Mike Huckabee: A Jewish Perspective

Former Arkansas Governor and potential Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been, until recently, the apparent frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination. True, it’s quite early to be placing bets, but he has been basically the only notable besides the uniquely divisive Sarah Palin, whom American’s seem either to love or despise (more often the latter than the former). He stunned observers with his early wins in the 2008 primaries and came in second to John McCain. He stood out as an electable conservative; a jovial, easy going, and down to Earth guy who plays bass guitar in a rock band and gave anecdotes about how he managed to lose more weight than entire Jenny Craig Centers. He could speak at the most liberal college campuses delivering his message of middle-American conservatism without the compromising his beliefs or dodging pies. For many he seemed like a great way to evict Obama from office in the 2012 elections.

For Jewish conservatives, Huckabee earned a special interest. He was – and is- the only potential candidate for the presidency who openly assailed the destructive Two-State Solution for the Israeli-Arab conflict. Instead, Huckabee suggested that the Arab inhabitants of Judea-Samaria ( in CNN-speak that means the West Bank) and East Jerusalem transfer themselves out of the country and seek self-determination outside of Israel’s historic homeland. After 42 years of American presidents butting into Israeli affairs with insistence that Israel surrender land – either to create a Palestine – or to hand over territory to its Arab neighbors, the idea of an American administration receptive to trying a new idea sounds better than matza-ball soup on Shabbes, especially after having suffered through almost a year of Obama’s obscene bullying of Israel.

Yes, Huckabee sounded like a winner, for conservatives and especially for Jews. That was until the unfortunate incident involving Maurice Clemmons, a violent repeat offender to whom Huckabee granted clemency during his term as governor. Huckabee, like other governors, felt the pressure of far-left space-cadets like the ACLU, and folded. Who would have thought that one of the recipients of clemency would go on to murder four cops?

The truth is the incident with Clemmons is, of course, regrettable and reveals a character flaw in Huckabee. He felt pressure, and gave in. But he is and was a politician, and such behavior from a politician is hardly remarkable. In fact it’s virtually impossible to find one who lacks this trait in some measure. I definitely can’t imagine either Palin or Romney being much better in this regard. And certainly neither have had the ‘beitzim’ to speak on Israel in the way that Huckabee has. In the end of the day, as bad as the situation may seem, Huckabee is still the best choice at this point, on both a Jewish and conservative level. No other candidate is as electable (assuming this whole mess is forgotten by 2012) and frankly, no other candidate has shown him/herself to be anything more than a Xerox copy of every other ideologically barren Republican in high office.