The End of the Huckabee Campaign
December 1, 2009 /
This will kill his hopes of ever being president.
And frankly, given this pretty lame blame-shifting response to the whole thing, it probably should. He sounds like a weaselly politician, pretty reminiscent of a certain other Arkansas governor, quite frankly, and I’m pretty disappointed in Huck on this one; pretty disappointed.
As a matter of curiosity- if Mr Huckabee had won the Republican nomination and been elected President, or if John McCain had chosen him as his running mate and gone on to win, would you be calling for President/Vice-President Huckabee’s impeachment now?
No, of course not. It’s not an impeachable offense; doesn’t rise to that level, or really even close. In one respect, it’s not an “offense” at all. I’m not even totally sure that he carries a whole lot of blame for commuting a then-16-year-old’s sentence, though he has to share some particularly given the fact that he tended to commute sentences at what some might see as an alarming rate. But his explanation was politically-crafted, a masterpiece of spin, and sounds and smells a lot like just another politician. And the combination of the two–particularly in our American “gotcha” brand of politics, will sink his political aspirations.
I voted for Huckabee in the Florida primary and I gave to his campaign. I am extremely disappointed at both his actions in this case when he was governor and his lame answers now.
As for impeachment, I don’t think it would have been necessary. Surely someone in DC would have been able to convince him to resign.
He is toast.
Have to agree with you on all points, Stan; I supported Huck way back, and I guess I might have in 2012, but I’m with you.
I agree that he is toast. Anytime you let a prisoner out early it seems you’re rolling the dice. I wish they wouldn’t let violent offenders out early.
I agree with the Huck Blog commenter who said:
“Isn’t the public entitled to know (from Huckabee) the exact grounds for the parole so so the public can judge the involvement and reasons for Huckabee’s decision. If his decision is based on a strong and credible recommendation, it may be justified.”
P.S. I don’t know how bad the Arkansas justice system was, or is. I doubt it’s top- of-the-line. But if the system recommended this man at that time for commutation of sentence, they might have had justifiable reasons. And it’s possible the man got worse over time, as mental patients can do, rather than him being this much of a lunatic at that time. There’s a lot to this story that’s not being reported, and probably to wreck Huckabee. Why are you all trusting the MSM on their reportage of this story?
@Jack Brooks: Missing the point, Jack. Read Huck’s own statement. It’s weaselly. It shifts blame. It’s not a stand-up thing. I’m not as concerned with what happened as with Huck’s reaction to what happened. He can’t even say, “I commuted the sentence.” If he did that–and then explained his reasoning–that’d be one thing, but he puts it all in third person, as though he had nothing to do with anything. Not presidential.
OK. I’m not even a Huck fan. I think of him as a tax-raising “moderate” posing as a conservative. I’d heard the criticisms that he was pardon-happy.