Huckabee Offers Winning Strategy for GOP/ talks about Christmas Book

Huckabee Offers Winning Strategy for GOP

Saturday, November 7, 2009 11:12 AM By: Chris Wessling Article Font Size

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he hasn't decided if he's going to run for president in 2012 – yet. But he does have a plan for how the Republican Party can re-energize itself and ensure success in next year's midterm elections. "The key thing is to have some specific proposals that we can say to the American people, 'Elect us, and here's what we're going to do,' he told Newsmax.TV's Kathleen Walter. "I suggest a balanced-budget amendment, the implementation of the fair tax, which is a consumption-based tax. I think we ought to be talking about accountability, that government officials can't raise their pay at a time when the economy is going downhill... ... The book is a collection of Christmas stories from Huckabee's past that taught him valuable lessons on the true meaning of the holiday. "It started, really, as my publisher called me, and we were planning a book for a year and a half from now. And he said, 'Hey, I'd like for you to consider doing a Christmas book. And my response was, 'Hey, you're Jewish. Are you sure you understand what Christmas is all about?' And he said, 'Oh I totally understand, but I just think it would be a great book and would love to hear your perspective on it. And it made me sit down and think and sort of ask how would I approach it. And the result is 'A Simple Christmas.' "And I've had more fun doing this book; it is my favorite of the seven books that I've done. And it's not a political book at all. So when people read it, this is a book that even liberals who don't like me can read this book and enjoy it." For Huckabee, the true meaning of Christmas is as simple as it is powerful. "It primarily means that when God wanted to tell me that he loved me, he did it in person," he said. "He didn't just send a book, he didn't put a DVD set together and say, 'Hey, watch this some time.' He actually showed up in person; he got some skin on him and lived like the rest of us have to live. And he did it with a start that is just unbelievable. And that's really the framework of the book is that the first Christmas, that one in Bethlehem where it all got started, was not some elaborate, incredibly well-produced function. It was a magnificently simple affair. In fact, from the outside it looked disastrous. And that's exactly what made it the miracle that it was. So I want to make sure people understand that this is the story of a guy who, when he comes to talk to us personally, he starts out in the lowest conditions so that he can relate to us when we are at our worst and lowest moments." Having written the book, Huckabee is firm when asked if the growing secularism around Christmas means American needs more God and less government. "Oh absolutely," he said. "I mean, too much government and a whole lot less of God is what's caused a lot of our problems. Even the economic downturn. Wall Street didn't crash because of money; it crashed because of the lack of morality. It was unmitigated greed that brought about the collapse of the financial system. And that is a moral issue. It's not just an issue about how much money is in anybody's account on any given day. It's distressing to me that people would think that we would even get to the place in this culture of ours that we would be ashamed of admitting that Christmas is about Christ. That's what the whole word means. The political correctness ought to give way to reality."