Mike Huckabee on Fred Thompson Hoopla
August 29, 2007
In an interview I conducted this week in Iowa with presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, I asked him to explain why Fred Thompson was getting so much attention before he even enters the presidential race.
He said, "I frankly don't get it. I mean I'm not being unkind I just don't understand it because there's not a substantial record in the Senate in him having authored the landmark signature bill that changed America. There's not been in essence the kind of thing that says boy I remember when he did and then you fill in the blank. I think a lot of it is that people aren't sure whether they're electing a former senator or Arthur Branch. Anytime a person is on television a lot and a celebrity there's a sense in which people are given a unique pedestal on which to stand and it's the celebrity more than it is anything, the attention that comes from that and the sort of gee whiz factor and I've seen him on TV."
Huckabee has a unique style where he can chastise an opponent and yet it doesn't come across as mean or vindictive. It's kind of like in the south where they might not like how you're dressed, but the way they say it makes it sound ok. Something like, "Oh, that outfit doesn't really go together, bless your heart."
You want another example? Read below when I asked him if Fred Thompson's decision to NOT support a federal marriage amendment will be a problem for him.
"For many conservatives, this is a very critical issue…a constitutional amendment to clearly define marriage, as we did in my state when I was Governor, is something that many of us believe ought to happen at the federal level so that we put this to rest and we don't keep fighting it state by state by state or we have some federal court say that whatever federal recognition of one state has to then apply to the other states," Huckabee said. "So it is a very important issue for many conservatives. I think if a person doesn't take a strong stand or acts as if it's not important it's going to be signal. It's not that it's just the issue but the fact that it's going to send a signal to conservatives that a person may not really be fully tuned in to the importance of maintaining the integrity and structure of marriage as we know it."
The comment above could be read simply like this: "That Fred Thompson, he's not quite there yet on the federal marriage amendment, bless his heart!"
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