Mike Huckabee

I’ve decided officially to endorse Mike Huckabee for the next president of the United States. I had stated in previous posts that I liked Tancredo and Thompson. I still do, but Thompson doesn’t seem to have the energy or enthusiasm to really seek out the office. Tancredo is very appealing to me personally, but at this stage in the game, I have to be realistic and put my energy into someone who really has a chance to win.

I like Huckabee for lots of reasons. It appeals to me personally that he is a Christian and has a sense of morality. I could never vote for Romney despite his good looks and eloquence because he is a Mormon. I wouldn’t vote for him for other reasons, but to me that single factor alone disqualifies him. Together Guliani and Romney just don’t measure up to the social and moral issues that I hold near and dear.

More specifically, I like Huckabee because he stands for certain things and he doesn’t flip flop. He doesn’t seem to make stances based on what’s hot at the moment. He has gotten more aggressive on illegal aliens, but he hasn't changed his message on it. He is pro-life and always has been, unlike other candidates. He is pro-traditional marriage. He has a comprehensive plan to secure the border that's realistic and doable. He supports our veterans. He made real progress with the education system in Arkansas as governor. He's a bit more socialistic than I care for where health care is concerned. He's also too green for my taste, but I do agree with him that we are stewards of this planet and we should do a much better job of taking care of it. He's pro 2nd amendment. I just really find him appealing. No single candidate is going to meet the needs of 100% of the population. He meets more of my needs than anyone else does. I think America is starting to see that too as evident in his surge in the polls.

Some opponents think he has a record of raising taxes. That is not a fair assessment. Here is a different evaluation of his record that I found on another site.

Republican And His Taxes

About Gov. Huckabee, the Club for Growth, which aims to be a gatekeeper interest group in 2008, is adamant. The group's leaders in Washington do not like him. He's the only person with his own category on the Club's blog. They point out that the state's per capita income is, by some measures, the second lowest among 50 states.

They say he raised taxes five times -- a gas tax increase in 1999, the cigarette tax hike, tax increases in '2004, a tax on beer and a tax on nursing homes.

Huckabee's defenders say his record as a tax-cutting governor is unmatched in the state's history, which is true. During his first two years, he and the Dem legislature cut taxes across the board. They increased the standard deduction for all filers, doubled child care credits, removed the so-called "marriage penalty" in states, indexed the income tax to inflation, eliminating bracket creep. In 1999, he pushed through reform of the state's messy property tax laws. He's also trimmed discretionary spending (which was fairly painless, thanks to growing income from the income taxes. And he says he'll entertain ideas to give back portions of a projected $600M budget surplus this year. But it's very hard to cast him in the mould of a reflexive anti-taxer.

He defends a gas tax increase by noting that an overwhelming majority of Arkansans supported it and he, the governor, makes no apology for fixing the state's dilapidated roadways. In 1996, just months after he came into office, Huckabee championed a state constitutional amendment that aimed to levy a small (1/8th of a cent) conservation tax to help the environment. He later summed up the lesson he learned. "Arkansas proved to me in November 1996 that they don't mind paying reasonable taxes if they understand how the money is being spent and can see a return on their investment."

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I hope you’ll check out Huckabee. He’s qualified and very likely will be the President.