December 5, 2007

Will this doom the Huckabee campaign?

It should.

ADDED: Am I being too harsh?

103 comments:

Joaquin said...

Why should it?
The guy is on the campaign trail and not sitting in policy meetings.
Ask any candidate that question as the news broke, and you'd get a similar response or just babble.

Unknown said...

All this proves is that he's incrementally less well informed than Bush.

Granted, neither of them remotely deserves to be president, but why this in particular should be the dealbreaker is beyond me.

Laura Reynolds said...

Notwithstanding Christopher's high schoolish inclination to judge all things through a Bush prism, this says something about Huckabee that should give thoughtful voter pause. Iowa has a bad record of caucus selections, this would be another one.

DaLawGiver said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

Well it certanly proves he doesn't read the New York Times, which front-paged the report for days.

DaLawGiver said...

It's disturbing to say the least. You would think he had somebody briefing him on daily political activities in case some reporter asked him about his stand on them. It's not like they asked him to name the president of Kazakhstan.

Unknown said...

Anybody here from Dana Rohrbacher's district?

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/nielsens-plea-deal/28158/

Peter Hoh said...

The dude needs to start reading blogs.

Balfegor said...

I kind of hope it does. My nightmare is that we end up with a race between Edwards and Huckabee.

Simon said...

It should doom him as a serious top-of-ticket contender, but I suppose he could still be credible as a veep candidate.

Joaquin said...

This is just simple GOTCHA journalism.
What's next? How much is a gallon of milk? Oh wait, that's already been done.
God save the Al.

Unknown said...


Balfegor said...

I kind of hope it does. My nightmare is that we end up with a race between Edwards and Huckabee.


My nightmare is that we end up with a race between Hillary and Huckabee and one of them wins.

blogging cockroach said...

huckabee was on imus yesterday
equating abortion with slavery
you know the argument--
abortion is morally wrong and we can't
parse it out state by state
we tried that with slavery etc

he made noises like he wants an amendment
banning abortion etc

now this
hoo boy is he dead meat

cryptical said...

I think it's a strike, but not for being unaware of the NIE. It's for being unable to do the politicians equivalent of a brush-off "That certainly sounds interesting, but I'd like to read it myself before commenting".

I mean really, is there anyone running for dogcatcher that thinks answering hypotheticals based on a summary of a document that you haven't seen is a good idea?

WWHD - What Would Hillary! Do?

KCFleming said...

Huckawas.
Huckahasbeen.
Huckacouldabeen.

George M. Spencer said...

Most or all of us here follow political news very closely. Probably obsessively.

I have lots of relatives and in-laws who do not follow national or international news at all. Zero. Zip. Except for morning FM radio traffic reports, that's it!

Anyway, not great for the Huckster, but probably won't hurt him that much....Again most folks are still learning about his great Bible answer in the debate. Excellent Bible answer....

J said...

You've got to be kidding. The guy hasn't been briefed on the findings and thus isn't familiar with them. So what? After that, everything in the first link is subjective, and the actual transcript doesn't make him look nearly as bad.

Original Mike said...

Given that Huckabee's appeal seems to be that he's a smooth talker, it probably won't impact him at this stage. It sure bothers me, though.

Brian Doyle said...

Is this the same NIE you were being so dismissive of yesterday?

"Is anyone switching sides over this?" you asked, in keeping with your wholly nonpartisan nature. Then you refrained from saying anything about it because you decided it was some opaque issue which only qualified experts can opine on.*

I'm sympathetic to the idea that ignorance of it should hurt, if not doom, Huckabee's campaign, just not coming from you.



* I'm sure you would have been just as reluctant to opine if the finding had been that they were working hard to make a bomb, right?

vnjagvet said...

Nice guy - not ready for prime time.

When you are running for commander in chief, wouldn't it be good to be in command and looking like you were in command?

Unknown said...


* I'm sure you would have been just as reluctant to opine if the finding had been that they were working hard to make a bomb, right?


It is to laugh, my friend.

Trooper York said...

Doyle: Believe in the Bible, do ya Karl?
Karl: I don't understand all of it, but I reckon I understand a good deal of it.
Doyle: Well I can't understand none of it. This one begat that one and that one begat this one, and lo and behold someone says some shit to someone else - just how retarded are you?
(Sling Blade 1996)

KCFleming said...

This may be his Gerald Ford "Poland" moment. Dismissed at first, then snowballed.

Could have Huckabeen a contender.

Swifty Quick said...

Is this the same NIE you were being so dismissive of yesterday?

You're not getting it. Huckabee doesn't even know enough about it to be properly dismissive of it. He's clueless. That's the reason why it should doom his candidacy.

But my guess is that the MSM will nevertheless continue to prop him up.

Unknown said...

Zeb Quinn said...

my guess is that the MSM will nevertheless continue to prop him up.


And why is that, do you think?

I genuinely curious....

Unknown said...

"I genuinely curious?"

Jeebus, I sound like Tonto.

Let's try that again.

"I'm genuinely curious."

Hoosier Daddy said...

I have lots of relatives and in-laws who do not follow national or international news at all. Zero. Zip. Except for morning FM radio traffic reports, that's it!

That sums it up nicely. Reminds me of the fits the usual suspects on this blog were having over the US attorney firings thinking it was huge news and in the real world, hardly anyone a) heard of it or b) gave a crap.

While he certainly needs to get with the times, this will hardly make a dent in his campaign.

Simon said...

Doyle said...
"Is this the same NIE you were being so dismissive of yesterday?"

Even granting your framing, arguendo, it's one thing to be dismissive of an NIE; it's quite another to appear ignorant of what the NIE is.

EnigmatiCore said...

I think it says a lot about social conservatives in particular, and Republican voters in general, that Huckabee is gaining momentum and approaching the top of the GOP Presidential list.

Not a lot that is good, I am afraid.

As for the LWers (left wingers) here who keep trying to turn every thread into whatever they would like to have people pay attention to-- *yawn*.

In particular, the lameness of Doyle's NIE posts is something to behold. If the NIE is correct, then it means:
1) What Bush has been doing has been working, since the halt occurred in 2003, and
2) That time happens to coincide rather starkly with when we plopped into Iraq, thereby having troops a hop skip and a jump away.
3) That our intelligence capabilities have improved under Bush's administration.

Why on earth LWers think that this is bad for Bush, or for the US, probably tells us a lot about them.

Not a lot that is good, I am afraid.

EnigmatiCore said...

"Jeebus, I sound like Tonto."

And now you sound like a racist.

George M. Spencer said...

Hoosier--

But I think this will doom the Huck...

Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints. "I don't think schools ought to indoctrinate kids to believe one thing or another," he said.

My kids are already being indoctrinated like crazy. As far as they are concerned, Asian kids are the smartest, global warming is dooming the Earth, bullies are everywhere, and fat is bad.

Anonymous said...

I secretly hope Huck still gets the nomination. It'll make it easier for me to vote for the Dem.

Off topic: Another thing about Safari, "LINKS TO THIS POST" won't forward to the actual link. I get a Blogger 404 page. This doesn't happen using Firefox.

Hoosier Daddy said...

"Jeebus, I sound like Tonto."

And now you sound like a racist.


Heh...guess that mask is slipping. Won't be long until he makes some comment about the wrongness of 'bombing brown people' to assuage his indiscretion.

TMink said...

Well, he shoulda known. But I appreciate how he told the truth.

Trey

Unknown said...


EnigmatiCore said...

"Jeebus, I sound like Tonto."

And now you sound like a racist.


And now you sound like a clueless, humorless jerk who doesn't remember the classic SNL bits featuring Tonto, Frankenstein and Tarzan all singing pidgin English....

Jim Hu said...

Shouldn't this post be titled "Huck fin?"

Simon said...

George said...
"Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints."

That brings us back to what we were talking about the other day about Huckabee not recognizing the limits of the federal government. That isn't something the federal government should have any say in, in my view.

EnigmatiCore said...

Damn, christopher, you are on to me. I am humorless and culturally lacking because I have not seen every 'classic' SNL bit. Too busy reading Poe.

But you already knew that, only were hiding it with some irony that only those as clever as you can get.

To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people. I've known sheep who could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?

Mark Daniels said...

No. There may be plenty of other reasons to dismiss Huckabee's candidacy. (My son, for example, voices concern over the former governor's tax plan, although he deeply admires the guy.) But I don't think that this is a reason to disregard his candidacy. Nor do I think that it showed him to be deficient.

The NIE was just released yesterday.

President Bush seemed uncertain to do with the report during his press conference yesterday and he, presumably, read it in its unexpurgated form or was at least briefed on it. On the hustings, Huckabee may not have had either luxury.

Mark

Unknown said...


To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people. I've known sheep who could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?


I've known garden slugs that find you insufferably obtuse.

See, I can play too.

By the way -- your pose as someone serenely above the fray who thinks both the left and the right look bad is precisely that, a pose.

And a pretty embarassing one, unless you're doing bong hits at some community college dorm.

Trooper York said...

EnigmatiCore, is you real name John
Maine? (Just a little joke for Doyle and all the Met fans in the congregation, not that there's anything wrong with that)

EnigmatiCore said...

"See, I can play too."

Indeed. Although the correct response would have been "Apes don't read philosophy."

But since you have revealed yourself to be a humorless prig, who just happens to be racist, let me clear up some other things for you.

Aristotle was not Belgian, the principle of Buddhism is not "every man for himself", and the London Underground is not a political movement.

An Edjamikated Redneck said...

Of course the option that the SNL skit was racist as well never occured to you, did it Christopher?

Simels, you are a clueless idiot.

Swifty Quick said...

And why is that, do you think?

I genuinely curious....


....for many reasons, grasshopper.

One reason is the glee they derive from taking down a white male Christian --a Baptist preacher no less. But they have to properly position him first for maximum effect.

And there are other reasons too.

EnigmatiCore said...

As for being above the fray-- I have a rather unique strategy for remaining that way. Whenever I sense a fray, I dive right into it. Some might think that puts me into the fray, but that's just a double-bluff.

Unknown said...


Indeed. Although the correct response would have been "Apes don't read philosophy."

But since you have revealed yourself to be a humorless prig, who just happens to be racist, let me clear up some other things for you.

Aristotle was not Belgian, the principle of Buddhism is not "every man for himself", and the London Underground is not a political moveme...nt.


Oh, you've actually seen A Fish Called Wanda?

Good for you!!!

EnigmatiCore said...

Can't put one over on you, can we, christopher?

Not as far as you know, at least.

Bruce Hayden said...

Sorry, but I do think that it should disqualify him for the job. I don't want a president for being nanny in chief, but rather, for protecting us. There are plenty of other Republican candidates out there who have good national security credentials. (IMHO, Much less so on the Democratic side).

Anonymous said...

If the NIE report is the piece of trash that many report it is, I'd say Huckabee should get a lift from his reaction to the reporter's question.

As just one example of the trash that is the NIE report, and the fools that put those reports together, see: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019197.php

Hoosier Daddy said...

And now you sound like a clueless, humorless jerk who doesn't remember the classic SNL bits featuring Tonto, Frankenstein and Tarzan all singing pidgin English....

Ah yes its always humor, in good fun when the lefties want it to be.

See us conservative bigots need those special cues to know when it's ok to make fun of people who are a shade darker than say, Nicole Kidman because while you think Enigmatic is being insufferable, its the liberals and leftists which have demonstrated time and again, its inability to take a joke and it's wafer thin skin of sensitivity to anything that might be deemed, offensive.

Hoosier Daddy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GeorgeH said...

If Hillary gives off Nixonian vibes, then Huckabee is beginning to feel like Jimmy Carter.

Unknown said...

See us conservative bigots need those special cues to know when it's ok to make fun of people who are a shade darker than say, Nicole Kidman because while you think Enigmatic is being insufferable, its the liberals and leftists which have demonstrated time and again, its inability to take a joke and it's wafer thin skin of sensitivity to anything that might be deemed, offensive.

Enigmatic isn't a conservative.

Or so he claims.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

But my guess is that the MSM will nevertheless continue to prop him up.

Yes. The MSM is trying to rig the election by pushing forward one of the weaker national candidates for the Republican side and downplaying the strengths of the other serious candidate while at the same time magnifying their weaknesses. Huckabee has no chance of being elected President, this is why the MSM is pushing him forward. I see him as a VP candidate.... possibly.

As a Presidential candidate he should have been at least aware of the NIE report and have some thoughts on the ramifications of the report. The fact that he is clueless on this issue is worrying to say the least. Being a glib and likable personality is all well and fine when we are electing Prom King. This isn't a vital skill set for President of the United States. It is far more important to be aware of, informed on and be able to act on actions around the world that would affect the US.

amba said...

"Jeebus, I sound like Tonto."

And now you sound like a racist.


And you sound like my literal-minded demented husband, who can't tell movies on TV from reality. Making fun of a stereotype and making fun of the stereotyped ain't . . . the same . . . thing, Enigmatic. Irony 101.

vnjagvet said...

I volunteered and voted for Carter in 1976. There. I admit it for all to see. What a mistake. I thought he would listen to policy advisors like Bert Lance (not yet discredited, and a very entrepreneurial guy) rather than folks of a leftish bent.

What I did not then understand was the depth of his naivete -- especially about the nature of mankind.

It occurs to me that Mike Huckabee might have some of the same qualities that dogged Carter.

He does not strike me as a commanding figure in times of national danger and difficulty.

amba said...

Chill out, folks, he's only running for Vice President.

(My opinion only.)

J said...

"It occurs to me that Mike Huckabee might have some of the same qualities that dogged Carter"

Which is the main problem with the guy.

"I am humorless and culturally lacking because I have not seen every 'classic' SNL bit. Too busy reading Poe"

Thus quoth the monster: "Fire bad!" Coming up: some Santayana quotes for us to roll our eyes to.

A question for the crowd: who's the greatest philosopher of all time - Jack Handey or E.L. Kersten?

Joaquin said...

A question for the crowd: who's the greatest philosopher of all time - Jack Handey or E.L. Kersten?

Neither. It's Popeye Doyle.

Trooper York said...

Oye como va mi ritmo
Bueno pa gosar mulata
(Santana quotation)

Trooper York said...

Ooopps! Wrong philosopher. Nevermind.

Joaquin said...

MULATA!
Not only sexist, but racist! ;-)

Trooper York said...

I beg to differ. The greatest philosopher in the history of the world was Al Swearengen.

Al Swearengen: Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back.
(Deadwood 2004)

David Heide said...

Huckabee's casual two-stepping around what his own "Christian Leader" ad really meant was strike one. His ignorance of the NIE is strike two. "Gut" and "instinct" and faith may serve an individual well...but not when the stakes (i.e. potus) are so high.

Joaquin said...

Isn't it amazing how an NIE report is all of the sudden pure, honest and 100% credible!
Anti-Bush intelligence is now perfect intelligence! AMAZING!
Oh, but wait!
The WSJ is 'reporting' that the authors of this God-sent report are
"hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials,"
OH WHAT FOLLY!

DADvocate said...

This reminds me of the Dukakis and the Willie Horton release except it appears Huckabee had direct involvement. This hurts him in my eyes.

I oppose releasing rapist and murderers early, even those women convicted of murder who claim they were abused.

BTW - I voted for Dukakis.

Trooper York said...

Al Swearengen: In life you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do. Many times, that's what the fuck life is... one vile fucking task after another.
(Deadwood, 2004)

George M. Spencer said...

Separated at Birth?

Huckabee and Mr. Haney?

Couldn't find a YouTube clip of him....

reader_iam said...

"And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought."

He's heard? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

And if he's "heard," and is concerned about the situation in Iran, wouldn't you think he'd be following the news on that topic on at a least a superficial level? If he'd done so, wouldn't you think he'd be at least aware of the term "NIE" and have some clue as to its contents?

Call me unreasonable, but, yeah, I expect a serious condidate for POTUS--or veep, for that matter, with due respect to blogfriend Amba--to know what an NIE is, as a generic term. And I expect him or her to be following the news, especially with regard to foreign affairs, and especially in current times.

That said, will this doom his campaign? Well, if it turns out to be true that the general electorate (as opposed to political junkies, partakers in the political blogosphere and partisan activists on both sides) is moving toward treating this election as NOT about foreign affairs or foreign policy etc., but rather more about domestic issues and personal visions of what Life And Society In These United States Should Be, then the answer is: "No," regardless of whether it should.

Count me as unsympathetic to the view that if he's only going for veep, no reason to get that concerned about this. While I realize that, practically speaking, we tend to look at veeps as primarily methods of drawing in voters from constituencies among which the presidential candidate is weak, that's not the actual PURPOSE of the position. Speaking for myself, I'd like someone who will be, as they say, just a heartbeat away from the presidency to be held to a higher standard.

***

Disclosure: I am not a supporter of Huckabee on other grounds. This latest head-shaker--while not particularly surprising--is just something else to add to the list.

Webster Groves, Missouri said...

Oh please. Recall the time President Bush was excoriated for not knowing who the Prime Minister of some accounting trick of a "country" or other was. If Huckabee wins, he'll know what he has to know when he has to know it. Anything to keep another actual Christian out of office.

reader_iam said...
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reader_iam said...
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Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

Huckabee has a large, looming weakness: he is a social "conservative," and (especially for a Republican) an economic liberal.

That means on both counts he believes government should meddle in the economic and personal lives of its citizens.

At best on foreign affairs and defence he's a moralist, and a generally clueless one at that.

The winning combination for our times is:

a) robust defence and security
b) financial and fiscal conservatism
c) broad social libertarianism

A President who dithers and ignores the world, while he meddles in peoples lives and businesses at home ... is about as bad as it gets.

reader_iam said...

If Huckabee wins, he'll know what he has to know when he has to know it.

And there you have it, folks.

buddy larsen said...

The man is busy--the first test is coming up and he's on the road trying to get elected.

I'm one of the local NIE experts who's learned everything he knows about the NIE (such as "what does 'NIE' stand for?") in a few minutes--over the years--of news reading, so there's no reason to assume that a pol with a decent staff can't become equally expert equally quickly when the time comes, and then of course build from there.

And as far as his missed opportunity to dissemble--isn't that what we want? Someone who doesn't instinctively try to con the room?

No, the real reason to suspect Huckabee is that he's from Arkansas and probably works for the Clintons.

Ha--just a joke (cough).

Anonymous said...

Wow ... I didn't read the link, just jumped to the comments, because I assumed you were talking about Huckabee parolling the rapist who went on to rape and kill two other women.

I could care less what he thinks about the NIE ... I know what he thinks about rapists, and he thinks they should be back out on the street to rape and kill again.

So, no, I don't think you're being too harsh. In fact, you're covering the wrong story to be harsh about.

Paddy O said...

Anything to keep another actual Christian out of office

I'm a Christian Evangelical born and raised, educated in the finest of their institutions. I'm a social conservative and an economic moderate.

I'd do anything to keep Huckabee out of office. An actual Christian? Maybe. But anyone who uses his religion to pander as much as I've heard Huckabee do is only secondarily concerned about his faith. He's a slick baptist minister, which is a lot like a slick southern lawyer. He speaks words of faith because it tickles ears. But that doesn't mean he's in tune with the faith he claims.

No. It's not that he's supposedly a Christian that he's among the lowest on my list to support. It's the fact that he'd make a terrible president for all sorts of reasons. Course, to change the world an actual Christian doesn't need to have all that power. That's the lesson of Jesus.

Huckabee is more like Constantine, using the sign of faith to conquer.

John Kindley said...

What should really doom the Huckabee campaign is his support for the so-called "FairTax." As blogger John Medaille puts it at The Distributist Review: "The Democrats are holding their fire, hoping against hope that the Republicans will be dumb enough to propose a 30% tax on home purchases, new cars, medicine, and everything else. Those of them who pray are praying, 'Please God, let the Republicans nominate a National Sales Tax candidate.' Even the Democratic Party—famous for blowing easy elections—couldn't possible lose under such conditions." [http://distributism.blogspot.com/2007/12/fair-tax-fraud.html]

The only "fair" and legitimate tax would be the "Single Tax" on the unimproved value of land, as proposed by Henry George over a century ago.

Ben said...

I think it says more of his campaign than him as a candidate.

JackDRipper said...

Balfegor said...
I kind of hope it does. My nightmare is that we end up with a race between Edwards and Huckabee.


And I'm dreaming of a Ron Paul/Dennis Kucinich throw down.

JackDRipper said...

dax said...

MULATA!
Not only sexist, but racist! ;-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reaNVtCgQqs

Revenant said...

If the fact that he exemplifies the worst aspects of the Democratic and Republican parties isn't enough to doom his campaign I don't see why this should.

reader_iam said...

If Huckabee wins, he'll know what he has to know when he has to know it.

Huh. This strikes me as really quite to close to what I just--and I mean within the past half-hour) watched and heard Huckabee say during the Wednesday, Nov. 28, installment (number 4) of a six-episode series of appearances with Kenneth Copeland on Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory program. (They are available for download, and I have been watching them in order.)

Michael The Magnificent said...

Kevin: I think it's a strike, but not for being unaware of the NIE. It's for being unable to do the politicians equivalent of a brush-off "That certainly sounds interesting, but I'd like to read it myself before commenting". I mean really, is there anyone running for dogcatcher that thinks answering hypotheticals based on a summary of a document that you haven't seen is a good idea? WWHD - What Would Hillary! Do?

What Would Hillary! Do? How about what did Hillary do?

Revenant said...

If Huckabee wins, I'm moving to Canada.

Well actually Canada's too cold. Mexico maybe? No point, they're all moving HERE.

Ok, fine, if Huckabee wins I'm still staying in San Diego, but I won't be happy about it.

Beldar said...

I don't think you're wrong, Prof. A, to note this with concern. Nor do I think you're being "harsh" as such.

But it's just one data point. Depending on where you already see the margin as being, it might be the one that changes your opinion irrevocably. But I don't think it will be that for many people; it's no Ford-on-Poland or Muskie crying kind of moment.

Joaquin said...

jackdripper - Trust me, mulata is not 'babe' I don't care what your youtube guy says.
Gos save the Al.

ricpic said...

Santana's a philosopher? I thought he was the next Cy Young.

Bob said...

Why is it that we expect our candidates to be deep, thoughtful, and serious and then when a significant document is published we expected several talking points within minutes from them? Not for nothing but the NIE isn't a document suggesting a certain action be done tomorrow. If he reads it over this weekend but actually reads it, thinks about it, has his staff study it, wouldn't that be a more intelligent approach? Instead we fixate on "gotcha" moments.

That said, he is still not ready for 1st term status because he should be able to blow that off more convincingly. He needs to study the Hillary...

AlphaLiberal said...

Maybe Huck gets his news from Fox Noise. They didn't really report the NIE showing Bush lied to the American people about Iran developing nuclear weapons capability. Just a mention from Bret Hume.

It's a Republican primary, though, so being in touch with reality is not exactly a qualification.

Rudy's got another scandal brewing, too.

amba said...

The winning combination for our times is:

a) robust defence and security
b) financial and fiscal conservatism
c) broad social libertarianism

A President who dithers and ignores the world, while he meddles in peoples lives and businesses at home ... is about as bad as it gets.


I wanted to showcase that. Hear hear.

Lance said...

I realize I'm way too late with this, but just in case the trolls haven't completely derailed the thread...

...this is the part that really sinks Huckabee IMO. First he says the U.S. should hold itself to a higher standard, then he says it shouldn't.

Kuhn: Does the United States face a higher burden of proof on Iran in light of Iraq, in the international community?

Huckabee: Probably so. First time I’ve been asked a question like that. But I think probably so because there is going to be a real anxiety for us to take any type of action without there being some very credible and almost irrefutable intelligence to validate our decision.

Kuhn: And then on the flip side of that. a conservative concern might be, does the United States, might they hedge, might they be timid from taking necessary aggressive action due to the failures of intelligence on Iraq, and our failures in Iraq itself?

Huckabee: I think that’s a possibility as well. And that would be unfortunate if we actually knew we needed to take action but were fearful of doing so because of getting burned in the Iraq situation. That would be a serious challenge for us.

Chris Althouse Cohen said...

If he had been asked as soon as the report came out, this might make sense, but he was asked on Tuesday. Even if he doesn't have a great campaign working for him, he should at least have a decent, small staff around him, and someone in that staff should keep up with the news and inform him of important things like that NIE report. It probably should doom his campaign, but that pop quiz on foreign leaders didn't doom Bush's candidacy.

The "bigger" story right now, with Huckabee, seems to be this story of him letting a man out of prison who then went on to rape and murder someone. That one seems less important to me, but that's what CNN is spending their time on.

reader_iam said...

Christopher (A.C.): At least for many, part of the problem is the alleged circumstances and process of that release, how and why it may have differed from the norm, and what influence (and by whom and for what reason) may have been brought to bear on Huckabee, and paid attention to.

I'm sorry for that rather torturous sentence. The second "answerer"here does a decent job of laying out the case (in the general sense, not legal) for those allegations and concerns in one place.

I suggest that if people want to get a sense of the scope of concern but don't want to go to multiple sources, this might be a good link to follow.

This summary does mention the alleged influence of Jay Cole, though it doesn't go into a lot of detail about the man himself and his causes. There are allegations that his influence was not incidental.

Revenant said...

Rudy's got another scandal brewing, too.

If that's your idea of a scandal, Rudy's going to be laughing all the way to the White House. :)

Anonymous said...

He was probably just listening to Fox News - can you blame him?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13816.html

Revenant said...

He was probably just listening to Fox News - can you blame him?

Another troll beat you to it by over an hour and a half, DTL. You'll have to pick up the pace if you expect to be the preeminent spouter of left-wing talking points around here. :)

Chip Ahoy said...

NSE? NSE? Oh, them again.

What real politician couldn't have winged that question? NSE on Iran = bash Bush ~ administration > Cheeny > current policy > Haliburton > US image > need for change. I mean, com'on, Like Biden, just whip out the smelliest thing from your bum and present it. Makes me wonder if he lacks the instinct.

The Exalted said...

so he doesn't have an instant position on the NIE...yawn.

the wayne dumond story will sink him, no doubt. people tend to look dimly on those who force the paroling of degenerate rapists (over the written objections of their victims predicting he would do it again) because of an insane theory pushed by deranged clinton haters. oh, and then the degenerate rapist raped and killed again.

Anonymous said...

Can you deal with the facts Revenant?

Of course not.

Fox News did NOT report this story. At all. Pathetic.

Brent said...

...educated in the finest of their institutions.

Paddy O - You went to Wheaton?
What year?

Revenant said...

Fox News did NOT report this story. At all.

It could very well be that Fox didn't cover the story, but I'll never know because I don't watch television. I read about the NIE because Glenn Reynolds linked to a New York Times article about it.

I was just observing that someone had already parroted that particular left-wing talking point about the evils of Fox News in this particular thread. You should stop trying to compete with AlphaLiberal and the other Democratic Party drones and stick to stuff you're good at, such as "being bitter and alone in the world".

Paddy O said...

B, I did.

Class of '97. Just was back there for the first time since graduation a month ago for the ten year reunion. They've done wonders to the place.

You?