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A pairing that eventually led me to poetry.

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence. (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Except with Mike Huckabee the only voice in the darkness would be his own, spinning and deceptive in its attempt to hide the fact that he has little understanding of foreign policy. Or, as a senior Mike Huckabee campaign official put it, Mike Huckabee has no foreign policy credential, per the video below.

In addition to the no foreign policy credential confirmation there is the embarrassing moment of not knowing the source for the claim regarding Pakistan illegal aliens. One best be more prepared if they're going to so desperately spin and deflect away from their lack of experience and depth on an important issue for this country.

Perhaps it would only be somewhat comical if there were not more. After all, everyone makes mistakes in public speaking, especially when under the stress of a political campaign. Unfortunately, Mike Huckabee has twice now claimed foreign policy advisers, to only have those individuals whose names he dropped, turn around and say they are not advisors and/or that he is most certainly not following the advice given. Of course Huckabee used such broad language that he could probably claim he received advise from Sun Tzu on matters regarding troop deployment, but that only again reminds us of the term Clintonesque.

Let's begin with the advice he is not following.

Frank Gaffney mentions Tom Friedman as another Huckabee "advisor" and says, "I think that’s cockamamie". Thomas Friedman is all over the map, but the following comment should worry conservatives when it's apparent that Huckabee's foreign policy article sounded more like Friedman's advice.

We can’t afford to keep being this stupid! We have got to get our groove back. We need a president who will unite us around a common purpose, not a common enemy. Al Qaeda is about 9/11. We are about 9/12, we are about the Fourth of July — which is why I hope that anyone who runs on the 9/11 platform gets trounced. (source)

But it's not just using Frank Gaffney's name, to try to dazzle conservatives. He's also claimed John Bolton as an adviser, but again, language so vague that one has to wonder if Huckabee is secretly learning to play the saxophone and pigging out at McDonalds when no one is looking.

what Huckabee seems to sorely lack in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination — was a roster of respected foreign policy advisers to reassure voters on national security issues.
On Friday morning, Huckabee listed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has “spoken or will continue to speak.”
At a Thursday evening news conference, Huckabee said, "I've corresponded with John Bolton, who's agreed to work with us on developing foreign policy.”
Bolton, however, has a different view. “I’d be happy to speak with Huckabee, but I haven’t spoken with him yet,” said Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“I’m not an official or unofficial adviser to anyone,” said Bolton, who mentioned he’d had conversations with other Republican candidates but declined to name any names.
Asked to explain Bolton’s comments, Huckabee aides said the former Arkansas governor had e-mailed with Bolton. Bolton did not immediately respond to a request to address Huckabee’s e-mailing claims. (source)

Hey, I just got an email from Nigeria. Does that mean I can list that person as my foreign investment adviser?

Thanks to HotAir for posting this information with which Bryan makes a good point.

So now that we know who isn’t advising Huckabee on foreign policy — twice now — perhaps at some point we’ll learn who actually is advising him. I’m not sure that asking Huckabee who his advisers are is the best way to find out who his advisers are.

Perhaps Mike Huckabee would do better to just man up and admit his lack of foreign policy knowledge. Name-dropping in such a deceitful and manipulative fashion is certainly not helpful. It's one thing to be reminded that a candidate is not up to the challenge of the dangerous world we live in, but that he will choose to also be dishonest in how he deals with the problem, only serves to demonstrate that Mike Huckabee's lack of foreign policy experience and wisdom is a flaw that is surpassed by the more serious flaw in his character.

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Filed under: Religion -- Politics -- NewsPolitics

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