MIKE HUCKABEE, no matter how many times you repeat your fatuous explanation about "misspeaking" during a radio interview where you claimed that President Obama was raised in Kenya by his father and grandfather, which shaped his world view, and as a consequence of that Kenyan upbringing Mr. Obama came to detest British colonialism and his view of the Brits are different from other Americans' view--no matter how many times you try to explain it away, the facts stubbornly get in the way.
[NOTE TO HUCKABEE: Our Founding Fathers were ANTI-BRITISH COLONIALISM. Maybe you were absent from school the day they taught that in your American history class?]
Here is what Huckabee said in answer to the radio jock's question about the "birth certificate":
"I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, [is] very different than the average American.
...if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."
Huckabee's spokesperson tried to clear things up.
"Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in "Kenya." The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.
So, then, what about all that stuff about the British and Kenya and Obama's father and grandfather? And the Mau Mau Revolution? None of that has anything to do with Indonesia."
Huckabee dug himself further into his hole by saying this yesterday:
"Additional remarks Huckabee made on a different radio show today [3/2/11] clearly demonstrate that pernicious attacks on Obama's very Americanism is the objective.
Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas. And I just do think that there is - again, I am not saying he's not a citizen, I've never said that, I've said the opposite. I've never said he's a Muslim .... I wish [reporters] would ask, though, does this president have a different worldview than any other president in the history of the United States."
So Huckabee suggests that because Mr. Obama spent 4 years of his life [ages 6 to 10] in Indonesia where madrassas exist, Obama somehow has a different world view? Mr. Obama's school in Indonesia was NOT a madrassa, even if there were madrassas in that country. Huckabee, in this insidious "explanation," continues to frame Mr. Obama as "other."
And we understand that dog whistle, and what it signals to his base.
I have an opinion too, Mike Huckabee, and it is that you are a dishonest man who would bear false witness against the president of the United States in order to strengthen your support with racist elements in your base.
I have another opinion: You'll never be president.
But we have to think about this: Mike Huckabee grew up in a part of this country that allowed the murder of African-Americans by Klansmen because of the color of their skin. I think we have more to question and worry about HUCKABEE'S CHILDHOOD and its influence on HIM than we do Mr. Obama's childhood, growing up with his grandparents in Hawaii.
Go here to read the fabulous Capt. Fogg on this subject.
UPDATE:
FROM ANDREW SULLIVAN'S THE DAILY DISH: "Huckabee might be interested to know that Indonesia boasts over 17 million registered scouts, according to the world scouting movement [pdf], compared to the roughly 7.5 million in the US. Even Kenya has nearly half a million.
Of course, this is to take Huckabee literally. What he clearly meant to say is that someone called Barack Obama is not a real American. He's Palin without the figure."
