Huckabee: Western-Style Democracy Unlikely in Iraq

My many apologies to regular readers. As you know I am a huge Elvis fan. I felt the need to honor Elvis on the 30Th anniversary of his death. Now I am back to Huckabee related news.

Check out this outstanding interview with Mike Huckabee in NPR.

• U.S. forces are making "significant progress" in Iraq, but even a military victory wouldn't necessarily lead to a Western-style democracy there, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says.
  Huckabee's fledgling campaign got a boost last weekend when he came in second in the Iowa Straw Poll. Huckabee served 10 years as governor of Arkansas. As a presidential candidate, he's focused on opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, and supporting a national sales tax.
  He says the GOP will need to make some changes if it is going to hold on to the White House in 2008.
  "People are clearly frustrated with government at all levels," he tells Renee Montagne. "We saw its collapse after Katrina, and that's one of the reasons that I think the elections turned so dramatically last year. It wasn't just Iraq. It was what was perceived as really incompetence in government. Republicans spending as much as Democrats were, coming across as a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street. All of those things added up to a disastrous year for Republicans."
  In an interview with Montagne, Huckabee discusses his stances on Iraq, health care and overhauling the tax system.

Some Q & A

• Though when you're saying there's progress, there is military progress, and even Democratic leaders are saying that right now. That's an entirely different thing from saying we're winning this war. In fact, politically, there are some real problems.
  Well, if we talk about winning the war, that is a military victory and that's what we're speaking of. Does it mean that Iraq is going to be a perfectly wonderful and delightful place where we'll take our kids on vacation? I doubt it. Our goal is not to make it a vacation spot. Our goal is simply to allow them to have some self-determination. And I don't think their government will ever look like the kind of democracy that we're used to seeing in the West. I'm not sure that it's functional within their culture.
• Let's talk about spending federal dollars. Groups like the Conservative Club for Growth accuse you of being a tax-and-spend liberal, just like your fellow Arkansas, now former, Gov. Bill Clinton. Will you be able to appeal to fiscal conservatives in a primary or general election?
  Absolutely. I support the complete change of a tax system from what we currently have, which is a tax system that penalizes productivity, going to a complete consumption tax.
• Basically, it's a national sales tax.
  Exactly. It's a consumption tax. You only pay tax when you purchase something.
• And this national sales tax is combined with no income tax.
  No income tax. The IRS disappears, and we end the underground economy. Prostitutes, pimps gamblers, illegals — people who are living in the underground economy — would start paying taxes like the rest of us.

Please check out the full article. He also talks about Health Care.

Also is a neutral, fact based summary about Mike Huckabee at the bottom of the page. Here is an excerpt from that.

• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is one of the second-tier GOP hopefuls appealing to the party's conservative base. Many of those voters have been disenchanted with the front-runners — Arizona Sen. John McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. ....
• ....A former Baptist minister, Huckabee has described himself as a "paradoxical Republican" for advocating some policies not usually associated with conservatives, such as extending health coverage to uninsured Arkansas children.
  But he's right in step with conservatives on other issues. Huckabee has backed the war in Iraq. He opposes abortion rights, same-sex marriage and civil unions. During the May 3, 2007, GOP debate, he was one of three candidates who indicated that he didn't believe in evolution. He later clarified his position, saying he does believe evolution should be taught in schools.