On-The-Record with Huck

I got the chance to have a private dinner with Mike Huckabee at the Raccoon River Brewing Company in downtown Des Moines (with about two dozen others, including his wife, Janet, and their daughter, Sarah, who is working for the campaign in Iowa). I figured it was off-the-record. Oops. Sure wish I would have brought my notebook.

All I could do was jot down notes on the back of the wine menu.

Tidbits from the meal:

Huckabee wants FEMA out of the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security's arena

Hopes to release a 10-point immigration plan by the end of the week

Will announce "key" Florida endorsements by week's end

Didn't seem to be too familiar with that report on the status of nuclear weapons in Iran

Will fly overnight on Iowa Caucus night to get to New Hampshire for breakfast the next a.m.

Has a hard time seeing anybody but Clinton becoming the Dem nominee

Thinks Clinton is "tough" and her strengths are focus and tenacity.

Thinks her weakness is she has a lot of experience being a political spouse. But that's different
than being a candidate.

Believes he gets more scrutiny/attention on his religion than Mitt Romney, the Mormon

Says no other candidate has as much CEO of government experience as he does (more than a decade as Lt Gov and Gov of Arkansas)

Counts 905 total minutes in the Republican Prez debates. Total includes only 3 minutes and 50 seconds of time focused on education. Says he didn't get asked either of the two questions on education in the debates

Doesn't want leaders to only think of funding/supporting/promoting left side of the brain development for kids. Wants them to think of right side of the brain training, too (music and art)
Had the soup to eat

I had a calamari salad. A little too greasy for my taste.


- Dave Price