Huckabee
Page 31
Huckabee told the convention, “Let me say that, as much as I appreciate this magnificent opportunity to speak tonight, I’ve got to be honest with you. I was originally hoping for the slot on Thursday night called the acceptance speech.” He then gave praise for his father, Dorsey, and used his home life as an explanation for his brand of conservatism: “Let me make something clear tonight: I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich. I’m a Republican because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.”9
He closed with a poignant story about remembering the sacrifice veterans—including McCain—had made to secure our liberty and give us the ability to go to school and sit behind a desk in freedom. “I pledge myself to doing everything I can to help him earn a desk, and I’m thinking the one that’s in the Oval Office would fit him very, very well.”10
McCain did not make it to the White House. On November 4, the United States elected Senator Barack Obama as president with 53 percent of the vote and an electoral victory of 365 to 173.
On November 18, Sentinel (Penguin Books’ conservative imprint) released Huckabee’s Do the Right Thing. In addition to the normal policy-related discussion expected in such books, it also contained a significant amount of firsthand reporting on his 2008 campaign, making it one of the first books to provide a retrospective look at the election that had just ended. And Do the Right Thing threw several punches at Mitt Romney, as Huckabee seemed to already be looking ahead to the 2012 primaries (in the event of a McCain loss).
EPILOGUE
ALL ABOUT THAT BASE
I was raised to believe that where a person started didn’t mean that’s where he had to stop. I always believed a kid could go from Hope to Higher Ground.
—MIKE HUCKABEE
WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF INTERVIEWS with Huckabee, I looked at his upcoming schedule and took note that he would be in Iowa for a few days in August 2014. He was scheduled to speak at two Christian-oriented events in two different cities, with maybe a day off sandwiched in between. I figured I could meet him at one event and interview him before he had to get down the road to the other event.
But that wasn’t how his schedule was configured. After the first Iowa event in Cedar Rapids, he needed to fly to New York City to tape his television show. Then, he’d fly back to Iowa, landing in Ames for the second event. The schedule would be too tight to fly commercial, so he would utilize his charter plane services. And the only free time he would have would be on those flights.
If I were Huckabee, I’d have said, “Sorry, but I won’t have time for interviews that week. Another time, perhaps.”
Instead, he said, “If you can make sure to be ready to roll, and you don’t mind spending a night on your own in New York while I run around taking care of business, then we can do the interviews on the flights.”
That’s how I was able to not only fit in another round of interviews but also see his interaction with people in New York City and Iowa (twice), all in the span of thirty-six hours. And everywhere he went, he was the same guy: to waiters, doormen, FOX colleagues, influential friends who sat in on the taping of the show, Iowan pastors, farmers, kids, seniors, and everyone in between.
We talked about the themes for the forthcoming book he had been working on—God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.
“Making the Huckabee message very clear for the base of the party, right from the titling of the book?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s always good to speak clearly on issues,” Huckabee said. “Let people know who you really are and what you believe.”
The book would speak a lot about his idea of two Americas, the cultural divide between the “Bubble-villes” of elitist culture found extensively in the coastal cities (like New York City) versus the “Bubba-villes” of rural America found mostly in the “flyover country” parts of the nation (like Iowa).
When the book hit the shelves in January 2015, controversy ensued because of Huckabee’s criticism of some pop-culture celebrities. Huckabee supporters couched their agreement with statements like, “I might have said it a bit differently,” though they essentially agreed with the points Huckabee had made. Those who disagreed, however, charged that Huckabee was out of touch with modern American culture. The polarization between the two groups was fascinating to observe.
Since John McCain’s loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 election, Huckabee clearly had put himself on a path toward another run for the White House. Just as Ronald Reagan had written and delivered radio commentaries after his 1976 nomination loss, Huckabee likewise began producing radio commentaries—and added a television show too. This served as a means of income, but it also kept him in the public eye. Instead of being merely an ex-governor and a former presidential candidate, he transformed himself into a media celebrity and a go-to person for conservative commentary on breaking news events.
In the early days leading up to the nominating season for the 2012 election, Huckabee gave careful consideration as to whether or not he should run again. He looked at polls that showed him in the lead or near the top of GOP voters’ choice of picks for the nomination. And President Obama seemed, at least in 2011, to be vulnerable. Would he be a one-term president? Even with those considerations, however, Huckabee felt the timing simply was not right. So in May 2011, he surprised many with his announcement that he would not be running. “All the factors say go, but my heart says no,” he told the audience of his FOX News program. “Under the best of circumstances, being president is a job that takes one to the limit of his or her human capacity. For me to do it apart from an inner confidence that I was undertaking it with God’s full blessing is simply unthinkable.”1
Slowly and steadily after the 2008 election, Huckabee gained name recognition across the United States. The fame and corresponding fortune (relative to his more meager earnings as a pastor or as governor of Arkansas) didn’t come without a major investment of time and effort. Friends encouraged him to relax, to learn how to play golf, or to go skydiving with Janet (something she enjoys). Instead, he flew around the nation and the world speaking to various groups, often as part of a fund-raising effort for a non-profit or a political candidate.
Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger had returned to acting after his years as the governor of California, Huckabee returned to his previous line of work—broadcasting, public speaking, writing, and mass media. He has written six books since the end of his 2008 campaign and supported the marketing of each through intensive book tours and speeches. Several of the books have earned a place on the New York Times bestsellers list. He has done various iterations of radio, from short, prerecorded commentaries to a daily, live call-in show lasting three hours. And the Huckabee television program ran on FOX News each weekend from the fall of 2008 right up to January 2015. He ended the show only when it became obvious that he was going to run for president again.
Unlike during his days as governor of Arkansas, when Huckabee found himself involved in a controversial issue, his responses now drew national attention. Yet his position in media did not give him any executive powers to direct the affairs of state in these situations. He was limited to being a commentator on action, not a player in the action itself. But whenever possible, Huckabee would create a point of action that the public could take in order to change the outcome of a developing story. He would tell his audience to write their congressman, or maybe even to run for Congress themselves.
For example, Huckabee responded to a 2012 controversy surrounding pro-traditional marriage comments made by Chick-fil-A chief operating officer Dan Cathy by calling for a “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on August 1 of that year. Lines formed for blocks outside of Chick-fil-A restaurants around the country, and it was a record-setting day for sales throughout the company.2
Or in 2013, Phil Robertson, t
he patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family, made comments about homosexuality that created a firestorm of protest. A&E, the cable network on which Duck Dynasty aired, suspended Robertson from the show. Huckabee with support for the Robertsons. “What we’ve seen is that there is a new level of bullying of the part of these militant activist groups,” Huckabee said. “I think it has come to a point in our culture where political correctness has made it so that if you want to take a point of view that is traditional, that holds to steadfast, old fashioned biblical Christian values, which are also, by the way, values of traditional Judaism, and even Islam, that somehow you’re supposed to just shut up and keep that to yourself. But if you want to advocate for same-sex marriage, we’re supposed to be very tolerant.”3 Huckabee then launched an online petition of support, and within weeks, the network reinstated Robertson to the show.4
As for the Huckabees’ own family, Mike and Janet bought a piece of oceanfront property in the panhandle of Florida and built themselves a beautiful home. It is a wonderful place to entertain grandchildren—and that is a good thing, because five of them have been born since 2008. The Huckabees celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary in 2014 and their sixtieth birthdays the following year.
As 2014 began to draw to a close, the Huckabees had to answer once again the question of which path they were to take next. Should they choose the path of material comfort and a leisurely calendar? Or should Mike decide to run for the president of the United States once more, with all the ensuing workload, travel stress, and limited time for relaxation? The answer was not difficult to determine.
In January 2015, when Huckabee announced he was leaving his FOX News show, he said, “I have never had so much fun in my life. But I also realize that God hasn’t put me on earth just to have a good time or to make a good living, but rather has put me on earth to try to make a good life. . . . As much as I love doing the show, I love my country more, and feel that it may be time for me to leave a zone of comfort to engage in the conflicts that have almost destroyed the bedrock foundations of America. I feel compelled to ascertain if the support exists strongly enough for another Presidential run. So as we say in television, stay tuned!”5
Five months later, May 5, 2015, Huckabee came to his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, to host his campaign announcement party. Huckabee, the forty-fifth governor of Arkansas, launched a campaign to become the forty-fifth president of the United States of America.
The audience in Hempstead Hall took their seats as the lights went dark. The announcer called for everyone to welcome “a special guest to Hope.” The audience craned their necks to see a man walk briskly from the dark shadows backstage. Was it Huckabee?
No, it was . . . Tony Orlando?
Orlando’s rich baritone voice immediately broke into his hit song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.” He beckoned the audience to sing along with him. People over the age of fifty did so with gusto, not missing a word. Many would have immediately connected Orlando’s appearance here with his dancing to the tune with first lady Betty Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention, when Ford and Reagan had fought for the party’s nomination.
People under the age of thirty, however, quickly typed a query into their smartphones: “Who is Tony Orlando?”
Huckabee, Hope’s hometown son, had once again come home to celebrate with friends, just as he had done four decades earlier after winning governor at Boys State—and again later when he became the real-life governor of the state in the 1990s. Hope raised Huckabee. Now, they would baptize him with affection before sending him out once more to go make the world a better place, seeking to bring the values of Hope to the rest of America. To make that point even more explicit, Orlando sang “America is My Hometown,” a song he wrote for Huckabee, whom he called “the most trusted man I’ve ever met in my life.”6
A Washington Post columnist called Orlando “a fitting prelude, because Huckabee’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is also a throwback: The former Arkansas governor is the candidate of the little guy at a time when big money is ascendant in politics generally, and in the Republican nominating process in particular.”7
The Arkansas Times, Huckabee’s old nemesis, mocked everything about the event: “Tony Orlando is warming up the crowd. Heh. This has a pro-wrestling/Vegas vibe, doesn’t it? Huckabee’s base is best described as ‘people who vacation in Branson [Missouri].’ This is actually even more schmaltzy than I was expecting. Real America!”8
Such a comment gives evidence that the “coastal elite” mind-set that Huckabee wrote about could also be found in flyover country. But Huckabee’s choice of Orlando also revealed his political calculations about the 2016 campaign. The Republican primary would be all about the base of the party. And yes, the base of the Republican party would be happy to vacation in Branson, Missouri.
After speeches by the current Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Huckabee’s wife, Janet, the time had come for the native son to emerge and say the specific words everyone had come to hear him say.
Huckabee opened his speech, and likewise his entire campaign, with a populist message grounded in his own blue-collar biography. Even in the polarized world of American politics, he assumes the best story to tell is the true story, to show the Mike Huckabee his mother and father would recognize as their son:
It’s a long way from a little brick rent house on 2nd Street in Hope, Arkansas, to the White House. But here in this small town called Hope, I was raised to believe that where a person started didn’t mean that’s where he had to stop. I always believed a kid could go from Hope to Higher Ground. Like a lot of Americans, I grew up in a small town far removed from the power, the money, and the influence that runs the country. . . . And it was here that I first ran for elected office when I ran for Student Council in Hope Junior High School. So it seems perfectly fitting that it would be here that I announce that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America.9
NOTES
Prologue
1. David Rosenbaum, “With Little Ado, Congress Put God in Pledge in 1954,” New York Times, June 27, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/28/us/with-little-ado-congress-put-god-in-pledge-in-1954.html.
2. Ibid.
3. In fact, neither of the singers are from Hope, and both are already nationally known: Madison McWilliams and AJ Wray.
4. “Justin Singing So Sick by Ne-yo,” YouTube video, posted by “kidrauhl,” January 19, 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csymVmm1xTw.
5. Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic,” speech delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, April 23, 1910, http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/speeches/maninthearena.pdf.
Chapter 1: Land of Hope and Dreams
1. Randy Sims, personal interview with the author, spring 2015.
2. “Texas Short Line. St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway Company, 1878,” Dave Rumsey Map Collection, accessed June 1, 2015, http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps770069–22088.html.
3. Beverly J. Rowe, Historic Texarkana: An Illustrated History (San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network, 2009), 4–15.
4. Joshua Bradley Williams, Hope: Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2010), 55.
5. Life Expectancy Graphs, “Life Expectancy for Men and Women: 1850 to 2000,” University of Oregon’s Mapping History website, accessed June 11, 2015, http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US39–01.html.
6. Mike Huckabee, personal interview with the author, 2014–15.
7. Mike Huckabee, A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit (New York: Sentinel, 2009), 35–36.
8. Ibid.
9. “Celebrity Corner,” Hope Star, August 3, 1973, 3.
10. “Hope Obt
ains Big War-Plant,” Hope Star, June 7, 1941, 1.
Chapter 2: Small Town
1. Mary Nell Turner, “Southwestern Proving Ground, 1941–1945,” Journal of the Hempstead County Historical Society (Spring 1986): 3–41.
2. “Hope Obtains Big War-Plant,” Hope Star, June 7, 1941, 1.
3. Turner, “Southwestern Proving Ground, 1941–1945.”
4. “Paul W. Klipsch: The Mad Man of Hope, Arkansas,” Founder Biography, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.klipsch.com/founder.
5. Ibid.
6. “Q&A with Mike Huckabee and Brian Lamb,” C-SPAN, January 21, 2005, http://www.c-span.org/video/transcript/?id=7949.
7. Jennifer Shutt, “Barbara Bush Reverses on ‘Enough Bushes’ Line,” Politico, February 13, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/barbara-bush-reverses-on-enough-bushes-line-jeb-bush-115200.html#ixzz3TWkEYt3K.
8. “Arkansas Election Results 2014: Governor Map by County, Live Midterm Voting Updates,” Politico, December 17, 2014, http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/governor/arkansas/.
9. Archives of the Hope Star (1930–77).