A night with Mike Huckabee

Not sure if this story is useable, but I wanted to do something for the Mag about Huckabee so we can get some of young Jacobs Photos he worked hard to take in the Breakaway.


A night with Mike Huckabee
By Jeff Blascyk


It’s not everyday that a legitimate celebrity lands in Garden City to make a public appearance. Come to think of it, it’s not any day! On February 8, 2008, this all changed. Garden City residents got to see potential President to be Mike Huckabee, give a speech at a hotel in downtown Garden City. This is a big deal for a lot of reasons. One reason is that there is no bigger celebrity on the plant than the President of the United States, and Huckabee has the chance to be just that. The second is that he took the time to come off the plane, away from the airport, and talk with real people of this community, in the heart of the community. It showed in the next day’s caucus results when he won in a landslide in Finney County and the entire state of Kansas.

Few people could debate the fact that Huckabee is a down to earth regular guy that has a gift for public speaking. You might, or might not like his politics but one thing is easy to see, he is an interesting, smart and funny guy who has strong beliefs about what direction to take this country. Governor Huckabee puts his politics out there for everyone to see, “I want a President that will put an out of business sign on the Door of the IRS.” Says Huckabee. Who knows if he could ever accomplish this but he puts it out there for all to see and hear. He would also like to see the United Stated totally independent from foreign oil, “Keep your oil, we don’t need your oil anymore than we need a bucket of your sand” says Huckabee in reference to our dependency on foreign oil. Huckabee is in favor of developing more sources of energy to get rid of the need for foreign oil. This would be huge for getting and keeping us out of the Middle East this would also help the development of Ethanol, Bio fuels, clean coal, wind and solar power and other renewable sources of energy.

Finney County is home to over 6,000 registered republicans and is an overwhelming majority in Garden City. This is not a large number on a national scale but Governor Huckabee still took the time to talk to just a small percentage of them at his rally. This kind of campaigning is something to watch for in the future as candidates learn how important it is to talk to the common folk that may be a bit off the beaten trail of the campaign circuit. People at the rally saw it as something exciting and looked to just get a glimpse of the man they have seen of TV for the past few months. It was a family event, Fathers brought there sons, and people came from hours away to hear Huckabee speak.

It’s important for people; especially the youth in Garden City and abroad to recognize the opportunity to hear someone like Governor Huckabee speak in person no matter what political ideology you happen to follow. He might be too far behind in this Presidential race but, you never know… anything could happen. He could wind up as a Vice Presidential candidate or he might be making his mark today, to make another run at the White House in the future.

We owe it to ourselves to get involved and get educated about the facts so we can make an informed decision at the polls this November. It’s up to everyone we are all in this together, no matter who gets elected, we all have to live with it. Everyone should get involved and let your voice be heard. If you say your voice does not matter, just remember February 8, 2008 when Governor Mike Huckabee; Presidential candidate, came to Garden City. Just think of what opportunities you might have had to tell a politician what you want from them, face to face.

I myself shook his hand and told him that my Guard unit; the 137th infantry, was redeploying to Iraq in 2009 “God bless you son, I hope I can become your Commander in Chief, and when I do I can bring you home safe, victoriously and honorably,” Said Huckabee, as he looked me in the eye. I’m not sure how he would do this but it was nice to hear a sincere acknowledgment on my statement. I wanted to put another face to the Iraq war, it’s not much but it’s something. Everyone needs to help our politicians put a face to the policies they implement. We can all do this by getting active in the political process and letting your voice be heard.