Table of Contents
Also by Mike Huckabee
A Simple Christmas
Do the Right Thing
Character Makes a Difference
From Hope to Higher Ground
Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork
The easiest job in the world is to criticize and condemn the political figures who actually subject themselves to the torturous process of campaigning and governing. Ive been on the receiving end, and as a talk-show host for both radio and television, Ive dished some out as well, although Ive tried to do it honestly and even fairly.
Some of the Bronx cheers we send up to those in office are well deserved, but most of the harshest critics offer their crusty curses without having the personal courage to ever put themselves on the ballot.
While there are some absolute bums in the business, there are many very honorable people who seek office and serve faithfully for all the right reasons. Its been my distinct pleasure to work with many good and decent public servants who were Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Many served at extraordinary personal and financial sacrifice and gave up their privacy, their schedules, and their leisure time to live a life of constant travel and time away from home and endure the pressure and pain of the political grind.
To the many good people who do more than complain, but commit; who do more than scream, but serve; who do more than oppose, but actually propose ideas; who do more than run from their statements by hiding under the cover of anonymous blogs and phone-ins to talk radio and instead run directly into the flames of political candidacy, I dedicate this book. Without those willing to endure the process of our political system, our great republic wouldnt survive.
God bless you!
Introduction
A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.
Barry Goldwater
Since Barack Obama was elected, plenty of books have been written criticizing his administration and accusing him of all sorts of thingsfrom being a Marxist to lying about his citizenship to being a Muslim. But if you know me or if youre familiar with my commentaries on TV and radio, you know that I dont like to make politics personal. Thats because I was raised to believe in the Golden Rule, and I dont know about you, but I certainly dont like being called names or ridiculed. So I want to start out by saying that if youve come here looking for a personal attack on President Obama and those in Washington, you should head to another shelf in the bookstore.
I dont doubt for a moment that Barack Obama loves our country and wants to make it better. In my political career, Ive found that to be true, more often than not, about people who take a position different from mine. Respect and civility go a long way in campaigns and governance.
That being said, I have never been afraid to criticize a person when I think its appropriate, especially when it comes to those who run our country. I believe that every American has a right and a responsibility to speak up when theyre unhappy with the way our government is run, and thats why Im writing this book. Because as much as I respect President Obama as a human being, I cant help but think that just about everything he thinks is good for America is actually bad for our present and worse for our future.
You are probably reading this book in February 2011, but thanks to the practical demands of publishing, Im actually writing it in the fall of 2010. As I sit here, our country is mired in a crisis that has grown progressively (no pun intended) worse since Obama entered the White House. Our national unemployment rate is stuck at around 10 percent; our budget deficit is spiraling to unprecedented levels; weve adopted a federal health-care system that promises to raise costs and worsen care, even though most Americans didnt want it in the first place. On top of all that, we face threats from abroad in the form of terrorism, illegal and out-of-control immigration, and two wars (though allegedly the war in Iraq is over) that we cant seem to win. Meanwhile, our image abroad is rapidly sinking to where it was during the Carter years, as weve turned our backs on some of our most trusted international allies, like Israel, in favor of diplomatic relations with enemies like Russia and Iran.
We were promised better than this. The election of 2008 was supposed to signal the arrival of a postpartisan presidency. Happy days! Joy to the world! Well, did that happen? Candidate Obama said he would discover common ground between the two major parties and come up with public-policy answers that both sides could consider viable. Instead, President Obama has shown himself to be the most partisan president in my lifetime, hands down. In this respect, he has far outdistanced any political gamesmanship ever practiced by any president before him, whether Democrat or Republican. Bright as he seems to be, he consistently mistakes his election for a mandate to compromise our nations future with breathtakingly sweeping plans like socialized medicine and so-called financial reform. And make no mistake about this: Those schemes and others have already saddled our descendants for generations with a mountain of debt that they can never pay back. (Ill have more to say about this later, with the scary numbers to prove it.)
In our political tradition, as you know, its business as usual for candidates to campaign with harsh words for the opposition. The problem comes when the bickering continues after the swearing in. A true leaders Job One is to bring people together, not just mouth partisan slogans, and as hard as it may be to believe in our increasingly partisan world, Ive known people on both sides of the aisle who have exhibited such character. One of those people is former president and fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton. Even though he strenuously campaigned for every opponent I ever had in Arkansaswhether I was running for U.S. senator, lieutenant governor, or governornot once did he stoop to personal attacks or snarky comments about my being a Republican. He treated his opponents with respect and civility.
Well, I guess these are different times. But my biggest problem with President Obama isnt his insistent partisanship; its his reliance on advice from people who dont understand the real world that you and I live in. Obama has overloaded his administration with policy wonks and Ivy League professors because he speaks their language. Virtually no one on his team has had experience running anything; they probably couldnt even run a lemonade stand. Their abstract theories, airy platitudes, and unrealistic promises may sound nice on paper or in a congressional debate, but in reality these politicians are just trying to cover up their own ignorance.
You dont need the wisdom of Solomon to see that their lack of experience is the reason were currently experiencing an economic crisis. Think about it. When youre a governor or mayoror even a small-business owneryou dont have the option of printing money to cover your mistakes or to buy things you cant afford. I know. In Arkansas I had to balance the budget the old-fashioned way: The money coming into the state coffers had to be greater than or at least equal to the money going out. The result? Sometimes hard choices had to be made, but I made them. As those great political philosophers the Rolling Stones said, you cant always get what you want.
