Huckabee: Lay Off Obama

HUCKABEE: LAY OFF OBAMA

politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

(CNN) – Former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee called Barack Obama's candidacy "a landmark achievement" Tuesday, and warned fellow Republicans not to demonize Obama.

"Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama," Huckabee told reporters in Tokyo, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

Huckabee praised the country for getting "to a point where we did not see his color but we truly saw his charisma, his message and what he brought to the campaign trail."

"When people are really hurting — and they are right now — they're not looking at a person's race," he added.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Mod Edit: All Caps Title

[edit on 18-6-2008 by MemoryShock]

Good for him.

I don't agree with his politics but I am glad to finally see someone on the right have the basic human decency to call for a stop to this slandering and smearing campaign.

Now if some of those on here would hear and heed that message and follow suit.

Fat chance.



politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Any odds on how quickly the mudslingers hop on this thread?

I say within 5 posts.

Oh, ok... but its alright for NO ONE to address the comments of Obama's wife in the usage of the term "whitey", nor Obama's clear delination between "Blacks" and his "White Mother, Grandmother, etal" - a clear US vs THEM. The whole thing makes me sick. When will Americans say enough is enough and stop rolling over and apologizing for crap down 150 years ago... racism is alive and well - just ask Jessie Jackson and Obama's priest...

Having Huckabee stand up for you is like having an ugly girl keep your picture in her locker. It may mean she has good tastes, but it's not something you want the world to hear about.

Seriously, this is just another sign of Republicans strapping on the life jackets. Nobody has to tell the rats the ship is sinking, they have survival instincts beyond scientific understanding.

Republicans or the rats?

What a weenie he is. I suppose he's going to help Obama with the evangelical vote - the same group who were so instrumental in electing George W Bush for two terms.

My faith in this election cycle grows even poorer by the day. We are doomed.

Originally posted by pityocamptes
Oh, ok... but its alright for NO ONE to address the comments of Obama's wife in the usage of the term "whitey", nor Obama's clear delination between "Blacks" and his "White Mother, Grandmother, etal" - a clear US vs THEM. The whole thing makes me sick. When will Americans say enough is enough and stop rolling over and apologizing for crap down 150 years ago... racism is alive and well - just ask Jessie Jackson and Obama's priest...

Please provide links and/or proof of the above allegations. The "whitey" comment has been shown to not have one ounce of evidence behind it, only Rush Limbaugh and others constantly repeating it.

Wow, well this is bizarre news. Kudos to Huckabee for this one, not that he has any other redeeming qualities, but I have to give him credit for seeing Obama's achievement.

With Chafee, Hagel, and now Huckabee speaking up, I am reminded of this E Burke quote, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Finally, some good men are doing something, speaking up and challenging their status quo.

[edit on 18-6-2008 by desert]

Originally posted by grover
I don't agree with his politics but I am glad to finally see someone on the right have the basic human decency to call for a stop to this slandering and smearing campaign.

This has ZERO to do with doing the right thing or human decency.

The Republicans learned from the primary that every criticism of Obama would lead to charges of racism. The Republicans aren't going to take the bait the way Hillary did.

I guess Huckabee wants to follow the lead of the drive-by media, and also give Obama a pass. If no one criticizes this guy, he gets a free pass to the White House.

I say slam Obama on everything. The media, and his cult-like supporters will respond with racism charges on every little thing, and the American people with get tired of it.

If Republicans were smart (which they aren't) they would make the racism charges into a running joke. i.e. OOOPS I'm criticizing Obama again, I must be a racist!

[edit on 19-6-2008 by RRconservative]

[edit on 19-6-2008 by RRconservative]

Another brilliant commentary from RR... I knew I could count on him to say something inane.

Yes slam Obama about the issues...
Yes slam McCain about the issues...

All this other crap is just that... crap... caa caa... bullhooey... manure.

The fact is, like Obama or not (and I personally am luke warm) the reality that a black man has made it this far is a signal achievement and it should be acknowledged as such.

As it was noted by desert, Huckabee is not the only Republican saying lay off Obama.

It is not about race you morons (who push the smears) unless you make it about race... and I honestly feel most people will see it for what it is, a smear campaign and it will in the long run hurt the Republicans than help them.



[edit on 19-6-2008 by grover]

All he's doing is warning Republicans to be careful how they attack Obama and not to make it personal. That's probably a good idea, although I haven't seen McCain or the party establishment do that anyway. Obama has enough questionable policies and past associates that they really don't need to do that anyway.

Of course, considering that the other side has developed a habit of labeling anyone legitimately critical of Obama as a racist, I doubt that this campaign will remain even somewhat civil as it goes along.

reply to post by vor78


I keep hearing you Republicans and conservatives claiming that anyone critical of Obama is branded a racist... yet I have yet to see that in any legitimate capacity from either the Obama camp or the Democratic party.

Hillary tried the race card and got her head bit off but as far as I know that's it... if there is legitimate proof of this claim.... post it.

The key word here is legitmate.

Originally posted by grover


I keep hearing you Republicans and conservatives claiming that anyone critical of Obama is branded a racist... yet I have yet to see that in any legitimate capacity from either the Obama camp or the Democratic party.

Hillary tried the race card and got her head bit off but as far as I know that's it... if there is legitimate proof of this claim.... post it.

You might want to read this article from the Phlidelphia Enquirer. It details the specifics and chronology of each time members of the Obama campaign played the race card.

"But the mean-spirited strategy started even before the primaries began, when Obama's operatives began playing the race card - and blamed Hillary Clinton."

"Obama's supporters and operatives, including his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, seized on accurate and historically noncontroversial statements and supplied a supposedly covert racist subtext that they then claimed the calculating Clinton campaign had inserted."

"Next morning, Obama's national co-chair, Jesse Jackson Jr., cast false and vicious aspersions about Hillary Clinton's famous emotional moment in New Hampshire as a measure of her deep racial insensitivity. "Her appearance brought her to tears," said Jackson, "not Hurricane Katrina."

"Pointing to the notoriously right-wing Drudge Report, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton campaign of deliberately leaking a supposedly racist photograph of Obama in African garb, which actually originated on still another right-wing Web site. Finally, David Axelrod trumpeted Geraldine Ferraro's awkward remarks in an obscure California newspaper as part of the Clinton campaign's "insidious pattern" of divisiveness."

"(In his Philadelphia speech on race, Obama pressed the attack by three times likening Ferraro to Rev. Wright.)"

Source

So there you have it Grover. I'm sure if you looked you find more examples.

reply to post by grover

How about one post.

I agree that all these internet rumors and from what I hear the same rhetoric is being aired on the radio, will show everyone how desperate these people are and cause the reverse reaction. We are not falling for this stuff anymore.

As for Mike H., out of all the republican candidates, I thought he was someone that spoke to the people the best and was always quick with a joke. I just don't like the idea of a minister being president.

they came not from Clinton's supporters but from Fox News Network.

So Obama's camp is guilty of Blaming Clinton's camp of starting the brewhaha over the Rev. Wright when it was actually started by the right wing smear machine...

That is hardly the same thing as what vor said:

Of course, considering that the other side has developed a habit of labeling anyone legitimately critical of Obama as a racist, I doubt that this campaign will remain even somewhat civil as it goes along.

And that is hardly the same as the claim that his camp attacks anyone who criticises him as racist.

Originally posted by grover
I keep hearing you Republicans and conservatives claiming that anyone critical of Obama is branded a racist... yet I have yet to see that in any legitimate capacity from either the Obama camp or the Democratic party.

I've never actually dealt directly with the Obama camp or the democratic party. However, I deal with other regular people every day and almost without fail I get the racist question every time I mentione that I don't support Obama. I've been considering making a sign that says "I'm not a racist, I think his policies suck!" so that I can flash it whenever I join a political conversation to save time.

reply to post by BlueTriangle


I am sorry to hear that but that is individual people... not the campaign... me personally would never suggest to anyone that they are racist for not supporting Obama unless their own words and behavior prove them to be.