Mike Huckabee responds to Glenn Beck's Foolishness

I used to like watching Glenn Beck on Foxnews until he went off the rail. Beck used to give concrete examples of the failures of President Obama's policies and Reid/Pelosi's overreach. But Glenn Beck has once again taken his obsession with Progressives to the extreme and used his radio show to denounce Mike Huckabee. Today, Mike Huckabee responded with his usual clarity and wit.

Response To Glenn Beck
by Mike Huckabee on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 8:36am


"This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a “cancer” and a “Nazi.” What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity—not of hope—but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity. I’m no fan of her husband’s policies for sure, but I have appreciated her efforts that Beck misrepresented—either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another “boogey man” hiding in the closet that he and only he can see. The First Lady’s approach is about personal responsibility—not the government literally taking candy from a baby’s mouth. He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything. Sadly, he seems equally inept at recognizing the obvious fact that children are increasingly obese and that we now see clinical evidence of diseases in children that as recent as 20 years ago were found only in adults, such as Type 2 diabetes. The costs to our nation are staggering in increase health care expenses, but it even effects national security with now 75% of young men between the ages of 17 and 24 are unfit for military service primarily due to obesity! His ridiculous claim that John McCain and I collaborated and conspired in the 2008 campaign is especially laughable. Is he not aware that McCain and I were competitors---not cohorts? Beck needs to stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts. Why Beck has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me is beyond me. But he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time."

Perhaps Glenn Beck should take aim at the real liberals in our country who continue to spend, rack up debt, and squander our country's liberties instead of attacking Mike Huckabee. Lest Beck forget, Mike Huckabee was re-elected twice in a Democrat state and only left due to term limits with an approval rating in the 60's. He was a successful governor who was rated one of America's 5 Best Governors.

Mike Huckabee: The President of the United States cannot pick and choose which laws he likes.

Mike Huckabee has a great interview on the Laura Ingraham radio show. Highlighted below is Mike Huckabee's Defense of Marriage and his challenge to President Obama's flip on DOMA.

* Childhood Obesity and Michelle Obama's Let's Move program

* Deficit

* Defense of Marriage Act and President Obama's flip

* Why the GOP Establishment won't support Huckabee

* Border Security and No to Amnesty
* TARP

I am not the biggest fan of Laura Ingraham because I think she tries to "set up" Mike Huckabee. But Huckabee is so much smarter than her. He answers the questions honestly. Even the questions about Romney. So when Ingraham asks Huckabee about a reality show with Romney, he goes on to give a good straight forward answer. Laura says "stay with me."  And then of course, the video stops. I guess Mike Huckabee outsmarted her and so we can't hear the rest.

Mike Huckabee highlights and offers support of President Obama's Tucson Speech

Mike Huckabee highlights and offers positive feed back of President Obama's Tucson speech calling the speech Obama's finest moment in which he brought the nation together in Tucson

The evil actions by an unbalanced madman stirred all kinds of debate; some of it was almost as irrational as the crime itself. People tried to blame talk radio, television, or political speech for the shootings. But as the facts got louder, it was increasingly clear that the killer wasn't acting out a political point of view at all. He was just crazy.

The memorial service on Wednesday night saw commentators trying to determine what kind of impact the President's speech would have on him politically. I was disgusted. Have we no shame? Are we so fixated on the political end game that we can't pull aside from it to simply recognize that the President of the United States was speaking to a nation which was hurting and grieving over the cowardly killing of a 9 year-old-girl, a federal judge, a bright and idealistic young government worker, and some dear citizens who just wanted to talk with their Congresswoman?

The President's speech was his finest since taking office. I commend him for his comforting words, and his ability to bring the nation together by speaking personally and insightfully about all those who had lost their lives. Now to those who tried to speculate as to whether it helped him politically, I say shame on you. What it did was help all of America spiritually and emotionally. Can we not simply appreciate that he’s a father of 2 precious daughters and a spouse, and as he spoke, he did so not only as President, but as a fellow human being who felt grief and pain.

I know some criticized the atmosphere of the arena in which the service was held. I understand the discomfort many of us had for what we thought maybe would be a somber, reflective service of remembrance. But since I was not there, I will not judge the motives of those who were. Truthfully some people eat their soup louder than others, but it doesn't mean the soup tastes different. Some people respond to grief or to God differently than others, but there isn't a right or wrong way. There is a right way however when it comes to sometimes having the decency to put politics aside, cease looking for some hidden agenda, and maybe just finding an answer in the shortest verse in the entire Bible: Jesus wept. And so did we.

H/T  GOP12.com

"I thought there were parts of it that really hit home -- that all of us can hold onto and can live out, obviously.

I agree with those who have said that the setting was a bit bizarre. It was kind of like a pep rally, kind of like a campaign stop, and that was unfortunate, because it really did -- the setting -- distract away from the message."

Childhood Obesity: * Political Leadership * Governing Success *

As governor of Arkansas for 10 ½ years, Mike Huckabee has a track record of proven leadership that actually helped those he governed. In 2003 Gov. Huckabee created the Healthy Arkansas Initiative which aimed to improve physical activity, healthy eating, and eliminate the use of tobacco. As someone who was once vastly overweight, Huckabee took it upon himself to turn around not only his own weight problem, but those citizens in his own state. At his urging, the Arkansas legislature acted in 2003 to pass a comprehensive measure to fight childhood obesity in public schools and local communities, taking aggressive action before many other states had begun to address the problem.  

Gov. Huckabee emphasized a program that was introduced earlier in the spring by Arkansas Speaker of the House, Herschel W. Cleveland, which would have children's BMI’s measured while they were in school.  These results were then sent home to the student’s parents so they could be informed about their child’s health.  In an AP article from June of 2006, it stated:

The letters record each child's body-mass index, the same weight-height formula used to calculate adult obesity. The first batch went out in the 2003-04 school year.


Across the state 57 percent of doctors said they had at least one parent bring in their child's letter from the school for discussion during the last school year.

And the state has found that most parents and children are comfortable with the weigh-in program — 71 percent of parents and 61 percent of adolescents, according to a survey.


"Once they realized we didn't hand (the letters) to kids to wave around the schoolyard . . . a lot of the original concerns were alleviated," said Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has championed healthy diets after dropping more than 100 pounds himself. "This was not an invasive procedure where a child is asked to lift a shirt and be pinched with calipers."

This was such a successful program that other states followed suit, including  California, Florida and Pennsylvania.  Haley Barbour agreed with Huckabee leadership and decided to follow suit and started the Mississippi in Motion program.

Huckabee went on to join Bill Clinton as co-chair of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.  This organization was founded in 2005 by the American Heart Association and the William J Clinton Foundation to combat childhood obesity by providing kids with tools so they can make healthier lifestyle choices. 

"The best way to prevent heart disease in adults is to cultivate healthy lifestyle habits in children,”

said Governor Huckabee. “I hope that this effort will help American families, and especially children,

to eat better, be more active, and live longer lives."  

Both Huckabee and Clinton went on to produce PSA’s for Nickelodeon in which they shared their own childhood experiences and why they felt it was important to stay healthy and active.

Huckabee announced in August of 2006 that the Healthy Arkansas campaign was a success. The upward trend of obesity had come to a stopping point.  "We have stopped the runaway train," Gov. Mike Huckabee said. "This is not the destination, this is the turning point."  "We want to make clear we have not resolved the issue -- we've simply stopped it from getting worse," Huckabee cautioned.

As chairman of the National Governors Association, Huckabee went on to transfer many of the provisions of the “Healthy Arkansas” program to a “Healthy America” initiative . 

Huckabee has since then been on a mission to show that America does indeed have a health crisis.  Huckabee has consistently argued that before we can solve the healthcare crisis, America has to address it's  health crisis and obesity is the number one problem.  In both debates and in interviews Huckabee argued for working on America’s health issues first rather than change the whole structure health coverage as Obamacare does.

Huckabee went on the Stossel show in January of 2010 to discuss the "Food Police."  Huckabee did a great job of defending the initiatives he put into place in Arkansas against Libertarian Stossel’s accusation that the government was trying to have too much power.

Notice how the libertarian audience changed their view on the Arkansas plan after they heard what Huckabee actually did.

Huckabee discussed his interview with Michelle Obama on Don Imus's show  back in February 2010:

The latest gotcha moment that the blogosphere is trying to capitulate is that Huckabee is on the opposite side of Sarah Palin.  Huckabee was asked on a radio show interview which side he would take.  Mike Huckabee agrees with Michelle Obama because Huckabee has already taken action on this issue, and he has seen the success of that action.  GOP12.com posted Mike Huckabee's response:

"With all due respect to my colleague and friend, Sarah Palin, I think she's misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do.


Michelle Obama isn't trying to tell people what to eat or not trying to force the government's desires on people, but she's stating the obvious: that we do have an obesity crisis in this country and if you don't believe it, I always tell people:


'Walk into any 3rd grade class and look around and then go back and pick up your 3rd grade school class picture, if you're an adult.


Look at that picture and tell me what you see that looks starkly different than what you'll see in today's 3rd grade. It will shock you.'


25% of the people attempting to get into the military today can't do so because they are grossly obese.


We're not even going to have a fighting force if we continue at the rate we're going, and the health care costs are staggering with 80% of health care costs in this country going toward chronic disease -- a lot of which is caused by obesity.


So the First Lady's campaign is on-target, and it's not saying that you can't or shouldn't ever eat a dessert, but it's saying that if you start rewarding kids with sugary things and make them think that when they're good, they get sugar, and when they're bad, they have to eat vegetables, you do what happened to me -- and, I think, really a lot of people -- we condition ourselves to think that we're really only good when we're just sugaring up."

Childhood Obesity is a growing problem within the United States.  The same goes for our growing fiscal deficit.  Do we want a leader who sees the problem, creates initiatives, and gets results?  Or do we want to continue to let the problem fester until there is no eventual solution?  I'll take Huckabee's solutions.