Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), the fiery social conservative and winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, announced today at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope that he is once again running for president in 2016.
“Folks, it is a long way from a little brick rent-house on Second Street in Hope, Arkansas to the White House,” he began. “But here in this small town called Hope, where a person started [doesn’t determine] where he [ultimately has] to stop.”
Huckabee, who was born and raised in small town America, reflects its values and traditions, having lived there most of his life.
“So it seems perfectly fitting,” he declared, “that it would be here that I announce I am a candidate for president of the United States of America.”
Shifting gears, Huckabee painted an astonishingly grim and dismal picture of American life in the early 21st century, and was extremely critical of the current occupant of the White House.
“It was eight years ago that a young, untested, inexperienced and virtually unknown freshman senator made great speeches about hope and change,” he said. “But eight years later, our debts more than doubled, America’s leadership in the world has completely evaporated, and the country is more polarized than ever in my lifetime.”
“Ninety-three million Americans don’t have jobs,” he said. “And many of them who do have seen their full-time job—with benefits they once had—become two part-time jobs with no benefits at all. We were promised hope, but it was just talk. And now we need the kind of change that really could get America from Hope to higher ground.”
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Significantly, however, he also shined a fluorescent spotlight on the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs, pledging to clean up (and root out) its deadly corruption and greed.
“Our veterans should be getting the first fruits of our treasury, not the leftovers,” he said. “And my friend, when I am president our veterans are not going to be left on the streets, or in waiting rooms to rot; they are going to be treated with the dignity they have earned and deserved.”
Naturally, he also touted his resume and the many reasons why he is qualified to lead the nation in the post-Obama era.
“No Republican governor had more Democrats and fewer Republicans,” he averred, referring to his decade-long stint as the governor of Arkansas. “I challenged the deeply entrenched political machine that ran this state. My friend, it was tough sledding. But I learned how to govern and I learned how to lead. And even in that environment, we passed 94 tax cuts, rebuilt our road system, saw dramatic improvements in student test scores, and fought the corruption of the ‘good old boy’ system so that working class people would finally be given a fair shake.”
“And we saw family income increase by 50 percent during my tenure,” he added.
Finally, tapping into his social conservatism and Christian faith, he blasted the organizations—and judicial activists—who are committed to redefining marriage and extinguishing innocent life under the banner of ‘choice.’
“Many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of judicial supremacy,” he said. “My friend, the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being—and they cannot overturn the laws of nature or of nature’s God.”
Huckabee, for his part, is a dark horse candidate for president. A recent poll finds he is polling at roughly five percent nationally.
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