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Huckabee Attacks Natalie Portman...

Guys, I think he's thanking his GOD that people are focusing on the Portman part of his comments and not this (from the link in the OP):

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 would not get healthcare.
What's up, party of smaller government, no welfare and no universal healthcare? Did you find another side of your mouth to talk out of?
 
Guys, I think he's thanking his GOD that people are focusing on the Portman part of his comments and not this (from the link in the OP):

What's up, party of smaller government, no welfare and no universal healthcare? Did you find another side of your mouth to talk out of?

I mentioned that in another thread where this quote was brought up.
 
Guys, I think he's thanking his GOD that people are focusing on the Portman part of his comments and not this (from the link in the OP):

What's up, party of smaller government, no welfare and no universal healthcare? Did you find another side of your mouth to talk out of?
Actually, Huckabee has been saying things like that as long as I had known about him. His major disagreement with the rest of Christian Right is that he thinks caring for the poor is part of being Christian.
 
Actually, Huckabee has been saying things like that as long as I had known about him. His major disagreement with the rest of Christian Right is that he thinks caring for the poor is part of being Christian.

It is not even unique to Huckabee, I think that he is just the most prominent Republican to represent the socially conservative but socially conscious part of the party that only marginally supports free market conservatism. In some represpects I think he represents a Christian democracy style of politics that really is not prominent in the US. In the US there is pressure to become more solidly Christian socialist and left leaning or to more fully embrace free market capitalism as a central tenant in the way that other conservative factions do.
 
Yes, most single mothers don't make millions a year. But Portman does. She's doing what's best for her. Furthermore, she's not even a single mother. She's not advising people that to become single mothers, and I haven't heard anyone use her as an example for how single motherhood works.

If Huck wanted to make a point about how being a single mother might not be a great idea, fine; his mistake was making a personal attack on Portman in order to do so.
 
He is a moron. Her has jumped onto the birther wagon, that's how stupid he is.
 
Well now we have established that it's alright to turn out to be a single mother

Yes, most single mothers don't make millions a year.

She's not a single mother!

A single mother is someone who has sole custody of her children, and who is without a partner to take care of them. The father of her child is obviously still in the picture, and there's no reason to think they're going to split.
 
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Ah, interesting... So I can date the same girl for years and still claim I'm single! :cool:

when they fill out any governmental form and it asks Single or Married, what do the non-married but in a relationship people check??
 
when they fill out any governmental form and it asks Single or Married, what do the non-married but in a relationship people check??
Usually the form asks the marital status, so in that context, yes, "single" is the box I check, because it is clear what they mean. But in everyday life, when I have a serious girlfriend, I don't say I'm single... well, at least not in front of her. :D
 
Some unmarried pregnant women who should be left out of the political debate:

- Natalie Portman
- Bristol Palin (a teenager at the time)
- Ann Dunham (a teenager at the time)...and interestingly, the mother of President Barack Obama
 
She's not a single mother!

A single mother is someone who has sole custody of her children, and who is without a partner to take care of them. The father of her child is obviously still in the picture, and there's no reason to think they're going to split.

My first quote was referencing Bristol Palin, and you cut off my second quote before I explicitly stated that Portman is not a single mother.
 
"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 would not get healthcare."

I find this interesting... I'm a single mom (although I was still married when I had The Dolly) and I'm not poor, I'm about 15 hours short of a BS, I have a great job and although I did qualify for WIC and food stamps when I was newly divorced, I've never taken government assistance and we've had health care through my employers.

My ex-husband paid $350 a month (when he actually paid it between being unemployed or in jail) and that didn't go very far given that I put my kid through private school until high school. He's not paid one cent of her college fees and she's in her fourth year.

I'm damn proud of what I've accomplished and having some old man in Washington denigrate that is highly insulting to me.
 
Ah, Jeez. Here we go again.

I keep hearing stupid crap from both sides of the aisle. Usually, it's the Right that gets called on their idiocy, (and yes, they should be), though I'm personally of the opinion BOTH sides should be.

A couple of things stick out for me: Portman is a college graduate, someone who has worked throughout her life to perfect her career in the arts. She's no flake, and never has been. This is a very focused woman who came into this with some highly developed career goals, the vast majority of which she's hit, and due in no small part to a strong work ethic and a sense of personal responsibility that most people ought to emulate, (myself included.)

Bristol Palin was a flaky 16-year-old who foolishly hopped into the sack with her boyfriend without taking any precautions, (or used those precautions poorly), and who has demonstrated she has no intention of getting her life in order to provide a good one for her child. I'm hoping I'm wrong about this; it would be good to see her finish college and get a decent job, thereby contributing to her child's life, instead of being little more than the creator of it.

Huckabee leaves me scratching my head: Why say ANYTHING at all? I realize I've been out on the road for a bit, but I don't remember anyone asking what anyone thought someone like Natalie Portman becoming a mother. (Disclosure: When Peggy and I got married, she was already four months pregnant with our son, Jonathan.) Personally, it looks to me like she and her fiance have gotten and kept their act together, and this kid will probably do well. I suppose as long as Portman doesn't succumb to the urge to buy a minivan, move to the suburbs, and become a soccer mom, this kid will turn out well. (Personally, I recommend rugby over soccer, but then again, I'm biased.)

I realize that leaders have to communicate what they're thinking, but this whole episode comes across as being so mindless, it's embarrassing. It's almost as if a staffer of Huckabee's said, "Hey, Mike! You should say something about Portman being pregnant without being married! That will really appeal to the base!" (As has been pointed out: Yeah, that really worked well for Dan Quayle.)

Sadly, Quayle still gets invited to speak at arch-conservative events. I realize there's a desire to connect with the base, and even a need to expand on that base, but this was so far out in the ozone, as was Quayle's remark, that you have to wonder if they've decided to hit the hypobaric chambers.

My complaint is that the worst thing Candace Bergen and friends did when Quayle shot his mouth off was to say anything at all. He shot himself in the foot, and his political career should have been allowed to bleed out. I understand there's a desire to respond to this, but if they'd said less and allowed the story to play itself out, they'd have undercut even the minuscule support he gets now. Quayle wouldn't have been reduced to a mere laughingstock, he'd have become an absolute nullity, whose words would have counted for even less.

I hope Portman doesn't respond. I hope she ignores this boor, and ABC Radio drops him as a result of his cloddish behavior. Whether he's right or wrong in a broader sense, by saying this, he's demonstrated why he shouldn't be President. He lacks the necessary judgment to keep his mouth closed when doing so would do the most good. He may be a fine political commentator, but this kind of silliness is what I'd expect from someone with less education, less public service experience, and little to offer in compassion or respect. (He's offered neither to Portman.) He can try to spin this as he might, but instead of demonstrating leadership, he's behaving more like a drilling rig, and digging himself deeper into the ground. Yes, Mike. It was an attack. And it was wrong.

And this leaves me with a pet peeve to deal with: I realize this whole incident was foolish and stupid, but I really would rather not see it beaten to death. Nor do we need to demonize Huckabee. He's just one man, and not a particularly bright one if this incident is to judge by, (and by appearances, it is.)

Huckabee said some ill considered things. That doesn't make him evil; it makes him wrong. He's trying to deny he did anything wrong. That doesn't make him evil; it makes him dishonest. The same thing can be said about a number of people on both sides of the aisle, and it can be said about the vast majority of people. On many other points, he might be a fine man, and that can be said about most of the people I know. In all honesty, most folks want to do what's right.

But by not merely being wrong, but being dishonest about it, Huckabee has demonstrated he's part of the 90% of us who should not be in political office. We already have enough people in office who are dishonest, and we're already paying the price for it. (We have enough dishonest people voting, too, but lying, so far, is no bar to voting.)

Frankly, I'm disgusted enough with my own dishonesty that I am trying to confront it head on and end it. I don't see much on the other side of that. One of the things that simply infuriates me about this board, as one example, is the notion that someone can throw up a wall of words, masquerading an ad hominem attack on anyone else from the eyes of the mod team. I can be called a liar, an outright ad hom, but if you phrase it right, the mod team will ignore it, and tell you to suck it up. It sort of takes the fun out of spending time here.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised by the vehemence of some on this thread regarding Huckabee's vitriol against Portman. There's not a lot of difference between the cruelty of what Huckabee said and the false imputation of meaning to the posts of others, (underhanded and dishonest), the accusations of some that a politician is trying to kill people because he does or does not support a bill, (regardless of whether that bill is the Health Care Bill, or anything regarding "Death Panels"), or the twisting of quotes or arguments presented just to make a point.

Sometimes, I think some folks here are of the view, "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." If winning an argument is the only thing, then it's nothing. It is utterly worthless. Huckabee demonstrates this remarkably well. As long as he isn't responded to, I'm willing to bet his supporters won't have the ability to claim that he's being attacked by them mean ole Atheists. He might have won an argument in the eyes of some, but he's lost anything of any real value.

Portman seems to demonstrate that, with a very strong sense of grace, integrity, and intelligence.

(Personal to Ms. Portman: Pampers. Lots and lots of Pampers. Trust me. You will need more of them than you realize. I'm a grandfather. I know this.

(Good luck, Kiddo.)
 
"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 would not get healthcare."

I find this interesting... I'm a single mom (although I was still married when I had The Dolly) and I'm not poor, I'm about 15 hours short of a BS, I have a great job and although I did qualify for WIC and food stamps when I was newly divorced, I've never taken government assistance and we've had health care through my employers.

My ex-husband paid $350 a month (when he actually paid it between being unemployed or in jail) and that didn't go very far given that I put my kid through private school until high school. He's not paid one cent of her college fees and she's in her fourth year.

I'm damn proud of what I've accomplished and having some old man in Washington denigrate that is highly insulting to me.

You are one classy chassis. Nominated.
 

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