The most telling moment of Mike Huckabee’s campaign came a month ago, when he told a conservative gathering why he wasn’t giving up yet.
“I know people say that the math doesn’t work out,” the Baptist pastor politician said. “Folks, I didn’t major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those too.”
In many ways it summed up Huckabee’s case. He rose from nowhere in late 2007, attaining national prominence and even topping the polls for a brief period. Simple folks were attracted to his innate likeability, his funny one-liners, his impression of a guy they can trust. Evangelicals were attracted by the fundamentalist message beneath the ruddy exterior, his denouncement of evolution, his extreme pro-life stance, his background as a pastor.
But the same qualities that zoomed Huckabee up the charts were going to be his unravelling once he became known to a wider audience. In the debates, he came across as a caricature of various unflattering images, a bizarre cross between a jovial simpleton and an anti-science crusador. All through Februrary, Huckabee continued to get a significant proportion of the votes — proof that his appeal to his most fervent supporters was undiminished. But in the end, Huckabee learnt the hard way what everyone knew all through — a core constituency that consists of born-agains and McCain haters is not enough. Despite the occasional media report to the contrary, Mike Huckabee was never a serious contender for the nomination. And we are all better off for that.
Wow, talk about a completely inaccurate analysis of one of America’s best Governor’s in recent history.
This is why it takes guts to be who you are in national politics; people love to put you in boxes for those deeply held faiths.
The most recent Templeton prize winner is a mathematician whom essentially mirrored Huckabee’s stand, so Huckabee is hardly a “anti science crusader.”
He has been caricatured has a redneck hick, for his name and his impoverished upbringing. He has been attacked for his redneck name, simple conversation style, and bad teeth. These are not real criticism and are cruel hearted to the core. His record is one of lifting a state from poverty and setting it on a path for prosperity. Naturally you have every right to oppose is conservative beliefs, but to attack him and his supporters as simpletons and imply they are all hicks is somewhat juvenile.
I think I wrote that folks were attracted to his funny one liners and simple conversation style. That is hardly a criticism. In fact, I view it as a positive. You’d do better to think before making assumptions.
The problem is that Huckabee’s content didn’t go far beyond those. Where it did, it was plain wrong. You can’t get more ‘anti-science’ or illogical than oppose the entire theory of evolution. Yes, they are lot of people who do so, but does not make it any more right. Scientific questions are not moral ones.
And it is rather ironic that you cite the Templeton prize in the same sentence that you defend Huckabee as not being anti-science. It is a bit like stating someone’s membership in an atheistic organization to bolster his religious credentials.
The winner of the prize, Michael Heller, is a theologist who loves thinking about problems in physics. To my best knowledge, he hasn’t made any significant physical discoveries. And he is most certainly not a mathematician. (Full disclosure: I am a mathematician by profession)
I did not mean to imply generalizations about all his supporters, but your post does not give me any reason to believe that you know what you are talking about. A word of advice: check the facts next time.
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