Monday, January 7, 2008

Top 10 Reasons Mike Huckabee Shouldn't Be President

by Terese Puente from the Chicago Sun Times

"Obama has been criticized for his lack of experience, but I'm confident he has the intellect required to become president. However, Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, hasn't faced nearly as much criticism for his lack of experience, and he keeps on stumbling."

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10. He went on Jay Leno.

Duh! What writers' strike? It seems Huckabee was confused. At first, he didn't grasp that the writers' strike is still ongoing. So he crossed picket lines to go on the late-night talk show.

9. He doesn't know how to use the dictionary.

Oops! Huckabee can't define the difference between apology and sympathy. When former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the campaign trail last month, Huckabee offered his apologies. Later, his campaign released a statement saying he meant to say sympathies.

8. He thinks we need a border fence to keep out Pakistani immigrants.

What? When asked to react to Bhutto, who represented democratic change in Pakistan, Huckabee instead spoke about the alleged growing illegal Pakistani problem. Huckabee claimed that "... we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border." Not true. More Asian immigrants come to the United States from the Philippines, Korea, China and Vietnam.

7. He can't read a map.

Come on! Huckabee misstated the location of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Huckabee said, "[Musharraf] has told us he does not have enough control of those eastern borders near Afghanistan to be able to go after the terrorists." Those borders are located on the west, not the east.

6. He doesn't read the front page of the newspaper.

Hello! More than 30 hours after the news was in every major newspaper and on television, Huckabee was clueless when asked about an intelligence report that Iran suspended its nuclear program four years ago.

5. He doesn't understand you can't get AIDS from kissing or touching.

Yikes! In 1992, Huckabee suggested we should quarantine people with AIDS. Huckabee wrote the following in response to a question from the Associated Press. "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."

4. He brings new meaning to negative campaigning.

Huh? In Iowa, Huckabee held a press conference to announce he would not air a $30,000 negative ad his campaign made attacking Mitt Romney. He then showed the ad to a room full of reporters. Can Huckabee spell hypocrite?

3. He can go too far in mixing religion and politics.

Oh, sure! Huckabee lightheartedly denied that the white bookshelf in the background of his Christmas ad was meant to project the image of a floating cross, but critics, including Catholic League president Bill Donahue, saw it as a subliminal message. That kind of tactic played well with evangelical voters in Iowa, but we'll see if it works in the rest of the country.

2. He's a self-described "recovering foodaholic."

Wow! Now I give Huckabee credit for shedding more than 120 pounds. It takes willpower to resist all those corn dogs, fried chicken and Southern-fried goodies. But all that weight loss makes me wonder if Huckabee also lost some brain cells.

1. He's no Walker, Texas Ranger.

Help! He enlisted the former star of the above mentioned, corny television show, B-actor Chuck Norris, to be his celebrity campaigner. Sorry Chuck. You can't top Oprah."

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