Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Huckabee Peformance
As our tour of New Hampshire comes to an end, we complete our round of rallies with a bang! Last night we joined Major Huckabee and "crew" for a night of chili, music, and of course the one and only Chuck Norris. I am unsure of how many of us really knew who Huckabee was before deciding to attend this trip, but if we were looking for answers on health care and foreign relations last night was not the place. Instead, Huckabee provided us with a minor celebration of his victory in Iowa and hopeful success in New Hampshire. His favorite band, Mama Kicks, performed a variety of rock classics while his volunteers directed the audience to have a taste of the "huckabee chili." Supporters from New Hampshire and California spoke along with Mrs. Huckabee and Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris was one of the main attractions to Huckabee's meet the candidate rallies, and we were all eagerly excited to meet the famous ranger. With all the excitement of food, music, and Mr. Norris I almost forgot why I was even around to see Major Huckabee. I felt as if I were attending a town hall celebration rather than a political rally. Don't get me wrong, the "I like Mike" audience was definitely in attendance. The major gave a 20 minute speech none of which I can recall and saluted us by playing guitar with the band. I must say he plays very well for his age. He spent a lot of time after the rally meeting and greeting his supporters which was great. Mr. Huckabee seems like a great guy to party with, but I'm not sure I want my next president feeding me chili and famous actors instead of dealing with issues of my country. What do you think?
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5 comments:
I think that many found Huckabee’s rally to be a warm and welcoming gathering. I really liked the fact that he played his base guitar because this showed a more personal side of him rather than just his political image. I believe it is important for politicians to show their “human persona,” because voters sometimes forget that Presidents are human beings who are not perfect and could make mistakes or change their mind. Looking at political achievements and records is important, but having an understanding of our candidate’s values, interests, and personality is vital to know whom we are really supporting. I would have liked however to hear Huckabee’s message and learned about his plans for our country as a President, I felt he omitted this information in this rally so I left just knowing that he is a cool guitar player.
Despite the fact that the majority of students didn’t like Huckabee at all due to his lack of issues and specific policies on his speech and the event as general, I liked Mike better than anyone else from this trip. He acted like a traditional Southern politician which might be extinct very long time ago. I have to admit that his rally was all about circus and bread to the poor ordinary citizens during the Roman Empire era; however, I still liked him because at least he was really honest to his audience and entertained them superbly. I was disgusted by the Romney town hall meeting because he was dancing around so much that I thought he was only a Republican version of John Kerry. Gov. Romney claimed to be very straight and direct to his audience, but all he did was being a traditional flip-flopping politician who would never answer to the question. I really appreciated Mike’s rally because he brought laugh and entertainment to the people of NH who might be fed up with all those sleazy politicians who would do anything to get themselves elected. I think Huckabee knew that he had a slim chance in NH so he was just being very cool to people who would like him. Many events that I attended here, I had to wait at least couple hours to get into the door and then I had to wait more than an hour for candidate to show up. We waited for a while at the door, but as soon as we got into the building, there were music, food, and a movie star so we weren’t bore at all. Some students accused Gov. Huckabee’s people being a racist and try to going back to the pre-Civil Rights era. And some others accused him for only talked about gun and his humble background throughout his speech. It might be weird for a minority student to say this, but what about those of ordinary Southern white people who suddenly abandoned by all those politicians? Don’t they need at least some kind of representation during this political process? I remember reading about Gov. Huckabee from the New Yorker magazine and the reason why this liberal publication liked him among other Republican candidates was that at least he was being cool, straight, and honest to his own audience, Southern white Christians. Gov. Huckabee might be a 20th century politician who is far behind other progressive and savvy candidates, but like William Jennings Bryan did in the early 20th century, I think he is the man who would defend the lost cause throughout this election.
I totally agree with Paola when she said that she liked how he was more humanistic. I feel that knowing how a candidate truely is is important because it will help the American people be a judge of his character.
Growing up in southwest Missouri I had heard of Gov. Huckabee more than a few times. The Gov. Huckabee I saw on stage in New Hampshire was different than the Gov. Huckabee that lived across the border from me. I remember reading an article back in 2005 about Huckabee's chances. He was the head of the Governor's Association meeting a few years ago and some thought that it would propel him to the White House. It had worked in the past for another Arkansas governor in 1992. I was surprised at the way Gov. Huckabee performed at the rally. While he did hit on some policy issues he didn't hit enough issues to convince me. For Huckabee to have a real chance he wil have to do a lot more to reach the American voters. Playing bass and having Chuck Norris around doesn't tell me how he will fix healthcare, education and of course Iraq. So go ahead play bass, have Chuck Norris introduce you, serve chilli, but tell me how you are going to improve America when you're elected.
I agree with Paola and Lakita. Yes his rally was entertaining and showed him in a more humanistic light. Yes it did seem like he was celebrating from winning the Iowa caucus instead of actually talking about the issues. And like Lakita, I really cant remember what he talked about, i would have to refer back to my notes, yet i do remb. Chuck Norris's stories and how a woman named Star preached a lot, what sounded like rambling to me. It was obvious how much attention Chuck took from the Gov. but I think Huckabee knew that might happen, he prob asked Chuck to come so he can bring in more voters to his rally. This would have worked better if he actually discussed important information, so voters would be more likey to vote for him. When i looked at the audience through out the event, they seemed unamused when the band played, who i actually liked, they just seemed a little confused after it all, there was one woman i over heard saying, "what is going on?" I dunno, I was fustrated when we had to wait outside for so long, the people in charge were rude, and the fact that they wouldn't let Alice go to the bathroom made me mad. i thought the night was a little unorganized (Chuck telling stories instead of why he supported Huckabee). Im still confused from that rally and it that is just unfortunate.
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