Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
Mike Huckabee called for “the imposition of term limits on U.S. Supreme Court justices, saying that the nation’s founders never intended to create lifetime, irrevocable posts,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Huckabee: “Nobody should be in an unelected position for life. If the president who appoints them can only serve eight years, the person they appoint should never serve 40. That has never made sense to me; it defies that sense of public service.”
Even as Mike Huckabee “seeks to put the ghosts of 2008 behind by winning over major Republican donors, he has pursued some highly unconventional income streams — not just the diabetes endorsement, but selling ads on email commentaries he sends to thousands of his supporters,” the New York Times reports.
“A spokeswoman for Mr. Huckabee declined to say how much he earned from these efforts. But she said he had broken off as a spokesman for the diabetes cure a couple of weeks ago, suggesting concerns that the unusual endorsements may appear un-presidential. Indeed, Mr. Huckabee risks being viewed by voters less as someone who aspires to be seen as presidential timber, than among washed-out candidates of the past, like Bob Dole, who went on to make Viagra ads, and former Senator Fred D. Thompson, who pitches reverse mortgages.”
Mike Huckabee said the email controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton is just part of the Clinton family mentality, which he compared to mob boss Michael Corleone from The Godfather, according to The Hill.
Said Huckabee: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”
“He’s a winsome personality. Everyone here is convinced he’s running…but sometimes I think, ‘well, maybe he’s just selling books.'”
— Former Iowa GOP official Craig Robinson, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on Mike Huckabee’s presidential ambitions.
“I think that idea is a gift from God. I think it was inspired out of heaven. You know, seriously I think it would be great. Here’s what I think this means: It is the Southern states and the Midwestern states that really form the bulk of the presidential genesis in November.”
— Mike Huckabee, quoted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, on the proposed “SEC primary” on March 1, 2015.
Mike Huckabee says expecting Christians to accept same-sex marriage is “like asking someone who’s Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli,” CNN reports.
He also called homosexuality part of a lifestyle, like drinking and swearing.
Said Huckabee: “People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessarily my lifestyle. I don’t shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don’t drink alcohol, but gosh — a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don’t use profanity, but believe me, I’ve got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera — it’s not my cup of tea.”
“At a stop on his book tour Tuesday, Mike Huckabee again defended his decision as Arkansas governor to grant the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition at state universities,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“But he also went a step further, hinting that those children should be put on a path to citizenship — a position more in line with Democrats and DREAMers than some of Huckabee’s more conservative Republican peers who are also weighing bids for the presidency.”
Mike Huckabee said that while in New York for his Fox News show, he experienced significant culture shock from all the “trashy” women swearing in a professional setting, Politico reports.
Said Huckabee: “In the South, or in the Midwest, there in Iowa, you would not have people who would just throw the F-bomb or use gratuitous profanity in a professional setting. In New York, not only do the men do it, but the women. My gosh, this is worse than locker-room talk. As we would say in the South, that’s just trashy.”
Mike Huckabee (R) told NBC News that he is leaning toward another run at the White House.
Said Huckabee: “I think it’s pretty evident that I’m moving in that direction.”
“I can more than hold my own – and I have – on a debate stage with any Harvard law grad.”
–Mike Huckabee, in an interview with the Sunday Times.
Michael Scherer: “After losing in his bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, Huckabee created a show on Fox News that gave him a Saturday-night audience of 1.3 million likely Republican-primary voters, wrote four books, carefully grew his base of Facebook and email followers and launched a talk-radio commentary career, all while continuing to travel the country to support Republican candidates and meeting regularly with conservative pastors in off-the-record settings…. This time, Huckabee says he needs $50 million by the Iowa caucuses in February 2016 to mount a serious campaign. It’s an ambitious target for him, but his staff believes there are several deep-pocketed donors who will step forward to fund a super PAC with unlimited donations for campaign ads if he runs.”
U.S. News & World Report reports that Chapter 10 of Mike Huckabee’s new book is titled “Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!”
“Marriage as an institution is not so much threatened by same-sex couples as it is by heterosexuals’ increasing indifference to it.”
— Mike Huckabee, in his new book, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.
“If Mike Huckabee is going to make a serious run for the Republican presidential nomination, he will have to do something he was unable to do in 2008: raise millions of dollars and build a sprawling national campaign to complement the well of support he has among evangelicals and grass-roots activists in early primary states,” the Washington Post reports.
A senioraide said Huckabee’s team “anticipates the need to raise about $50 million by the time of the Iowa caucuses in early 2016, with the money divided between the campaign’s budget and a super PAC, and said Huckabee has done much work to make that a reachable goal.”
“Boy, that escalated quickly. Less than two months after the 2014 elections, the 2016 Republican presidential race is taking clear shape — with several major players moving quickly to carve out their own space (and maybe keep others from carving it up) in the contest,” Chris Cillizza writes.
“All of the sudden movement — particularly from Bush and Huckabee — has the potential to dramatically alter the face of the just-beginning race to be the next Republican presidential nominee.”
Mike Huckabee announced on his Fox News show that he is leaving the network after more than six years to consider another bid for the GOP presidential nomination and will decide by late Spring, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Huckabee: “The continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that is not fair to them nor is it possible for me to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race. The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox. As much as I have loved doing the show, I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run.”
“It’s a horrible thing that he was killed, but he could have avoided that if he’d behaved like something other than a thug.”
— Mike Huckabee, in an interview with Newsmax, on Michael Brown, the teenager shot and killed by a policeman in Ferguson, MO.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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