By Timothy D. Naegele[1]
These are the words of Mike Huckabee, a former Governor of Arkansas and the father of today's Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders—who may be a political force nationally in the years ahead.[2]. His comments appear in their entirety as follows, and are worth reading:
We’re almost 2 years away from the next Presidential election, but it’s already in full swing. Candidates are announcing in both parties, and the media has already started their worthless, meaningless, and clueless speculating and pontificating on who’s up, who’s down, and who won’t make it to town!
Donald Trump was my 2nd choice for President in 2016. My first choice was ME! When I didn’t make it, I endorsed, supported, and campaigned for Donald Trump. As President, he exceeded my expectations in implementing the America First policies that were long overdue to truly Make America Great Again. I surprised most of my friends and some of my enemies in supporting Trump. He often said things that were cringe-worthy, and some of the labels he affixed to political opponents and the media were harsh, if not accurate and incredibly funny. I didn’t like all his Tweets or his comments from the podium. And when people asked how I could support him I said it was like choosing a doctor to do surgery on a member of my family. If my choice was between a kind, loving, praying surgeon who had the bedside manner of a pastor but who had never successfully done that particular surgery or a surgeon who was gruff, bombastic, and impatient, and who had the bedside manner of a schoolyard bully but had successfully done that surgery hundreds of times, I’d pick the guy with the questionable personality but the experienced and skillful surgical hands.
Voting for a President is not like being on a church pulpit committee and hiring a pastor. Ideally, I’d love to have people in office who share my political views as well as my personal views and my personality. But in the same way I choose someone to work on my car, fly the plane I’m on, repair my home air conditioner, or dry-clean my suits, I select people to work for me who are the best at what they are hired to do. There was a reason that people were lined up on the sidewalk to get soup from “Soup Man” that we all saw on Jerry Steinfeld. The soup was good, even if “Soup Man” was an insufferable grouch.
There are going to be some very fine people running for President in 2024 and some who could prove to be as worthless as a milk bucket under a bull, but I will again personally support President Trump so he can finish what he started during his first term. He accomplished more to make America Great Again than any President in my lifetime—and that goes back to Eisenhower. There were Presidents who were more articulate and had a more engaging sense of humor, such as Kennedy and Reagan. There were some who had great legislative savvy, such as Lyndon Johnson. Some were truly decent and kind human beings, such as Jimmy Carter and George Herbert Walker Bush. But no President helped the country get steered away from the insanity of socialist economics and insane polices on energy, the military, and the proper role of the courts as did Donald Trump.
His tax and regulatory reforms put more than $4000 in the pockets of working-class families. His energy policies provided us with affordable energy for our cars and homes and made us energy independent over Middle Eastern countries who hated us for the first time in 75 years. His “tough love” to European nations who were derelict in paying their agreed-to dues for NATO actually saved NATO. He was the first President since Reagan to NOT get us into a war, yet he advanced the pay and benefits of our military and focused on our armed forces being lethal instead of being woke. In 2016, I introduced him in New York to 1000 pastors and said I wasn’t sure he could find John 3:16 in a marked New Testament, but NO President ever did more for religious liberty than Donald Trump. NO President was ever as pro-life as he was, not just in what he said, but what he actually DID. And he had the guts to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognize it as the rightful capital of the Jewish state, and enact the ground-breaking Abraham Accords.
Maybe there are other conservative candidates for President who would do well, but who else could take and endure the relentless hate he faced and the never-ending persecutions and prosecutions of the demonic deep state?
Donald Trump is far from perfect, but then so am I. And so are you. But I love my country and I don’t want it to be in second place or third. I want it to be FIRST. And I’ll put up with a personality that can be at times vain and vulgar in order to make America Great Again and that’s why I will support him again for President.[3]
I have considerable respect for Mike Huckabee—and his daughter—and share many if not most of his views with respect to Trump. Watch the former President's speech in Waco, Texas, in its entirety.[4] He is not the raving lunatic that his Leftist opponents describe him to be. Quite to the contrary, he is a true American patriot, which may be among the reasons why they have tried to destroy him since he began his quest for the presidency in 2015.
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© 2023, Timothy D. Naegele
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[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6 and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/ He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams. He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com
[2] See, e.g., https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=E1898527-D0F3-469A-A299-3519D0E7FC5B&s=1L83; see also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee ("Mike Huckabee") and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Huckabee_Sanders ("Sarah Huckabee Sanders") and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2023/02/08/governor-sarah-huckabee-sanders-delivers-the-state-of-the-union-speech/ ("Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders Delivers The State Of The Union Speech")
[3] See https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=E1898527-D0F3-469A-A299-3519D0E7FC5B&s=1L83
See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/27/why-im-endorsing-donald-trump-for-president/ ("Why I’m Endorsing Donald Trump for President")