And yet, he weighed in on it and he’s now not taking questions on it from the press:
At a media availability Thursday night in Columbia Huckabee was asked to clarify his comments and whether or not he supports the flying of the Confederate flag. He refused to answer the question at hand, saying only that it was a state issue that doesn’t concern the President.
One reporter followed-up, “For many African Americans and no doubt some others its seen as a sign kinda potent with racist imagery -and also reflects a time of ultimate division within this country. I’m not clear why as President that wouldn’t be in fact, arguably very appropriate for someone to weigh in on.”
Huckabee would not take the bait and merely said his response stood as it was, “it is not an issue that the President of The United States needs to weigh in on,” adding that he had the support of many African Americans in Arkansas while serving as Governor, “I got it by serving the people of my state not getting involved in the affairs of somebody else’s state.”
I knew he stepped in it when he made the comment and I knew he was going to get hit by the press and now he’s trying to distance himself from it and of course that always works. If a stay-at-home mom can figure out that you shouldn’t weigh in on such a controversial issue that you don’t have to bring up and that you don’t want to be the focus of the evening news, why can’t a political candidate and his handlers figure that out. If they wanted to tout his state rights chops, why not pick something less controversial.
Even the MSM is stunned that he would do this:
It seems strange that Huckabee would bring up the issue for the first time this campaign, unprompted, two days before the primary here. It is an issue not even on the table here. Huckabee often jokes about pandering to voters; perhaps this time it’s no joke.
If we weren’t living in such serious times, I might be inclined to hope he gets the nomination over Romney for sheer entertainment purposes alone (I could do a daily feature here on the blog, “What new mess did Huckabee step in today?”) but since he’s running for commander in chief, I’m a kind of worried he isn’t up for the job and SC looks poised to nominate him.