Well, it seems like Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee has charmed the Republicans into making him a leader in the polls these days. Apparently the Republicans place a lot of importance on glibness and charm.
But really, now, should someone be elected as president of the US because he's charming and witty? After all, I'm sure Mussolini could tell a good joke ... but really .... ( credit to Paula Poundstone for that one on NPR yesterday).
Fortunately, there are a few people who haven't let Mike Huckabee charm their brains away.
Perspectives brings us the Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism
As former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee catapults to the top of the 2008 Republican presidential race, amazed media on-lookers ponder his meteoric rise. The authentic, charismatic former minister, they say, is swaying disheartened conservative voters, especially the legions of evangelicals in Iowa and other states, disillusioned with President Bush and unimpressed with his potential successors. But despite emerging stories from his checkered past such as the Wayne Dumond affair or his past AIDS bigotry, a true portrait of Mike Huckabee as a radical reactionary and dangerous extremist has yet to be painted.
Here then, are the Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's extremism:
1. Huckabee Calls for the Quarantine of AIDS Victims
2. Huckabee Enables the Politically-Motivated Parole of Repeat Rapist/Murderer
3. Huckabee Offers Faith-Based Pardons
4. Huckabee Undermines the Teaching of Evolution
5. Huckabee Speaks for God
6. Huckabee Speaks to God
7. Huckabee Claims God Behind His Rise in the Polls
8. Huckabee Proclaims His Theology Degree a Unique Qualification to Fight Terrorism
9. Huckabee Flip-Flops, Calls for Federal Abortion Ban
10. Huckabee Calls for Consumption Tax, Abolition of the IRS
And since the article was first posted, there's more ...
As it turns out (and as many readers predicted), Mike Huckabee can shock most Americans' sensibilities at rate far faster than can be documented. DailyKos diarist 4fx notes than in 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full page USA Today Ad which, among other things, proclaimed that "a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband." Also hot off the presses from ThinkProgress is Mike Huckabee's declaration that same year that he got into politics to "take this nation back for Christ."
And as Pam Spaulding notes regarding #8 above,, Huck's campaign had to do some backpedaling because the Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor doesn't have a theology degree -- he only spent a year in seminary.
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