Huckabees Elite Backers By JBS Staff
Published: 2008-01-07 06:00
The much-touted Huckabee Surge in November-December opinion polls has been attributed by the major media pundits to the former Arkansas governors performances in the televised GOP candidate debates and the recent discovery of him by Evangelical Christian voters. However, more skeptical observers might be inclined to note that Mike Huckabees sudden jump in the polls was assisted by a quantum jump in media publicity, and that Huckabee, the supposed outsider, has been given the stamp of approval by the ultimate political insider organization: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
In a December 16 interview, CNNs Wolf Blitzer asked the candidate who his foreign-policy advisers are. Well, I have a number of people from whom I get policy, Mr. Huckabee responded, mentioning by name Frank Gafney, Richard Haass, and John R. Bolton. Two of the three, Haass and Bolton, are members of the CFR. In fact, as Wolf Blitzer pointed out to the CNN audience, Richard Haass is president of the CFR.
Huckabees anointing by the CFR was evident before the CNN interview, however. The council clued in its members that Huckabee was an acceptable candidate with a November 9 Washington Post op-ed by CFR Senior Fellow Michael J. Gerson entitled The Huckabee Difference. In the article, Gerson complimented Huckabees compassion, as exemplified by his record of government programs for the poor while he was governor. Gerson is the author of Heroic Conservatism, published by the CFR, which attempts to redefine political conservatism into a philosophical view that promotes government as the solution to poverty, rather than the traditional conservative view that individual charity, private charitable organizations, churches, and the free market are better fitted for assisting and uplifting those in need. Before joining the CFR staff in 2006, Gerson had been a chief policy adviser and speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Huckabee penned an article for the January-February 2008 issue of the councils journal, Foreign Affairs, entitled Americas Priorities in the War on Terror. In doing so, he has trod the same path as his fellow presidential aspirants from both parties who have sought to display their CFR imprimatur with recent essays in Foreign Affairs: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Bill Richardson, Rudy Giuliani, Barak Obama, John Edwards, and John McCain.
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