E-mail a friendMike Huckabee
airdate May 19, 2008
Mike Huckabee was one of Arkansas' longest serving governors. The ordained Baptist minister is a staunch health care advocate, who created a model program for providing health insurance for children. He's also had his own health challenges. Diagnosed with diabetes in '03, he lost more than 110 pounds. He's written several books, including the soon to be published Do the Right Thing. Huckabee was a GOP presidential candidate during the '08 election primary season and, for a while, was rumored to be on McCain's short list for VP
Former Arkansas governor shares his thoughts on whether he'd answer the call if John McCain taps him for the vice president slot. (1:18)
Mike Huckabee
Tavis: Mike Huckabee is, of course, a former governor of Arkansas who ran a strong campaign for the Republican presidential nomination until he bowed out of the race earlier this year. He's now formed Huck PAC, which seeks to help GOP candidates win elections across the nation this fall. He joins us tonight from Little Rock, Arkansas. Governor, as always, nice to have you on this program, sir.
Mike Huckabee: It is great to be here. I only wish I could be there live today, because you've got Donna Summer, and I think she's terrific and one of the few true artists out of the disco era. And I'm a big fan and I was excited that she's on your show today, so that's a pretty cool start for me.
Tavis: Well, I'm disappointed you're not in studio as well, but I'll tell Donna you said hello in just a second here.
Huckabee: Please do.
Tavis: Always glad to have you on the program. Let me start with what everybody else is talking about so we can talk about it and get it out of the way. Let me just say to you, we've known each other for years and you are one of the nicest persons I've ever met. And you are funny and where race relations is concerned my sense has always been given our friends and relationship that you get it.
This audience knows that you were the first person to confirm to come to our presidential debate when we invited the Republican candidates to discuss issues important to people of color that was broadcast live on this network. So you put me in a real trick bag trying to explain a few days ago what you said about Barack Obama, man.
Huckabee: Well, it was a stupid remark, what can I say? I apologized. There was a distraction on the stage - actually backstage. It was a big commotion, sounded like a chair had fallen off a ladder. And in the midst of speaking I made a comment. I really intended it to be more of kind of a funny thing about the NRA, not Barack Obama. Turned out horrible.
I feel awful about it. I personally called Senator Obama, I apologized to him. He was, as you would understand, extraordinarily gracious, said it wasn't a big deal to him, don't worry about it. But I've apologized. It was just one of those off-the-cuff statements that for the life of me I wish I hadn't made, and certainly was no way intended to be anything other than a joke to get the audience back to the podium from the distraction. But it was a huge mistake on my part.
Tavis: I wonder, for as much off-the-cuff stuff that comes with running for president that we don't hear more off-the-wall stuff from candidates. Are you surprised that this doesn't happen more often?
Huckabee: Well, especially because everywhere you go, there's a camera. Every town hall. In fact even yesterday there was a camera, I was getting on a plane in Washington at Reagan airport and a guy - I'm coming out of a car and getting my bags and tipping the driver, and he's jumping up in my face and asking me these questions.
Turns out I think he's from TMZ, and I guess he just hangs out at airports in case somebody shows up. (Laughter) So you never know, but the other side of that is this is life. We all play by these rules, and so I'm not complaining. It was my error, not somebody else's, nobody to blame but me. And that was one of those moments that I just certainly wasn't thinking in the best way, and it was no way intended to be anything about the safety of a presidential candidate.
And when I started hearing those comments, that that's what I was doing, I was appalled, and that's why I wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible, and the reason that I personally called Senator Obama and just told him that I was deeply sorry and just didn't want him to think that there was anything behind it.
Tavis: Well if you talked to Barack Obama, we'll move past it then.
Huckabee: Okay.
Tavis: Let me talk now about what else you've been in the news about, which is that you wouldn't necessarily mind being John McCain's running mate. Am I reading this correctly, that you're outwardly - openly, I should say, lobbying for that slow now?
Huckabee: No, in fact I read those news reports, Tavis, and I said, "What?" I would suggest people go back and watch the clip from "Meet the Press." I said yesterday what I say every time when I'm asked about it: Senator McCain needs to pick who will help him win, and that may not be me. What I was pressed with was well, would you accept, would you run with him if he asked you?
And I've always said it's not my decision to make. You don't run for the vice presidency. And so I finally said look, I'm the one guy that had nothing but kind things to say about Senator McCain all through the entire process. I said he was my number two pick - behind me, of course. (Laughter) And I said the truth is that I would have no problem being on a ticket with Senator McCain, and if he did ask me I would consider it an honor, but I'm not out there looking for it.
I've got lots of other things going on. I'm campaigning for him and for a lot of other people, writing a book that'll come out in November. I've got a lot of stuff going. So if he calls me, it's going to interrupt a whole lot of things I've got on the table right now.
Tavis: If John McCain were to call you and were to ask and you decided that you would accept that invitation, if Barack - there's a lot of "ifs" here, of course.
Huckabee: I was going to say, how many ifs we going to get to here? There's a lot of them.
Tavis: If Barack - well, there's - some of this stuff is not just probable but indeed possible, so that it's possible that Mr. McCain call you and you would accept; it's possible that Barack Obama will be the nominee. If you're on a ticket with McCain, what do you think you bring to John McCain that would help him running against a guy like Barack Obama?
Huckabee: I'm almost hesitant to answer, because some reporter - not you, but somebody will take that and say, "Here's what Huckabee is doing to sell himself."
Tavis: But I asked. You didn't volunteer, so I'm asking you to give me an answer.
Huckabee: Senator McCain has to decide - does he need a governor to match a Senator? Does he need someone geographically from the South? Does he need somebody who is clearly a social conservative and one that is able to communicate and connect to the base of the Republican Party? Those are the kind of issues that he'd have to think through.
But the bigger question is I don't know what his strategy is running for the November election. I don't know if his idea is, "I got to go take New York and New Jersey and Connecticut," or if he says, "I've got to reach states like West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma." Those are the questions that I don't know the answer to.
Tavis: I wonder whether or not, beyond the vice presidential slot, whether or not at this point in your career - so this is not a McCain question, it's a Huckabee question. I wonder whether or not at this point you are interested in serving in government again, period. Cabinet position - is government something you're even interested in at this point?
Huckabee: I don't see any particular federal agency that I'm out there interested in, because I think I can be a lot more effective doing what I do, which is being a person who's not on the Washington inside. One of the reasons my campaign got where it was was because I feel like I'm deeply connected to the people who really worry about what $4 a gallon gasoline does to them.
I understand what it means to be in a family where a broken arm on your 8-year-old means you can't pay the rent or you can't get the truck payment made. And frankly, I kind of like living out here in the real world, and being some cabinet agency where essentially -
Tavis: Hey, but Governor, you lost over 100 pounds, HHS, Commerce Department. Some of the issues you're raising now could, in fact, be addressed in a cabinet position.
Huckabee: Well, maybe, but I ran for the job that I wanted, didn't get that one, so we'll see what else the career options hold. But that's not what I'm holding out for.
Tavis: There are a lot of Republicans running, three races, of course, of late - congressional races that everybody's been talking about. One or two of them you helped campaign in those races. The Republican Party - and you're an honest guy, as I said earlier - they're in trouble.
Huckabee: Big trouble.
Tavis: These special elections don't point to anything nice.
Huckabee: Big trouble, and Tavis, any Republican who says, "Oh, no, this is not a big deal," it's a big deal. The Mississippi race was a very big deal, and one of the things that I think has gone wrong in the Republican Party, they still don't get what's going on. Look, Childers, who won that race, the Democrat, ran a more conservative approach.
He was pro-gun, he was pro-life; he was a social conservative. He took Republican issues away from the Republican. Now, what I think a lot of people are failing to understand, particularly Washington-based Republicans and the people in that Wall Street to Washington world who live in that incredible corridor of power and influence but not reality, is that they don't understand that Republicans don't win when they abandon the basic core issues that matter to people out here in middle America.
And when the Democrats take those issues from us - Barack Obama is running an ad in Kentucky, a brochure with him standing in front of a cross. If I said anything about religious in the race, I got pummeled for it. He's openly standing in front of a cross - and frankly, let me be very clear: I think that's great. I'm glad he's doing it. I'm happy that he's openly talking about his faith, and I applaud him for it.
I just wish Republicans were watching what's going on. Part of the reasons he's attracting such huge crowds and enthusiastic crowds is that he is showing that even though he's a Democrat, he's not afraid to talk about his personal faith. And he's taking votes away from us because of that.
Tavis: What about the notion that Republicans, if they're smart, are going to re-think - I just saw a piece by Peggy Noonan in "The Wall Street Journal" the other day, doesn't get more conservative than that, and Peggy Noonan is even raising the issue in one of her columns about whether or not Republicans need to re-think distancing themselves from George Bush.
Huckabee: Certainly the president's got his problems, but Congress' ratings are even lower than George Bush's. I think it's about distancing themselves from Washington. It's not just President Bush. President Bush certainly has some challenges right now, but Washington has the challenges. It's bigger than just the president.
Eighty-two percent of Americans say we're on the wrong track. That's the worst I've ever seen it. I don't know if it's ever tracked that low in the history of polling, that we've ever seen numbers where the people believe that the nation is on the wrong track. The Democrats have done a better job of saying, "George Bush has done it" than the Republicans have said, "But wait, you had Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, they took over the Congress, and they've not made it any better."
And under their leadership in the Congress, we've seen gasoline go sky-high, and we've seen this absolute collapse of the housing market, and a lot of folks have lost their jobs, they've lost their homes, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better - it looks like it's going to get worse first.
Tavis: Let me ask you right quick before I let you go, if 82 percent of Americans think we're on the wrong track - never mind your point, which is correct, that Congress' ratings are low as well - the president, though, is the leader, and he's the one, or she's the one, perhaps one day, who gets the brunt of the blame or the credit if things go right. So if 82 percent of us think we're in the wrong direction, doesn't that really suggest to you that Republicans ain't got a chance at winning in November?
Huckabee: No, if some other Republican - an institutional Republican were running, yeah, you'd be right. But John McCain is just the opposite. He's a maverick; he's always had that independent streak. If anything, a lot of the Republicans have been mad at him, particularly Washington Republicans, because he didn't just sing the same sheet of music.
In fact, he was the guy that would go across the aisle, work with the Democrats, and some of the Republicans hated him for that. Now it may prove out that he's the best person to put forward because he has shown that he's not just sort of everybody's Republican.
Tavis: And I guess finally you'll come back on when you got a book to sell, huh?
Huckabee: Absolutely. (Laughter) You can count on it.
Tavis: All right, Neil, put Mike Huckabee on the big board right now. He's already confirmed to come on the show when the book comes out.
Huckabee: That's right. See you in November. (Laughter)
Tavis: Governor - I could take that any number of ways, but I'm going to leave that alone, when you say, "See you in November."
Huckabee: That's when the book comes out, Tavis, (unintelligible).
Tavis: Ah, got it, got it, got it. Governor Huckabee, as always, nice to talk to you. Thanks for coming on.
Huckabee: Thank you so much. Good to talk to you.
Tavis: Likewise.
Back to May 19, 2008