When an individual enters the Mike Huckabee Forums website it has the immediate look of a supporter website and could even be mistaken for having the endorsement of the campaign because the admins use the masthead from the Huckabee website for their banner. However, a closer look at the posts from the introductions to the grassroots area and the news crawl across the top and one discovers that it may be a site that misleads potential supporters. The posters also have the audacity to bash the wonderful people of Iowa, here. I believe that this website represents the worst of politics and is designed to discredit the candidacies of both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.
I have noticed that in the section about other candidates most of the posts are about Ron Paul. This is also true of other places in the forum. Obama was mentioned once, Giuliani also once, Romney is also mentioned once with a nasty comment about his faith being false.
The News crawl at the top also trumpets all “negative” news stories with titles that are negative like Huckabee blames rape victim for murder and links to the Huffington Post article Documents Expose Huckabee’s Role in Serial Rapist’s Release which has been refuted here.
In the introduction section the most offensive post is one called “Ron Paul Must Die…” by someone who allegedly calls himself Jesus is my Homeboy. This poster calls Ron Paul the Devil criticizes our civil liberties while demanding the death of all Muslims and entry into Iran. Another post in the same section sexualizes the “support” of one of the forum members by using Gov. Huckabee’s name (or more accurately the Huck part) to swear and make a sexual innuendo about bestiality. The final post from the introduction section that I will mention proposes that Huckabee supporters think he is the Lord and Saviour, which is absolutely preposterous. It basically explains a near religious conversion experience that is not found in politics.
The forum feedback section talks about how many people are online at the Ron Paul Forums. Then the next post asks that a member with the handle ILOVERONPAUL be banned. A post entitled “Rev. Mike’s first day at work” paints him as a crusader, which has a negative connotation, especially for any other religious faith than Catholicism because of The Crusades.
In the Mike Huckabee Grassroots Central forum, the title of which is taken from that of the forum same title over at Huck’s Army, a genuine unofficial grassroots message board with 1,037 actual members, has posts that allege that Gov. Huckabee received the endorsement of Fred Phelps, which is untrue, because appearantly Rev. Phelps has yet to endorse anyone. In another post entitled “Get Ready for the Huckalution” by a “member” who calls herself TrickitMarine trashes what she calls Ron Paul bots and cheapens the campaign of Gov Huckabee with sloganeering. The Revolution thisng works for Ron Paul where as Huckalution just sounds dumb. Many of the ideas mentioned in this forum are copies from Ron Paul’s campaign. Another example in the Huckabeelloon, which is a balloon that looks like Gov. Huckabee om a red suit with a big cross around his neck. This seems to be a cheap copy of the Ron Paul blimp idea that paints Mr. Huckabee negatively. One member even posted spelling Mr. Huckabee’s name incorrectly as “Huchabee.”
In forum with points about how to win support for Huckabee there is a post about the Dumond incident which has a response that attacks the victim of the rape Dumond committed after being released. Another post shouts “Newsflash: Hookerbee has no support.” However, Ron Paul does have the support of the prostitutes. A final noteworthy post is one by a “member” with the handle JewBoy4Huck which makes the following outrageous cl.. “Huckabee stole money and gave it to Illegals?!?!?! Say it’s not so!” The claim is based on o WorldNetDaily article by Jerome R. Corsi entitled Huckabee offered ‘no cost’ deal for Consulate which talks about an ‘incentive deal’ packaged by Gov. Huckabee to attract a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock. In this article even the chief critic of then-Gov. Huckabee’s deal on the consulate admitted that it was a good deal economically for the state. The article did not even allege that funds were stolen just that they were used inappropriately. In a final noteworthy post for this forum a member with the handle HuckodtheArk paints Gov. Huckabee as willing to raise taxes to fight islamofascism and the responses chortle about his record of raising taxes in Arkansas.
The Mike Huckabee on the Issues forum is filled with misrepresentations of his positions as well. For example we will take the a post which asks the question “What is his stance on illegal immigration?” The responses answer by making comments such as the following:
- “He’s against illegal immigration unless it benefits the local economy.”
- “kinda soft on them immigrants but for the most part he plans to be harder on them as president”
- “He said he would import mexican men to give them work and then seal them in to keep all the evil muslims out. This man needs to be president!”
However, these interpretations of his policy are completely incorrect. Here are the facts. He has recently received the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen and released his immigration plan.
Most of the other posts in the On the Issues section of this site are irrelevant. Here is the On the Issues Section of an authentic grassroots operation.
Finally, in the Mike Huckabee News forum there is a combination of misleading news and negative attacks on supporters of other candidates. It also misrepresents legitimate news. One example of misleading news is a post from December 13, 2007 entitled “Huckabee to Quit and Support Giuliani?” This is a misreading and over reaction to a blog post from the campaign about a 2PM Announcement from the campaign. Another “member” asks “Is our Huck Losing the Faith?” This is over disappointment that Huckabee said in a debate “I can’t part the Red Sea, but I can part the red tape.” The quote was reported inaccurately. MSNBC reported the comment to have been the following: “I cannot part the Red Sea. But I believe I can part the red tape.”
In closing, while I do believe that Mike Huckabee Forums is a misleading site I do not think that it is the work of any campaign other than possibly the front-runners. Even though Ron Paul supporters discuss Huckabee in their forums I do not believe that they would do this because their candidate is also attacked in many of the posts. This is extremely dirty politics and all the campaigns need to disclaim it and the Huckabee and Paul campaigns need, in particular, need to respond so that their campaigns do not get blamed for this. Neither candidate would support this behavior on their behalf and who ever the people on the Mike Huckabee Forum are need to take the official Huckabee banner down so that no one assumes they are affiliated with the campaign.
Atlanta: 
Citizen Governor 