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No Truck With Huck--I
Some of our astute readers have noticed that we do not seem terribly enamored with Mike Huckabee, who by some measures is, for the moment at least, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. A few have asked why--a question with a complicated answer. We thought we'd spend the week outlining the reasons for our aversion to Huckabee.
Our initial reason for being put off by him falls under the heading "all politics is local." One day about two years ago, we saw him speak twice in New York--first at a fund-raiser for his nascent presidential campaign, then at the Monday Meeting, a gathering sponsored by our friends James Higgins and Mallory Factor. At the fund-raiser, Huckabee said something that made us nervous (quoting from memory, not verbatim): We don't have a health-care problem in this country. We have a health problem. The Monday Meeting is off the record, but we don't think we're violating any confidences if we say that Huckabee said nothing inconsistent with this there.
What does Huckabee mean by this? Blogger Jason Steffens, describing a Huckabee appearance in July of this year, elaborates:
I told him that I agreed with his statement that we do not have a health care problem in this country, we have a health problem, and asked him what he envisioned the federal government's role to be in improving citizens' health. He initially explained the basis for his belief that there is a health problem in this country, not a health care problem. He said that we have great health care, but we are too focused on intervention rather than prevention.
He noted that much of the problem is chronic disease and that can be attributed to three things: 1) overeating; 2) under-exercising; and 3) smoking. Other politicians do not focus on prevention because it will involve a cultural attitude shift that will not happen in the span of a presidential term. Gov. Huckabee then discussed, in general terms, shifting incentives away from fixing health problems and toward preventive health care and the success he had in Arkansas doing that.
Huckabee practices what he preaches: A few years ago, he famously lost 110 pounds. And inasmuch as he's just offering commonsense health advice, we certainly don't disagree. Whether healthier lifestyles actually would lower health-care costs is a trickier question. After all, in the long run, we're all dead, and most of us are sick first.
However sensible Huckabee's admonitions to live healthy may be, though, it troubles us to hear them coming from a politician, especially one who aspires to the most powerful position in the world. Living in New York, we've had experience with nanny-state zealotry in the executive: Thanks to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former chain smoker, there is virtually nowhere in the city we can go to enjoy a cigar. Huckabee has said he would take this policy nationwide.
We're not an absolutist about this. We do not, for instance, favor decriminalizing drugs (sorry, libertarians). We'd be happy with a return to the status quo ante, say, 1985. We admire Rudy Giuliani and Ronald Reagan even though the former gave us a ban on smoking in most New York City restaurants (but not bars) and the latter, the federal drinking age.
Our trouble with Huckabee is that he simply seems too intent on telling people how to live their lives. Hooray for him for losing all that weight. We could stand to lose a few pounds, too--but we'd rather do it without Washington's "help."
Maybe She Should Try a Night-Light
Liberal Democrats sure do scare easily, as ABC News reports:
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic hopeful John Edwards, lamented with Iowa caucus goers about her fear of the Republican Party.
"Republicans should scare us in a lot of ways," Edwards said as she was introducing her husband at a town hall in Dubuque, Iowa.
Speaking about Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, who recently surged ahead in Iowa polls, Elizabeth noted, "He seems like a nice charming guy," before saying that Huckabee, "doesn't believe in evolution and has some nutty views about what it is we should do about ending violence in our inner city--we should make sure all of our young people are armed. Republicans scare me."
This column doesn't care for Huckabee, but if Liz Edwards is "scared" because he "doesn't believe in evolution," she is living proof that humans evolved from chickens. She also doesn't understand the nature of science. Evolution is a scientific theory, a hypothesis to be tested; it's not something you "believe in." People who demand that others "believe in evolution" are looking for religious dogma in the wrong places.
Don't Have a Cow, Man
With her aura of inevitability diminishing, Hillary Clinton is resorting to ever more degrading campaign methods, the Associated Press reports from Dunlap, Iowa:
Standing atop a stage in a livestock auction barn, [Mrs.] Clinton likened the experience to her quest to woo undecided voters in the closing days before Iowa's pivotal caucuses.
"I've been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but I've never felt like I was the one that was being bid on,'' Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. ''I know you're going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy and to ask you to consider caucusing for me.''
The Penn State Dairy Alliance has a helpful brochure for political humorists titled "Cow Sense: Hands-On Evaluation & Inspection." It reveals that the mouth inspection is to determine "fluid status," abnormalities of which can indicate "septic or toxic diseases, digestive diseases." No word on what they found when they inspected Saddam Hussein.
Jack Kennedy, You're No Jack Kennedy
On the other hand, the Washington Times picks up on the best reason for Mrs. Clinton's campaign to remain optimistic:
A generational battle is brewing between baby boomers more likely to support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid and 18-to-40-year-olds in the post-boom, X and Y generations credited with aiding Sen. Barack Obama's rise in the polls.
Mr. Obama's path to winning the nomination relies on expanding the electorate, bringing new, mainly younger voters to the process with his message of changing politics, and, if the fervor among younger voters is any indication, it's had an impact. . . .
Mr. Obama says he wants to be seen as a candidate like John F. Kennedy, who became president in 1960s leading a youth movement of voters who eventually marched for civil rights and for ending the Vietnam War. Political observers say he's on his way.
In truth, all voters old enough to vote for JFK were born in 1939 or earlier, which means the youngest of them were pushing 30 before the antiwar movement was in full swing. (The civil rights movement, by contrast, was victorious before any baby boomers were old enough to vote.)
Obama's formulation also ignores JFK's role in Vietnam, which was to increase America's involvement there, setting the stage for Lyndon Johnson to escalate it even further. Of course, young people don't care that much about history, so they won't notice. But they don't vote either.
Gore Veep Goes Republican
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has become the first Democrat to cross party lines and endorse a Republican for president in 2008, the Associated Press reports from Hillsborough, N.H.:
Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said he chose his longtime Senate colleague because he has the best shot of breaking partisan gridlock in Washington. Both men also are strong and vocal supporters of the war in Iraq. . . .
Independents hold considerable sway in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 8, and they helped McCain win the state's Republican primary in 2000 over George W. Bush. As of March of this year, voters who are independent--undeclared is the official term--accounted for 44 percent, compared with 30 percent Republican and 26 percent Democrat.
New Hampshire allows independents to vote in either party's presidential primary, which helped McCain win there in 2000. But Lieberman finished only fifth, with 9% of the vote, in 2004. (The Gore-Lieberman ticket lost New Hampshire in the 2000 general election, whereas Kedwards carried the state four years later.) So it's questionable whether Lieberman has enough of a following in the Granite State to help McCain.
That a recent Democratic vice presidential nominee is endorsing a Republican does, however, show just how far out of the mainstream the Democratic Party has moved. It's as if Dan Quayle or Jack Kemp were endorsing Barack Obama.
The 'Cup of Tea' Defense
Almost two months ago--Oct. 20, to be exact--the Washington Post published an article by staff writer Neely Tucker on the "phony soldiers" controversy. In case you've forgotten (and who hasn't?), this was the kerfuffle in which Rush Limbaugh's detractors accused him of calling all soldiers who oppose the liberation in Iraq "phony," whereas according to Limbaugh, he was referring only to those who actually are phony.
Tucker's piece did not tell Limbaugh's side of the story, and this past weekend, ombudsman Deborah Howell issued an acknowledgment of error:
The Post should have noted Limbaugh's explanation in the story. It had been out there for several days [before Tucker's Oct. 20 story] and needed to be acknowledged.
But what took Howell so long? Here's her answer:
I procrastinated on this one because I saw it as a tempest in a $4.2 million teapot, and bombastic radio and TV talk show hosts aren't my cup of tea. When I called Limbaugh's public relations staff, I felt rudely treated. Two recent calls and two e-mails were not answered.
In that case, how can Howell fault the original story? Rush probably isn't Neely's cup of tea either.
Failure Has a Thousand Fathers
Here's a great letter to the editor (No. 8) of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Editor--I keep reading about the mortgage crisis and the credit card debt Americans keep accruing--and then I remember that we learn from our parents--in this case, the United States government. Why shouldn't Americans continue to purchase luxury items like flat-screen TVs, purchase huge homes and cars they can't afford? The government continues to spend money on a war we can't afford, and our debt is the highest ever. We learn from the best.
TASHA SCHUMANN
Castro Valley, CA
Is the U.S. government really Tasha Schumann's parents? We demand a paternity test!
Homer Nods
Our item Friday about the so-called Fair Tax included a letter from a reader (since corrected) that referred to the sum of $21,000. That should have been $23,100; the error was ours, not the reader's.
World's Longest Slide
"Motorists slid off roads Sunday across the Great Lakes states and into New England as a storm already blamed for three deaths cut visibility and iced over highways with a wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain."--Associated Press, Dec. 17
It's a Shame They Stopped
"Stem Cells Used to Fix Breast Defects"--headline, Associated Press, Dec. 16
We Just Hope the Kids Are Alright
"WHO to Investigate Pakistan Bird Flu"--headline, Associated Press, Dec. 16
And a Very High Credit Limit
"Fla. Woman Has 10 Husbands, Charges Say"--headline, Associated Press, Dec. 16
Admitted Olympic Skater Nancy Kerrigan Attacker Brian Sean Griffith Web Site Obituary Headline Writer Could Have Been Clearer
"Admitted Olympic Skater Nancy Kerrigan Attacker Brian Sean Griffith Dies at 40"--headline, FoxNews.com, Dec. 16
Breaking News From 1492
"World Is Not Flat, Academic Says"--headline, Reuters, Dec. 15
Breaking News From 1957
"Michigan Interested in Edsall?"--headline, Hartford Courant, Dec. 15
News You Can Use
"Swap Seeds This Season"--headline, Mother Earth Living, Dec. 14
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Few Hear About Starkey Plans"--headline, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Dec. 16
- "New Year's Eve in Jacksonville Not as Popular as You'd Think"--headline, AOL Sports, Dec. 13
- "Donnie and Marie May Return to TV"--headline, Reuters, Dec. 17
- "New Miss Belgium Gets Flemish Tongues Wagging"--headline, Agence France-Presse, Dec. 17
- "Argentina 1st in FIFA Rankings; Canada No. 55"--headline, CBC.ca, Dec. 17
Hot Licks
Need a stocking stuffer for a musically inclined global warmist? FoxNews.com has an idea:
World-class guitar-maker Gibson is issuing in limited quantities the world's first robotic guitar. The Gibson Robot Guitar, $2,499, tunes itself while adjusting to changing climates. With only 10 guitars per participating supplier, this sleek instrument is perfect for any rock star or trust fund baby.
This is a whole new way to fret about global warming!
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Kevin Englet, Evan Slatis, William Katz, Michael Segal, Dagny Billings, Benton Bain, Mordecai Bobrowsky, Charles Sykes, Brian Lee, John Williamson, Jeff Stephens, John Nernoff, James Paternoster, William Benton, Michael Throop, Vincent Flynn, Kyle Kyllan, Ed Jordan, Jeff Baird, Bruce Goldman, Dan Tracy, Jeff Spiegel, Daniel Foty and Kevin Kaufman. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
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