Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee isn’t quite sure what former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush meant when he said this week that a good presidential nominee should "lose the primary to win the general without violating your principles."
But Huckabee, who ran for the GOP nomination in 2008, said on "America’s Forum" on
Newsmax TV on Wednesday that he thinks Bush may have been trying to say that a candidate need not expend all of his political capital in the primary "trying to go too far pleasing some more of the most idealistic and ideological people in the party that it makes it impossible for you to win the general."
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"I don't think that's necessary," Huckabee added. "I don't think you have to go out and sacrifice your convictions. What people look for more than they look for checking off all the boxes in some doctrinal state, they're looking for authenticity. It's not that they expect you to agree with them on every issue. They at least expect you to agree with yourself and after eight years of watching
President Obama say one thing and then doing something completely different and openly lying to us about Obamacare, Benghazi, now immigration law.
"People just want someone who will be straight and honest with them. They can handle the truth; what they can't handle is another series of one lie after another."
On the topic of immigration, Huckabee said Americans won’t be inclined to line up with Congress until the borders are secured.
"Everything we do before we do that is just an invitation for millions of people to get here as quick as they can, to get in on free education, free healthcare, all sorts of benefits that we can't afford to give out," he said. "People need to come here ready to contribute rather than coming here ready to receive. We're $18 trillion in debt. We welcome immigrants who want to come help build America, but we can't be the unloading dock for everybody who wants free services at the expense of taxpayers who are struggling to get their own kids educated, struggling to put groceries on their own table.
"The fact that many, most wages for workers in America have stagnated over the past 20 years and as a result of that, the last thing we ought to be talking about is how do we make it possible for more people to come here on the government dole? We need to be talking about how do we make it possible for more hard-working Americans to succeed and get at least a rung or two up on the ladder of the American Dream."
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