“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>Mike Huckabee is a man accustomed to losing himself, literally. In 2003, to deal with his own case of Type II Diabetes, he changed his eating habits and subsequently lost 110 pounds. That’s the equivalent of losing a whole person in some instances.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Huckabee had also developed a reputation as a thoughtful and sensitive Republican, sort of a nice guy. Perhaps it was the fact that he was a Baptist minister that led people to think that Huckabee was the type of politician one could work with from both sides of the political isle. Funny thing was, his history doesn’t bear that out.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As a candidate for United States Senate in 1992, while commenting on the issue of HIV/AIDS, Huckabee reportedly stated to the Associated Press, “We need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.” Maybe it’s just me, but somehow that just doesn’t sound like most of the Baptist ministers I know.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Lately, Huckabee has taken on an even more sinister profile. In his quest to win the radical conservative vote, he has apparently decided that even the Mike Huckabee of the past isn’t radical enough. Joining the ranks of the absurd, he’s now claiming that President Barack Obama “is not like the rest of us.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>One has to question which “us” Huckabee was talking about. According to Huckabee, most Americans grew up involved in Boy Scouts and Rotary Clubs. Well, the former governor and I are from the same generation, and both grew up in rural Arkansas. Ironically, the backwards glance of my mind fails to see Boy Scouts and Rotary Clubs in my Arkansas hometown; were they present, it is for certain that they brandished a proud “Blacks need not apply” policy.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Huckabee also says that President Obama has a different world view from the rest of America. Given the size of the Obama victory in 2008, one can only speculate that perhaps it’s actually Huckabee and his ilk who have the different world view.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As with his pronouncements of the past, in his haste to gain the support of the radical right, it is highly probable that Huckabee is again losing himself. After all, are we expected to believe that a Baptist minister of his stature would conjure up such bombastic assertions, simply for political gain?
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>But maybe Mike Huckabee is actually onto something. Perhaps Obama does have a different world view; and considering his landslide victory, Americans of good will just might share that world view. Sadly, there remains an aggregate of mean-spirited and angry voices that choose to occupy a space long abandoned by those of us who see progress in change. Huckabee might capture the emotions and fears of a hostile and hopeful right-wing base, but his rhetoric certainly will not allow him to capture the White House. Perhaps in losing, however, Mike Huckabee just might find himself.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Contributing columnist George R. Cotton Sr. serves as director of Development & Alumni Affairs in the College of Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
