…. with apologies to a similar sounding movie title, I did attend an event at which Mike Huckabee was the guest speaker. Back in March, former Republican Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, was interviewed by WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH. ‘Channel 9,’ as it is affectionately known, is the only statewide television station in New Hampshire and it is taking advantage of our lead-off spot in the Presidential Primary process by interviewing all of the presidential candidates.

Okay, well we are the first primary state as of today, but that is certainly subject to change. With all of the states jockeying for position and wanting to leap-frog over other states, New Hampshire is zealously guarding it’s ‘Number One’ status. In fact, NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner has stated that "New Hampshire state law mandates that New Hampshire’s primary shall come first and that is what I am going to do." If other states keep moving the process up, we may wind up having our primary in about two weeks! Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Anyway, Governor Huckabee came to New Hampshire to discuss his presidential campaign, and to educate the voters of the Granite State who seemed to know very little about this former Governor. Regardless of where you stand politically, after you meet him, you have to admit that Huckabee is a very interesting guy. If elected, he would be the second US President from the small town of Hope, Arkansas. Yes, William Jefferson Clinton was the first US President from Hope – population just over 10,000. Admittedly, Huckabee is a bit of a long-shot, but then again so was Clinton in 1991!

Huckabee served as Governor for ten years, and is well-known as a social conservative. He garnered fame beyond politics by losing a whopping 110 pounds through a strict diet and exercise regimen. He went from huffing and puffing while trying to walk up the steps of the State Capital to running in marathons.

He is engaging and articulate and argues his positions well. But where does he stand on clean energy and making America energy independent? Well, I wandered over to his website to see if any additional information was available beyond his answer to my direct questions to him.

His exploratory campaign website has a section called ‘Issues’ and I opened the ‘Energy Independence’ tab. While I was interested in reading it, I thought that it was light on specifics. Huckabee’s plan on his website is short on specifics, but some of what I see raises lots of red flags with me

The highlights are:

• The first thing he will do as President will be to send Congress a comprehensive energy plan – (so far so good);
• He wants us all to conserve;
• He wants to expand exploration (hmmmm);
• He wants us to pursue all avenues of alternative energy:

• Wind
• Solar
• Hydrogen
• Biodiesel
• Biomass
• Clean coal (ouch!)
• And, of course, (here it comes) nuclear!

He does make a valid point that with 6 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road, of all the pumps at the over 170,000 filling stations nationwide, there are only 2,000 gas pumps that can actually dispense E-85 ethanol. And let’s not even talk about the corn subsidies that help the price of ethanol remain at an artificially low levels.

At the ‘Conversations with a Candidate’ program, I asked Huckabee how would America become more energy independent in a Huckabee administration. He responded, "America needs to become more energy self-sufficient. We have to explore all types of energy options such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, ethanol and, as Europe is doing, we really do need to look at small nuclear."

When I asked him how he would deal with nuclear waste and the enormous cost to build a nuclear plant, he said that technology may hold the answer to the waste, and building smaller nuclear plants will significantly reduce the costs. When he reiterated that "Europe is doing it," I reminded him that Europe also uses much more wind and solar than we do and, perhaps, that might be a better course to follow.

Overall, Huckabee is likable but he seems to be a contradictory candidate. He is extremely conservative on some issues, yet broadly, dare I say, liberal on others. But that is a dangerous game to play. His efforts to be all things to all voters may mean that he actually appeases none of them.

Next week…. Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich!

SmartPower

Mike Huckabee for President

Image source: WMUR-TV ‘Conversations with a Candidate’