Friday, January 4, 2008

Does Huckabee Read Catholic Apologist Mark Shea?

A few days ago noted Catholic Apologist Mark Shea wrote a not too flattering Huckabee piece called The Acoustic Candidate I thought it was a tad nitpicking. In a excellent Response A noted Pro-life leader, Catholic Apologist, Huckabee Supporter, Notre Dame Fan(well he is not perfect) at his blog Fighting Irish Thomas wrote a excellent response here at Missing the “Mark”—Oh, Shea can't you see (that Huckabee has heart) .

Now if you notice Catholic Icon GK Chesterton is a huge topic in both posts. Tonight I was listening to Huckabee's Iowa Victory speech and almost fell out of my chair during it he said:

G.K. Chesterton once said that a true soldier fights not because he hates those who are in front of him, but because he loves those who are behind him. Ladies and gentlemen, I recognize that running for office, it's not hating those who are in front of us. It's loving those who are behind us.

I don't know why or how that quote got into that victory speech. Like I said I almost fell out of my chair when he said it. For all I know Gov Huckabee might be a GK Chesterton Fan. I know that Huckabee has several Catholics on staff and perhaps they were observing it :). But it seems very deliberate. However that raised a lot of Catholics ears that are conservative and likely Huck friendly I suspect!!!

I am not sure the MSM caught on. However the National Review(they are pro romney) in this circle the wagons piece took notice:
Huckabee made the best speech of the evening — personal, direct, untechnical, and designed — well, seemingly not designed but effortlessly succeeding in reaching people who generally tune politicians out. It even contained a quote from G. K. Chesterton which will endear him to conservative Catholics.

I did a a little search and the London Telegraph Sure noticed. They said:

There were three winners in Iowa. Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee take two gongs, but the third goes to that most English of writers GK Chesterton, the poet and author of the Father Brown mysteries, who is fast becoming the poet laureate of the political underdog.
When Mike Huckabee made his victory speech he was quick to quote from Chesterton: "A true soldier fights not because he hates those who are in front of him but because he loves those who are behind him.
"Running for office is not hating those who are in front of you but loving those who are behind you."It was all reminiscent of that remarkable night in the British general election of 1997, when independent Martin Bell seized one of the Tories' safest seats. His chosen lines: "Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget. For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet." Bell added: "Well you have spoken."
The people of Iowa have spoken and they bestowed victory on Mr Huckabee, whose campaign - like Mr Bell's - was held together with sellotape and sticking plasters
.

So who knows. But I suspect Huckabee is very very good at his words and perhaps is showing that he is a tad more than just some Evangelical former pastor from the SOUIEEE Go Hogs State and is sending messages to several groups. Touche. This campaign will be fun and different

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark Shea is a tad nitpicky on everything, but then again, that is why we read his blog. :)

Fr. J. said...

One thing that Republicans have learned from the Christian Coalition is that Catholics are important for their votes. The Christian Coalition never quite got the Catholic vote, but it did learn that it was important to talk like a Catholic. GW Bush did a fine job at this when he ran for his first term peppering his speeches with references to the culture of life/culture of death long before it became just common pro-life talk. This was when it was still Catholic code for "yep, I read and admire JPII."

Catholic code is very important as the Republicans have caught on to the fact that mid-western Catholics are America's swing vote.

Anonymous said...

I am an orthodox Catholic and love Huckabee. If the Republicans nominate a pro-abort like Giuliani or a phony-pro-life like Romney, I'll write in Huckabee. I'm done voting for the lesser of two evils; it's still a vote for evil.

K-W said...

It might be good to note, G.K. Chesterton is popular in many Evangelical circles at the moment. He is often the smart person of choice to quote for evangelicals nowadays, so the Chesterton quote-drop could be more a matter of Huckabee liking Chesterton than a dog-whistle attempt to court conservative Catholics.