Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
Puff, Puff, Give In
I've always found Mike Huckabee's anti-obesity for-your-health
crusade sort of endearing, mostly because I don't think he'll be
president and because it reminds me of everyone 's favorite musical
fatty Brian
Wilson. He really believes in this stuff: Huckabee
even supports a national smoking ban and says he'd sign one into
law!
That's clear enough,
isn't it?
In its statement to The Hill, the campaign stated, “At a Lance Armstrong cancer forum last August, Governor Huckabee said that if Congress presented him with legislation banning smoking in public places, he would sign it, because he would not oppose the overwhelming public support that such a congressional vote would reflect. However, since such sentiment for federal legislation doesn’t exist at this time, and since he has said that the responsibility for regulating smoking initially lies with the states, the governor believes that this issue is best addressed at the local and state levels.”
Obviously, that's not what Huckabee said. He wanted the executive to take the lead on this. He's flipped on the issue because it was hurting him with conservatives. I'm curious to see how much of this stuff Huckabee "evolves" as his profile grows. Even if he loses the nomination he's going to be the most prominent political evangelical in America, and he's sorting out which of his gooier policy stances he can keep and which he can't if he wants to keep that role. (Being anti-smoking is perfectly popular with evangelicals, but being for the state telling businesses what to do is different.)
Kerry Howley wrote the definitive profile of Huckabee and his heath nut heart for Politics—it's available here.
(Hat tip: Sommer Mathis.)
UPDATE: Cleaner explanation: He's trying to win tobacco-happy South Carolina.
|1.16.08 @ 11:12AM|#
the overwhelming public support that such a congressional
vote would reflect.
Error! Error! Analyyyyyze!
|1.16.08 @ 11:14AM|#
"the responsibility for regulating smoking initially lies
with the states,"
It sounds like a states rights argument, but it smells
more like a threat.
|1.16.08 @ 11:15AM|#
which of his gooier policy stances
Ummm, Dave? It works both ways, but is "gooier" by any chance
missing an ef?
Episiarch|1.16.08 @ 11:20AM|#
which of his gooier policy
stances
Would these be the "stances" he shares with Larry Craig?
|1.16.08 @ 11:24AM|#
Hopefully enough smokers can wheeze their way to the polls on super tuesday to send this theocrat nanny state tax loving Jared-wannabe home.
Bingo|1.16.08 @ 11:28AM|#
Does Huckabee have much traction outside of Evangelical circles? He's obviously very popular with them, but I don't think he draws many non-evangelicals. It seems to me that he is setting himself up as the evangelical voting bloc leader.
|1.16.08 @ 11:29AM|#
If you think his position on smoking is nuts, wait until you
see this...
*vomits*
dhex|1.16.08 @ 11:42AM|#
dude it's totally easy to change the word of god.
step 1: have a revelation
"god wants me to do this thing that i wanted to do in the first
place and ps you all have to come along."
step 2: nail your followers teenage daughters (or sons if you're
into that, or wives if they've got it going on)
"it's what the lord would want you to do."
step 3: get killed in a totally awesome way and become a
martyr
"it's what dhex would have wanted!"
step 4: victoly!
kinnath|1.16.08 @ 11:50AM|#
Does Huckabee have much traction outside of Evangelical
circles?
The exit polls yesterday showed Romney getting more votes from the
evangicals that Huckabee.
Brett|1.16.08 @ 12:01PM|#
If you think his position on smoking is nuts, wait until you
see this...
Can't believe he was dumb enough to say that. Hopefully he gets
hell for it. Just wow.
|1.16.08 @ 12:07PM|#
If you think his position on smoking is nuts, wait until you
see this...
If Huckafuck gets elected, you'll long for the days when Bush was
president as the "good ol' days! Amend the Constitution to bring it
into line with the word of the "living God"? Yeah? As interpreted
by whom? And which "living God" might that be? Huckabee makes me
feel the same way I felt once when I accidentally stepped on a slug
in the dark, barefoot. That man makes my flesh crawl.
|1.16.08 @ 12:15PM|#
I'm curious to see how much of this stuff Huckabee
"evolves" as his profile grows.
Um... Huckabee doesn't evolve. Evolution is nonsense. His positions
were predetermined by God, and planted in his head shortly after
puberty.
|1.16.08 @ 12:23PM|#
If you think his position on smoking is nuts, wait until you
see this...
"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but
I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it
would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we
need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards
rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said,
referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and
an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a
woman.
Yeah, I'd vote for Hillary if this ignorant, hillbilly, yahoo,
preacher got the GOP nomination. I'd campaign for her.
Tom Walls|1.16.08 @ 12:25PM|#
In a discussion about "push polling" on NPR this morning
Hucklebuck said that any ads mentioning a a candidate's name should
be outlawed.
Is McCain even that insane?
|1.16.08 @ 12:25PM|#
In case y'all don't know, I despise Hillary Clinton with every fiber of my being. Still ...
The Democratic Republican|1.16.08 @ 12:33PM|#
I don't pay much attention to the Huckster, but surely he doesn't conflate his anti-obesity campaign with his anti-smoking campaign, given that nicotine is an appetite suppresant....
|1.16.08 @ 12:44PM|#
@J sub D
Yeah, I'd vote for Hillary if this ignorant, hillbilly, yahoo,
preacher got the GOP nomination. I'd campaign for her.
Hilary, nothing - if that's what I'm contending with, even Nader
looks good...
@Brett
If you think it looks bad in print,
the video is downright terrifying. Follow the linky, and look
under the story...
|1.16.08 @ 12:59PM|#
Mrs. brotherben has been listening in at her work in a local
florist to owners, workers and customers. They tend to be middle
and upper class caucasian church goers. This is what she is
hearing:
1)Obama is a muslim
2)Hillary is the devil in a dress
3)Romney is a MORMON
4)Rudy is a adulterous CATHOLIC
5)Bother Huckabee is a God fearing christian. He is so obviously
chosen of God to be the next potus. He will singlehandedly make
this country get back in line with the will of the one true God. He
is to be followed without question.
This is not snark at all. I am dead serious.
south Alabama in case you don't know.
|1.16.08 @ 1:04PM|#
Hucklebuck said that any ads mentioning a a candidate's name
should be outlawed.
Git thee to thy place of polling, Brother, and trust GOD to fill
out thy ballot!
|1.16.08 @ 1:15PM|#
I am in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia ... My wife works at a local church in day-care, and the women she works with fit the profile mentioned by brotherben above. My wife reports the same line of nonsense coming from the mouths of her fellow day-care workers ... in their mind, Huck can do no wrong, and has been foreordained as the next POTUS according to God's will. Scary stuff ...
|1.16.08 @ 1:33PM|#
A short note to the Republican Party,
Sirs and Madams,
I know you have resigned to the Democrat's getting the African
American vote. Youu'll get single digits of that whoever you
nominate. This is just to warn you that if that ignorant,
hillbilly, yahoo preacher gets the nomination, the larger
demographic of secular humanists, agnostics and atheists will also
give you single digit support. I guarantee it.
BTW, we have more money than the African American community. A lot
more. Consider this a shot across the bow.
|1.16.08 @ 1:59PM|#
Huckabee's theme song:
God's gonna get 'cha for that
God's gonna get 'cha for that
There's no place to run and hide
For He knows where you're at
It's even better hearing George Jones and Tammy Wynette sing
it.
Brandybuck|1.16.08 @ 2:08PM|#
A lot of evangelicals on the right would rather thump their
Bibles than actually read them. Jesus soundly condemned the
Pharisees and Huckabees of his day.
Huckabee: The Pharisee Candidate.
|1.16.08 @ 5:50PM|#
brotherben,
On the bright side, maybe if Huckabee doesn't win, they'll try
seceding again (no offense).
economist|1.16.08 @ 5:51PM|#
Don't be so cruel to poor Huck! Maybe his parents dropped him on his head as a child.
LarryA|1.16.08 @ 7:26PM|#
and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution
so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's
standards,
Jesus Christ with a SWAT team. "Behold, I stand at the door with a
no-knock warrant."
"Christian government" has been around since Constantine converted
in 300 AD. Over the past 1700 years it's the only form of
government that has been tried more often, in greater variety, with
disasterous results, than communism and socialism combined.
And I say that as a life-long Christian.
|1.16.08 @ 8:56PM|#
Please don't compare The Huckster to Brian Wilson. Brian's no longer fat, he's keeping his psychoses under control and, as every fan of melodic pop music knows, Brian Wilson IS god.
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245