Huckabee digs hole deeper

Mike Huckabee says this morning that he stands by his 1992 statements about isolating individuals with aids. From Think Progress, here is what he said this morning on FOX News:

Chris, I didn’t say that we should quarantine. I said it was the first time in public health protocols that when we had an infectious disease and we didn’t really know just how extensive and how dramatic it could be and the impact of it, that we didn’t isolate the carrier.

Chris Wallace of FOX made the point

“seven years before” Huckabee “made” his statement, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) “said that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.”

So there are two problems with Huckabee's answers. First they showed how out-of-touch with reality and the public that Huckabee was and remains. His failure to know about the most important foreign policy news of the week, Iranian NIE, late on Tuesday when it had been released at 10:00 AM Monday shows a similar disconnect from and apparent disinterest in important national events. That has been one of Georuge Bush's really bad traits, and we damned sure don't want to elect Bush's clone as President.

Second, as Steve Benen at TPM points out:

Huckabee's comments were ridiculous and offensive, but at least for his sake they were made 15 years ago. Now, as a presidential candidate, he has an obvious course to take -- claim ignorance and explain how far his understanding has progressed since 1992.

This is a man who has been in politics for nearly two decades, and he hasn't figured out how to deal with issues like a Press question regarding a statement he made 15 years earlier? Charming and witty as he may seem, is he really that much of a slow learner politically?

Not only does Huckabee have the necessary skills or staff he needs to run for President, this incidents strongly suggests that he doesn't have the capacity to learn on his feet and adapt to new but predictable situations. What happens is he had to face a new situation for which no preparation was possible and lives depended on his decisions?

Huckabee doesn't appear ready for prime time, and it rather strongly looks like he never will be. He's trying to skate through the Republican Primaries with a smile and depending on God to give him the result he wants as a miracle.

Surely Huckabee isn't the best the Republicans have to offer? Not just a hater with a smile, but even an ignorant and untrainble smiling hater who can't even assemble a decent staff and listen to them? He's beginning to make Fred Thompson look good. (But only in comparison.)