30 March 2008

Huckabee Defends Obama's Pastor

I've complimented Mike Huckabee on his sense of humor, but I never thought I'd compliment him on his wisdom. Until now. But he recently was on a MSNBC morning show, and said,
And one other thing I think we've got to remember: As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had a more, more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
I don't know if that's the populist side of his conservatism showing through, his religious beliefs, or if he's just fundamentally a decent person. But it's about time conservatives--who supposedly believe in small government and Jeffersonian ideals of individual liberty--start saying these things.

4 comments:

Scott Hanley said...

That's quite an amazing thing to hear. I still can't imagine I would want a religious conservative to be president, but I'm impressed nonetheless. One of my great complaints about conservatism today is that even the Christians seem to think compassion is a failing. Huckabee may be closer to my ideal of a Christian than I had given him credit for.

Anonymous said...

He may well be a man of integrity. Unfortunately that's simply not enough. Well intentioned-idiocy has done more damage in non-totalitarian societies than any amount of malicious intent.

For instance, I still think Bush fundamentally means well both for Iraq and the US. Meaning well isn't doing well.

James Hanley said...

"He may well be a man of integrity. Unfortunately that's simply not enough. Well intentioned-idiocy has done more damage in non-totalitarian societies than any amount of malicious intent"

Oh, I agree. I'm still glad he's not the Republican nominee.

But I agree with Scott that maybe Huckabee's a better Christian than most. Perhaps he's a "red-letter" Christian, rather than an Old-Testament Christian. More compassion, less fire and brimstone. More Jesus, less Yahweh. More love, less hate.

Not presidential material, but then, how many of us are?

Anonymous said...

True.