Huckabee calls McCain’s debate ploy a ‘huge mistake.’
By on Sep 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Huckabee calls McCain’s debate ploy a ‘huge mistake.’
In Mobile, Alabama last night, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called Sen. John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and possibly skip tonight’s debate a “huge mistake.” Saying that he “still backs McCain’s candidacy,” Huckabee said McCain shouldn’t have paused the campaign because a president has to “deal with the unexpected”:
Huckabee said he still backs McCain’s candidacy, but said the Arizona senator should not have put his campaign on hold to deal with the financial crisis on Wall Street. He said a president must be prepared to “deal with the unexpected.”
“You can’t just say, ‘World stop for a moment. I’m going to cancel everything,”‘ Huckabee said.
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If Huckleberry says so, it must be true!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:10 amActual 1st definition of “Maverick”:
1. An unbranded stray calf, especially a calf that has become separated from its mother…
(and now the punchline)
…traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it.
Deregulation, anyone?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:12 amWatch the loyal mutants go after Huckabee!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:13 amHuckabee’s right. And I’m glad to see somebody on the GOP side have the courage to state the obvious.
As long as Huckabee is being profound, has he offered his opinion of McCain’s running mate publicly?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:14 amhuckabee is making sense… we have officially entered bizzaro-land!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:14 ammccain and palin both look foolish when they are faced with even reasonably easy questions for which they should have been well briefed. He is just stupid and uninterested, and she seems to be politically fairly sharp, but intellectually unrelated to the world beyond Alaska. These qualities make them desparate to use any excuse to duck the debates.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:14 amdeal with the unexpected as if he could. look how well he handles himself. Talk about a fair weather friend!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:15 amrats fleeing a sinking ship (of fools)
September 26th, 2008 at 11:16 amWalk and chew gum at the same time, Mr. White superior man.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:17 amMcCain not attending the debate would be a foolish thing to do, but the rest of the talk about him “suspending” his campaign is nonsense. He’s still doing politically motivated interviews, taking money, and running attack adds against Obama. His campaign is by no means suspended.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am..And keep in mind, McChicken isn’t trying to skip the debate, he’s trying to elbow Palin’s debate off the map for as long as possible…
Palin’ll be Biden’s Kleenex…
September 26th, 2008 at 11:18 amIf McPutz can’t handle a debate with Obama, how can he handle al-Qaeda?
Or Iran?
Oh, wait, that’s right- Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran.
snark
September 26th, 2008 at 11:18 amMccain has backed himself into a corner and the right wingers are poking him with a stick to get him to attend the debate because they know it looks really bad.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:20 amMcCain has painted himself into a corner on this one, and everybody can see that. I’m sure his campaign is now weighing which option will cost him the least.
McCain could show up for the debate even though there’s no bailout package ready. If he does, he exposes what he tried to do as a shameless political stunt.
OR
McCain could stick to his guns and not show up for the debate, even though there’s essentially nothing he could be doing for the bailout at that time. But if he does that, he gives Obama a clear field for a lot of prime-time national exposure for free.
McCain’s best hope is to convince his fellow lawmakers to pull some sort of all-nighter tonight so he has an excuse to be absent. I don’t know how this would succeed, though. The Dems aren’t going to help him in his stunt, and the Reps are already in trouble with the American people for messing up all the progress made so far.
No matter how you slice it, McCain’s toast.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am“You can’t just say, ‘World stop for a moment. I’m going to cancel everything,” Huckabee said.
Sure you can – just ask John.
“EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!”
September 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am(via Rawstory:)
Now we’ve entered bizarro-land…
September 26th, 2008 at 11:25 amJust announced that McCain will be attending the debate.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:27 amHuckabee calls McCain’s debate ploy a ‘huge mistake.’
- – That was Mike Huckabee, letting you know he’s running for president in 2012.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:28 amTranslation:
September 26th, 2008 at 11:29 am
McCain has said he will solve the problem, break the impasse, and rescue the rescue. How? So far he has only vaguely supported the Repub rightwing. Oh, also he said he favors more tax cuts and less regulation in any solution. Duh?
So how can McCain emerge as a hero? What if the Repub “opposition” is a pre-arranged stunt, pre-arranged to fold once McCain gallops in? And they have decided to plead for a substantial “middle-class” tax cut as part of the deal (rather like Obama has proposed all along)? In other words, make the bid bad Dems agree to a middle-class tax cut in exchange for Repub agreement to the Dems’ (not Paulson’s) bail-out deal for Wall Street? Sounds Rovian enough for me…… You can fool most of the people most of the time.
And McCain, sword in hand, rushes breathlessly into the debate 10 minutes late to announce that he has solved the crisis…….
September 26th, 2008 at 11:30 amJust announced that McCain will be attending the debate.
Well instead of “saving the day” with his super natural powers this afternoon, I guess he’ll be taking a nap to “prep himself” for the debate..
September 26th, 2008 at 11:31 amI think McCain’s move is a political ploy.
I think the campaign staff was sitting around thinking about their slogan, ‘Country First’. They wanted a way to drive home their charge that Obama is a great talker with little substance (by contrasting him working, while Obama debates). And they thought that McCain could cement his reputation as a maverick and distance himself from Bush in one fell swoop by going to Washington and opposing Bush’s bailout plan.
Unless McCain can somehow show some competence on the issue and valid reasons for opposing Bush and the Democratic leadership; this is a huge gamble and possibly, reckless. A hail mary pass. But, it’s now up to Johann McAwesome to explain the wisdom of his objections.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:36 amKass Says:
Just announced that McCain will be attending the debate.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:27 am
__________
What, like sitting in the audience? Or will he un-suspend his campaign and actually participate?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:37 am“You can’t just say, ‘World stop for a moment. I’m going to cancel everything,”‘ Huckabee said.
Well, on a certain September day in 2001, Preznit Pet Goat took this principle to absurd lengths.
Clearly eager to distance himself from Bush, McCain has gone to the other extreme… turns out this happens to be just as absurd.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:38 amI found myself agreeing with statements made by George Will and Mike Huckabee in the same week. Either the world is coming to an end or I need to start drinking more.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:39 am“You can’t just say, ‘World stop for a moment. I’m going to cancel everything,”‘ Huckabee said.
The play, “Stop The World I Want To Get Off” could’ve been written with McChicken in mind. Why just look at the song titles and tell me this doesn’t bear a striking resemblance to his campaign:
“I Want to Be Rich”
“A Special Announcement”
“Glorious Russian”
“Welcome to Sludgepool”
“Nag! Nag! Nag!”
“Family Fugue”
“All-American”
“Mumbo Jumbo”
“Lumbered”
“What Kind of Fool Am I?”
September 26th, 2008 at 11:43 amI think McCain will debate tonight. I don’t think he can risk letting Obama have the stage by himself, even if there is no deal in Washington.
Obama is poised. And, I believe, has great potential to act as a voice of reason and calm, (to look presidential) during a period of great financial uncertainty. It’s what people want in their leadership.
For McCain to allow Obama to have that stage unchallenged, I believe would cost him another 5 points in the polls.
They’ll both be in Oxford tonight.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:44 ampaleolib. I’m share your sentiment. It’s been the most interesting political situation I’ve seen. Bush, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama teaming up against House republicans and John McCain?
And McCain who used to be the moderate is now the financial conservative opposing the government bailout?
It’s an understatement to say that it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:49 amHuckabee is just upset that Daryll’s god screw up so badly.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:50 ambackup Says:
And McCain who used to be the moderate is now the financial conservative opposing the government bailout?
“moderate”? If McCain is a moderate Republican, the party has drifted even farther to the right than I thought and that was pretty far.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:52 amBut what about his judgement yesterday that he should suspend his campaign and rush to dc because the crisis was so serious?
Was his judgment simply that bad? I would say yes.
mccain has gotten into the gutter politics and Obama has stayed above it during all of mccains panic attacks….
very telling isn’t it?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:52 amYa know, I’m a registered Dem but I sort of liked Huckabee because what you see is what you get. Kinda almost wish he was a Dem. Plus he went on Colbert and knew he was being made fun of. (Most of the Republicans think that Colbert is really on their side because that is how dumb they are.)
Now he says that McDepends made a mistake. They’ll probably try to find some way to get rid of him now. But at least he isn’t double talking and lying for bonus points.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:11 pmLooks like McCain will debate.
http://www.cnn.com/
September 26th, 2008 at 12:23 pmhttp://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/26/debate.mississippi/index.html
Here’s a better link. This will be one to watch.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pmHow many hail mary passes does the man get to throw?
It’s gotta be fourth down by now.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:37 pmNo need to worry, PL. All that happened is two right-wingers who are capable of making out the blurry outlines of sense when it’s close enough to their noses, did so.
Not many are even that capable.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pmJohn McCain seems to be making lots of huge mistakes lately. Do we really want him around the button?
September 26th, 2008 at 12:55 pmSomewhere out there a confused, befuddled, angry old man is sitting in a chair, rolling ball bearings in his hand while mumbling something about strawberries.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pmbackup; NOBODY around cares about what you post, let alone your stupid links. Stop wasting your time, and ours. Go play at redstate.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:25 pmralph. you have to admit the oddity of Pelosi and Reid allied with Bush.
That’s the other side of this story. We can question McCain’s motives, but think about this:
The Democratic leadership and Barrack Obama on board with the President’s bailout plan.
Think about the credibility of the President among progressives and their support for a plan that he now champions.
You have to admit while the attacks against McCain makes sense, the promotion of a deal sponsored by the President (after the past lament of his judgement) does not.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pmI care about you Uncle Ho. ; )
September 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pmI think the mental power of Andy Kaufman foresaw how appropriate this skit would be
September 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pmThink about it this way, B-cup:
Bush is the president. Presumably, he can’t ALWAYS be as wrong as his record indicates.
Perhaps, in a situation as dire as he paints this one, it is in the nation’s interest for lawmakers to work together to address possible solutions.
If one looks at it strictly as “us vs. them” then yes, it could be seen as an oddity that Pelosi and Reid are “aligned” with Bush. To help the nation. This puts McSame in the awkward position of opposing a bipartisan agreement.
It could also be seen as a desperately needed opportunity for McSame to distance himself from the least popular president in modern history, who not coincidentally shares his political values and decision-making strategies.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:28 pmralph. I think the move by McCain was a ploy and I believe the opposition to the plan is probably more about creating distance between him and Bush. Unless McCain has some serious answers tonight for what’s happened the last week – I think it will be over.
The only caveat would be this:
You have to admit 700 billion is a lot of money. The deal and the pressure to do it, has a similar feel to sitting in a car dealership with the salesman telling you the deals got to get done tonight, or they’ll sell the car to someone else. Or sitting at a real estate closing, where no one wants you to ask any questions – so everyone can get paid and move on.
If Bush, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of the Democrats are correct, we need the deal to avoid imminent catastrophe. But, it’s possible that the dire circumstances (or at least the immediacy) are being exaggerated to get the deal done. A necessary illusion to gain the consent of the congress and the rest of the American people.
If that urgency isn’t real, it would make sense to debate the issue. It’s a ton of money. Looking back, many wondered why there was little or no debate in the congress before the invasion of Iraq. We were rushed into that decision and in retrospect, the urgency wasn’t there.
If we really have to act immediately to avert calamity, McCain’s actions are a reckless political ploy. If the urgency is manufactured for consent, then McCains efforts to stall the deal to force more debate, it would look like responsible representation.
I obviously don’t know. But, I will be watching tonight. I hope there will be some answers.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pmI agree that we, the public, really don’t know what the hell is going on, nor do we know what is needed. I don’t trust Bush or his treasury secretary to know, either.
But I suspect that the situation is very serious. You can’t base an economy on borrowed money and consumption for as long as this one been and not expect some serious consequences. That’s how I reach my conclusion about this situation.
I believe that the situation is bad. But I’m not convinced that a $700 billion bail-out is in the interests of anyone except the people who caused the mess in the first place (the Senate champion of deregulation, McCain himself, among them).
Yet your statement that “If the urgency is manufactured for consent, then McCains efforts to stall the deal to force more debate, it would look like responsible representation” doesn’t hold water for me. Perhaps, if McCain came out and said that’s why he opposed the deal, your argument might have some merit.
At the moment, however, it looks more to me that any beneficial effects of McCain’s interference would be more rightly attributed to a Mr. Magoo effect.
September 26th, 2008 at 4:11 pm