Huckabee who is he?
Mike Huckabee made his rounds in the media yesterday following his second place finish in the Iowa Straw poll. What kind of picture emerges about candidate Huckabee as more attention is steered his way?
Huckabee was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. According to his public biography, he is well-aligned with Bush administration foreign policy–pro war in Iraq, pro troop surge, pro PATRIOT Act, and for continuing Guatanamo Bay. On social issues, he has strong appeal to the core conservative base–he opposes gay marriage or civil unions, abortion, and is for death penality and for teaching creationism in schools.
Predictable conservative though? He is close to Bush-McCain on immigration, which may be problematic to the base. Amongst his criticisms as governor is over-spending and a contraversial case in which he is accused of being soft on crime. He led efforts to improve Arkansas roadways and state parks, and supported ARKids First, “a health insurance program designed to provide insurance to children of families who could not qualify for Medicaid but could not afford private insurance.” He made sure that tobacco settlement money was allocated to the state’s health system rather than the general fund, and he is generally credited with positive leadership during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
He is a Baptist minister who has a long history of leadership in religous-based organizations. His political baggage is fairly minimal, and he’s got good wit. He’s still a little green in the horse race (like Obama), but is improving.
He was born in Hope, Arkansas (yep, another one).
He may be as much as a threat to the Democrats as anyone else. While he’s still got a long way to go to show he can be a contendah, he can package himself as a green and health care conscious neo- and social conservative. Giuliani, Thompson, McCain, and Romney all have questions about the faithfulness to social conservatism; Huckabee may be more likely to energize that important base for the benefit of the party, even if he did not win the overall election himself.
