Mike Huckabee

Transcript of what Mike Huckabee said during the second Republican presidential primary debate: first-in-the-South GOP primary debate of 2008 election (May 15 2007)

I'd like to get your views about how you balance loyalty and accountability. Would you have fired Don Rumsfeld before last November?

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: I think I would've done that before the election. I certainly wouldn't have said that we are not going to do it and then, right after the election, done so. But that's the president's call. Clearly there was a real error in judgment, and that primarily had to do with listening to a lot of folks who were civilians in suits and silk ties and not listening enough to the generals with mud and blood on their boots and medals on their chest. Those generals told us, early on, it would take 300,000 troops to successfully go in and stabilize Iraq. Instead we gave them a limited number of troops and a budget and said, you have to do it with this. I think that's something, now, we understand was a mistake. But rather than simply walking away and leaving the Middle East in a complete disastrous chaos that will spread to the region and to the rest of the world, it's important that we finish the job, that we do it right, rather than have to go back and some day do it over.

Let me ask you a question regarding immigration. One of our prized guests here today, Governor Schwarzenegger - looking this man in the eye, answer this question Should we change our Constitution, which we believe is divinely inspired.. (Laughter) .. to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chairman of your party, born in Cuba, great patriot, the senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stand here some night?

Huckabee: After I've served eight years as president, I'd be happy to change the Constitution for Governor Schwarzenegger. (Laughter)

Thousands of reputable scientists have concluded with almost certainly that human activity is responsible for the warming of the Earth. Do you believe global warming exists?

Huckabee: The most important thing about global warming is this. Whether humans are responsible for the bulk of climate change is going to be left to the scientists, but it's all of our responsibility to leave this planet in better shape for the future generations than we found it. It's the old boy scout rule of the campsite: You leave the campsite in better shape than you found it. I believe that even our responsibility to God means that we have to be good stewards of this Earth, be good caretakers of the natural resources that don't belong to us, we just get to use them. We have no right to abuse them.

would the day that Roe v. Wade is repealed be a good day for America.

Huckabee (?): Most certainly.

How do you unify the country the way Reagan did, a good portion of the country?

Huckabee: I think it's important to remember that what Ronald Reagan did was to give us a vision for this country, a morning in America, a city on a hill. We were reminded that we are a great nation not because government is great; we're a great nation because people are great. Chris, I want to go back, though, to say why we're a great nation. We are a culture of life. We celebrate, we elevate life. And let me just say, when hikers on Mt. Hood get lost, we move heaven and Earth to go find them. When coal miners in West Virginia are trapped in a mine, we go after them because we celebrate life. This life issue is not insignificant. It's not small. It separates us from the Islamic fascists who would strap a bomb to the belly of their child and blow them up. We don't do that in this country.

you've criticized Governor Romney for saying his faith wouldn't get in the way of his public life, his governing. Are you going to back that up tonight?

Huckabee: I've never criticized Governor Romney for that.

I said, in general - and I would say this tonight to any of us - when a person says, 'My faith doesn't affect my decision- making,' I would say that the person is saying their faith is not significant to impact their decision process. I tell people up front, 'My faith does affect my decision process.' It explains me. No apology for that. My faith says, 'Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you..'

Moderator: But you answered a question that George Stephanopoulos of ABC about this governor, one of your rivals, and you answered it in this way: 'I'm not as troubled by a person who has a different faith. I'm troubled by a person who tells me their faith doesn't influence their decisions.' That's in direct response to George Stephanopoulos on February 11th of this year. Why are you changing that point of view now?

Huckabee: Well, I didn't know I was changing the point of view.

Moderator: No, you're changing your quote.

Huckabee: I'm saying that of anyone, whether it's Governor Romney or Governor Gilmore..

Moderator: Well, you answered in direct response to Governor Romney and his Mormonism. Why are you pulling back now?

Huckabee: I don't mean to be pulling back. I want to state very clearly: A person's faith shouldn't qualify or disqualify for public office. It shouldn't do that. But we ought to be honest and open about it. And I think it does help explain who we are, what our value systems are, what makes us tick, and what our processors are.

He wants to know, A through F, how would you rate the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war?

Huckabee: I think it's too early to give them the grade. You don't give a student a grade in the middle of the exam. We're still in the middle of the exam. Let's wait and see how it turns out, then we can give the president a grade.

Moderator: But a teacher will usually give you a heads-up, maybe midway through that semester. (Laughter)

Huckabee: My teachers never did. I don't know where you went to school, but in Arkansas.. (Laughter) .. we didn't get a grade until it was over, and usually we didn't want to take it home. (Laughter)

Mrs. Reagan wants to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Will that progress under your administration

Gilmore: We can't create people in order to experiment with people.

Huckabee: I would concur. I don't think it's right to create a life to end a life. That's not a good health decision.

mention a tax you'd like to cut, in addition to the Bush tax cuts, keeping them in effect.

Huckabee: Well, I cut taxes 94 times as governor, but I realize tinkering with it doesn't work. I'd overhaul it. I would work for the fair tax, which meets the four criteria: flatter, fairer, finite, family friendly. We'd get rid of the IRS. We're get rid of all capital gains, income, corporate. And we'd have a consumption tax. The fair tax proposal, I believe, offers the best opportunity for all levels of Americans.

'In light of the scandals plaguing the current administration and its allies, involving corruption and cronyism, which mistakes have you learned not to repeat?'

Huckabee: The most important thing a president needs to do is to make it clear that we're not going to continue to see jobs shipped overseas, jobs that are lost by American workers, many in their 50s who, for 20 and 30 years, have worked to make a company rich, and then watch as a CEO takes a $100 million bonus to jettison those American jobs somewhere else. And the worker not only loses his job, but he loses his pension. That's criminal. It's wrong. And if Republicans don't stop it, we don't deserve to win in 2008.

Would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?

Huckabee: No one on this stage probably knows Hillary Clinton better than I do.. (Laughter) .. and I will tell you that it's probably not a good idea to put either of them back in the White House.

Every president, if you look back to Ike, was elected to fill the problem of the previous president. We are, of course, correcting all the time in this country; it's how democracy works. How will you be different, in any way, from President George W. Bush?

Huckabee: I want to make sure that we went to a place where the states had more power and not centralized in the federal government. That's been a mistake of this administration, I think an honest and sincere one, but a huge mistake. And instead, we need to honor the Tenth Amendment, we need to remember that we are a nation of strong states and weak federal government, not strong federal centralized government and weak states.

2008 Republican Candidates:

Sam Brownback
Jim Gilmore
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo     
Tommy Thompson