Thoughts on life, love and faith by Plasticmind.

I know there’s quite a few people reading this who will disagree with me—some of my best friends (and family), in fact. But I think Mike Huckabee should be our next President.

If you’ve read this site in the past few months, you know I’m a Huckabee fan. I created and maintain ihearthuckabee.com and I’m the lead designer for the redesign of the Huck’s Army website (launching January 20th) which was featured in today’s New York Times cover story. (Don’t worry about the big aggressive tank, it’s gone in the new design which you can catch a glimpse of at the top of this article.) These efforts take time, and when you own your own business, time is money. So this decision was not made hastily or lightly. I didn’t just shake the eight ball or drop my finger on a page of the Bible to come to the conclusion that Mike Huckabee should be President. I’ve spent a long time researching and considering all of the candidates out there.

Yes. He raised taxes. He also cut taxes. Some of the taxes he raised were federally mandated. Some were voted on by the state. That’s part of running a state government: compromise to get things done. In fact, most of the tax increases were either federally mandated or voted on by the people. If you consider the fact that Reagan raised taxes a billion dollars in 1967 (California History), I don’t think he’s in bad company.

As for the Fair Tax, I can’t believe that more people aren’t crazy about it. In a nutshell: the government stops taxing income and starts taxing consumption. A flat tax of 23% or so is put on all new goods. This might sound scary, but consider two things: First, businesses will no longer have to factor the taxes they ultimately have to pay into the price (a.k.a. ‘passing it on to you’). That means a lower base price. Second, you’ll have 100% of your paycheck back. And everyone will get a prebate back up to the level of poverty so essentially poor people are untaxed. It’s a whole different way of thinking: Tax consumption and reward productivity and saving.

No. He did not pardon a rapist. The Wayne Dumont thing is one of those emotionally charged situations that don’t really carry any weight beside bad feelings. Several democratic governors before Huckabee commuted Dumont’s sentence. When Huckabee got in office and reviewed the case, he wrote a letter saying that it was his desire to see this guy get out. Huckabee said this was because the case against Dumont wasn’t airtight (evidence, etc.) and he had been badly abused in prison. But the key thing to understand here was governor’s cannot parole anyone. It was the parole board’s responsibility and ultimate decision. So technically, Huckabee had nothing to do with it aside from denying his commutation four times (though he did imply that he probably would have commuted him this final time). After he was paroled by the parole board, Wayne Dumont went out and slaughtered someone else. It’s a terrible thing, but I’m not sure anyone—the Democratic parole board or the Republican governor—could have predicted it.

Yes. He supported scholarships for children of illegal aliens. They had to have gone to school all twelve years in the Arkansas public school system and had to apply for citizenship. And this scholarship was available to all kids who had gone through the Arkansas school system; it was not created just for illegal aliens. That does not bother me at all. In fact, it seems like a very reasonable solution to a very difficult problem.

No. He’s not going to pull out the troops in Iraq immediately. His argument with Ron Paul during the New Hampshire debates best summarizes his (and my) view on Iraq: “We essentially broke it, and it’s our responsibility to do the best we can to try to fix it before we just turn away.”

But after watching Mike Huckabee’s speech at the Detroit Economic Club this past Friday, I’m convinced that this is the man for the job. In fact, I actually get excited about the prospect of someone like this in the White House. Do me a favor and at least check these videos out? The speech is about 30 minutes with another 15 minutes of questions as follow up. Topics range from economic growth to environmental conservation to the Rolling Stones:

1. Mike Huckabee Det. Economic Club Speech - 1/11/2008 - Part 1
2. Mike Huckabee Det. Economic Club Speech - 1/11/2008 - Part 2
3. Mike Huckabee Det. Economic Club Speech - 1/11/2008 - Part 3
4. Mike Huckabee Det. Economic Club Speech - 1/11/2008 - Part 4
5. Mike Huckabee Det. Economic Club Speech - 1/11/2008 - Part 5