. But like I said, it is not my highest requirement that a candidate openly support all of the positions I take. For one thing, such a candidate would probably never be elected in our left-leaning nation. I do not necessarily agree with every position Mr. Huckabee takes. There are many that I whole-heartedly stand behind: his immigration ideas, for instance, as well as his stand on abortion and homosexuality. But there are a couple that strike me as less than perfect - while his proposed tax reform addresses some of the issues, it's still a just bit more... socialist than I would like to see. But like I said, his politics, while very important and generally encouraging, are not what win me over to him.

Another of Mr. Huckabee's positive traits is his winning, down-to-earth, straightforward attitude. He is certainly one of the more charismatic candidates out there, and he seems like the sort of guy that you would like to meet and become friends with even if he wasn't running for President - even if no one else had ever heard of him. Almost everyone that talks about him talks about his ability to identify with the "average American" - his proof that the presidential election does not have to be elitist. If he were elected, or even came close, it would certainly go a long way toward restoring my faith in our political system. A system where only millionaires can come to power is clearly flawed, and Mr. Huckabee's success seems to indicate that this is not always the case. Still, this could be said of other presidents in our past (a man who is NOT my namesake comes to mind) who I would be less than likely to vote for again, so his "common man" status and his charisma are not his most important attributes either, to my mind.

In the end, I'm going to say what all the militant atheists, all the self-appointed Keepers of the Religious Neutrality of the Government, all those who cross themselves and utter the protective spell "Separation of Church and State" whenever a Christian runs for office, what all these claimed I was going to say. I will vote for Mr. Huckabee, not because I absolutely agree with all his politics, not because he is a talented and genuine speaker, but because he is a shining example of a Christian in government. With regards to his faith, I can literally not see a single area in which Mr. Huckabee has gone wrong. He walks a fine line - it would be both wrong and foolish to try to hide or downplay his faith, but if he overplays it, he risks incurring the wrath of those who would suppress Christianity in the name of tolerance. From what I have seen, he has stayed on this line with skill that would put a tightrope walker to shame. This is already an overlong post, else I would cite some examples of the masterful way he has spoken of his faith. I encourage anyone who reads this to read the relevant information on his website and to watch videos of him in action, which can be found in plenty on YouTube.

Well, there are my two cents on Mr. Huckabee. I'll be honest - I would love it if I have convinced you to support him. Despite his victory in Iowa, he is going to need every last vote he can get if he wants to beat better financed opponents like Mitt Romney, and perhaps more than that to defeat the Democratic candidate if he wins the nomination. But even if I haven't, I hope I've got you thinking about these issues, and I hope that you will make a more-informed choice because of it. To end this gargantuan post, I have just three words: I like Mike!