Can't we dismiss them BOTH "at our own peril."?!!
A recent poll has shown Donald Trump only slightly behind Mike Huckabee in approval for the Republican Nomination in 2012. That's right, "The Donald" has come on surprisingly strong. Huckabee's reaction?
On Laura Ingraham's show:
HUCKABEE: Well, I had a wonderful meeting with Donald Trump. I think he's a very serious contender. He's going to get in. I kind of went into the meeting thinking he's not really going to run. Came out thinking, by gosh, he really is. [...]
INGRAHAM: Could there be a possible Huckabee/Trump ticket in the offing here?
HUCKABEE: Never say never. I don't know. But, whether Donald Trump would ever want to be seen on the same stage with me, I don't know. But I found him very engaging, and a very smart guy. And I think people will dismiss him at their own peril."
The Clowns of God
In 1981, Morris West (Shoes of the Fisherman) wrote a book titled The Clowns of God. And while it centered around the politics of the Roman Catholic curia during the height of the Cold War, its premise of religion and politics was prescient: never before have we had religion breathing harder down the necks of politicians (and voters) than now - the height of the Culture War. But while West's portrayal of cardinals as a bunch of madcap, wild clowns was meant to be broadly metaphorical, our current crop of Republican/Tea Party Presidential hopefuls look more like circus clowns than the red-robed kind.
The ticket of Trump/Huckabee or Huckabee/Trump (whichever one you believe) certainly makes that point. The very possibility of a campaign duo comprised of a former governor/minister and a real estate mogul/media personality conjures up all sorts of images, the least of which is having them lead the other hopefuls out of a bright yellow mini VW bug. Taking anything seriously from them would take an astounding feat of composure, like trying not to laugh while being cruelly tickled to death. Looked at as a whole, they are more like "Killer Clowns From Outer Space."
Yes, it's unfortunate that we have to take any of them seriously, but the horror of today's religio-political scene is that we must . Why? Simply because other people WILL. And those people vote. The spectrum of clowns is much greater than it was in 2008, going from a former congressman who holds the record for the most charges of ethics violations (84) to a governor who has a hard time explaining his association with a white supremacist group. But as the video of Donald Trump's interview on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network proves, they all have to have some semblance of religiosity in order to please the Christian Right with its hunger for all ideologies "Christian."
Let's take a look at the Presidential hopefuls in terms of background, policies and religiosity.*
Mike Huckabee:
Big Loser (in weight - 110lbs.) but slowly gaining it back.
