Huckabee On Univision: Mucho liberal, Maybe Loco, Too?

Hugh Hewitt has posted the transcript of the Univision debate. In wading through the transcript, I've picked out what I think are a few revealing bits from Governor Huckabee. Does anyone believe America should, or even could become oil-free in the foreseeable future? Most realistic people would tell you that's just insane. Huckabee seems to think so. He also seems trapped in a sort of liberal rhetoric, invoking the word empowerment not just as regards education, but on terrorism, too. And his plans for education strike me as the standard liberal drool conservatives have been fighting for decades.

Given that he repeats the oil comment, I can only assume he means it.

HUCKABEE: Well, Hugo Chavez is hardly the friend of the United
States. And even though we get 60 percent of their oil, I think it's
one of the major reasons we need to become increasingly oil-free and
energy-independent so that we don't have to worry about Mr. Chavez.
My mother used to have a statement: If you give somebody enough
rope, they'll hang themselves. I have a feeling that Mr. Chavez,
continuing to take power from the people as he has done, will find
himself unfortunately out of power, and hopefully for all of us,
fortunately a democratically elected government there that will give
those people back the freedom that he has robbed from them and
hopefully by then we won't need their oil, but they will have their
freedom.

Using the word empowerment when it comes to terrorists might be just a poor choice of words, so that's not necessarily a big deal. I only reference this below because I think Huckabee talks like a liberal because he thinks like one. After all, if you walk like something and talk like it, too - most people conclude it's because that's what you are. Perhaps some will disagree. This below is on staying the course in Iraq:

This isn't an issue that's about Hispanics or anybody else in
terms of ethnicity. This is about every one of us being able to be
free, to have a future, and to be able to know that we're not going to
allow a vacuum there, which happens if we lose -- and we lose when we
walk away -- to create an opening so that terrorists can build even
greater cells of training and empowerment there.
That's why we have to stay. And it's why we have to win.

And then when he gets to education, he loses me completely and there's that empowerment thing, again. Do most right-siders really believe we need more touchy-feely crap in our schools, as opposed to less?

HUCKABEE: An education is empowerment. The lack of it leads us
to incredible, just all kinds of obstacles in our path.
And we always talk about we need more math and science, and we,
and we're doing a better job. But one of the reasons we have kids
failing is not because they're dumb, it's they're bored. They're
bored with a curriculum that doesn't touch them.
We have schools that are about perpetuating the schools, not
helping the students.
I propose launching weapons of mass instruction, making sure that
we are launching not only the math and science...
... but music and art programs that touch the right side of the
brain, and not only educate the left side of the student's brain.
Because without a creative economy and a creative student, you
have a bored student, and that's one of the reasons we see so many of
them dropping out.

Comments

[JustADude]

To me he sounds on foreign policy like our version of Jimmy Carter. But at least he wasn't booed by the crowd like Ron Paul was over Cuba.

[JustADude]

Comment got lost in space will try again.

His foreign policy is sounding like Clinton or maybe even Carter.

But at least he wasn't booed like Ron Paul was over Cuba.

[Smarty]

What an idiot.

The problems in school are that the parents haven't raised kids that are willing to study w/o instant gratification. Catering even more to non-"3-R's" is just stupid.

If he thinks that dictators get voted out of office, then he has been learning about history from the pages of People magazine, or maybe TNR.

[seekeronos]

God help us if this bonehead (Huckabee) gets elected.

I didn't think I'd ever hear myself (erm, see?) saying this - but Huck needs to drop out of this race and go back to being a countryside preacher. He is profoundly incapable of serving as POTUS, and the potential he has thus far shown us for making Carter's presidency look like the Gipper's by comparison is downright frightening.

"--- I only reference this below because I think Huckabee talks like a liberal because he thinks like one. ---"

And he IS a liberal. His actions as Arkansas governor scream that loudly from the rooftops. This man IS DANGEROUS, and will SHATTER this nation upon the false hope of a sickening trend toward Democratic Party-style liberalism and nanny-statism, as well as a woefully uninformed foreign policy.

As for education, we need to stick to the basics which are giving the Sinosphere and Europe the edge over us in fields we have long dominated - math, hard sciences, and critical thinking skills... as well as life skills like financial management and applied sciences and industrial engineering and design, medicine, information technology, and the ability to market our greatest assets for a post-industrial society: marketing our knowledge.

Moreover, we need - to expand on what Smarty observed - to re-think our culture of instant gratification and lay hold of the values our ancestors held in the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries which helped to make us great - those of family and community service, and finally, good financial sense:

"If you can't pay cash for it now, and also pay your bills on time, and save 10%~20% of your gross monthly income, then you can't afford it now."