Why Andre Bauer likes Huckabee

This afternoon, Andre Bauer and I were in a tent on the State House lawn, informing the Mideast.

Alhurra TV, which is a government-funded agency that broadcasts in Arabic to the region — it’s the Mideast version of Voice of America — asked me to do a live deal from their setup at the State House. It was my first direct experience with actual, sure-enough propaganda, and I liked it fine.

It was an unusual gig. Our host, Ephraim (sp?), was sitting to my right asking questions in Arabic. This is going to shock you, but Andre (who was sitting on my left) and I don’t actually understand or speak Arabic. There was a guy in some distant place speaking through a static-y connection into my left ear with a translation, of which I could only make out every other word during the first half of the show. We were getting a remote feed from Las Vegas, and Van Hipp spoke into our ears from Washington.

Andre, who had been out jogging with Mike Huckabee earlier in the day (it was his first jog since his plane crash), talked about why he had endorsed the former Arkansas governor on Thursday.

What’s interesting about his explanation of his decision (the English version, of course). He said he liked his ability to work with a Democratic legislature as governor, and the fact that he was unapologetic about having raised taxes to improve roads and schools. In other words, he was impressed by Huckabee’s understanding that a governor has an obligation to govern. (He specifically said that Huckabee shared his concern for aging issues.)

That’s just what I liked about Huckabee, and a significant reason why we said in our endorsement of John McCain last week that Huckabee would have been our second choice — although a distant second.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way he ran the last few days, which I have found very disturbing. More about that shortly, if I’m able to get to it. I’m typing this from the set at S.C. ETV,  where we’re on live.

(Final note: I just realized, watching Mike Campbell doing a live feed on the monitor, that this time, he and Andre were on the same side. OK, it’s not the biggest irony in the history of the world, but I thought I’d mention it.)

6 thoughts on “Why Andre Bauer likes Huckabee

  1. Ralph Hightower

    Elected officials should be stewards of the state and its property. However, in the last days as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee ordered the destruction of 87 computer systems, total value over $100,000.
    ComputerWorld is not “Main Stream Media”. It is an industry specific publication that reports on the computer industry and they operate by a strict code of ethics.
    I know that the computer my employer provides to me at work is owned by the employer. The people of Arkansas elected Mike Huckabee to govern and serve Arkansas. Huckabee received a paycheck from Arkansas, therefore he was an employee of Arkansas.
    What was Huckabee wanting to hide with the destruction of computer systems that were not his?
    http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=282516
    Drives Destroyed as Governor Exits
    Arkansas IT unit helped Huckabee expunge data
    February 12, 2007

  2. Mike Cakora

    So I have this nightmare: It’s cold, it’s snowing, I’m wearing shorts and a wife-beater and am at a tavern, impaired thanks to a special on Pilsner Urquell (five liters for the price of four), and three guys offer to give me a lift home: Andre Bauer, Ted Kennedy, and Lou Reed.
    I awake screaming.

  3. rick campbell

    huckabee pardoned a known and convicted rapist and murderer. all of this because of conservative’s hate for bill clinton because one of the victims was a distant cousin of bill clinton. this man went on to rape and murder again. maybe andre bauer is supporting huck because this is the same type of legal system that andre has enjoyed here in south carolina. i mean if you get paroled for murder and rape then what’s wrong with a little 100mph jaunt down the middle of downtown columbia? the only difference is one of them had to do a little “time”.

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