Huckabee On The Issues

CNN, Ballot Bowl 2008.

Huckabee on the little guy:

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some people say that's not a very Republican message. Oh, I would disagree. I would say that Republicans have always been about trying to give the guy who is at the bottom a chance to reach the next rung of the ladder. It is about personal responsibility. It is about opportunity. It is about the things that made us a great country. And what made this a great country was when people could sit down at their kitchen table and sketch out an idea for their own business with a pencil and a paper napkin and say I can make this work. And they could actually start that business and end up making a living at it. Working for themselves and then hiring some people and hiring some more people and the small business became a larger business. Sometimes our party forgets that 80% of all of the jobs in this country come from small business people. People who just have a dream and an idea and a lot of hard work to make it happen. It's that kind of idea that we got to return to if we're going to be not just a strong party but more importantly a strong country.

On national defense:

And a strong country means several things. A strong country means we have the kind of military that nobody on the face of this earth would ever want to mess with. If I were president we wouldn't be talking about light footprints, we would talk about a serious capacity of military because that's what brings about peace is true strength, the kind of army, navy, air force, marine corps that when people who would be our potential enemy would look at us and say I don't want to mess with those guys. Some of you are old enough like me to remember the old Billy Jack movies of the early '70s where Billy Jack said I'll put this heel on that side of your face and there's not a thing you can do about it. Remember that?

You know, that's the kind of military that says this is what we are going to do if you attack us and there's nothing you can do to stop us. Incredible, overwhelming, irresistible force is exactly what we always need to be ready with. And that's not a matter of wanting to go to war. It's a matter of never wanting to have to use a force and the stronger the force the less likely it is that you have to actually engage it and use it. But if you do, make darn sure that you outline what your plan is. Announce what victory will look like. Unleash that irresistible force when you do and don't let the politicians interfere and interrupt the battlefield commands of those who have the blood on their boots and the medals on their chest. Let those guys do their job and give them every single thing they need.

Never send our armies into battle with the concept if we go to war with the army that we have not the one we want. Send them in with the attitude, we go to war only when we have the army we need and the army that can win. That's what makes America a strong, safe, peaceful nation and that ought to be our concept when it comes to protecting our borders and our sovereignty around the world.