The blog ate my thoughts on Mike Huckabee's CPAC speech
yesterday, so I'm going to repost it here. Huckabee gave a
detailed, generally well received, conservative speech bookmarked
by folksy storytelling that had you entertained when he began but
bored by the time this shtick ended.
Huckabee argued that the 2008 Republican nominee should be a
"fiscal conservative," a "family conservative," and a "freedom
conservative." The former Arkansas governor launched into a fairly
lengthy defense of his economic credentials, detailing every tax
cut he signed into law and every bit of waste, fraud, and abuse he
excised from the state budget. He boasted that a fraud hotline he
set up got enough government figures convicted that "the five most
feared words became, 'Will the jury please rise.'" Huckabee
announced that at the conclusion of his speech he would sign the
Americans for Tax Reform taxpayer protection pledge, allaying fears
of that he'd be a tax-hiking Republican.
Even when Huckabee repeated his line about the need for
conservatives to care about life after birth, he avoided calling
for anything much more statist than education spending. While short
on foreign-policy credentials, he contrasted the culture of life
with a radical Islam that would take a child and "strap a bomb to
his belly" so he could kill innocent people. He described the war
against this form of Islam as an existential threat to the United
States.
It was the social conservatism that got the best crowd response.
He took subtle digs at Romney, mocking candidates who have had "a
road to Damascus" conversion on almost every issue, and Giuliani,
questioning how you could "hate" abortion yet view it is a mere
choice. His remarks about the federal marriage amendment got a
standing ovation.
All pretty good, until Huckabee tapered off into some long story
about a teacher who removed the the desks from her classroom to
remind her students that soldiers fought -- for their desks. It was
a pretty good example of how Huckabee's homespun charm can quickly
descend into hokiness when he's not careful.
topics:
Education, Islam, Abortion, Law, Conservatism
