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It is bad enough that any politician at any level of government would support a smoking ban, which restricts personal freedom and infringes on property rights. But Mike Huckabee evidently thinks he's running to be nanny in chief. Not only did he sign a ban on smoking in public places as governor, he has also pledged to sign one as president, rather than let state and local governments set their own policies with regard to smoking in public places. Even Hillary Clinton (despite the misleading headline in this story) was savvy enough to say that though she supports smoking bans, she doesn't believe in a nationwide ban imposed by the federal government. As if his tax hikes and atrocious spending record as governor weren't already enough, here we have another issue that demonstrates Huckabee is a big government conservative of the worst sort.

UPDATE: Jeremy Lott points me toward his review of Huckabee's campaign book, in which Lott made this observation:

Mr. Huckabee's approach to health care is to declare war on ill health, which he takes to be caused by fat, sugar, salt and sloth. As with seatbelts, drunk driving and cigarettes, he advocates that the government and civic society should first work to change attitudes toward these things and then "having shifted public opinion, we can solidify the attitude and atmospheric changes with government actions to statutorily define the will of the majority."

topics:
Health Care, Hillary Clinton