|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
| ||||||
| ||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Mike Huckabee
Transcript of Mike Huckabee during the third Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire (2008 election) (June 05 2007)
BLITZER: Governor Huckabee, do you have confidence in the government of Iraq... the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that he's going to do what needs to be done? MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS: I think there's some real doubt about that, Wolf. But I want to remind all of us on this stage and the people in the audience that there's a reason that this is such a struggle. And I think we miss it over here in the West. Today's the birthday of Ronald Reagan. We all would believe that Ronald Reagan is the one who ended the Cold War and Ronald Reagan is the one who helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union. But there's a group of people who don't believe that, and that's the Taliban. They believe they brought about the demise of the Soviet Union because of the way they fought in Afghanistan. And what I want to just mention is that it is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog. And we underestimate -- grossly underestimate how fierce this dog is and how determined they are to destroy every last one of us.
FAHEY: (inaudible) do not believe in evolution. You're an ordained minister. What do you believe? Is it the story of creation, as it is reported in the Bible or described in the Bible? HUCKABEE: It's interesting that that question would even be asked of somebody running for president. I'm not planning on writing the curriculum for an 8th-grade science book. I'm asking for the opportunity to be president of the United States. But you've raised the question, so let me answer it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. To me, it's pretty simple. A person either believes that God created this process or believes that it was an accident and that it just happened all on its own. And the basic question was an unfair question, because it simply asked us in a simplistic manner whether or not we believed, in my view, whether there is a God or not. Well, let me be very clear: I believe there is a God. I believe there's a God who was active in the creation process. Now, how did he do it and when did he do it and how long did he take, I don't honestly know. And I don't think knowing that would make me a better or a worse president. But I'll tell you what I can tell this country: If they want a president who doesn't believe in God, there's probably plenty of choices. But if I'm selected as president of this country, they'll have one who believes in those words that God did create. And as the words of Martin Luther, here I stand. I can do no other. And I will not take that back. (APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Governor, but I think the specific question is, do you believe literally it was done in six days and it occurred 6,000 years ago? HUCKABEE: No, I did answer that, Wolf. I said, I don't know. My point is, I don't know. I wasn't there. (LAUGHTER) But I believe, whether God did it in six days or whether he did it in six days that represented periods of time, he did it. And that's what's important. But, you know, if anybody wants to believe that they are the descendants of a primate, they are certainly welcome to do it. I don't know how far they will march that back. But I believe that all of us in this room are the unique creations of a god who knows us and loves us, and who created us for his own purpose. (APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Governor Huckabee, I want you to weigh in as well. Do you believe it's time to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the United States military? HUCKABEE: Wolf, I think it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. I think that's what Congressman Paul was saying: It's about conduct; it's not about attitude. But I'd like to ask you. You said a moment ago that you were going to all give us a chance to deal with the issue of immigration.
BLITZER: We're going to come back to that.
HUCKABEE: And I hope you'll do that.
BLITZER: We will. We'll come back to immigration.
HUCKABEE: You held us to it, and now I want to hold you to it, so. . .
BLITZER: We're going to come back. . .
HUCKABEE: . . . if you could give us that opportunity.
BLITZER: We're going to come back to immigration. But right now, we're talking about allowing gays to serve openly in the military. But you're opposed to that? HUCKABEE: I just said I think it's a matter -- it's not -- you don't punish people for their attitudes; you punish them if their behavior creates a problem. And it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct.
BLITZER: So you wouldn't change existing policy.
HUCKABEE: What? BLITZER: You wouldn't change existing policy.
HUCKABEE: I don't think that I would. I think it's already covered by the existing policy that we do have, in fact.
BLITZER: Governor Huckabee... ... you served, as you reminded us, a long time as a governor, Republican governor of Arkansas. Your old job is now in Democratic hands. Here in New Hampshire, the GOP has suffered some significant losses as well. And the Republicans lost the majority in the House and the Senate, as you well know. Simple question: What's happened to the GOP? HUCKABEE: Lost credibility, because we didn't do what we were hired to do. When you're elected, you're hired to do a job. You're hired to cut spending, lower taxes, bring more government back to the local people. We did the polar opposite. And the people fired us. And I think, in many ways, though there were some good people that got caught up in the tsunami of the 2006 elections, the Republican Party, as a whole, deserved to get beat. We've lost credibility, the way we bungled Katrina, the fact that there was corruption that was unchecked in Washington, and the fact that there was a feeling that there was not a proper handling of the Iraqi war in all of its details, and the indifference to people pouring over our borders. And let me just add this, Wolf. There are a lot of people for whom the immigration issue is like a lot of them. They see Washington not taking the kind of positions to build a fence, and they know that when they go to the airport to get on an airplane, they have to show photo I. D. , they have to go through layers of security, and they don't understand why someone across an international border doesn't have to do the same thing.
BLITZER: Thank you. Thank you, Governor. (APPLAUSE) BLITZER: I just want to do a quick 'yes' or 'no' And I'm going to go down the rest of the group and let everybody just tell me 'yes' or 'no': Would you pardon Scooter Libby? HUCKABEE: Not without reading the transcript.
QUESTION: My question is a simple one: In your opinion, what is the most pressing moral issue facing this country today? And, if you're elected president, how would you address that issue? VAUGHN: Governor Huckabee, you are an ordained minister. What is the most pressing moral issue in this country? HUCKABEE: Well, it looks like I'm getting all the moral questions tonight, and I guess that's a good thing. (LAUGHTER) That's better than getting the immoral questions. So I'm happy to get those. (LAUGHTER) HUCKABEE: I really believe that, if you define it a moral issue, it is our respect, our sanctity and our understanding of the value of every single human life. Because that is what makes America a unique place on this planet: We value every life of an individual as if it represents the life of us all. Many of us who are pro-life, quite frankly, I think, have made the mistake of giving people the impression that pro-life means we care intensely about people as long as that child is in the womb. But beyond the gestation period, we've not demonstrated as demonstrably as we should that we respect life at all levels, not just during pregnancy. We shouldn't allow a child to live under a bridge or in the backseat of a car. We shouldn't be satisfied that elderly people are being abused and neglected in nursing homes. It should never be acceptable to us that people are treated as expendable -- any people. But the unique part of our country is that we elevate and we celebrate human life. And if you look at us with a contrast to the Islamic jihadists, who would strap a bomb to the belly of their own child, march him into a crowded room, set the detonator and kill innocent people, they celebrate death; we celebrate life. It's the fundamental thing that makes us unique, and it keeps us free. I pray we never, ever abandon that basic principle.
BLITZER: Thank you, Governor. (APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Governor? HUCKABEE: I think the people of America are pretty smart. And the fact is, they know that if they have excessive taxation and a tax system that literally steps on their head, and they have a regulation system that makes it very difficult for our businesses to compete, and then we've got a system of immigration that we don't have confidence in, and in addition to that we have litigation that makes it very difficult for our businesses to be able to operate in the free- enterprise system, the result is a job migration. And if you ask what the president's problem was, it's a lack of communication to be able to really help us understand what those problems were and how we needed to solve them.
BLITZER: Thank you.
HUCKABEE: That's what we need to do.
BLITZER: I promised, Governor Huckabee, you'd have a chance to weigh in on this immigration issue. Do you agree with Congressman Tancredo that the U. S. should effectively end most legal immigration into the country? HUCKABEE: No, I disagree with that. I think that there are a number of people that we should welcome into this country; certainly engineers and doctors and scientists that we may need legally coming here. What we need to do is to have a border that is sealed and the same kind of process that we have to go through if we go into a stadium: We go in one at a time and we have a ticket. That's the only thing I think Americans really are asking us for, is a sane, sensible system that's based on the idea that if you come here, that you come here through the same process that we would be expected to go through if we went to another country, which is not happening today.
Sam Brownback
|
| | |
|
| ||
 | | |
