Mike Huckabee

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Mike Huckabee bigraphy, stories - Arkansas politician

Mike Huckabee : biography

August 24, 1955 –

Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas (1996–2007). He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won (behind both John McCain and Mitt Romney). He won the Iowa Republican caucuses. Huckabee exited the race as McCain became the presumptive Republican nominee after winning the delegate-rich winner-take-all states of Florida, California, and New York.

Huckabee is the author of several best selling books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, musician and a public speaker. He is also an ABC Radio political commentator.

Huckabee currently hosts the Fox News Channel talk show Huckabee. Since April 2, 2012, he is the host of The Mike Huckabee Show on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks.Brian Stelter, , The New York Times, February 8, 2012

Governor of Arkansas

In 1996, incumbent Democratic governor Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of fraud. The Arkansas Constitution, like nearly all state constitutions in the United States, does not allow convicted felons to hold office, so Tucker was forced to resign. However, Tucker, insisting he had a strong case for appeal, rescinded his resignation as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in on July 15. Within a few hours, Tucker reinstated his resignation after Huckabee threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Tucker. Huckabee was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas on July 15, 1996. In November 1998, Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term by defeating retired Colonel Gene McVay in the primary and Jonesboro attorney Bill Bristow in the general election, becoming the state’s third elected Republican Governor since Reconstruction. In November 2002, Huckabee was reelected to his second four-year term by defeating State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, garnering 53 percent of the vote. By the end of his term, Huckabee owned the third-longest tenure of any Arkansas Governor. Only Democrats Orval Faubus, who served six consecutive two-year terms (1955–1967), and Bill Clinton, who served 11 years, 11 months (1979–1981; 1983–1992), had longer tenures.

Huckabee said that his experience as a minister afforded him special insight in being governor: My experience dealing every day with real people who were genuinely affected by policies created by government gave me a deep understanding of the fragility of the human spirit and vulnerability of so many families who struggled from week to week. I was in the ICU at 2 a.m. with families faced with the decision to disconnect a respirator on their loved one; I counseled fifteen-year-old pregnant girls who were afraid to tell their parents about their condition; I spent hours hearing the grief of women who had been physically and emotionally clobbered by an abusive husband; I saw the anguish in the faces of an elderly couple when their declining health forced them to sell their home, give up their independence, and move into a long-term-care facility; I listened to countless young couples pour out their souls as they struggled to get their marriages into survival mode when confronted with overextended debt…Huckabee, From Hope to Higher Ground, p. 7

Books

Huckabee has written or co-authored several books:

  • Character is the Issue: How People With Integrity Can Revolutionize America (1997), a memoir (inspired by the crisis surrounding the incidents prior to his taking office as governor)
  • Kids Who Kill (1998), a book about juvenile violence (inspired by the Jonesboro massacre, which took place during his tenure as governor)
  • Living Beyond Your Lifetime (2000), a guide for leaving a personal legacy
  • Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork (2005), a health and exercise inspirational guide (based on his personal health experience) Publisher: Center Street
  • From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 Steps to Restoring America’s Greatness (2007) Publisher: Center Street
  • "De-Marketing Obesity" in the California Management Review, (with Brian Wansink), 47:4 (Summer 2005), 6–18.
  • Huckabee also wrote the foreword to (2006) by Larry Toller
  • Character Makes a Difference: Where I’m From, Where I’ve Been, and What I Believe, by Mike Huckabee (2007)
  • Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America, by Mike Huckabee (2008)
  • A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories that Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit, by Mike Huckabee (2009)
  • A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need from Washington (and a Trillion That We Don’t!), by Mike Huckabee (2011)
  • Dear Chandler, Dear Scarlett: A Grandfather’s Thoughts on Faith, Family, and the Things That Matter Most, by Mike Huckabee (2012)