WASHINGTON -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee launched his presidential bid Tuesday with a populist appeal to set himself apart from both President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans.
Evan as he announced from his hometown of Hope, Ark. – same as that of former President and aspiring First Gentleman Bill Clinton – Huckabee let the Clinton comparisons go mostly unspoken.
He went after the Obama administration on everything from long wait times at the VA to affordable housing to foreign affairs.
“We will no longer try to contain jihadism,” Huckabee said to roars. “We will conquer it.”
Huckabee also attacked “unbalanced trade deals” that “drive wages lower than the Dead Sea,” as Republicans on Capitol Hill push fast-track trade authority for the mega-sized Trans-Pacific Partnership. And he gave a pitch against entitlement cuts:
"If Congress wants to take away someone's retirement, let them end their own congressional pensions, not your Social Security."
Huckabee won the Georgia Republican primary in 2008, and his strategy this time involves a strong showing in the March 1 SEC primary. (Newt Gingrich, Georgia's victor in 2012, has not indicated any interest in running this time.)
The Baptist minister plays the social conservative card, touching quickly on God and guns at the start of the speech. And he’s not shy about bashing same-sex marriage.
“The Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being, and they cannot overturn the laws of nature or of nature’s God,” he said.
But the fiscally conservative Club for Growth is already out to cut him down. As Huckabee was giving his announcement speech, a press release arrived from the Club announcing a $100,000 ad buy in Iowa and South Carolina accusing him of raising taxes as governor.
Huckabee’s oft-repeated slogan is “Hope to Higher Ground.” He repeatedly spoke of his humble upbringing and, in an unusual move for an announcement speech, asked for donations, while mentioning that he “walked away from my own income to do this.”
Indeed, Huckabee ditched his Fox News show to run again, after becoming a major media personality post-2008. If nothing else, the presidential bid will help his book sales – "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" is available at a store near you – but Huckabee's search for a southern-fried niche in the vast Republican field begins now.
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