Mike Huckabee...A recap of his successful career | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 346626 United States 12/28/2007 03:12 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Blimped (OP) User ID: 327435 United States 12/28/2007 06:50 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | PELLA, Iowa (CNN) -- A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had "no foreign policy credentials" after his comments reacting to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto raised questions. Mike Huckabee campaigns in Pella, Iowa, on Friday. During an event Friday in Pella, Iowa, Huckabee said the crisis sparked by Bhutto's death should lead to a crackdown on illegal immigrants from Pakistan. The Huckabee official told CNN that when he said that, Huckabee was trying to turn attention away from scrutiny of his foreign policy knowledge. Huckabee's foreign policy credentials have been under a microscope since the candidate admitted that he was unaware of an intelligence report that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program earlier this month. "In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it's interesting that there are more Pakistanis who have illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border," Huckabee said Friday. Americans might "look halfway around the world and say, 'How does that affect me?' ... We need to understand that violence and terror is significant when it happens in Pakistan, [and] it's more significant if it can happen in our own cities. And it happens if people can slip across our border and we have no control over them." "The immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it's about people who could come with a shoulder-fired missile and could do serious damage and harm to us," Huckabee said, "and that's what we need to be worried about." The Huckabee official said he told Huckabee that his reaction to the crisis in Pakistan will be the story for the next several days, and until he is "briefed and up to speed" on Pakistan, a good place for Huckabee to draw the line is on illegal immigration. Don't Miss Candidates shift from condolences to foreign policy Analysis: Pakistan crisis puts premium on experience ElectionCenter 2008: Mike Huckabee "Why does Rudy Giuliani get more credentials on homeland security than you do? You've been a governor," the Huckabee campaign official said he told the candidate. The campaign official admitted that Huckabee's tough immigration talk is also aimed at helping him win male GOP voters in Iowa -- a bloc the official concedes the campaign has been losing ground with. Huckabee said 660 Pakistanis entered the country illegally last year. When asked by a reporter the source for that statistic, Huckabee appeared unsure, saying, "Those are numbers that I got today from a briefing, and I believe they are CIA and immigration numbers." The Huckabee campaign later said the figure came from a March 2006 report by The Denver Post. But the Border Patrol told CNN on Friday that it apprehended only "a handful" of illegal immigrants from Pakistan in 2007. The number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan deported or apprehended is not mentioned in the latest report from the Department of Homeland Security/Office of Immigration Statistics. In 2005, the nation did not make the list of the top 10 sources of illegal immigrants. The previous year, Pakistan was the last country listed, but no specific numbers were given. Huckabee is the GOP front-runner in Iowa, according to most polls. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll conducted December 20-23 and 26 has Huckabee leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to 28 percent among likely caucus goers. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 7 percentage points. As the campaigns enter the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses on January 3, Romney has gone on the attack against Huckabee, particularly focusing on his record on illegal immigration issues while he was Arkansas governor. Huckabee's Friday comments on immigration came after he appeared to make another gaffe Thursday, when he seemed to suggest incorrectly that Pakistan was under martial law. Watch Huckabee's response to Bhutto's assassination » While commenting on Bhutto's death during an Orlando, Florida, press conference, Huckabee told reporters that the United States' first priority should be to find the responsible parties. "But the most urgent thing to do is to offer our sincere sympathies and concerns to the family and to the people of Pakistan, and that's the first thing we would be doing other than, again, trying to ascertain who's behind it, and what impact does it have on whether or not there's going to be martial law continued in Pakistan, suspension of the constitution," Huckabee said. "Those are concerns that the United States certainly should have." Later Thursday, at an event in West Des Moines, Iowa, Huckabee told CNN that "it was not that I was unaware it was suspended, two weeks ago, lifted. ...The point was, would it be reinstated, would it be placed back in? All of the aspects of martial law have not been completely lifted even now. There's still a heavy hand Musharraf has used." Conservative critics immediately pointed out that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifted the country's state of martial law roughly two weeks ago. The slip "ought to be really bad news for Huckabee," said the National Review's Jim Geraghty, writing on the magazine's Web site. "I'm not sure how big assassination-related news will play in the first primary states. Still, I think those misstatements will exacerbate the Huck/Not Huck divide in GOP circles." The National Review has endorsed Romney. But CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said the debate over whether Huckabee has command of the nuances of the Pakistan crisis would have little impact on his support. "Mike Huckabee is a populist. His comments on Pakistan reflect a populist understanding of the crisis, which, is to say, not much," Schneider said. "Sure, the political establishment is snickering, but I doubt that his misstatements bother his supporters much." --------------------------------------------------------- this guy is toast. It is hard to keep up with facts when you have no idea what in the hell is REALY going on... ....unless you are Ron Paul who of course is the ONLY canadate that is capable of truley leading this country. |
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Blimped (OP) User ID: 327435 United States 01/02/2008 08:48 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Huckabee Lies About His Iran NIE Cluelessness, Botches Timeline Again Earlier this month, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee embarrassed himself when he was completely unaware of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Days later, Huckabee defended his gaffe by misrepresenting the timeline of his mistake, quipping that the “report was released at 10:00 in the morning, the president hadn’t seen it in four years and I’m supposed to see it four hours later. In a recent interview with Time’s Michael Scherer, Huckabee misrepresented the NIE timeline again: That particular day [when the NIE came out], which I thought it was a little bit ridiculous to talk about, the report came out at 10 in the morning and it was like five in afternoon. As Scherer points out in an editorial aside, the report “came out Monday Dec. 3. Huckabee was first asked about it in the evening of Dec. 4.” In fact, the NIE was released in the early afternoon on Dec. 3, which means Huckabee had nearly a day and a half to learn of the blockbuster new report before being queried on it. Huckabee’s continued bamboozlement of the NIE timeline is yet another example of his glaring incompetence on key foreign policy issues. Just this week, after former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Huckabee bumbled twice in his knowledge of Pakistan, falsely claiming that the country was still under “continued” martial law and that Pakistan has “eastern borders” with Afghanistan. link to thinkprogress.org |
ambiguity unlimited
User ID: 348878 United States 01/02/2008 09:17 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | i dont get it....if the 2000 election taught the american public anything, it's that participatory democracy in the us is an illusion.....our elections greatly resemble the world of professional wrestling in the '70s....and yet, even here, people who really should know better continue to buy into the con.....it doesnt matter which of these walking sacks of solid waste gets elected folks.....they ALL play for the same team, corporate interests...they show us time and time again, our role is merely to provide the labor, blood, and markets that make the aristocracy richer, and we get playstations and suv's......NONE of the candidates care about you, or your desires for the country, except for how they affect the bottom line of their master's ledger books......want to send a message? dont participate......go to the polls, and dont vote....when the new president is appointed, dont pay...their illusion of legitimacy will fade along with their ability to spend |