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| | Lamb asks Huckabee about presidency
Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005 By David Sanders CSPAN's Brain Lamb has always been known to get to the heart of what makes his interviewees tick. That's why I wasn't surprised when he led off with a pointed question when he interviewed Gov. Mike Huckabee for his Sunday program "Q&A." "Gov. Mike Huckabee, Republican of Arkansas, what will it take to get you to run for president in 2008?" Lamb asked. "Oh! That's a big question," Huckabee responded. "Probably a vision from above." He said he has a lot of other responsibilities, including being governor of Arkansas and vice chairman of the National Governors Association; he'll be removing the word "vice" from that title this summer. The governor followed with the standard but sincere line that he is "flattered" to be talked about as a potential candidate, but added that such speculation is "premature" and that he was still celebrating the re-election of his friend George W. Bush. In the world of presidential politics that answer is about as good as any. People aren't particularly enamored by elected officials who are always looking to the next big race. The governor is focused on the things before him and his response was: While it is nice to be included, basically ask me about that some other time. For Lamb, some other time was his next question. "I'm not going to try to push you to say, 'I'm running or not running,' but what I was getting at is that you're a Hope, Ark., native," he said. To which the governor responded with a solid "Yes." But he still wasn't finished. "You're a Republican governor eight-and-a-half years in the office. A lot of people mention all kinds of folks during this period, and I just wonder if you're - I know you want to avoid saying yes or no on all this, but what kind of questions do you ask yourself in a period like this, when people start saying, 'Mike Huckabee should run for president?'" Lamb asked. This time the governor must have realized that his polite interviewer wasn't going to let go of this bone, so Huckabee engaged him: "I think the things that anyone has to ask. What do I bring to it? Do I bring ideas? Do I bring a world view, or something that maybe would be useful to the country? Is there some perspective that is, that's helpful? I think if it's just this, 'Gee, I'd like to do that,' that's not an adequate beginning for me. There has to be something. Maybe it's a focus on domestic policy, a focus on how we can improve our nation, but there's got to be something deep inside." (Remember this exchange.) During the rest of the program, the governor gave viewers an idea of who he is. He told of his faith in Christ and his conversion experience, of his years growing up in a place called Hope, and even gave Lamb a lesson in pronouncing Ouachita as in Ouachita Baptist University. "That's like Wash-i-taw," Huckabee said. The complete political history of Mike Huckabee was covered. He closed with a question that gave the governor an opportunity to tell why he might be looking at the White House. "The National Governors Association - you're going to be the chairman ... starting in July of this year. Why are you doing that?" Lamb asked. "I think, actually, I'm the second-longest-serving governor in the country now, second only to George Pataki. But the real reason I want to do it is because I feel like the NGA's a great opportunity to create the laboratory in which practical solutions to national problems can be worked on. One of the things I want to work on is health care. It's broken. We spend all our money treating disease. We need to spend more money preventing that disease," the governor said. The governor did well. But kudos also to Lamb, who knows how to get his questions answered. ------- David Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com. |
