I was going to ignore this, but maybe there’s no harm in this bile being highlighted?? And this man is supposedly a ‘rational’ and ‘moderate’ Republican?
CBS: In a radio interview on Monday, potential 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee repeatedly made false claims that President Obama grew up in Kenya.
A spokesman for Huckabee later told CBS News that the former Arkansas governor misspoke.
….Huckabee made reference to Mr. Obama’s “having grown up in Kenya” and spoke of him growing up “with a Kenyan father and grandfather” – despite the fact that Mr. Obama grew up largely in Hawaii and barely knew his father at all.
In responding to Malzberg’s question about whether “we deserve to know more about this man” and his origins, Huckabee responded that “I would love to know more.”
“What I know is troubling enough,” Huckabee said of the president. “And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American.” The exchange was circulated by liberal media watchdog Media Matters.
A spokesman for Huckabee later said the former governor “meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.”
“When the Governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the President, he wasn’t talking about the President’s place of birth – the Governor believes the President was born in Hawaii,” Hogan Gidley said in a statement to CBS News….
…There is no evidence that the president grew up in Kenya, and various reports show he spent little time with his father over the course of his life… Mr. Obama has visited Kenya only three times, most recently in 2006. According to the president’s 1995 memoir “Dreams from My Father,” he visited Kenya for the first time in the late 1980s after his father was already dead.
…When asked if he would bring up the “birther” issue with Mr. Obama in a presidential debate, Huckabee expressed doubts. “The only reason I’m not as confident that there’s something about the birth certificate, Steve, is because I know the Clintons,” Huckabee said. “And believe me, they had lots of investigators out on him, and I’m convinced if there was anything that they could have found on that, they would have found it, and I promise they would have used it.”
Read more here
From Media Matters – on the claim that Huckabee ‘misspoke’ and that he meant to say Indonesia:
“Here are just a couple reasons why subbing “Indonesia” for “Kenya” renders Huckabee’s entire conversation with Malzberg nonsensical (well, more so):
* It’s unclear how growing up in Indonesia supposedly gave Obama a unique view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya (and resulting deep-seated hatred for British people). *Regardless of where he grew up, Obama still did not grow up “with” his Kenyan father. As revealed in the autobiography Huckabee has clearly never read, Obama only met his father once, when he was ten. *And once again: it’s very hard to buy that this was simply a misstatement, because he repeated it twice.
Keep digging, Mike.”
Stephen Stromberg (Washington Post): ….Huckabee says he misspoke when he repeatedly claimed that President Obama grew up in Kenya and that this might inform the president’s views on foreign affairs. And the depressing thing is that Huckabee’s probably telling the truth.
…This episode demonstrates something more pernicious than the existence of one more Obama conspiracy theorist. It demonstrates the extent to which references to birther-like mythology – and its less-offensive-but-still-pretty-absurd cousin, the Dinesh D’Souza-inspired speculations about Obama’s “Kenyan, anti-colonial worldview” – have become embedded in conservative political culture.
It demonstrates the extent to which Republican politicians feel the need to indulge the portions of the GOP base for whom Obama’s “Kenyan” roots matter – whether by asking for his birth certificate or merely suggesting that this man, who has in many ways lived a quintessentially American life, is nothing like the rest of us in some fundamental, worryingly foreign way.
The Obama Diary 
Ah the Republicans. They are the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s just downright ridiculous and pathetic when a spokesman has to decipher what you meant to say in an interview.
If this is a peak at what to expect during the 2012 elections from the Republicans then OBAMA 2012 here we come.
I heard Newt Gingrich is also thinking of running. Now that would just be the icing on the cake.
🙄 Actually, if this is a peak as to what to expect from a ‘President Huckabee’, in an interview talking about an opponent of at least 2 years(from an ‘enemy’ country?), it’s not very impressive. This is definitely one thing Prez Obama have over him – the President makes it a point to educate himself before he speaks.
Not just that, but President Obama makes it a point to treat his “opponents” with respect, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they are sincere, even if they are clearly mistaken. The fact that Huckabee ran those repeal health care ads during the midterms told me everything I needed to know about this so-called “spiritual” man. He’s disgusting.
He is suppose to be a minister. Bearing false witness. I am totally sick of these tea party repubs.
Exactly my reaction. Heaven will curse him for sure.
Absolutely agree with you. This news is very upsetting to me. Seems there are no Republicans that can see past their quest for power not even a minister. What a fraud Mr. Hukabee or however you spell his name (don’t feel like looking that sh*t up), turned out to be.
Eff Huckabee. This is a true slime ball in every sense of the word slime imo. He’s the most dangerous kind of repub.. he says all his ignorant lies while smiling and being ever so affable.. Please DO run Huckabee.. I look forward to you saying this BS face to face with Barack Obama. I’ll never forget Huckabee during the primaries at an NRA meeting when a chair slammed to the floor and he cracked his little joke about Obama (thinking it was a gunshot). He’s a sickening creep.
sherijr, You have got that right. I am mad. The huckster is a shyster. He is one of the worse grifters. He uses the Bible and his seeming sane demeanor to do evil deeds.
I am sick of him and Sara constantly trying to turn Jewish voters against Obama. Grrrrrr!!!!!
THEIR TRUE SELVES ARE BEING EXPOSED…ONE BY ONE…ITS AMAZING WHAT WE SEE WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE TURNED ON!!!!
jack.ass!
Disgusting. And the true crime is… folks will continue to believe it, the more often it is repeated. It’s the way they work.
So true. The ugliest part of this is that he knew exactly what he was doing and saying, the ‘misspoke’ claim is an insult to those with brains. Planting a seed, hey Mike? And all for a few Tea Party votes? Wow, that’s some man of God.
Exactly right…..Just enough “red meat” for the crazy vote!
I was kinda waiting for this when I read on HuffPost that he defended Mrs Obama. I was thinking to myself: hmmm well now, how are you gonna get them back Huck?….BOOM! #Birtherism *shakes heads at the absurdity of it*
I’ve been with moveon.org for 8 years, at least. That’s a lot of reading blogs from every article in the U.S. I know it’s not good to generalize but most of the haters, name callers, liars are christian–most say so. They also tend to be repubs or TPartiers, coincidental? I wish sometimes I hadn’t gotten so involved, but I wait for that real Christian person. Like that fellow, the other nite, that apologized to the POTUS for that sign he made and then read in the Bible something about honoring the Leader, or some such. Fortunately, his letter was picked by chance for President Obama to answer. Overall, they are despicable. Sorry! I’m with our POTUS, this spirituality thing is really difficult and when I find my self ‘dumb arse’ing someone, I read Chipstick or BWG. Thanks for all you do. You’re very necessary.
DoNoHarm, you are so right. These are the un-righteous the Bible speaks of. Jesus will not hear them when they call for they are wicked indeed, and will lead a host of people to slaughter. (I must look for those verses).
It really hurts to say this but this is our America. We always made excuses about what we really heard or saw and thought they really did not mean that. Take them for what they are, believe what they say they believe. Just keep moving until you find the Americans who are ready to move this country forward.
Just put on your marching boots and get ready for the fight of our life. 2012 is coming fast and we have got to be ready. Huckabee would make you leave the church and never look back.
eff Huckad!ck! 😡 😡 😡
Hey Fred. Just say the word….F…! I love your fire. You remind me of me 😀
So, Huckabee thinks that growing up in Indonesia had somehow a “bad influence” on President Obama. Reading within the lines, Huckabee thinks that President Obama could have developed some animosity towards the “white elites” like the Brits. That would be the origin of his “liberal policies”.
First, President Obama was just a little kid when he lived in Indonesia. And ANYWAY, if it has influenced him and given him a comprehension of the inequalities in this world, a motivation to work towards a more just and peaceful world, well good for him.
The terrible irony is that President Obama is the one who could teach some lessons to “pastor” Huckabee on how a TRUE christian behaves.
I don’t know how anyone can be “leader of the free world” when they hate everyone else in the world. Thank God for President Obama, who really shows what it means to lead the world.
I especially liked Huckabee’s comment that the POTUS had a different view of the Brits. Many Southerners are awed by the Brits’ accent–they sound so ‘educated’ and are in awe of anything they say. I’d very much liked this picture. Do you suppose there may be a time they’ll get together for the common good?
As a person born and raise in the UK….now an American citizen (who votes), I feel like I have to tell you that the British people I have spoken to were overjoyed at the election of President Obama. My brother in England was as upset as I was about the results of the recent mid-terms. I think the President will find many friends in Britain. I have read “Dreams from My Father” and was raised with an awareness of the abuses of the old empire. As for Huckabee and whatever he thinks of British people, I doubt that many of them have even heard of him and wouldn’t care what he thinks.
Keep on Moving On! 🙂
I hear all of you, and believe me, It’s enough to makes us feel forsaken, If you will, at times. Only at tImes. I’m so sick of hearing “MISPOKE”. It’s a cheap way of saying you made a mistake, when really, It was no mistake at all. I tell you, sometime I feel like I ought to write a book on the “HELL” that the Obama’s go through, all because he’s a Black President of the United States. I bet Flotus will have a lot to say In her book, that I’m hoping she’ll write, and I mean to tell It all, from start to finish. This need to be read and told by the Obamas themselves. Lord, help us all, sometimes I feel like saying or reminding them how most of us BLACKS got here, In America. They brought us here against our will, remember???? They got nerve!!!! and look how they treat us? Look, I’ve been hearing, and feeling these hateful comments all my life. I was born In this world/America In 1943, In South carolina and here It Is 2011, and the same hateful spirit towards the blacks and Minority, Is still going on.
Listen Folks, I’m okay, I just had to get that off my chest, when I read all the ugly stuff, that some People are saying, makes me want to think out loud. Lord help us all, can’t do this by ourselves, we need you Lord to help us. Okey dokey, thanks for your reading eyes, and have a great night 🙂
It’s okay Shirley. I just suffered through a radio broadcast on my regular talk radio. One black man calls and blasts the President whenever some host will let him….called him spineless, scared of black folk, coward, Negro. Thing is, this man was one of the many elated when Barack Obama won. Now, everything he does is suspect if it doesn’t exactly uphold blackness. So, there are extremes on both sides of the color line. Some of these arm-chair revolutionaries think the USA should not have an issue with Libya. One even called and said he liked Khadafi, and challenged the host on believing the news reports, yet he couldn’t say for certain himself, what exactly is taking place in Libya. Every time a major crisis comes up, there will be haters on all fronts trying to demean and bring down this President. The one sane way I have of dealing with it is by talking to God about our President. I feel he has shown me in the past signs about Barack Obama’s mission here in this country. That is, I dreamed he would become President, and also dreamed that he would have a hard time during the past election cycle. So, I will trust in the Lord, and not some angry, useless egotistical folk who do nothing but damage the psyche and the mood of the nation on whole.
Shirley, thank you for sharing that. I am sorry for what you have been though. dr
Also.. this is Huckabee’s reminder to all the good white folk that Obama is Black… oh and foreign. “Gowing up in Kenya.. Kenyan father… Kenyan Grandfather”. He’s black.. so sayeth the mighty Huck, be afeared America. Same old same old racism from white racist republican males. Not a shock that they intend to run on exactly the same thing they ran on two years ago. I suspect however without Rev. Wright (although don’t be surprised when they trot out the old Wright videos)to kick across POTUS’ bow- they’ll get even more racially obvious in their comments and lies. I’m actually beginning to look forward to this election, methinks they’ve forgotten about US.
This is exactly what they are going to do. You will definitely see the Rev Wright tapes. The election of President Obama is not valid to them and they want a do over. The candidate will be from the Right of the party; and they always felt John McCain did not attack Obama with all the racist stuff which is just wrong because that’s what Palin was brought on for.
I really laughed at that picture of the President and Huckabee. It looks as though the President is going to kiss Huck or bite off his head. Ha, germs and all! I think either case would be bad for our President’s health!
This was no mistake. He is not fooling anyone with that crap. Cris Matthews just called him out on it. I can’t believe he did not know it would get in the MSM very quickly so I have to believe he knows exactly what he is doing. The people from the far right are as American as apple pie. They have been here since the beginning. They ran the U.S. government through the 1950’s. They use all the ugliness of racism, class, etc as authentic politics. They see no wrong in inciting hate as a vechicle to get control of this country. The person who gets the Repub nomination will be from the far right. The Repub party cannot fight it back anymore. I think the snake that can best disquise their hate will get the nomination but we as Democratics need to get ready for a brawl.
I love my President and I know he holds his cards close to his chest but I am so ready to see him fight mode.
Betty’s girl, I am so happy to hear that Chris called him on it. I wish I had seen that. MH is a piece of dirt.
Of course pity the poor Republicans! Imagine their plight if they had to run against President Obama’s record, and – worse- on their own. So instead, let’s do a little “misspeaking” with a generous helping of good old-fahinoned racism and innuendo thrown in. The easy way to pull the wool over the faces of their half-witted followers. Real class, Mr. Huckabee!
We are fallible as human beings. But Rev. Huckabee shattered my faith a bit today. I periodically watch his show on Sundays. His shows are not always degrading President Obama. When he becomes too outlandish, I use my remote. I won’t trash him completely, understanding, he wants to keep the FOX audience and his job. I haven’t started to “pick flies out of the air that are not there” yet, but I wanted, so desperately, to believe that he was a decent man. Ministers lie just like everybody else but to speak this bile to influence all those “unlearned, tell me what to do” teabagger and anyone else who can’t find their way to the cliff (the lemming syndrome) is really a travesty on Mr. Huckabee’s part. He knows better than to out and out lie like that. All republicans are not bad and all democrats are not good, but there has to be some line of demarcation for everybody, a line where you just won’t cross. That line for Mr. Huckabee has faded, and I am so, so sorry for him. He knows better. Trust is most valuable; when someone says they trust you, it is worth protecting that trust. I lost respect for Mr. Huckabee today. He has misled so many “mentally challenged” people. My goodness do you have to give up honesty,truthfulness,and self respect to go into politics.
I feel the same, Graciouslady, I really never imagined that he could stoop this low. There’s lots about his views that I hate, but I honestly thought he was quite decent, especially when he defended Michelle Obama – which certainly didn’t go down well with the Teabaggers. But it looks like he’s realized he needs the Teabaggers if he is to further his career, so this was a cold, nasty, calculated move on his part to impress them. Claim later that he ‘misspoke’, but plant the seed. Ugly, ugly, ugly. But if he ‘misspoke’ why did he go on about how influenced the President was by his father when he ‘grew up with him’ in Kenya?? Indonesia doesn’t fit in to that theory of his.
And he said “I would love to know more” about the President??? But he ‘knew’ enough to claim he grew up in Kenya?! Even birthers don’t claim that!
The part that made me laugh out loud was the ‘allegation’ that the President viewed the British as “a bunch of imperialists” – if Huckabee ever read a history book he would know this to be a fact. The British were imperialists – and Kenya was one of many countries to suffer at their hands. That’s not an allegation, that’s a fact. But the world – and the British – has moved on, pity Huckabee hasn’t too.
Beneath contempt.
‘My goodness do you have to give up honesty,truthfulness,and self respect to go into politics.’
Before President Obama, I would have answered ‘YES’.
Amazing how often people can use the excuse they “misspoke”, then alter their tone when the facts are given! But, they did managed to get the misspoken idea into too many empty heads who don’t want to listen to facts.
The President hates the Brits so much that he’s going to spend two nights at Buckingham Palace, just to make his point… The ugliness of these Republicans is astounding.
And the Brits obviously feel the President’s hatred…they give him such high approval ratings for it. They were celebrating in the streets when he won – because they know he can’t stand them…
LOL at you and Theo. So true, so true 😀
You know…while the wealthy industrialists and upper classes in Britain were enjoying the benefits of the British Empire, the majority of the population were living in poverty. It took years of fighting for voting rights and labor rights before the general population got anything and most were ignorant of what went on in other parts of the world, due to lack of information and education. This is how Empires work…all of them. Just saying.
F U Huckabee. Most of us have had it with your RW racist, hateful bigotry.
Well, Fuckabee can kiss the Presidency goodbye. That video of him pandering to the lowest common denominator of unbridled racism will played over and over and over.
Fuckabee? 😆 😆 😆
Sorry, I must have misspoken, or maybe not… 🙂
Haha…another pet name to add to my collection of labels for despicable rethugs and Soul Patrollers (black folk who demean POTUS). I give you:
Haggiana for Arianna, Cornbread for Cornel West, Travesty for Tavis Smiley, Thurston Howell for Roland Martin (his ascot) and now Fuckabee… loving it 😀
“misspoke” – no, that is hard to believe, Mike Huckabee´s comments are, in my opinion, examples of the most dangerous kind of concious manipulation, and also a way of giving lipservice to people, who are one inch high – with hats on, i.e. teabaggers.
How can a person with a worldview, that fits into a matchbox, even in his wildest fantasy, be dreaming of becoming president of the United States, and through that office having a say in the world, grotesque!
From Wikipedia a few facts: European colonialism of Indonesia: the Portuguese (1512-1850), Dutch East India Co. (1602-1800)
Dutch East Indies (1800-1942), Japanese occupation (1942-45), certainly grounds for being skeptical of the British.
Unfortunately the “misspoke” runs far deeper, than meets the eye.
Landslide for President Obama in 2012
Huckabee, and other tea party birther types don’t care if the nonsense they spout is true or not, the only thing that matters to them is that they get the message out there.