Mike Huckabee’s turn:
During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.
“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”
I am sure this will get a great deal of play over the next few days, and obviously with RFK and JFK and MLK in our nation’s collective history, it is quite clear why this is not only a gaffe, but offensive.
Having said that, maybe I just have a soft spot for Mike Huckabee, or maybe I am just a sucker, or maybe it is because I have a history of saying stupid things I immediately regretted, I am willing to bet he will offer not only an effusive apology and explanation, but an apology is sincere and heartfelt. He knows he screwed up, and he will own this and do the right thing, I am betting.
Additionally, to all the people who are going to freak out about this remarks- yes, it is offensive. But how offensive is it in the big scheme of things? Personally, watching Mike Huckabee make this stupid remark in an off-the-cuff and unscripted gaffe tells me a lot less about him that watching George Bush go to the heart of the Israeli government, and in a scripted event read from a card, lecturing the descendants of the Holocaust about appeasement and Hitler for some brief, cheap, domestic political gain.
Huckabee’s gaffe was an accident and, while unfortunate, is forgivable. Bush’s crass, calculated, and obnoxious rhetoric yesterday is not. We would be wise to remember which is worse.
*** Update ***
Huckabee blogs his apology.
Notorious P.A.T.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Huckabee offered a sincere apology either.
On the other hand, it’s funny how when some people let their guard down they blurt out something odious, while other people do not.
Dreggas
Well it will once again unite Dems even more solidly behind Obama, I personally think Huckabee was an asshat for making that remark and will enjoy watching him get tarred and feathered before apologizing.
Zifnab
Someone, somewhere, is hearing Huckabee make these snide little remarks while Bush accuses Obama of appeasing Hitler and some radio jockey calls him a Muslim terrorist. And it all starts adding up.
This is worse than deliberate. Huckabee is making a political plea when he drops these bombs.
Studly Pantload
Yes, it was a remark in the supremist bad taste. But on the other hand, I’m not gonna fake being outraged 50 ways from Sunday about it.
But I can tell you this: Huck just kissed his veep aspirations a sweet goodbye.
lutton
Well, Bush and McCain are in the crosshairs with all this appeasement/Hamas talk; maybe Huck is just taking a bullet for them?
Wait, more gun references?!? Sorry…
cbear
The dinosaurs made me do it?
RSA
It was stupid and forgettable, but worse than that, it wasn’t really funny. Does even an NRA audience think that when someone aims a gun at you, diving for the floor is a bad thing to do?
Pasota
Give Huckabee a charitable interpretation of his remark. He was trying to say something vaguely insulting and demeaning about Obama (cuz he ain’t like us, IYKWIM, har har) and only accidentally said something overtly stupid and offensive. Pretty forgivable, but even still. When does Huckabee start to forfeit some of his aw-shucks, who-me, goodwill?
passerby
Look, I like Huck too but anyone thinking this baptist-minister-arkansan will offer a “sincere” apology, doesn’t think (like I do).
This so-call gaffe is very telling and is intended to feed those who don’t need another excuse not to support BO.
Yes, as it’s been said on this site before, why don’t they just use the N word and get it over with.
T
Alan
Speaking of guns, did Rove just make this up or is Obama going to confiscate my gun?
Genine
What Huckabee said was stupid, but I agree I think he will make a heartfelt apology. Huckabee was the only one of few people, liberal or conservative, who was understanding of Jeremiah Wright’s outbursts and the origin of his anger.
I really admired that. I actually think Huckabee is actually kind of decent. I don’t agree with him on a lot of things and probably never will. But I chalk up a lot of his positions to ignorance rather than outright maliciousness.
jake
Yup. Your soft spot for this creep aside, I say stupid shit all of the time but never as polititian to an audience.
Ask the SS, I doubt they’re laughing.
How do you know? I don’t care if this was a stupid comment about the size of his wife’s ass. How do you know what was going through this guy’s mind when he spoke?
Well shit man, if you’re going to make the crap that falls out of his mouth the standard for intentionally offensive remarks how the hell can you object to anything anyone else says, ever?
I don’t get it. One minute you’re all over the Repubs, the next you’re telling us that a joke about a candidate dodging a shooter isn’t that bad. Maybe Tunch types some of your posts.
LarryB
Sorry, John, but I’m not buying it. Maybe Huckabee made a slip, but think about that slip. He thought a joke about assasinating a Democrat was all in good clean fun. How he got there was an litany of violent hate speech against Democrats by Coulter, Billo, Limbaugh and about a zillion cracker Dominist preachers. All of whom have been feted by the Republican party — for years, with the result that Huckabee thought it was OK for a quip. Well, I’m old enough to remember all of the assassinations you mentioned, and I’m not laughing.
Adam
Aiming for that VP slot by emulating Dan Quayle.
Keith
I’m betting he’ll be on Hannity & Colmes tonight where Sean will implore the audience to lighten up because it’s just a joke (like if a Republican yelled “BOMB!” in an airport), and Huck’s apology will be a half-hearted “I didn’t mean it literally” blurb. Then McCain will concur with that whole sentiment with Chris Wallace and still bring Huck aboard as his VP, and we’ll all apparently be none the wiser.
John Cole
Because I have years standing in front of people saying unscripted things and have presented a clunker here and there myself.
I honestly do not see this as a dogwhistle to racists, I don’t see him trying to make assassination jokes. I see a guy who often talks before thinking, has a reputation as a joker, trying to make a gun joke in front of the NRA and taking a shot at Obama over guns, and spitting out this really bad gaffe.
That is what I see. Not the malicious bullshit from Bush at the Knesset. I think the two are different.
Andrei
What’s your definition of doing the right thing?
Mine? That Huckabee just lost his privilege to speak up at all in any political sense of the word until after November 5th. Making this kind of remark is beyond stupid and at a professional level, people get fired for that sort of thing.
We can forgive the man, but not the politician. The politician has just lost his right to be part of this election cycle.
That’s the right thing to do. Anything else is just pandering.
nightjar
No softspot for me on this fruitcake. There was a thought process behind that remark and I don’t believe it just flew out his mouth for no reason. But he’s just not important enough to get outraged about. Unless, MCcain chooses him for a running mate.
slag
In general, I’m with Zifnab at 4:11. I’ll be amazed if this election isn’t riddled (pun intended) with this kind of crap.
And Huckabee, himself, would never dive to the floor if someone pointed a gun at him. He’d stand up straight and take those bullets like a man. That’s the quality I want in my president.
John Cole
Look- you don’t have to agree with me, but I just did something similar in my last god damned comment:
I think this was just someone trying to be cute and blurting out something stupid.
Colleen
A great deal of play on the internet, here’s the NYT’s take on the story…..http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/republicans-warm-up-at-the-nra/ See anything missing? Damn liberal media.
Brachiator
That apology had better be coming very soon, ideally so that it hits the evening national news.
Sometimes, automatically characterizing remarks as just “offensive” or “stupid” does not get to the heart of the issue. I am reminded of the visceral fears that some black voters reluctantly expressed as Obama’s campaign flowered. When you don’t want to see someone run for office because you want to protect him, this is some powerful stuff (In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama )
By the way, I am not saying that Huckabee deliberately is feeding these fears, or even that he has to be extra-responsible for his statements.
But what these remarks may tell us about Huckabee, or even assessments of Huckabee vs Bush, are only a small part of the story. That his remarks were unscripted might not diminish their impact on some people.
It’s not just about politics.
neill
oh fuck me.
there’s no ven diagram for bush’s prepped spiel at the knesset and fuckabee’s as lib assassination joke before the nra that can show me slack for either one of these pea-brained, vulger and stupid, evil and mean fuckers. i hope they both rot in the hell they both believe in…
this talk about obama is just part of the meta-shtick of racism and hate. if huckabee does “effusively” apologize, it’s just to lay it on thicker… just reinforce it.
they are going to pull every possible scummy trick they can, get every possible hate-vote they can scrounge up. it is all they got left. fear and hate.
neill
oh fuck me.
there’s no ven diagram for bush’s prepped spiel at the knesset and fuckabee’s as lib assassination joke before the nra that can show me slack for either one of these pea-brained, vulger and stupid, evil and mean fuckers. i hope they both rot in the hell they both believe in…
this talk about obama is just part of the meta-shtick of racism and hate. if huckabee does “effusively” apologize, it’s just to lay it on thicker… just reinforce it.
they are going to pull every possible scummy trick they can, get every possible hate-vote they can scrounge up. it is all they got left. fear and hate.
texas dem
I also have a soft spot for Huckabee, and I think he earned it repeatedly with his honest and sincere behavior, and sense of humor. He is a Christian radical ideologically; but he’s not a sadistic or evil human being, and most of the vile things he thinks he was led directly to by his Bible (as opposed to by his own putrid personality).
That said, he did just kill his VP chances, which is a bummer. He’d have been a good choice for McCain as far as this Obama donor is concerned: he brings several strengths to the ticket, is a decent human mostly, and yet is obviously unsuitable for the job. I think a lot of Americans could look at McCain-Huckabee and say “they seem like alright people, but I do not want them to be president”, and that’s a good outcome for this election. (Can you imagine an election that didn’t hinge on character assassination and 45% of the country hating the other 45%’s guys? Me neither!)
Anyway, Huckabee accentuates McCain’s ultimate weakness — interesting guy, shouldn’t be president — perfectly. It’s too bad he can’t be the VP candidate now.
Everybody in the World
I, for one, do NOT have a soft spot for Huckashit, who is a vicious, moronic, bigoted little piece of a weasel. Fuck him.
I’m old enough to remember the era of assasinations, when we lost our best hopes for progress in this country. Don’t underestimate the horror of it. Joking about it isn’t a “gaffe.” It’s a shitty, ugly, miserable thing only a lowlife little snot briar like Hucky would do.
Captain USA
A southern governor jokes about assassinating a black political leader.
That’s some world class not funny.
Captain USA
Tell you what, Governor. How about next time you tell a joke like that we come down and set all your houses on fire?
Again.
passerby
Ok. Yeah, that can happen. But, his intent, his goal is to take Obama down. He, a baptist-minister-arkansan-POLITICIAN, is running with the wolves.
Sure, he’ll make an apology but only the sheep will consider it sincere.
T
A.Political
A little OT, but I need to retract my earlier opinion that Jeralyn over at Talkleft will be ok and that BTD is the main culprit.
I really can’t get around this kind of reality twisting….
and the goalposts have moved once again? FL and MI divided how? GAH!
Face
Bullshit.
Pooh
Will no one rid me of this troublesome
priestNegro?binzinerator
But would you really have ever said what Huckabee said? In the setting he said it? It’s more than a stupid gaffe, and I’d say it’s even more than offensive — it has a sinister import to it because of the context. Remember he said this in front of a bunch of NRA gooper gun nuts in Kentucky, a place recently in the news where people made no bones about not ever voting for a black man.
What Huckabee said was racist dogwhistle to that crowd. There’s something he was tapping into there with it. You’re probably right, he will offer a sincere apology. He was doing what politicians are good at doing: He ‘read’ his audience and he played to them. But I’d bet that particular crowd would laugh even if it had happened for real.
And don’t ignore the power of suggestion to the racist gun nut demographic either. I’m not saying Huckabee was trying to suggest anything. But what he did was water a poisonous plant that should not be watered. That’s also part of why I think it was more than just stupid, more than just offensive.
I agree that Bush’s disgusting words yesterday were worse. But the Huckabee joke hints at the thing we know is lurking in the soul of the GOP. It’s something they invited in and embraced, made it a part of their DNA, and it’s far uglier than Bush’s crassness yesterday.
SpotWeld
Isn’t one of the top three rules of gun ownership “Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot”.
And he tried that stupidity in front of NRA members?
Sorry.. I can get he was joking. But if you take gun ownership seriously, you don’t think pointing guns at people is funny
rawshark
Apologize? I bet he’s sorry he said it out loud or anywhere near a recording device.
If he had made the gaffe in a room full of people who wouldn’t be receptive to the humor maybe I’d agree. But that didn’t happen so nope I don’t agree.
Jake
Yup, this is worth keeping in mind.
I’m with Cole on this one. I just think Huckabee probably realized as soon as he said it that he stepped in his own shit.
I won’t be too disappointed if it kills his VP chances though, because McCain is totally batshit crazy.
Punchy
I’m confused, John. Was Huckabee saying Obama fell down because he saw a gun, or because he had tripped over Huck’s burning cross? Probably was hard for Huck to get out of the way, on account of the low visibility the pointy white sheet on one’s head gives you.
Maybe Huck just wanted Obama off his
porchstage.Pooh
Just compare this to when Ashcroft accidentally called him Barack Osama…
Conservatively Liberal
This is absolute BULLSHIT! There is no reason why someone like myself has to listen to this utter horse shit. I paid my bills last month, and now those assholes want me to pay them this month! Oh well, I guess I can do it once again, but it sucks!
What Huckabee said was a joke; a poorly timed, not very well thought out joke. If he would have connected a few mental dots, he never would have said what he did. I really don’t think Huckabee is racist in any way, shape or form. If anything, his color blindness may have led to him making the joke in the first place.
Told about a white Democratic candidate, this joke would have provoked laughter. I don’t think Huckabee made the conscious connection between ‘black presidential candidate’, ‘crazy gun owner who hates black candidates’ and the fact that Obama needed early Secret Service protection due to death threats.
It doesn’t even register ‘meh’ on my outrageOmeter. Back to the real outrage, paying bills!
SpotWeld
I should re-enforce the idea that I don’t think he was edging towards anything bigoted. Rather it was more a “liberals are all skittish around guns, haw haw haw” sort of things.
John Cole
the best piece of gun advice I have ever heard is actually from Sweatty Teddy Nugent- “Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy.”
b-psycho
On top of the tastelessness of the joke, and the dogwhistle nature of it, it defies common sense in multiple ways. If Obama were the type likely to be packing — and thus be able to draw on the fool who pulled one — those pasty hypocrites at the NRA would piss their pants at the mere thought.
If I were in Obama’s position, my response would be “uh, no, you pull a gun on me then I shoot first”. Which shows why I’d never be in Obama’s position.
ThymeZone
I’m sorry, I don’t think Huckabee’s gaffe was an ‘accident’ in the sense that I take you to mean it.
I think it was a slip of the tongue that reveals a certain lack of respect for Mr. Obama and for the process of choosing a president that is telling WRT to Huckabee and his assessment of the audience he was talking to.
I think that Huckabee is a completely phony, lying sumbitch and I have said so from the day he announced his failed candidacy. Why you are “taken” with him, I have no idea, except that if I put this together with your former admiration of Mr. Bush, I can only conclude that you are a sucker for a sneer and a wink and a good old boy aw shucks way about people.
I don’t say this as a great criticism of you, I have my own sucker buttons that can be pushed and I also can be fooled. However, Huckabee has never fooled me, I know what he is, he is a stealth rightwing nutjob who is just the kind of guy who would laugh at the “aimed a gun at him” joke if he were in the audience. That’s who he is, ignore that at your own peril.
Genine
I really don’t think Huckabee meant anything malicious. And, yes, he’s a politician, but he’s also something of a… less-than-polished politician.
When the whole Wright mess came out, he said he understood where Mr. Wright was coming from. He said he grew up in the South where blacks had to sit in a different part of the theatre, and separate waiting rooms at the doctor and separate water fountains. He said blacks got the message over and over again that they were less than others and he could understand how Wright might have a chip on his shoulder. He said himself that he’d probably have an even bigger chip and probably wouldn’t have done all the good Wright did end up doing.
Huckabee said this at a time when everyone, conservative and liberal, were denouncing Wright. So one cannot really say he gave his insight as some sort of political play. I really admired that insight of his and his willingness to share it with those who didn’t want to hear it. I cannot write him off as evil or malicious. I can he’s ignorant as hell, but not malicious.
rawshark
‘Stealth’?
Halteclere
This is exactly right. How much flack did Cheney get from fellow hunters because he did not manage his muzzle and was not fully aware of his surroundings?
If Huckabee said this as an off-the-cuff joke, then he is no real sportsman – even accidentally pointing a gun in someone’s general direction is a cardinal sin for any serious hunter. Huckabee is either a gun sportsman poser, a self-defense nut (“I only have my gun to shoot people for protection”), or playing politics (dog whistling, trying to force a gun discussion into the election discourse, etc).
Balconesfault
The Nigger Gets It jokes…
Funny when Mel Brooks does it … not so funny when the NRA does it.
Tsulagi
Yeah, the jackasses are in bloom. Maybe The Dick has been out there pollinating them.
Thought Huckabee was a decent guy, but he keeps becoming more and more of a turd. Guess it’s his way of trying to hang with the cool guys.
Ninerdave
I don’t think he’s ever been shy about his social conservative views. On the other hand, I can’t get too worked up about his joke (or lack thereof).
passerby
But CL, the election of BO to the highest office, the Bully Pulpit, depends on meaningful dialog. The spewings of these bottom feeders detract from that and on that I agree with you.
However, these cheap shots, shallow yet potent, undermine the candidacy of one(Barack Obama) who is trying to steer public discourse toward the reality (our goddam bills) of our present grief.
Should Know Better
Yeah, a real leader would forget to duck.
ThymeZone
Yes, stealth, in the sense that he deliberately convers up who he really is and what he really thinks.
He presents himself as a compassionate, reasonable “conservative” but in reality he is a complete rightwing religious lunatic. Full on, out to restore God’s Dominion on Earth, and all that shit.
He isn’t reasonable, he isn’t a nice guy, and he isn’t trustworthy, in my opinion. The stealth approach is not something I made up to spice up my post. It’s a stated and published approach to envagelical politics, the deliberate downplaying of the real agenda in order to get ahead politically, so as to be in a position to carry out the Lord’s work in government. That is their stated goal, going back at least 25 years that I can remember.
Huckabee is about as good an exemplar of that approach as I have ever seen.
Halteclere
Of course, despite my aggravation that a gun “enthusiast” (insert your own synonym here) would think pointing a gun at someone was funny, I would be very happy if this “gaffe” went away and everyone’s eye remained trained on President Bush’s failure of a ME trip.
Jake
Meanwhile, take a look at Jeralyn’s recent post over on TalkLeft about how it’s “the math” and not “the map” that matters, and try not to laugh.
Jesus. All sorts of stupid.
rawshark
Blog Post Title of the Decade.
I understand but to me stealth isn’t an attempt to hide its actual hiding. Huckabee was not successful in his attempt. Most Americans would agree. (Check me out, I Darrelled)
Cain
*yawn* I can’t muster enough interest to express any outrage for this. It’s a silly joke. I would rather bash McCain and Bush…
cain
D-Chance.
“some people” as in 99+% of the commenters here, judging by the content of their posts?
slag
Why people like Huckabee I’ll never understand. He wants to turn our Constitution into the Bible. Or turn the Bible into our Constitution, I’m not sure which. Dude’s crazy.
Conservatively Liberal
If things were leaning to the right now, I think it would matter more. Most sensible people are going to hear about this and cringe at Huckabee and the republicans in general. Joking about guns and presidential candidates ducking them is not very pretty, and it makes it easy to deride the idiots who embrace such a message.
Obama supporters will brush this off, but I know that they will remember it and it will be talked about to the point between us that we will be playing whack-a-mole with any dittoheads who pop up parroting it.
It was a thoughtless, stupid joke that Huckabee uttered in the hopes of getting a laugh from ‘his’ kind of people in the NRA. If he comes out and apologizes profusely (like he damn well better), I think it will end up doing more damage to the right than to Obama. The last thing the NRA wants to be seen as is a bunch of people who can laugh at the thought of a black presidential candidate (or ANY presidential candidate) ducking someone they think is holding a gun on them.
Especially when that candidate has already been getting death threats. Most sensible people will ‘get’ this, and properly dismiss it as a poor attempt at a joke that backfired on the teller. The ones who love the joke are people who never would have voted for Obama anyway.
In other words, the ratfucks at Hillaryis44, NQ and the like ought to be loving this ‘joke’ to no end. Good. It makes it easier to spot the ratfucks, point them out and derisively laugh them in to irrelevance.
Dennis - SGMM
It’s Super Tuesday.It’s Texas.It’s the delegate count.It’s the popular vote.It’s the map.It’s her turn, you sexist pigs.
ThymeZone
Huckabee is a complete con artist, that’s my opinion.
On something or another, I’m sure :)
Most of them agreed that the Iraq war was a good idea, once, not that long ago.
Heh.
mellowjohn
don’t know if it’s been said above, but i teach in an all-black school on the west side of chicago. about 80% of the faculty is african-american.
as you might imagine, support of barack obama is wide-spread and enthusiastic. EVERYONE – me included – are deathly afraid that there is some nutjob out there ready, willing, and – thanks to the nra – able to assassinate obama before the election.
D-Chance.
Or Ted Kennedy when he called him “Osama Obama”…
Delia
Thymezone is right, IMO. There’s a nasty subtext to this that I just don’t like.
Meanwhile, lest we forget, The Dumond Case, the serial rapist whose pardon Huckabee forced through while he was governor, largely because the last victim was a distant relative of Bill Clinton’s, and some fanatic had convinced him that Dumond therefore had to be the innocent victim of a Clintonian plot. The guy was sent to Missouri where he proceeded to rape and murder two other women. Huckabee now distances himself from the whole affair.
Martin
No biggie. The difference with Huck is that he knows when he fucks up, feels genuinely bad about it, and will make it right. Guys like Bush instead double down when they fuck up.
Jake
In fairness to the folks at the NRA, if you watch the video this didn’t exactly receive a roaring applause:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/05/16/sot.huckabee.jokes.obama.cnn
There were a few laughs but otherwise it seemed to fall pretty damn flat. If you’re being charitable, you can almost see Huckabee hesitate to complete the joke because he realizes in real time what he’s about to say.
Martin
Well, they’re out there – and even have their own radio show.
Yeah, Hal Turner, buddy of Hannity posted that little gem of human compassion on his website a few months back. I understand that got him a little Secret Service attention.
passerby
Slag, the POTUS governs all of the individuals living in the U.S. No easy task in this day and time when dark puppetmasters are pulling the strings.
Huck, at least, has been “civil”. As a so called “man of god”, I believe, he “knows” what is Right and Good, but he spends too damn much energy on the “mote in his brother’s eye” (as do most who give him power by proxy).
I can’t help but wonder who among the elected are on to the fact that the DOWN WITH BULLSHIT energy change has occurred.
He may very well be convertible.
T
Zifnab
The guy painted a bullseye on his forehead the moment he announced his campaign for Senate. He’s, what? One of two, currently?
When you start making “jokes” like this, you’re effectively just priming the pump. How the hell do Republicans get away with shit like this time and time again? A comment like that would end a Democrat’s career.
Lumped on top of a few other choice so-called gaffs, like McCain’s “I’m too cool for my Secret Service detail… unlike that pussy Obama”, I hear the dog whistles clear as day. The Republican Party is absolutely begging for someone to take Obama out. Given their penchant for torture and their disdain for human life, you can’t put this above the GOP. Given the no-slander-unspoken nature of this race, its not even one of the worst comments yet made.
sparky
it is difficult to attribute it to just poor judgement. after all, the man speaks in front of people on a regular basis and certainly knows what he is about. and he also has a sense of the limits of civil discourse. i don’t think he would forget them in front of the NRA. but i don’t think it was a dog-whistle so much as it was an effort to paint Obama as some sort of sissy. this would match up with the current GOP efforts to paint Obama as naive. so, my idea is that he tried to make the same GOP point in a different way in front of the NRA but forgot/ignored the additional associations in Obama’s case. in other words, Huck got the GOP memo with today’s talking point but executed badly. very badly.
as an aside, i would think that anyone old enough to remember the 1960s (i’m not) would have a much more powerful revulsion to that kind of joke than someone who didn’t live through that time.
Dennis - SGMM
I just wonder what the Republican reaction would have been if Clinton or Obama had told the same joke about say, McCain or Huckabee.
cbear
Does that mean that Dumond will un-murder those two women? Does that poor dead dog his fat bastard kid tortured and killed get to come back to life and go barking happily into the sunset?
I’m so confused.
nightjar
After seeing the video, I’m convinced his so-called joke was directed at Obama’s perceived (but not true) anti-gun stance. And therefore not necessarily racial imo. He’s still a fruitcake though.
DougJ
This is clearly bad news for Democrats. It just proves Mike Huckabee is the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with.
And here’s something else to ponder: what if there was a plan to kill Obama and that it could only be stopped by torturing one of the people involved with the plot? Would Obama torture in order to save his own life? If not, then is he tough enough to be commander-in-chief? I fully expect Charlie Gibson to ask about this at one of the debates this fall.
Librarian
By itself, it may not look like much, but together with all the other stuff that has been happening and will happen, like the Curious George T shirt thing, and all the racist attacks that you know are coming, this joke is not so harmless. It’s not an isolated incident, it’s part of the GOP attack on Obama.
passerby
Nightjar, no. I don’t think Huck’s a racist.
However, I’m inclined to believe that his audience is or has a proclivity toward such a reality.
The players at this level of politics understand exactly how their base will react to the message and platform they put forth.
T
r€nato
Agreed.
I’m not one to get outraged over people who simply say stupid things. I couldn’t work up much outrage over Don Imus, for instance. I truly believe he simply said something in really bad taste instead of the usual bad taste we expect from a radio shock jock who makes a living stirring the pot to a certain degree. The reason the average politician avoids ever saying anything of substance whenever possible, is precisely because of the tendency of people to take an innocent, stupid remark and blow it up into evidence of something nefarious.
What Huckabee said here… well I guess I’m willing to reluctantly cut him some slack but he should really know better. I see this as the kind of humor white folks think they can get away with when everyone else in the room is white too. (I don’t know that for a fact but I’m willing to wager the African-American membership of the NRA is even smaller than that of the GOP)
It’s also a fact that there is a certain small, vocal segment of the population which would find it intolerable to have one of them ni@@ers telling them what to do. The idea that someone might take a potshot at President Obama is not at all far-fetched, especially considering the race-baiting the GOP is about to engage in.
r€nato
Do you really have to wonder?
Jimmm
No, John. Motherfuck that phony redneck douchebag, Huckabee. In the ass. Fucking goddamn “minister” wishing someone dead. Because that’s what joking about assassinations of presidential candidates amounts to. Drive to a Bushenfuhrer rally with a librul bumper sticker and you get the Secret Service on your ass. Joke about Obama getting shot and you get the chance to apologize — but only after the idea of shooting Obama is floating in the ideaosphere. Goddamn Huckabee. Wants recognition from the GOP so fucking bad that he’s willing to whore what little humanity in him that wasn’t liposuctioned out.
Momentary gaffe? No fucking way.
Davebo
You’re right John.
There’s no way that Huck, giving a speech before the NRA, had like, consultants scripting every single freaking word he said in his statements.
The offstage noise couldn’t possibly have been staged to setup the line, which he offered so eloquently, almost as if it had been scripted.
I think I may spend part of my busy weekend documenting all the other times, since 2003, that John gave a pass to Goopers (and defended them) because “aw shucks, it was just an off the cuff throwaway).
Talk about clueless.
Most be something in the water in SC I guess.
Kevin Hayden
Actually, I think the sound Huckabee heard was Jesus hitting the floor at the sight of a cross.
Which is so unlike he man Republicans. Usually when a gun’s pointed at them, they request a military exemption and ask the gunman to shoot their neighbor.
nightjar
Maybe, but I still think Huckabee was playing to their fears of having their guns taken away. In other words, the weanie liberal couldn’t even defend himself and had to dive for cover cause only bad guys have guns. That’s stupid thinking I know, especially because Obama has SS protection. It’s also stupid in every other way, too.
SmilingPolitely
The video makes Huckabee look worse than the text because of the tone in which he says his little gaffe. He sounded so serious. The comment was, however, off-the-cuff to be sure.
wasabi gasp
Huckabee’s a swell fella. He ain’t meanin’ no harm. Back when he was fat, we yoozta be in a band together. He played the gutbucket and I blew a jug. There was this one time, this one day, right after he helped me put some new rims on my house, we cornholed a couple’a squirrels with some sticks all kabob-like and threw ’em on the grill. He said to me, he said “Sabi?” I said “Huh, Bee?” He said “Shoo bee!” I said “Scooby-doo-be-doo…” And, thats when the bee flew in my mouth and stung me on the tongue. He laughed a bit and then ate all the squirrels on account of me not bein’ able to chew anymore. After he finished the last squirrel, he said “Lets go to the Dairy Queen and get you a cold milkshake for that tongue.” Y’know, before he said that, he was enjoyin’ my squrrel just a little to much and I started thinkin’ I might just hit ’em over the head with my jug. But, now I thought he’s a right swell fella. And, I would’a told him as much, but bein’ now I couldn’t talk so well, I just said “uhhngg.”
Wilfred
What the fuck does that mean? Accident, as in parapraxis? Where’s the apology?
John Cole
For christ sakes, flame for being naive if you want, I just don’t think it was intentional.
Maybe it is because I am prone to say stupid things. Hell, I remember 10-15 years ago when I was in the parking lot at the Coliseum here with a friend while the Special Olympics was going on, and my friend locked the keys in the car. Without thinking, I yelled- “WTF is your problem, are you retarded?”
People say stupid shit without thinking.
Jess
I agree that the gaffe was probably more stupidity than malice, but isn’t this a perfect example of when teh stoopid should hurt? This kind of talk directed towards the perceived enemies of the right wing has been going on for too long now, and it’s even more crucial now to stomp it out as absolutely un-fucking-acceptable. It’s just a matter of time before some lunatic moves from rhetoric to action, and we need to start calling people on this shit now before it’s too late.
DougJ
If you’re going to do a mea culpa you may as well be honest about it.
Jess
Now THAT’S funny. Retarded, but funny.
Jimmm
John: Your Special Olympics was a case of one-on-one drive-by stupidity. And, most importantly, it had no lasting effect. Hucks wasn’t. Period. He was in a crowd of gun “rights” advocates, hoping to curry favor by taking a swipe at their presumed foe. (Notice I didn’t say “shot” — I’m not retarded … [sorry.].])
It’s nice that you can empathize with Huck. But giving him a pass for joking about the assassination of a political rival ain’t the same as just saying something you later regretted to yourself. And your gaffe was kind of funny, given the setting. Huck’s was just disturbing — and the NRAers appear to have understood this point. And what Huck said and where he said it offered a real glimpse into his character.
b-psycho
One bright spot to this is that if Obama changes his mind on gun control more towards defining it as “hitting your target”, he can joke that Huckabee’s dumbassed remark made him see the light.
rawshark
I call BS on this story. No one says ‘WTF’.
cbear
Reminds me of the time a buddy of mine accidentally parked in a handicapped spot and this old lady started screaming at him, “Are you BLIND, can’t you see that’s a handicap spot?
My buddy swiveled his head from side to side a couple of times and said, “That’s my handicap, lady.”
DougJ
John’s right, though, that what Bush did was much, much worse. There’s really no comparison.
ThymeZone
Right, just the thing you might want … in a president, for example. Just a regular good old boy.
No wonder people “just like him.”
Aw shucks, cain’t fault him for making fun of that colored boy, hit was just in fun.
Lynne
I think the benefit of the doubt should be given to Huckabee. I certainly don’t think he meant to insinuate anything about assination, he just made a very bad joke about the typical Democratic position on guns. Like John, I think he will apologize to Obama for the remark. I recently said something to a friend and stuck my foot so far in my mouth that I was walking on three legs. It happens.
Groucho48
His comments certainly seemed scripted to me. He made them the way most politicians with bad timing make prepared jokes…kind of rush through them while looking slightly uncomfortable. And, it goes on a bit too long and its too structured to be a spontaneous reaction. I’d be willing to bet it was planned, or, at least, there had been some discussion of making a joke about Obama, before his appearance, and, the backstage noise triggered it.
passerby
DougJ, did you post on the wrong thread or are you just kissin’ ass?
T
w vincentz
John,
I usually agree with you, but this time, NO.
Huckabee claims to be a pastor, a minister of someone named Jesus, whose ministry included peace, love, and kindness.
Huckabee’s word’s came out his own mouth. He misrepresented the Son of God by putting forth hatred, violence, and venom…all for a cheap laugh to a room full of fools. Fuck that shithead!
jake
Who said anything about dogwhistles? It was an incredibly stupid thing for a guy who makes a living by running his face to say. In addition to the fact that he should only open his mouth to apologize for being part of the Republican machine.
I also seem to recall another jolly, joking, good ole boy who often said stupid, odd and incomprehensible things. And people said Aw shucks, he don’t mean no harm and shame on you for making fun of him, he’s just like the rest of us.
Do you remember what happened to that guy, John?
Sure you do.
Andrei
Are we laying bets then how long it takes for Huckabee to apologize? And how long does he have to apologize before you retract your inclination to give him the benefit of the doubt?
Marshall
According to a Dairy in Daily Kos, the NRA crowd didn’t laugh, which actually doesn’t surprise me.
DougJ
No, I think John’s about that part of it. Bush’s comments about appeasement were beyond the pale. Huck’s were just dumb.
passerby
Well Jake, I didn’t actually use the term Dog whistle but, I”m implying that the message employs the use of a dog whistle.
Guilty.
T
p.s. we all know what’s going down. or Don’t we?
Hana
I agree with you– totally offensive, but probably just one of those dumb things people say without thinking. However, as an occasional target shooter trained by my father, an inventor and retailer of target training systems (yo, http://www.shootingpartner.com), what this really makes me ask about is his attitude towards gun safety. My dad taught me that you NEVER NEVER NEVER take gun safety lightly. You don’t point a gun, even an unloaded one, at anything you wouldn’t be willing to shoot. And no, you don’t even joke about it. Period.
ThymeZone
And come on, people, how often did Lincoln, or Roosevelt, or Eisnehower have to apologize for making some stupid fucking cracker hillbilly remark in public, or for farting at dinner?
Golly, that Huckleberry feller is just a good ol boy.
Wilfred
Good thing or Huckabee would have milked it.
Tom
This is the 40th anniversaries of MLK & RFK assassinations and everybody knows it. Huckabee is old enough to remember 1968 and knows that this is dynamite. I have not heard an apology yet.
If some youngish jackass like Tucker Carlson made a statement like this it might be just noise because his formative years were not influenced directly by 68. But, the Huckster would have been 12 or 13 when these events occurred. He grew up in the South–he is aware of the wounds this opens up. This stinks.
The Grand Panjandrum
As I said in a thread yesterday, Huckabee believes the Earth was created a thousand years after ink was invented by the Sumerians. He a nice guy, but he’s a dumb motherfucker and he says and does many stupid things based on his faith. Let us not forget that Reverend Huckabee commuted more prison terms than Bill Clinton and all governors in surrounding states combined. So yeah, I knock a few shot of tequila back with him and take him out to my little shooting range for some target practice, but I wouldn’t let my daughters live anywhere near a place he was in charge of. That good ol’ boy ain’t right in the head.
Marshall
Oh, and I agree with Studly Pantload – Huckabee will never be a V.P. nominee now.
jake
There was a pause and then people laughed. And yes, I would classify the pause as a “Did he just say that?” pause.
Camp Obama has declined to comment which is the best response.
Helena Montana
John, I really enjoy your blog and I like you quite a lot. But sometimes…sometimes you come out with things just make me shake my head. Here’s one:
“…maybe I just have a soft spot for Mike Huckabee, or maybe I am just a sucker, or maybe it is because I have a history of saying stupid things I immediately regretted, I am willing to bet he will offer not only an effusive apology and explanation, but an apology is sincere and heartfelt. He knows he screwed up, and he will own this and do the right thing, I am betting.”
Mary
Huckabee has come out with a classic non-apology apology. It doesn’t sound sincere, heartfelt or effusive to me. CNN reported on his written statement just a few minutes ago:
BULLSHIT.
Leaving aside all the baggage about politicans and black leaders getting assassinated, the most generous interpretation I can possibly give is that he very clearly meant to disparage Obama by mocking his lack of bravery.
I thought well of Huckabee for his Wright comments, too, and had hoped, after my initial anger, that he would rise to the occasion with a classy apology. He didn’t. His lack of an immediate apology, and this mealymouthed nonsense, means that he’s cut off his left ball angling for the VP nod and will give up his right in a heartbeat.
Lynne
Oh good lord, he apologized. Perhaps if he had done it via videotape, flaggelating himself, it would satisfy you. I’d put it on par with Barack’s “sweetie” apology. He was sorry and he said so. End of story.
passerby
Yes, it’s true. I am not shy of speaking in public nor of public speaking. Hell, just in regular conversation I’m LIKELY to upset people because I speak my peace.
I’m accustomed to being alienated. I took the Red Pill so to speak.
But, John!! WE, You and I and Us, are NOT politicians.
More often than not, we speak only for ourselves.
We speak of our Opinions [or in the case of retardedness we lose control of our beast] and show the world our ignorance.
Do we speak to people with the conscious purpose to manipulate??? (A fair question.)
Assume that POLITIANS DO.
T
Rome Again
Obama is safe, his last name doesn’t start with K
w vincentz
Yup, the “off hand” apology was bull shit.
So now, future career options:
1) Pro wrestling match with Louis Farrikan, 10 rounds.
2) Squirrel huntin’ with Dead-eye Dick Cheney.
3) Porn star (nutless wonder). Maybe Starbucks could use him as a new logo model.
Jay B.
I made an offhand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Senator Obama.
But Lynne, how is this not complete bullshit? He could say he intended no racial component, or that he intended no harm — but of course it was meant to disparage Obama otherwise what was it? Not a putdown?
These people are positively postmodern. Words don’t mean anything to them.
I guess to some an empty apology is just as meaningful as an honest one.
Lavocat
Well, I couldn’t disagree with you more. This is MUCH more offensive than what Bush did.
The fact that this man was in contention for the Republican nomination – and is ostensibly religious – AND A MINISTER!!! – and was just “ad libbing”, speaks volumes.
It tells me a great deal about what passes for “humor” in this man’s mind, and how low he will go to score some shits and giggles with The Good Ole Boys.
Sure, he just blurted it out. Sure, he didn’t think about it. And THAT tells me that the vast unthinking part of this man has been soaked in a culture where it’s funny to talk trash about Black People. Where it’s funny to talk about nooses, crosses, and shotgun blasts.
Huckabee is nothing more than a fucking asshat cracker.
Ninerdave
I guess I would be more concerned if he had any power, which he doesn’t.
Krista
That’s pretty damned weak.
Lynne
“Do we speak to people with the conscious purpose to manipulate??? (A fair question.)”
“Assume that POLITIANS DO.”
Everyone here wants to make fun of some of the Hillary supporting sites having parsed things that Obama has said. Things like “claws out” and “periodic” eruptions. Others jumped on the McCain is “losing his bearings” comment. Do we really want to go there? That is cynicism, something that so many of you have said you want to get past in politics, which is why you are supporting Barack and his “new” type of politics.
Take a deep breath, let it out, and let it go. You’ll feel better.
John Cole
I think he meant to make a joke showing that all liberals are just afraid of guns.
And he fucked up royally.
Look- I don;t think he is a saint. Fuck, he is wholly unelectable for his covenant marriage stunt he pulled several years back that most of you probably never even heard of, but I don’t think he meant what you all are inferring.
Jay B.
Watch how this works:
Mike Huckabee went down on his daughter yesterday in church.
My apology:
The preceding offhand comment was in no way meant to offend or disparage Mike Huckabee or his daughter.
Does that make sense to anyone?
ThymeZone
Riiiighht. It was intended to disparage Dagwood Bumstead, but Mike just forgot and said Barack Obama by mistake.
Hey, it’s a mistake anyone could have made.
Can you believe these LYING COCKSUCKERS?
KRK
There is no intersection between:
and
A real apology would be: “It was a stupid thing to say, and I deeply regret it.” PERIOD. None of this “sorry if anyone misunderstood my intent” bullshit. And for good measure he should apologize to the NRA crowd for suggesting that any of them would “aim a gun” at any person, let alone presidential candidate.
PeterJ
Obama is currently the only African American in the Senate, and there has only been two other before him in modern time.
Darkrose
I have no problem calling someone who advocated putting people with AIDS in camps evil.
Mary
As I said, I can leave aside any assumption that he meant to send some coded message about assassinations. But even a “liberals are afraid of guns” joke is disparaging. I don’t want a pound of flesh from Huckabee (anti-Semitism alert!!), but I don’t want him to lie to my face, either.
Even something as simple as, “I deeply regret my ill-thought attempt at humor. I should never have said it. I apologize to Senator Obama.” would have been OK. A good apology can be just that simple.
I expected a little more honesty and grace from him after his Wright comments. I guess the difference is that when other people were frothing at the mouth over Wright, Huckabee could show off how nuanced and compassionate he was. When he fucked up this time, he couldn’t give a good apology. Hell, maybe I couldn’t give a good apology so soon after such a massive error. It’s a real blow to the ego to realize that you fucked up so badly.
If he recovers tonight or some time soon with something more honest, he’ll have gained back some of my respect. Right now, I think he’s a liar and a coward.
ThymeZone
Welcome back Rome.
passerby
You, Lynne, are coming out of left field with this “Everyone wants to make fun of Hillary” schtick.
Question to you: Do you think the behavior of regular folk differs from that of polititians? manipulation-wise???
T
w vincentz
I am a liberal. I own guns. I’m not the least bit afraid of them.
Is there something called logic when one fact refutes the whole assertion?
Yes, Huckafuck fucked up.
I’m done talking about the asshole.
nightjar
Lie!
Lynne
What I meant, and apparently didn’t say very well, was that anyone can parse anything someone says for some deeper, darker meaning. It’s been done to Obama, and I mentioned a few examples. It’s done with everyone. I agree with John Cole – Huckabee tried to make a “liberals don’t like guns” joke and it obviously didn’t come out well and, given the comments here, was taken to have some deeper, darker meaning. I just don’t think he meant what some are insinuating and that it takes a large amount of cynicism to think that it does. He’s apologized – let it go.
Cain
Hey Rome Again! Happy to see you posting again! :)
cain
Delia
Whoa, Lynne. So you’re not really upset about us dumping on Huckabee tonight. You’re still seething because most of us don’t like Hillary very much. Well, I gave you a very detailed, objective list of why I didn’t like Hillary anymore the other night, no derogatory language involved, and you never bothered to respond. So I’m guessing that you’re not interested in an actual debate on Hillary’s merits or demerits, but would rather play passive-aggressive games around her and other public figures to get back at us Obama supporters. You’re going to run out of slack very quickly on that one.
As for Huckabee. Well, originally I thought he was pretty amusing when he appeared on TDS and Colbert. Then when information about the Dumond case, his son, and his petty corruption scandals in Arkansas began to come out, I revised my opinion downward. And whatever his beliefs about when the world was created, where I live a professed Christian minister is supposed to keep his tongue under control, especially when it comes to comments that have the potential to stir up violence. He’s a smart man. He knows better. And he at least knows what constitutes a proper apology.
passerby
Yes, in fact a Bald.face.lie.
Question: Who believes that this was “in no way intended to offend or disparage Senator Obama”?
T
Lynne
Delia – see above post. See, you’ve parsed a meaning I did not intend. If everyone parsed every single word that came out of every single polititians mouth every single time he or she spoke, and always ascribed some nefarias (sp?) meaning – well heck, our unemployment problems would be solved, because we’d all have full time jobs as “parsers”.
And, I apologize (profusely) for not answering any questions you might have had. I must have missed the response post. If you’ll direct me to the thread it was contained on, I’ll do my best to answer whatever questions you posed to me.
Conservatively Liberal
Rome Again?! Glad to see you return to the BJ mosh pit! :)
I just heard Huckabee’s ‘apology’, and if that is it then that is just about the lamest ‘apology’ I have ever heard. While I believe it was intended as a joke to disparage Obama/Democrats on guns, I have to admit that the way it rolled off his tongue is rather disturbing. The fact that what he said is lying so close to the surface that it could actually bubble up in an instant is disturbing to see in anyone. It was almost like he was primed and ready for the response.
If anything, it shows that although Huckabee portrays himself as someone who cares about everyone (hey, he’s a preacher!), just under that veneer is the ‘real’ Huckabee, and he is not the ‘nice guy’ he portrays himself as.
He better come up with more than this if he expects people like me to believe that it was an unfortunate choice of words. Until then, with this ‘apology’, I have to agree that there is more than meets the eye here.
jake
Yep. I also recall his “Let’s lock up teh ghey to keep them from spreading The AIDS.” And his tantrum over the “Acts of God” language in an emergency relief bill after AR. got hit by a tornado. Yeah, there’s a basically nice guy who would otherwise be electable were it not for a few little gaffes here and there.
Let the record show that Mike pHuckabee is a member of the Grand Old Pricks party and a Bible waving bigot to boot. Therefore, he has forfeited his right to complain when any word out of his mouth (that is not an apology for breathing the same air as decent people) is scrutinized and found offensive.
All in favor make arm pit farts.
Cruel Jest
Huck is complicated for me. On the one hand, he really does have a good sense of humor. SNL, Colbert, prepared remarks … he can nail a joke. He is a very personable guy.
On the other hand, he thinks the world was created 6000 years ago and that there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark. The disconnect is profound and unforgivable and he’s the last man I want near the levers of power.
If it were up to me, I’d forgive him for making a fucking stupid gun joke in front of the NRA, and I wish he’d have expressed that in his apology (ie. “My ‘joke’ was fucking stupid”). But it doesn’t (to me!) rise to the level of unforgivable rhetoric, despite whatever subconscious predilictions one may infer.
I still think it’s gonna bite him in the ass. Such is politics in the 21st century. To which I can only say; tough shit, homeboy. You’re the one who rolled the dice.
kate r
Stupid, not fnnny but if one more person says it’s racist I’m gonna have to slap someone or at least put ’em in time out. Huckleberry would have said it about Hillary, about Edwards, about ANYONE who was running on The Other Side. Jeeebus. Except maybe Jim Brady.
Just Some Fuckhead
Climb down off of JC’s nuts you rabid pack of inferiors.
mclaren
Shorter John Cole:
Travis Bickel for President 2008
Cruel Jest
But … I’m not done yet.
cbear
Get that squirrel outa your mouth before you talk to us like that, jerky. You could be next.
lol
Adam
Wow. That’s a pretty shitty apology. You’d think that a Southern governor who’d pardoned a murderer/rapist based on some half-cooked bullshit over Clinton conspiracy theories would be a little more apologetic about a joke about assassinating a black Presidential candidate. Because it’s not like he might be perceived as sending a “you’ll be let off the hook for this one” sort of message or anything.
John, a better analogy would have been in you’d heard a backfire in the parking lot at the actual Olympics and shouted, “OMG a bomb! Everybody get down!” Funny, but only in sort of a “I can’t believe he said that” funny kind of way.
I mean… I see where you’re coming from (see Dan Quayle joke upthread)… but that’s an unbelievably half-assed apology considering the circumstances. I’d be willing to give the guy some credit for making a mistake if he’d actually acknowledged just what a world-class fucked up statement that was to make in front of an NRA convention. I mean, holy shit.
Stemler
I find it extremely hard to believe that this actually occurred as the entire world isn’t yet flooded over with foam from the rabid mouths of hysterical Kossacks.
He WAS at a gun rally (where they like to talk about gun shit), and it’s been pretty common GOP crap to paint democrats as little girly-men who shit their pants when someone points a gun at them at a gun rally. Also, he never did say shoot or kill or murder, so meh. I don’t really care, this kind of manly cowboy posturing attitude is what’s gonna do the GOP in come November.
Richard Bottoms
And no lube biatch.
MelodyMaker
Opinions are like assholes, so here’s mine (*) h/t Vonnegut.
I watched the video and Fuckamee gets a pass on this one. Maybe it’s because I have soft spot for John Cole. :)
jake
Piss off. It took us hours to get up here and we’re enjoying the view.
Conservatively Liberal
Using sand for traction?
Kevin James' Left Testicle
Appeasers!
Kevin Hayden
Sure, for John I’ll give him a pass, but I reserve the longstanding right to still call him Gomer Huckleberry. He’s likeable but I wouldn’t let him babysit my daughter.
(Bw, I’m not shocked a GOP politician would make a crack like that but a minister? Now we know which hat takes precedence.)
Davebo
Serious problem here John. I mean, lets face it you have a long history of naivety after all.
mrmobi
It’s not really important whether Huckabee is just an idiot (a very easy argument to make) or is advancing a truly offensive idea while standing in front of a group that wanted there to be more guns on the WV campus, because that would have made things so much better.
I know you’re a new Democrat, John, but as a person who lived through the assassination of three great leaders, this comment is the moral equivalent of yelling FIRE in a crowded theatre to me. I was 16 when JFK was assassinated. When RFK was assassinated, my mother work me up that day with the news. I watched the funeral of MLK with my jazz trumpet instructor in his home on Chicago’s south side. Assassination just doesn’t make my list of things to joke about any more
Fuck Huckabee. Sure, he’s likeable. So what. I’m sure Hitler had his good days, too. Pol Pot as well. All really, really nice guys, once you got to know them.
There are pretty strong rumors that Huckabee will be the VP nominee. I hope so. It will be good to see a candidate who believes the earth is 6,000 years old, as a running mate to a man who is 6,000 years old.
This is mrmobi +3 signing off.
Big E
typical…. make the comment and then apologize for it..
this reminds me of when Bush did his little acting skit where he looked under the chairs in his office for WMD’s.
It’s too funny, making fun of shooting people and starting wars…… oh those funny Republicans…. they’re a laugh a minute … unless you happen to be a dead soldier.
jake
Grape juice + monitor = not a good thing.
Barbara
Not funny goes without saying. But lots of interesting possibilities: was he suggesting that members of his audience (NRA members) are predisposed to assassinate the Democrat nominee for the presidency? Doesn’t that sort of go against their self-image and desire not to be thought of as “gun nuts”?
And I am never going to prove this, but the joke seemed a bit too involved to be extemporaneous. I bet he had been trying to come up with jokes with that theme — something about Obama and the NRA and being shot at even before he showed up.
No, I don’t think Huck is VP worthy, not necessarily just because of this, but because it suggests that embarrassing gaffes will be the order of the day and a big distraction for McCain the candidate.
Barbara
Which is another way of saying that McCain is going to have to APPEASE the base (Huckabee) or APPEASE independents because it sure will be hard to do both.
mrmobi
I signed off, but this has made me wonder. If Huckabee has truly fucked up today (in terms of Party of Torture rules), does this mean McCain has to pick Mr. Flip-Flop himself, the Mitt-Meister?
If so, this might mean that H.L. Mencken’s maxim might actually be coming true.
(Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920)
myiq2xu
You horny bitch!
cbear
Whatup myiq.
What’s your take on this whole pHuckabee dustup?
cbear
Yeah, well, that ship already sailed sometime around January 20th, 2001.
Jess
You’re missing the point. I agree that he would have said that about any of his political opponents–but in fact too many of those wingnuts regularly advocate violence (just kidding, of course!) against libruls, teh gheyz, wetbacks, etc. on a regular basis. And a certain number of them feel entitled by this to assault and lynch gays, blacks, immigrants, etc., to blow up abortion clinics and government buildings, and to assassinate progressive leaders. It’s not a joking matter, and anyone who fancies him- or herself a ‘leader’ needs to take that role seriously and refrain from such ‘humor.’ We don’t need to parse his intentions; we need to consider the consequences and put pressure on anyone who indulges in this irresponsible BS.
As I said upthread, this is the kind of stupid that should hurt.
Pelikan
ENOUGH!
Can’t we just agree that neither Huckabee, nor Bush should be taken seriously in politics?!! Maybe they’re nice guys, even George, they just shouldn’t be in charge of diddly squat.
Then we focus on the guy/girl/ham sandwich that should be in charge.
Criminy, democrats need someone standing behind them with a goddamn megaphone reminding them to focus all of the fucking time, whether it be in the senate, convention, debates what have you.
Focus on the fucking problem, which is John McCain!
Pelikan
Seriously, this is why I vote democrat. We would suck at a “1984” style totalitarian future. Everyone would be arguing over which method of brainwashing to use. John Cole would be posting snarky videos about Epsilons and Alphas and TZ would be reminding everyone about the time before Eurasia even existed and back when the Southwest (Airstrip Zero) had water.
TenguPhule
Only one of them cuts the mustard.
TenguPhule
What are you talking about? He’s perfect VP material for FUckstain McCain.
Kill two old turkeys with one handgrenade.
Calouste
4 out of 7 wins the series! Yes!
What do you mean we are still in regular season and not in the playoffs yet?
Genine
Awesome funny! Made me choke on my tea!
dslak
I wonder, is there a manly, “Republican” way to react to having a gun pointed at you? Last I checked, guns kill manly men just as easy as girly ones.
Rome Again
Uhhh, John, sorry, I like ya and all but I gotta go with this one.
Rome Again
They don’t consider the ramifications of having one pointed at them, only being able to have that kind of control over others. It’s their favorite form of mental masturbation.
Rome Again
Actually, you’re only partly right, TZ would be telling you that the southwest has water NOW if you know where to look for it.
slightly_peeved
Well, the joke hits the trifecta:
– bad stereotype of liberals as afraid of guns
– bad stereotype of black leaders getting shot
and 3:
– bad stereotype of NRA members as reckless and trigger-happy.
Phoebe
He would have inserted any liberal-of-the-day in there, it had nothing to do with Obama at all. It was clunky and not funny but it was not about race or assassination. It was negligent, not intentional, that’s it.
kate r
“I wonder, is there a manly, “Republican” way to react to having a gun pointed at you? Last I checked, guns kill manly men just as easy as girly ones.”
See, a Republican would have been packing heat and have no need to dive. It would be a shoot out in slo mo, straight from whichever one hour action-drama on which we’re currently basing our real life. (Is 24 passe yet?) The Good Guys would win, natch.
cleek
perhaps John McCain really is the son of Cain… any chance his middle name is Enoch ?
sheila
I think the question to ask is which Democrat player or non-conservative nutjob with the same standing as Hannity, Coulter, Huckabee, et al, has made a similar gaffe involving murdering the opponent?
The silence is deafening.
Sharon
Ami I the only one who remember this previous Huckabee joke about pointing gus at people?
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/huckabees_muzzle_control_probl.html
Huckabee’s a jerk, and it slips out in telling little “jokes” like this with guns.
Marshall
I suspect that every one in that audience would have flinched or ducked if someone had pulled out a gun and pointed it at them. Even armed men will hit the floor if they are being shot at. That may be why the NRA crowd’s response was muted.
JHD
I see Huckabee as a scary nutjob theocrat who also seems to be a decent person when in his right mind. Many examples of this above, and one of the reasons he is not the repub nominee is his concern for the poor.
I do not see this as an assassination joke or racist dogwhistle; I think Huckabee was groping for a joke along the line of “saw a gun and dove to the floor,” in the sense of just seeing a gun, not one pointed at anyone.
Not terribly funny even if I am correct, but I’d rather save my outrage. The Obama campaign should shrug this off with a few nice words for Huck and the NRA. If Obama addresses the NRA he should have someone drop a chair so he can say, “There goes Huckabee again.”
dnA
It’s a really disturbing image, but my impression is it was just a bad joke.
Silver Owl
Huckabee’s immaturity and irresponsibility towards guns shined through. As did the audience that laughed.
When people pull guns cops and every military trained person take cover. It’s not a cowardly act like Huckabee was going for. It’s called common sense and staying alive. Only a suicidal moron stands there and acts like the bullets will bounce off his chest like superman in a comic book.
It would be best if gun nuts like the NRA caters to and Huckabee treated guns with maturity and responsibility rather than a fashion accessory for irresponsible insecure idiots. Guns are not portable penis extensions. The dumbasses.
Personal Designation
And when trained law enforcement officers pull weapons in error and aims it at you, you have two choices. Submit to their faulty perception by cowering and falling to the ground saying at the very least, "This is a mistake officer"
or. . .
Defy their erroneous action while their brains cinch up to a lethal force response scenario with an honest calmness and exclaim, "No!"
The gaul of some officers to think they are the only people who can handle adrenaline with weapons drawn and the mindset that they should be the only ones still standing. Sorry, but it gives that untrustworthy ~Kiss My Ring~ tone that really ruins my day. Hitting the pavement in this case is terrible precedent as far as I am concerned. Live free or die.