Huckabee sets the stage at RedState for a constitutional showdown
Mike Huckabee
In 2008, the former Arkansas governor came out of nowhere to win Iowa (and later Georgia), and he went on to a lucrative career as a television host. He will try to re-create some of the old magic by rallying social conservatives, but there is more competition for that slice of the electorate this time. He backed Gov. Nathan Deal’s re-election, earning a share of Deal’s support for president – along with three other current or former governors. He most recently visited the state in March.
Over the first half of the year, Huckabee’s campaign received 26 donations from Georgia for a total of $18,096.50.
Huckabee ranked fourth in the national polls Fox News used to select participants in Thursday’s first GOP presidential debate of the campaign.
Mike Huckabee quick hits
Biggest applause line: Talking about facing off against the Clinton machine in Arkansas: “I fought it. I beat it, and most importantly, by gosh, I lived to tell about it. And that alone is good enough reason to make me President of the United States.”
Sharpest jab at a Republican: “Frankly I’m kind of ticked off that we sent Republicans to Washington to stop executive overreach on things like Obamacare and immigration, and we turned around as Republicans and pushed to give this president more power in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.”
Sharpest jab at a Democrat: Talking about Obama changing his view on gay marriage: “Either he was lying then, or he’s lying now or the Bible got rewritten and he’s the only one who got the new edition, and I don’t think that’s the case.”
Mike Huckabee quick hits
Biggest applause line: Talking about facing off against the Clinton machine in Arkansas: “I fought it. I beat it, and most importantly, by gosh, I lived to tell about it. And that alone is good enough reason to make me President of the United States.”
Sharpest jab at a Republican: “Frankly I’m kind of ticked off that we sent Republicans to Washington to stop executive overreach on things like Obamacare and immigration, and we turned around as Republicans and pushed to give this president more power in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.”
Sharpest jab at a Democrat: Talking about Obama changing his view on gay marriage: “Either he was lying then, or he’s lying now or the Bible got rewritten and he’s the only one who got the new edition, and I don’t think that’s the case.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is setting up a constitutional showdown if he wins the presidency.
In a Saturday interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News after he spoke at the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, Huckabee said the answer to the “judicial tyranny” of the U.S. Supreme Court is reasserting the power of the executive against it.
“The main thing the president can do is when he takes the oath to uphold the Constitution, he would actually do it. And what that means is you invoke the Fifth and 14th Amendment. The Fifth Amendment says you have due process that’s entitled to you before you’re deprived of life and liberty.
“The 14th Amendment says that everything to an individual is subject to equal protection under the law. We have not provided either of those constitutional rights to unborn children. The only way that we cannot do it is if we do not consider them persons. So do we consider unborn children to be persons or blobs of unanimated, or maybe animated, protoplasm.
“And that’s really the determining factor, because once we determine that they are persons — and as president I believe they are — then we have a constitutional obligation to protect them.”
That would be one heck of an executive order.
Huckabee chuckled when asked whether he will be the last one fighting the culture wars. “It’s not so much fighting the culture war,” he said. “It’s fighting for the principles upon which our nation was built.”
In his speech to hundreds of conservative activists at the InterContinental Buckhead, Huckabee talked about the “slaughter of unborn children,” but he also kept things light with his folksy humor.
Huckabee won applause for backing the Fair Tax — a national sales tax to replace the income tax — and talking of his battles with “the Clinton machine” in Arkansas.
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