Some things aren't funny

Yesterday, while speaking to the NRA, former Arkansas Governor and recent Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said this after hearing a loud noise offstage:

That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.

The liberal blogs are understandably outraged. To joke about anyone aiming a gun at a presidential candidate is not only bad taste, it's the kind of thing that would get you arrested at a campaign rally if you were just an ordinary citizen.

At this moment there are men surrounding Obama who have sworn to give their lives to protect him. We pay their salaries because we think it is that important to our democracy to keep our candidates from being eliminated before the ballots are even cast.

How sad that in this once enlightened country we have to do that. How sad that we do not feel so privileged, so grateful to have inherted this democracy from our ancestors that violence against a candidate, or even joking about violence against a candidate, would never happen here.

I don't know what was in the mind of Mike Huckabee. Not much, it seems, because he sure didn't give that comment much thought. Whether or not it reveals something more fundamentally flawed about this man I can't say.

But if you add this joke to the words of one person in West Virginia who, according to the Washington Post, said of Obama "hang that darky from a tree," you realize we still have serious racial problems in this country.

There are so many things to condemn about what Huckabee said. I suppose if he was out hunting with Dick Cheney and heard a loud noise and said that was Cheney shooting and everybody ducked you might be able to consider it funny, though I don't think many of us would.

But to joke about the presumptive Democratic nominee, when many of us still remember the Kennedys, the Democratic president and Democratic presidential candidate, who were assassinated in our lifetimes, is reprehensible. And when the nominee also happens to be black, when so many black leaders were assassinated in their fight for civil rights, the "joke" is beyond tasteless. It is dangerous.

I don't think Mike Huckabee is a bad person. I think he is a smart, funny, and well meaning individual. And I would imagine he deeply regrets his comments and will apologize for them. But the fact that someone this accomplished, who was recently prominent on the national stage, could be so clueless, so insensitive, and so capable of allowing something like this to come out of his mouth, tells me we still have a very long way to go in this country to overcome our inclinations to violence as well as racism.

Some things simply aren't funny. Aiming a gun at someone, and a political candidate being in fear of assassination are two of those things.

Can this state and mine (California) co-exist in the same country?

Mike Huckabee is now tied with John McCain for the lead in the South Carolina primary.

Here's how he did it. Since he began to campaign in that state he:

Said he wanted to amend the Constitution to bring it in line with God's law.

Bragged about how he cooked squirrel in a popcorn popper in college.

Equated homosexuality with bestiality.

Said no one should tell South Carolina that their racist flag was racist.


Can somebody please explain to me what kind of people live in South Carolina?

Obama vs. Huckabee

The candidates and most of the media are already off to New Hampshire, eager to see whether Obama and Huckabee can repeat their Iowa victories.

I'm still enjoying Obama's Iowa win and comparing it to that of Huckabee.

It has already been reported that Obama's win was largely because of the huge turnout of young voters and first time caucus-goers, many of them independents, while Huckabee's was due to the large turnout of staunch republican evangelicals.

Obama's formula could easily be repeated in New Hampshire, while Huckabee's cannot. There just aren't that many evangelicals in New Hampshire where McCain seems to be quite popular.

Huckabee's victory was all about the evangelical wing of the republican party, which makes sense as Huckabee is a Baptist minister. That identity was clear in his acceptance speech last night. Huckabee sounded like he was giving a feel-good sermon to rural Americans. He sounded loving and folksy, careful not to slander anyone, and didn't mention much in the line of policy positions, an area in which he is very weak.

I can see how Huckabee would appeal to a certain segment of the population, those who vote for a candidate only on the basis of his credentials as one of them: i.e. a Christian. He seems eminently likeable, though I simply don't trust a word he says. His news conference to announce he was not going to air a negative ad, just before he showed the already produced negative ad to reporters, said it all to me. He is a complete hypocrite, much better at being a sleazy politician than a good Christian. But then these folks were fooled in the last two elections by another self-professed "Christian" weren't they?

Obama, on the other hand, proved he and his campaign have the stuff to organize a huge turnout and hone a winning message. And Obama himself has the ability to inspire. While Huckabee's victory speech was feel-good and folksy, Obama's was inspiring and elegant. Huckabee sounded like he was running for mayor of Mayberry, Obama sounded like a president rehearsing his Inaugural speech.

Before Iowa, I feared Hillary's machine would roll over Edwards and Obama. It still could. But now I think Obama is a phenomenon that cannot be denied. He reminds me so much of another young upstart politician in 1960 who beat an establishment politician, the hack Nixon, and became a beloved president. His young wife and young children, too, bring back memories of Camelot. That's not a reason to vote for him, of course, but it is a powerful image and one cannot discount the effect it could have.

Obama has charisma, brains, and courage. He stirs people because of who he is, not just what he believes in. When you hear him you hear the real thing, a man who is both comfortable with himself and comfortable in the world, partly because he has lived in so many different places. And though I cannot explain what it is, Obama has something that we see in only a few candidates for the presidency. JFK had it, as did his brother RFK. Ronald Reagan had it, as did FDR. It's a presence, a genuineness, a wisdom and energy, and an ability not just to communicate well, but to inspire. There is simply something undefinable about Obama, that rarely comes along in a presidential candidate. When a candidate has that, he is pretty much unstoppable in an election.

Huckabee doesn't have it. His victory in Iowa was not because of who he is, but because of what his religious profession is, and because of who his supporters are. It is possible that if enough Americans share his religious identity, he could win in November, but I think his quirky fundamentalist beliefs will frighten too many people, no matter how "nice" he seems. Besides, the republican establishment won't let him win because in their minds he's too "liberal." McCain will more than likely be the nominee, or perhaps Romney if McCain falters. Giuliani is toast. Ron Paul is too libertarian. And Thompson is too lazy.

If Obama can overcome the opposition from the establishment hacks in his own party who support Clinton, and the extreme progressive netroots who support Edwards, he can beat any republican.

And he is the only candidate, in my opinion, who can really heal this country from the sixteen year divide, largely caused by the radical right, and repair the rift between America and the rest of the world.