Mike Huckabee
Arkansas is a state where politics is retail.
Regardless of Bill Clinton's politics or personal life, he grew up in obscurity and was elected to the presidency - twice. Don't take that away from him, because then you take it away from every other kid in America sitting out there in a school bus with a big dream.
If consumers make better choices, the marketplace will change.
All of my children are ideologically and politically in sync with me, they all have authentic Christian faith. It's something I'm very grateful for.
I love my kids; I'm very close to all three of them.
Americans different in some maybe thoughts or emphasis still have the same ideas. They want a government that lets them be free, that leaves them alone, that doesn't interrupt and interfere with every aspect of their life, that lets them go to work and keep more of what they've worked hard to have.
Divorce is one of the key predictors of poverty for a child growing up in a home that's broken.
So when we're really addressing issues like poverty, you can't do that without addressing the real driver of some of those, which is stable homes, families. So that's why to me those issues are important. They're not frivolous. They're critical economic issues.
My kids have moved more in their twenties, you know, than my parents have moved in nearly 40-something years of marriage before they died. So there's a part of me that laments what we have lost, and that is a sense of community.
I was in Christian broadcasting back in the 1970s. I was director of communications for James Robinson, and I really thought Christian broadcasting was going to be my career. There have been so many twist and turns in my life; of course I haven't been a pastor for almost 22 years, but it was a very important part of my life.
I think a lot of people in America do not understand that the basis of true liberty can't happen without an objective moral standard by which we live our lives.
There is an increasing push to compartmentalize faith separately from our life in the public square - and it's not possible - at least, it's not possible if we continue the American tradition of true individual freedom, which also implies individual responsibility. Without an objective moral standard, that's not possible.
I do believe God has given me an incredible opportunity and a platform in a secular environment but still to take a stand for Christ and being a blessing to believers.
Your vote can't be separated from your faith.
Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.
I hurt my knee, and that messed up my running, and boy did that ever just have a cascade effect. I've gained about thirty pounds that my doctors have screamed at me about. I've got to get that off, and I know that.
I've twice run against women opponents, and it's a very different kind of approach. For those of us who have some chivalry left, there's a level of respect... You treat some things as a special treasure; you treat other things as common.
I'm in this wonderful place of life, where everything I'm doing is something I do because I enjoy it.
I'm always flattered when people on the far Left manufacture a new version of being 'offended.' They can be quite creative in finding something that hurts their feelings.
If the Democrats want to insult women by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.
Libido is a normal part of being human. Nothing scandalous about it. But without it, in either women or men, would there be a demand for birth control?
I think that whether someone is a Christian or not, the idea that a human life has dignity and intrinsic worth should be clear enough.
Marriage should be reinforced, not redefined.
I find it unnecessary, useless and frankly a bit unnecessary to get into all sorts of debates over President Obama's religion or the authenticity of his birth. I know for some people that it is an obsession. It is not with me.
I have great respect for people who live out their beliefs. For example, Ed Begley Jr. is an environmentalist, but he really lives his lives, and is he very prudent in the way he lives. He's cautious. He's not like an Al Gore that flies around in a private jet and burns 20,000 gallons a day on his jet.
A lot of people really like Jeb Bush. I'm one of them. I think Jeb Bush is a great guy. He was a terrific governor in Florida. He's smart. He's articulate. So I can certainly understand why people would him an attractive candidate.
One of the things about politics, when you're actually there, you realize, you're on a high wire and there is no net under you. On any given day, your campaign can implode for something that happens inadvertently or even intentionally.
Beyonce is incredibly talented - gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer - without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom.
Government shouldn't try to dictate what art looks like or what it portrays. Last thing we want is government screwing it up, which is what they would do.
Women I know are smart, educated, intelligent, capable of doing anything that anybody else can do.
For Democrats to reduce women to beggars for cheap government-funded birth control is demeaning to the women that I know who are far more complicated than their libido and the management of their reproductive system.
The biggest gap there is in America is not economic; the gap is spiritual and cultural.
Things that have happened with Enron and companies like that, where they've squandered their employees' pension funds, I think it has brought a new level of anxiety. People don't feel like they can trust their employer.
As a governor, I've signed virtually every kind of pro-life legislation that we can sign under existing federal law, none of which have been harsh or punitive, but I think they've been important to really point out a pro-life culture in Arkansas. That's, for me, a good thing.
We have deep roots in Arkansas, and I'll always be a Razorback.
I'm an independent conservative. And what I mean by that - when I think we're right, I'm with us all the way, and I am a conservative. And I think my record reflects that.
I say Republicans aren't right all the time. Democrats aren't wrong all the time - now, maybe most of the time, but not all the time.
Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?
I was a timid little guy when I was a kid. I used humor as a defense; I became the class clown. But deep inside, I felt real vulnerable.
I have often been characterized by one sound bite, and people say, 'That is the whole of Mike Huckabee, because we have him on this off-the-cuff moment.'
To me, there are four F's in a good tax system: it ought to be flatter, fairer, finite and family-friendly.
I never, ever, had a person who could come up with the name of a person who could not get a job because an illegal immigrant had stepped in front of them, because it was either a job that person didn't want to do or didn't exist.
I'm not a reckless person, in the sense that I wouldn't do something that's reckless or dangerous, because I'm a pretty careful person. For example, I don't snow ski. I did it once, and I promised God I'd never do it again if I lived through it.
I'm not against anybody. I'm really not. I'm not a hater. I'm not homophobic. I honestly don't care what people do personally in their individual lives.
Barack Obama seems intent on enrolling more people on food stamps. Mitt Romney's focus is going to be on generating more jobs that will make food-stamps unnecessary for them.
I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me. My working poor parents told me that I could do better.
The fact is there are a lot of things happening at the federal level that are absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution. This is power that should be shifted back to the states, whether it's the EPA - there is no role at the federal level for the Department of Education.
I'm still one who says that we can get rid of the Internal Revenue Service if we would pass the fair tax, which is a tax on consumption rather than a tax on people's income, and move power back where the founders believed it should have been all along.
If Congress wants to mess with the retirement program, why don't we let them start by changing their retirement program, and not have one, instead of talking about getting rid of Social Security and Medicare that was robbed $700 billion dollars to pay for Obamacare.