You Said What Mike?

[Howey]

God help us. This idiot is going to run for President? Can he see Alaska from his house??

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/03/huckabee-asserts-hes-not-a-bir.html

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee got his facts wrong when he claimed twice during an interview Monday that President Obama was raised in Kenya.

During an interview with The Steve Malzberg Show, Huckabee said the president, "having grown up in Kenya," would have a different - more hostile - perspective on the British:

I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, [is] very different than the average American.
He repeated the claim, saying:

...if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.
The Associated Press reports that a Huckabee adviser did not have an immediate explanation for Huckabee's comments

The president, a United States citizen, was in fact raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. The president's father was born in Kenya and his mother was born in Kansas.

But that's not all! Let's dig that hole a little deeper, Mike!

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/huckabee-and-fischer-agree-obamas-childhood-instilled-some-fundamental-anti-americanism-him

The AFA's Bryan Fischer spent the first hour of his daily radio program doing what he usually does: railing against gays and Muslims.

But today he kicked off hour two with a special guest: Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee was there ostensibly to promote his new book but most of the interview spent with Huckabee lashing out at those who have criticized him for claiming that President Obama grew up in Kenya.

Huckabee insisted that he simply misspoke but then agreed when Fischer asserted that Obama's childhood is responsible for instilling some "fundamentally anti-American ideas" in him:

Huckabee: And it's really an indication of just how pathetic some of these folks are who claim to be journalists and reporters and have failed to do a decent job. You know, I admitted that I misspoke on that, but I corrected it. But what I have never done is taken to position that Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or anywhere other than Hawaii where he claims to have been born. Frankly Bryan, that is not a popular position with conservatives but it is the position I have consistently taken and I just am very amazed at the firestorm this has caused, especially in light of the fact that the talk show host himself has said there is nothing to it.

Fischer: Well Governor, what got lost in all the shuffle was the legitimate point that you were making which is that we may have a president who has some fundamentally anti-American ideas that may be rooted in a childhood where he had a father who was virulently anti-colonial, hated the British - might have something to do with the President returning the bust of Winston Churchill back to England. You know, I was struck by the fact that when he made his tour to Indonesia, he made a point of going to an Indonesian memorial that celebrated the victory of Indonesians over British troops - again, part of that anti-colonial thing. And so I'd like you to comment on that; you seem to think that there is some validity to the fact that there may be some fundamental anti-Americanism in this president.

Huckabee: Well, that's exactly the point that I make in the book and I don't know why these reporters - maybe they can't read, I guess that's part of it because it's clearly spelled out and I'm quoting a British newspaper who really were expressing the outrage of the Brits over that bust being returned and the point was that they felt like that due to Obama's father and grandfather it could be that his version and view of the Mau Mau Revolution was very different than most of the people who perhaps would grow up in the United States. And I have said many times, publicly, that I do think he has a different worldview and I think it is, in part, molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas.

 

[betteroffhere]

how much is the difference between an official birth certificate and a reciept of birth record...?

[44nutman]

This is out of character for I heart Huckabee. He usually does not amp the typical hate sound bites. I always thought he was a decent fellow. He did some good work with Arkansas as governor. I don't know if he is catering to the lunatic fringe for his future presidential bid. Him not calling for Obama to be impeached for being born elsewhere hurt him the looneys.

[Howey]

One day he's channelling Reagan, the next day it's Dan Quayle.

No wonder Newt's running for president (go Newt!)

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41896661/ns/today-entertainment/

She won over the Academy, but Natalie Portman doesn't have a fan in presidential prospect Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor and Fox News Channel host attacked the best actress winner, 29, who's currently expecting her first child with fiance Benjamin Millepied.

"People see a Natalie Portman who boasts, 'we're not married but we're having these children and they're doing just fine," Huckabee told radio host Michael Medved on his show Monday. "I think it gives a distorted image. It's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of- wedlock children."

What the hell. Let's throw a little more bigotry and ignorance in there too!

"Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care,"

[Howey]

Huh. What did he have to say about this?

[lil mike]

This is out of character for I heart Huckabee. He usually does not amp the typical hate sound bites. I always thought he was a decent fellow. He did some good work with Arkansas as governor. I don't know if he is catering to the lunatic fringe for his future presidential bid. Him not calling for Obama to be impeached for being born elsewhere hurt him the looneys.

In spite of 4 straight nights of being fried on Hardball and The Last Word, I don't think it's that big a deal.  He's a politician so it's possible it was a deliberate provocative statement, that he knows isn't true (Note to Howey, that would be a lie), or he just misspoke.  He is not exactly defending the statement.  He just said he misspoke.  Either way, I don't think he's running either.  But I do think he is trying to sell a book.

[Howey]

In spite of 4 straight nights of being fried on Hardball and The Last Word[/quote]

Just Hardball and The Last Word? That's a little limiting, huh? It's all over the place. Even one of your favorite venues:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/03/04/mike-huckabee-criticizess-natalie-portmans-pregnancy/

He's a politician so it's possible it was a deliberate provocative statement, that he knows isn't true

Do you mean provocative as in his statement that Obama was raised in Kenya and considers the British colonialists? Another misstatement or flat out lie?

Lie. duh.

He is not exactly defending the statement.  He just said he misspoke.  Either way, I don't think he's running either.  But I do think he is trying to sell a book.

It's just more babble, babble, babble. The Republican way. Say one thing and then backtrack. By the time the word's out and all the stupid out there hear it and believe it the fact that it's backtracked means nothing. The damage is done.

Oh. He didn't say he "misspoke". He blamed his words on the Hollywood elite media. duh again.

His defense? He's really talking about unwed mothers. He may have been in subsequent words, but the words above are specifically about "Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet".

His exact words, in quotes, as reported by everybody, including Fox:

"One of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine,'"

"it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of-children wedlock."

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=14189754

On Friday, Huckabee accused the "Hollywood media" of distorting comments that he said were more about society as a whole and not Portman. Huckabee praised Portman as an actress and said he's glad she and Millepied are getting married. Huckabee said he wasn't trying to attack Portman or single mothers.

"My comments were about the statistical reality that most single moms are very poor, under-educated, can't get a job and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death," Huckabee said in a statement posted on his political action committee's website. "That's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that society often glorifies and glamorizes the idea of having children out of wedlock."

It's the second time this week that Huckabee has stepped back from comments he's made while promoting his new book. Huckabee suggested in a radio interview on Monday that President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his worldview - even though Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.

Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was detained in a 1952 uprising against British colonial rule in Kenya. Huckabee said childhood stories of the Mau Mau rebellion would lead President Obama to want to remove from the Oval Office the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who ordered a crackdown against that uprising.

The executive director of Huckabee's political action committee later said the former governor misspoke and meant to reference Obama's childhood in Indonesia, where he lived from the ages of 5 to 10. He didn't explain the reason Huckabee mentioned the Mau Mau uprising.

[/i]


Here's what I don't understand. Is he so stupid that he doesn't realize his words are being taped? Is he so stupid he doesn't realize, regardless of what he's really meaning, these words are damaging?

Or does he really not care, hoping his lies will convince others?


And why didn't he bring up Bristol Palin when she was preggers?

[lil mike]

In spite of 4 straight nights of being fried on Hardball and The Last Word

Just Hardball and The Last Word? That's a little limiting, huh? It's all over the place. Even one of your favorite venues:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/03/04/mike-huckabee-criticizess-natalie-portmans-pregnancy/

Do you mean provocative as in his statement that Obama was raised in Kenya and considers the British colonialists? Another misstatement or flat out lie?

Lie. duh.

It's just more babble, babble, babble. The Republican way. Say one thing and then backtrack. By the time the word's out and all the stupid out there hear it and believe it the fact that it's backtracked means nothing. The damage is done.

Oh. He didn't say he "misspoke". He blamed his words on the Hollywood elite media. duh again.

His defense? He's really talking about unwed mothers. He may have been in subsequent words, but the words above are specifically about "Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet".

His exact words, in quotes, as reported by everybody, including Fox:


http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=14189754
[/i]


Here's what I don't understand. Is he so stupid that he doesn't realize his words are being taped? Is he so stupid he doesn't realize, regardless of what he's really meaning, these words are damaging?

Or does he really not care, hoping his lies will convince others?


And why didn't he bring up Bristol Palin when she was preggers?

So you still don't know what a lie is?  Figures...

If you think he's stupid then I don't think you realize he is on a book tour.  That Portman comment was exactly because his words were taped and he wanted it to make news.  Mission accomplished I'd say.

Just like I think both Matthews and O'Donnell helped sell books for Huckabee.  Yeah he's stupid all right...

[Howey]

So you still don't know what a lie is?  Figures...

If you think he's stupid then I don't think you realize he is on a book tour.  That Portman comment was exactly because his words were taped and he wanted it to make news.  Mission accomplished I'd say.

Just like I think both Matthews and O'Donnell helped sell books for Huckabee.  Yeah he's stupid all right...

Oh. I understand he's on a book tour. I understand he's pandering to the far, far right base of the Republican Party and teabaggers. I understand the Portman comment, and the Obama "raised in Kenya" comment were attempts at making news. I understand that attempt was "successful".

What I don't understand is why he thinks these comments are going to help him.

According to you guys, the claim is that 1.2 million people* watch Fox News. More than MSNBC, CNN, etc...

I've often said that's a lot of teabaggers and libertarians out there (just fewer than the number of gays in the country).

Considering the reported backlash (by mainstream Republicans) towards the spurrious claims made by Palin, Bachmann, and now Huckabee, as well as others catering to the fringe, maybe they should just STFU? They wouldn't have so many lies to backtrack.

No wonder Romney's hiding out somewhere. He's waiting for this bunch to self-implode before declaring. Did you know that this time four years ago there were 8 (count em!) declared Republican candidates for the presidency?

* Interesting. I hear 1.2 million people are following Charlie Sheen on Twitter. Now I know who they are!

[Howey]

Considering the reported backlash (by mainstream Republicans) towards the spurrious claims made by Palin, Bachmann, and now Huckabee, as well as others catering to the fringe, maybe they should just STFU? They wouldn't have so many lies to backtrack.

No wonder Romney's hiding out somewhere. He's waiting for this bunch to self-implode before declaring. Did you know that this time four years ago there were 8 (count em!) declared Republican candidates for the presidency?

Huh. Even the right's beloved George Will agrees with me!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030407029.html

By George F. Will
Sunday, March 6, 2011

If pessimism is not creeping on little cat's feet into Republicans' thinking about their 2012 presidential prospects, that is another reason for pessimism. This is because it indicates they do not understand that sensible Americans, who pay scant attention to presidential politics at this point in the electoral cycle, must nevertheless be detecting vibrations of weirdness emanating from people associated with the party.
The most recent vibrator is Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who won the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa and reached that year's national convention with more delegates than Mitt Romney, and who might run again.

A spokesman for Huckabee dutifully lied, saying his employer "simply misspoke": "The governor meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia." Obama did not really grow up there - he spent just five of his first 18 years there and the other 13 years in Hawaii. But obviously Huckabee, with his dilation on the Mau Maus, was deliberately referring to Kenya. Unless Huckabee thinks the Mau Maus were Indonesians, which he might count as another "one thing that I do know."

Republicans should understand that when self-described conservatives such as Malzberg voice question-rants like the one above and Republicans do not recoil from them, the conservative party is indirectly injured. As it is directly when Newt Gingrich, who seems to be theatrically tiptoeing toward a presidential candidacy, speculates about Obama having a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" mentality.

Let us not mince words. There are at most five plausible Republican presidents on the horizon - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Utah governor and departing ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

So the Republican winnowing process is far advanced. But the nominee may emerge much diminished by involvement in a process cluttered with careless, delusional, egomaniacal, spotlight-chasing candidates to whom the sensible American majority would never entrust a lemonade stand, much less nuclear weapons.

[lil mike]

Oh. I understand he's on a book tour. I understand he's pandering to the far, far right base of the Republican Party and teabaggers. I understand the Portman comment, and the Obama "raised in Kenya" comment were attempts at making news. I understand that attempt was "successful".

What I don't understand is why he thinks these comments are going to help him.

According to you guys, the claim is that 1.2 million people* watch Fox News. More than MSNBC, CNN, etc...

I've often said that's a lot of teabaggers and libertarians out there (just fewer than the number of gays in the country).

Considering the reported backlash (by mainstream Republicans) towards the spurrious claims made by Palin, Bachmann, and now Huckabee, as well as others catering to the fringe, maybe they should just STFU? They wouldn't have so many lies to backtrack.

No wonder Romney's hiding out somewhere. He's waiting for this bunch to self-implode before declaring. Did you know that this time four years ago there were 8 (count em!) declared Republican candidates for the presidency?

* Interesting. I hear 1.2 million people are following Charlie Sheen on Twitter. Now I know who they are!

I don't think that as far as pandering to a birther kook fringe conspiracy goes, that was necessary.  I don't think he is running for prez so it doesn't pay to do that.  Frankly I don't think it pays to do that if you are running for President.  It DOES pay though to generate news for his book tour, which he did in spades, thanks to MSNBC.

Same thing with the Portman comment, but with the exception that he's appealing more to social conservatives. 

Again, successfully.

[ekg]

In spite of 4 straight nights of being fried on Hardball and The Last Word

Just Hardball and The Last Word? That's a little limiting, huh? It's all over the place. Even one of your favorite venues:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/03/04/mike-huckabee-criticizess-natalie-portmans-pregnancy/

Do you mean provocative as in his statement that Obama was raised in Kenya and considers the British colonialists? Another misstatement or flat out lie?

Lie. duh.

It's just more babble, babble, babble. The Republican way. Say one thing and then backtrack. By the time the word's out and all the stupid out there hear it and believe it the fact that it's backtracked means nothing. The damage is done.

Oh. He didn't say he "misspoke". He blamed his words on the Hollywood elite media. duh again.

His defense? He's really talking about unwed mothers. He may have been in subsequent words, but the words above are specifically about "Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet".

His exact words, in quotes, as reported by everybody, including Fox:


http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=14189754
[/i]


Here's what I don't understand. Is he so stupid that he doesn't realize his words are being taped? Is he so stupid he doesn't realize, regardless of what he's really meaning, these words are damaging?

Or does he really not care, hoping his lies will convince others?


And why didn't he bring up Bristol Palin when she was preggers?

you underestimate them... he(and the rest) explain it all away with the right buzz word..Hollywood elite media

it doesn't matter if it's on tape.. those people won't watch it because we're all Hollywood elite media and Palin has them all convinced we lie and make it all up..

we watched fox news literally make shit up 3 times this last week alone.. it wasn't mistakes, it was flat out made-up-fiction.. but who would know? none of their viewers watch anything but fox.. and if they did accidentally cross over they've been led to believe that the MSM is not only liberal obama shills, it's acron make-believe with the hollywood elite using their 'movie making' skills to make it look real.. so when they see the same story they just saw on Fox n Friends, reported on msnbc, only msnbc reports the real story,numbers,tape.. etc.. they lol to themselves and say 'see, they are lying again... just like good ole Sarah said they were'

or in this case 'good ole Huckabee'...

it used to be sad.. then bizarre.. now it's superbly dangerous.. we literally have two types of people.. ones who live in a real, but slight slanted depending on what they read, world.. and those who live in the make believe world of Fox and their contributors..

think about it.. they have Obama being the bad guy because his g/father was anti-colonial.. while chanting how wonderful our founding fathers were for...... being anti-colonial..

there is no sanity in this people.. so of course Huck can get away with it.. tape or no...

[Howey]

we watched fox news literally make shit up 3 times this last week alone.. it wasn't mistakes, it was flat out made-up-fiction.. but who would know? none of their viewers watch anything but fox.. and if they did accidentally cross over they've been led to believe that the MSM is not only liberal obama shills, it's acron make-believe with the hollywood elite using their 'movie making' skills to make it look real.. so when they see the same story they just saw on Fox n Friends, reported on msnbc, only msnbc reports the real story,numbers,tape.. etc.. they lol to themselves and say 'see, they are lying again... just like good ole Sarah said they were'

Time for you to write a blog, ekg. The block's over. That was so well written I actually pictured a fat ol' redneck sitting in his thirty year old beat-up lazy boy in his dirty wife beater t-shirt, chugging on a beer and rooting Sarah on with a semi-hard....wearing his tri-cornered hat, of course!

[ekg]

Time for you to write a blog, ekg. The block's over. That was so well written I actually pictured a fat ol' redneck sitting in his thirty year old beat-up lazy boy in his dirty wife beater t-shirt, chugging on a beer and rooting Sarah on with a semi-hard....wearing his tri-cornered hat, of course!

HAH... if only I could make a blog like I make posts.. I've said that before so many times and just can't cross them over.. grrrrr.

[Howey]

Dear Gov. Mike: STFU. Really, give up. You're now in the same league as Palin and Bachmann.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201103070008

On Saturday night, Mike Huckabee opened his Fox News program by addressing the media firestorm he caused last week when he said on Steve Malzberg's radio program that President Obama grew up "in Kenya" with his Kenyan father and grandfather, which supposedly led Obama to have a "very different" view of the British than "the average American."

Huckabee also discussed his comments criticizing Natalie Portman for glamorizing out of wedlock births.

First of all, while Huckabee purported to address the controversies surrounding both comments, he neglected to actually play his original remarks for his audience, choosing instead to just describe the incidents. He apparently did so in order to afford himself the opportunity to misrepresent both exchanges.

Let's start with his Obama grew up "in Kenya" comments.

•In his explanation, Huckabee says that his remarks were a "verbal gaffe" and a "verbal slip." As Media Matters and many others have pointed out -- including conservative George Will in yesterday's Washington Post -- this explanation doesn't wash. Not only did he repeat the "in Kenya" remark twice, it served as the basis for his assertion that Obama has a deep-seated dislike of the British dating back to his grandfather's supposed experience in the Mau Mau Rebellion. As likely intended, Huckabee viewers who hadn't heard the original comments would have been left with the impression that Huckabee merely slipped up once in the course of a sentence. He didn't.

•Huckabee described his comments to Malzberg as, "I said President Obama spent part of his early life in Kenya. I meant to say Indonesia. His father and grandfather were from Kenya. My verbal slip did not go unnoticed." But that's not what Huckabee said to Malzberg. Huckabee didn't merely say that Obama "spent part of his early life in Kenya." He told Malzberg that Obama  grew up there "with a Kenyan father and grandfather." While Huckabee attempted to excuse his comments by explaining that Obama's father and grandfather were from Kenya, he didn't bother to address the fact that Obama did not grow up "with" either of them. Obama met his father only once, and never met his grandfather.

•Huckabee seems to have abandoned the defense he pivoted to on both the O'Reilly Factor and a radio program last week, in which he claimed that he clearly spelled out on "page 183" of his book that Obama grew up in Indonesia. As Media Matters pointed out, this is, quite simply, a lie. Not only did Huckabee not mention Indonesia on page 183, but a Kindle search of his book revealed that he did not mention Indonesia in the entire text. Huckabee did not attempt to address his "page 183" lie, which was also called out by CNN's John King.
 
In regards to his comments about Portman, Huckabee claims that the media unfairly portrayed his comments as an attack or "slam" on Portman. Once again, he neglected to play the comments in question. Had he done so, his viewers would have heard him say it's "troubling" to watch Portman "or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts" of having out of wedlock children, because it sets a bad example for single mothers who are less affluent. He also used Portman's Oscar speech to proclaim that "it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea" of out of wedlock children. Apparently saying Portman problematically boasts and sets a bad example doesn't count as an "attack" to Huckabee.

By not playing either of his controversial comments and instead choosing to dishonestly recount them, Huckabee is preying on his audience's trust in him. As he has revealed repeatedly this week, that trust is misplaced.