Huckabee Living In The Past: HIV Quarantine

EWRCabincrew · Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:04 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/10/huckabee.aids/?iref=mpstoryview

You would think he would keep up with the times.

WellHung · Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:14 pm

Negative. As much as I disagree with his statements, he is the one who wants to discuss today, not worry about yesterday. The man clearly said he would not respond the same way if asked today. And if he did retract his earlier statements, his fellow republican candidates would attack him for being a flip-flopper. The only people who are living in the past are the ones who bring it up (interviewer) and those who spread it around (you).

EWRCabincrew · Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:41 pm

Quoting WellHung (Reply 1):
he is the one who wants to discuss today, not worry about yesterday.

He will be subject to that as a politician and even more so, as a presidential candidate.

Quoting WellHung (Reply 1):
The only people who are living in the past are the ones who bring it up (interviewer) and those who spread it around (you).

Not in the least.

luv2fly · Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:01 am

Just caught a NBC news report on him and his wife, they really like and accept gifts......

lowrider · Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:44 am

Quoting EWRCabincrew (Thread starter):
You would think he would keep up with the times.

What times are you refering to? The ones where he made a statement that he thought was accurate at the time, but has said that, in light of new knowledge, he would not make it today? I respect him more for not "retracting" his statment. Too many people think that a retraction constitutes an eraser for anything they said in the past which is inconvienent now. I think the appoach of "right or wrong, that is what I thought, and that is what I said" is more honest and honorable.

Falcon84 · Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:08 am

Quoting WellHung (Reply 1):

Agree. It was 15 years ago. Who cares what he said 15 years ago about a disease that we were just learning about? He said he would probably respond differently today to the same question, because we know more about the disease than we did in 1992.

On this one, I don't see what the big deal is.

aerobalance · Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:13 am

Quoting EWRCabincrew (Thread starter):
On this one, I don't see what the big deal is.

That EWR doesn't like Huckabee. I'm not a Huckabee fan either but come on, this is a nitpicky subject!
Let's get some real dirt on someone before we start a thread...

diamond · Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:48 am

What he proposed in '92 and the softer, but still isolationist proposal he favors today would result in one thing:

... people would almost unanimously refuse to be tested for HIV (voluntarily) ...

So the next step would be mandatory, person-by-person testing.

I wonder how conservative citizens would react to this. They would be forced to have an HIV test before they could receive a driver's license, airline ticket or passport.

Halcyon · Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:55 am

Quoting Diamond (Reply 7):
I wonder how conservative citizens would react to this. They would be forced to have an HIV test before they could receive a driver's license, airline ticket or passport.

I don't think that's a good plan at all. And I'm conservative. One down.

seb146 · Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:08 am

He made these comments in 1992? Even I, living in a small farming town, knew isolating those with HIV/AIDS was not the right thing to do. If he had made the statements in 1984 when the epidemic was first starting, I could understand and forgive it, but no way in 1992! I also take issue with his statement: "he found homosexuality to be 'an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle'." I understand in the days when the Isrealites wanted to populate all the land and making homosexuality such a sin. But, these days, we know those of us that are homosexual are born that way. I am sorry he does not like it or understand it, but if I were Republican, he would lose my vote based soley on these two issues.

PPVRA · Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:10 am

Quoting Diamond (Reply 7):
I wonder how conservative citizens would react to this. They would be forced to have an HIV test before they could receive a driver's license, airline ticket or passport.

I believe John Edwards was talking about mandatory health checks for everyone if he gets his health care program to go through, so I'd say this controlling issue is more democrat than republican. Of course there's the whole patriot act thing, but then again a whole lot of democrats voted for it too. . .

diamond · Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:16 am

Quoting PPVRA (Reply 10):
I believe John Edwards was talking about mandatory health checks for everyone if he gets his health care program to go through, so I'd say this controlling issue is more democrat than republican.

"More" democrat than republican? I don't follow that logic at all - regardless of Edwards vague proposals.

I'm not in favor of mandatory health screening.

But what Edwards has suggested does not specify an HIV test and it certainly doesn't result in the remote possibility of a quarantine.

Huckabee suggested:

a) mandatory HIV testing
b) quarantine

Edward didn't propose either of those things.

Edwards and Huckabee can't really be compared on this issue. (and neither of them will be getting my vote anyway).

kevi747 · Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:43 am

Quoting WellHung (Reply 1):
And if he did retract his earlier statements, his fellow republican candidates would attack him for being a flip-flopper.

Quoting Falcon84 (Reply 5):
He said he would probably respond differently today to the same question, because we know more about the disease than we did in 1992.

On this one, I don't see what the big deal is.

The big deal to me is this whole issue of "flipping-flopping" that Republicans are always going on about. I trust people much more when they can learn from mistakes, grow, and evolve as free thinkers. And it's even better when they can own up to having been wrong and admit it publicly. It's called integrity. "I was wrong, and I'm sorry. This is why I've changed my thinking....."

It seems that most Republicans value people who make some definitive statement which becomes the gospel truth, and then spend the rest of their lives defending it no matter what new and contradictory evidence comes to light. Because to learn something new that changes the way you think would be called "flip-flopping". It's all very childish and ridiculous when normal people behave that way. And it's horrifying and dangerous when people with immense power act that way.

N1120A · Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:51 am

Quoting Falcon84 (Reply 5):

Agree. It was 15 years ago. Who cares what he said 15 years ago about a disease that we were just learning about?

Come on now, we knew plenty about HIV in 1992. The treatments were just emerging then, but we definitely knew how it was spread and how to prevent it. Magic Johnson had already been diagnosed, and awareness was climbing rapidly. This, and Huckabee's stone age view on homosexuality, are massive reasons to not touch this guy with a 10 foot pole.

Quoting Kevi747 (Reply 12):

The big deal to me is this whole issue of "flipping-flopping" that Republicans are always going on about. I trust people much more when they can learn from mistakes, grow, and evolve as free thinkers.

Ding ding ding. I would have voted for Richard Riordan, a Republican, had he run for Governor of California. Part of the reason would be that he became much more enlightened on his view of a woman's right to choose.

Superfly · Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:03 am

Quoting N1120A (Reply 13):
Come on now, we knew plenty about HIV in 1992.

True but you need to cut some slack for the noacons from the backwoods. There is is a 15 - 115 year learning curve. In 1996, a school was set on fire by the school principal because of a bi-racial prom date in Wedowee, Alabama.
Yea, yea, Arkansas, Alabama, same frikkin thing!

Anyway you slice, I'd much rather have a un-influential, powerless President Huckabee with low approval ratings than a 'hands-on', 'deceptivly moderate' micro-manageing, New Yorker with a chip on is shoulder that will do anything and everything to woo right-wing nut-jobs.

Mick Huckabee in '08! bigthumbsup

EWRCabincrew · Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:30 pm

Quoting Aerobalance (Reply 6):
Quoting EWRCabincrew (Thread starter):
On this one, I don't see what the big deal is.

Never said this.

dvk · Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:27 pm

Quoting Seb146 (Reply 9):
He made these comments in 1992? Even I, living in a small farming town, knew isolating those with HIV/AIDS was not the right thing to do. If he had made the statements in 1984 when the epidemic was first starting, I could understand and forgive it, but no way in 1992!

Exactly. For Huckabee to have made such statements in 1992 reflects gross ignorance AT THAT TIME, probably combined with great prejudice. Have all the neocons who love him even listened to his tax proposals, by the way? He wants to do away with the IRS, which the neocons would love, but he wants to replace it with something like a 23% federal sales tax to offset the revenue loss. That's an idea nobody should love.

travelin man · Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:31 pm

God I hope Huckabee is the Republican candidate for President.

Then he will be slaughtered in the general election by whomever the Democratic candidate is.