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Ann Marie Blodgett

Huckabee Out and Out Lies About Who’s Advising Him

December 29th, 2007 | Comments Off | Posted in Ethics, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Gaffe, Honesty, Integrity, Mike Huckabee, Morality, Sin, Trust, Video, YouTube, unfit

“HE HAS AGREED TO BE A PART OF THE GROUP”
Gov. Huckabee Claims Foreign Policy Advisers Who Aren’t Advising Him
No Laughing Matter: A serious look at Gov. Mike Huckabee’s record and policy beyond the one-liners.

  • Gov. Mike Huckabee: “And the ultimate thing is, I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” (WABC Radio’s “Imus In The Morning,” 12/4/07)
  • National Review: “The Holiday Inn Express Candidate.” “In sum, conservatives should have worries about the depth and soundness of Mike Huckabee’s foreign-policy views. And staying at a Holiday Inn Express is not going to be enough to allay them.” (Editorial, “The Holiday Inn Express Candidate,” National Review, 12/10/07)

Confronted With Misstatements On Foreign Policy, Gov. Huckabee Insists He Is Authentic And Honest:

  • Gov. Huckabee Says That People Are Looking For “Authenticity” And “Honesty.” NBC’s LESTER HOLT: “But can you afford those kind of misstatements when the spotlight is on you and people are looking for credible foreign policy credentials?” GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: “What they’re looking for is authenticity, they’re looking for honesty.” (NBC’s “Today,” 12/29/07)
  • Yet, Gov. Huckabee Continues To Insist He Is Being Advised By Former Ambassador John Bolton:
    On Thursday, Gov. Huckabee Said That Ambassador John Bolton Had Agreed To Help Him Formulate Foreign Policy. “At a Thursday evening news conference, Huckabee said, ‘I’ve corresponded with John Bolton, who’s agreed to work with us on developing foreign policy.’” (Lisa Lerer, “Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs Lapses,” The Politico, 12/29/07)
  • On Friday Morning, Gov. Huckabee Said That He Had Spoken With Amb. Bolton About Foreign Policy. “On Friday morning, Huckabee listed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has ’spoken or will continue to speak.’” (Lisa Lerer, “Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs Lapses,” The Politico, 12/29/07)
  • By Friday Evening, Amb. Bolton Said He Hadn’t Spoken With Huckabee, Nor Agreed To Be His Adviser. “Bolton, however, has a different view. ‘I’d be happy to speak with Huckabee, but I haven’t spoken with him yet,’ said Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. ‘I’m not an official or unofficial adviser to anyone,’ said Bolton, who mentioned he’d had conversations with other Republican candidates but declined to name any names.” (Lisa Lerer, “Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs Lapses,” The Politico, 12/29/07)
  • On Saturday Afternoon, Gov. Huckabee Was Still Claiming That Amb. Bolton Had Agreed To Be His Adviser. REPORTER: “Governor, you mentioned John Bolton as someone who is helping you to shape your foreign policy proposals. He says he hasn’t had communications or conversations with you. And he wasn’t the only person who you mentioned in your list of people you have talked to, to get advice from, who have said they haven’t spoken to you. Can you clear that up?” GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: “Well, I had an e-mail exchange with John Bolton, and he has agreed to be a part of the group. He has not endorsed me. he has not indicated he would be supporting my candidacy, but he is one of many people who would be willing to have conversations. And we did have that e-mail exchange.” (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Press Conference, 12/29/07; YouTube)

  • Gov. Huckabee Also Wrongly Claimed Former National Security Adviser Richard Allen Is Advising Him:
    “Huckabee Said He Had Also Spoken With… Former National Security Adviser Richard Allen.” “Huckabee said he had also spoken with former State Department official Richard Haass (now president of the Council on Foreign Relations); military analyst Ken Allard; former national security adviser Richard Allen; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank; and a ‘number of military personnel.’” (Lisa Lerer, “Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs Lapses,” The Politico, 12/29/07)
  • Yet, Allen Also Says He Has Not Spoken With Gov. Huckabee. “Reached via e-mail, Allen said an intermediary asked him to speak with Huckabee, but he hadn’t yet agreed. ‘I’m gradually getting older, but am fully capable of recalling with whom I have spoken,’ said the former Nixon and Reagan foreign policy campaign adviser.” (Lisa Lerer, “Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs Lapses,” The Politico, 12/29/07)

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John Cronin

Huckabee Slipping

By: Robert D. Novak

TOWNHALL.COM

Great news for Team Romney!!

WASHINGTON — While public polls show Mike Huckabee leading Mitt Romney in Iowa, a new survey of an oversized sample shows Huckabee slipping and no longer ahead of Romney.

A private corporate interest commissioned a phone bank survey of 15,000 Iowans who say they will attend Republican presidential caucuses Jan. 3. It showed Romney with 30 percent and Huckabee at 26 percent. Sen. John McCain was third with 12 percent and Rudy Giuliani fourth at 9 percent. Fred Thompson had only 1 percent, with slightly fewer votes than Rep. Ron Paul (also at 1 percent).

Thank goodness that Huckabee’s monumental incompetence to be POTUS is becoming abundantly clear to the voters of the great state of Iowa. His stands on immigration, taxes, pardons for dangerous criminals and his complete cluelessness on foreign affairs has caught up with him and I believe the people of Iowa are going to stop his campaign in it’s tracks on Jan. 3.

~~John Cronin~~

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David Kim

Huckabee says John Bolton is a foreign policy advisor…

but John Bolton denies it.

I’ve lost count of the number of gaffe’s Huckabee has had in the last couple days, but add another one to the mix. Some choice bits:

In recent days, Mike Huckabee has tried to answer long-standing questions about who is on his foreign policy team. On Friday morning, he listed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has “spoken or will continue to speak.”

At a Thursday evening press conference, Huckabee said, “I’ve corresponded with John Bolton, who’s agreed to work with us on developing foreign policy.”

Bolton, however, has a different view. “I’d be happy to speak with Huckabee, but I haven’t spoken with him yet,” said Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.


Okay, if that weren’t bad enough, it gets worse
:

Transcript from CNN:

WOLF BLITZER: “Let’s go back out to the campaign trail right now. Presidential candidate appears to be trying to change the subject after making what some are calling a notable gaffe. That would be republican Mike Huckabee. He’s a former governor with less foreign policy experience than some of his rivals. Now some are wondering if that is becoming obvious out on the campaign trail. Let’s go out to Iowa, Dana Bash is watching all of this unfold. You’ve learned about the concerns inside Huckabee’s own camp about his national security experience. Explain to our viewers what’s going on.”

DANA BASH: “Well, Wolf, in a very candid moment today, a senior Huckabee campaign official told me that with their candidate, quote, ‘There is no foreign policy credential.’ And that unlike many other presidential candidates, he can’t boast about knowing Benazir Bhutto. This official also said that until they can, quote, ‘get him briefed’ and up to speed on Pakistan, they’re going to try to bring it closer to home. Mike Huckabee is responding to crisis in Pakistan in an offbeat way, tying it to a red hot campaign issue: immigration.

GOVERNOR MIKE HUCKABEE: “There were more Pakistanis who illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border. 660 last year. That’s a lot of illegals from Pakistan.” (Me: by the way, that’s wrong, far more illegal immigrants come from the Philippines, Korea, China and Vietnam according to the Dept. of Homeland Security)

BASH: “Sounding an alarm about illegal Pakistanis in America is a surprising tactic for a candidate who preaches tolerance. He dismissed any concern it looks like xenophobia.”

HUCKABEE: “No none. Not at all. I’m just saying that a lot of Americans sitting in Pella, Iowa maybe look halfway around the world and say how does that affect me?”

BASH: “When asked by CNN for the source of his statistic, 660 illegal Pakistanis, Huckabee seemed unsure.”

HUCKABEE: “Its come largely from CIA numbers, and ill get u the exact source, but those are numbers that i got today from a briefing, and I believe they’re CIA and/or immigration numbers.”

BASH: “A senior Huckabee campaign official admitted to CNN the former Arkansas governor has, quote, ‘no foreign policy credential.’ that’s why his campaign turned to immigration, a top concern for Iowa GOP voters especially men he’s been losing ground with. The pivot followed a gaffe, not appearing to know martial law was lifted in Pakistan two weeks ago.”

This is getting embarrassing. Huckabee evidently just makes stuff up and hopes that nobody calls him on it. This might have worked in Arkansas, but he isn’t in Little Rock anymore. (no disrespect intended to Arkansasans)

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David Kim

Huckabee contemplates suicide for “guys who spent tens of millions of dollars and aren’t further ahead”

I was disgusted when I saw the video below. How long will Huckabee get a pass on this kind of language? Who wants their President talking this way? Last time I checked, suicide is at best morally ambiguous and at worst a mortal sin. How can a “Christian leader” talk so lightly about such a tragic act that takes over 30,000 lives per year (and another 24,000-750,000 attempted suicides) in the United States and leaves a massive wake of devastation?

“…and the point is, with limited resources, if you look at where we are, even in the national polls, we’ve spent a nickel to the hundred dollar bill of some of these guys. It’s not that I’m depressed thinking where we are, heck, I’m pretty encouraged. If I were some of these guys who spent tens of millions of dollars and weren’t any further ahead, I’d have to be sitting in a warm tub of water with some razor blades in both hands at this point saying how much money does one have to spend uh, you know, to get on track?

First, let’s set aside that he gets his math wrong by two orders of magnitude (he meant to say a nickel for every dollar unless he believes that Romney has spent $654M in Iowa). Those kinds of gaffes are par for the course for Huckabee.

What is he saying here? Is he saying that Romney should be depressed and commit suicide? Is he saying that if he were in Romney’s place he would be committing suicide? That seems more likely. In that case, what does it say about the moral fiber and character of Romney vs. Huckabee that Mitt is nowhere near considering suicide given that’s where Huckabee would have ended up were their situations reversed? Do we really want someone so unstable and suicidal as our next POTUS?

Huckabee fans, before you accuse me of being willfully literal in my interpretation of Huckabee’s comments, let me assure you that what I think Huck is really saying is that he feels really good about his position in Iowa and that Mitt should feel really bad.

I just object to the way he’s saying it. It is crass, mean spirited, and unbefitting a public office holder, much less a “Christian Leader.”

I sent emails to the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) letting them know about Mike Huckabee’s disgusting and trivializing remarks about suicide. These are leading suicide prevention and issue advocacy organizations.

If you feel similarly, you can email the AAS at info@suicidology.org and the AFSP’s Public Relations Manager, Wylie Tene at wtene@afsp.org.

UPDATE: Apparently, this story first broke back in October. And, it’s not the first time he’s done it, and he’s been called on it in the past. “Razor blades in a bathtub” is a regular part of Huckabee’s repertoire.

Implication? He must actually think that this line is funny and continues to use it despite being made aware that it can be taken the wrong way!

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Ann Marie Blodgett

The Slip - Osama/Obama Explained

October 28th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in Barack Obama, Gaffe, Mitt Romney

From The Eagle Tribune

Romney explains Obama/Osama slip

Obama who?

Um, about that slip of the tongue Tuesday when Mitt Romney mixed up Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s name with Osama bin Laden during an appearance in South Carolina, Romney chalked the error up to “the ravages of turning 60.”

Romney, who turned 60 earlier this year, said Thursday in an Eagle-Tribune editorial board meeting that it was an innocent mistake and he doubts the voters will hold it against him

“I do that with my own kids, the ravages of turning 60 years old,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “I had no idea until afterward, when someone told me I switched the names. … To err is human; to err frequently suggests you’ve passed 60.”

- Margo Sullivan

I don’t know about, “the ravages of turning 60.” but what I do know is that I’m 33 and I constantly get my kids names mixed up. I go to yell, “Austin!” and mean Abe, or “Jessica!” and mean Erin. It’s an easy thing to do, especially when you have more than a couple of kids. To Mr. Romney, “I commiserate with you”. It makes perfect sense, and to think that some out there were blaming the mistake on blatant racism. People are always trying to make something out of nothing.

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