The Media May Love Huckabee, But Conservatives Shouldn't

By: Rob Casapulla

Posted: 12/29/07

For the new year it looks as though Mike Huckabee is the new John McCain. Huckabee has captured the position among the Republican candidates for President as media's new conservative darling, thus ensuring the coveted support of RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) in New England. In the primaries before the 2000 election, conservatives were told that McCain and his "straight talk express" was the way to go. We were told that he was the electable conservative and that George W. Bush was a crazed evangelical who could never be sold to the public. Well eight years later George Bush is finishing his second term, John McCain is still running for president and the media have moved on to the next "electable conservative," Mike Huckabee.

It seems as though the minister has replaced the veteran for this year. Just like McCain's status as a war hero deserves praise and respect, so does Huckabee's devotion to his faith and his strong stance on the issue of life. However like McCain, this is Huckabee's only area of strength, and like McCain it's not enough to satisfy conservatives. Conservatives want a candidate who is strong on all their issues not just a candidate who is a war hero or who is a minister.

Liberals and the media incessantly point out that Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister and so clearly he must be the Conservative choice. However if there is good to come from the fawning media coverage of Huckabee, it is that they are constantly highlighting his shortcomings as a candidate. As usual when the media obsesses over something as alarming you know that it is most likely something that a majority of Americans will support, like electing a president that genuinely believes in God. Consequently anything the media praises must be taken with a grain or two of salt. The fact that Huckabee is good on immigration in the eyes of the media means that he is bad on immigration in the eyes of America.

Huckabee supports a plan for immigration similar to the one that President Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy attempted to put in place a year ago. The outcry from the American people over the guest worker amnesty bill was so loud that a key initiative, guest worker amnesty, is no longer an option for the current administration. It appears as though Huckabee has not gotten the message from America. He still supports an approach to dealing with illegal immigration that includes a path to citizenship for illegals in this country. Huckabee has said that the current illegal immigration situation is a way for America to make up for the crimes of slavery. I thought that's why we had affirmative action, and why we have to pretend that people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are "respected" public officials.

Huckabee supports raising taxes, he opposes school choice, he supports government benefits for illegals and he supports a national smoking ban. As for the War on Terror, he has criticized America and President Bush's bunker mentality in dealing with the terrorists. Huckabee was criticizing the war in Iraq as the results of the troop surge working were filing in. One new policy for the Huckabee campaign is the idea that we should monitor all Pakistanis coming into the country. If only he would extend that sentiment to people coming from the south and not just from the Middle East conservatives may have a candidate they can work with.

So far the only candidate in my eyes who has a known decent proposal for dealing with illegal aliens in America is Fred Thompson. Thompson supports a phased crackdown on illegals already in the United States, which includes actually deporting the ones who are arrested and at the same time increasing border security. The words "amnesty" or "path to citizenship" appear no where in Thompson's plans for dealing with illegals. Unfortunately, it appears Thompson fell asleep right after solidifying his stance on one issue.

The media shows concern over the fact that Huckabee is a minister but quickly moves beyond that to say that Huckabee won't be that bad because of his "reasonable" stances on all the issues facing the presidential candidates.

Huckabee's only redeeming quality is the fact that he believes in God and is a minister which is the only thing the media has found to be wrong with him as a candidate. If you take away the fact that he is a minister, Huckabee is essentially Bill Richardson after the Atkins diet.

Liberals and so called "conservatives" that dwell on the fact that Huckabee is a minister is simply a passive aggressive way of saying that Mitt Romney is Mormon and Rudy Guliani has been divorced a lot. Conservatives expect their candidates to be genuinely religious. That is why it is not a shock to conservatives when their candidates can accurately quote the Bible, or when they don't talk about their religion a lot. What makes us suspicious is when their faith is all the candidate will talk about, it lets us know that they may not be the whole package we are looking for. In this instance Huckabee is a minister who stands with conservatives on the life issue and stands with liberals on everything else.

Associate Commentary Editor Rob Casapulla is a 7th-semester political science major. He can be reached at Robert.Casapulla@UConn.edu.