Huckabee Lifts Up the Values Voter Crowd

Huckabee Lifts Up the Values Voter Crowd

ABC News’ Kevin Chupka reports: More tent revival than political speech, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee reached the audience at Saturday’s "Values Voter Summit" in Washington on a very personal level.  With his experience as a pastor and biblical parallels to almost every issue, Huckabee stirred the crowd to its feet no fewer than six times.  On using the oil from the Middle East he said "A country that can not feed itself, fuel itself or fight for itself…is not longer free…Enough is enough!" and they stood.  He stressed the implementation of the fair tax and the disbanding of the IRS and up they stood.  He suggested impeaching judges that use international law as precedent over the U.S. Constitution and up they stood. 

On immigration, Huckabee took what might be his toughest stand yet saying, "Our freedom is threatened by the broken borders of our own country…it should not be more difficult for us to get on a plane in our hometown than for an illegal to get across the border – our government has failed…Secure our borders and do it now."

On the institute of marriage, Huckabee stressed that "Marriage still means one man one woman, life partners," adding, "I’m tired of people that won’t change the constitution but are willing to change the holy word of God as it relates to marriage." 

He also addressed a moment from earlier this week when he was asked about AIDS prevention.  Huckabee argued that encouraging safe sex is on par with telling abusive spouses to "not hit as hard."  On Saturday he returned to that idea when he said, "We do not have the right to move the standards of God to meet cultural norms we need to move the cultural norms to meet God’s standards."

Huckabee also took a swing at some of his rivals whom he sees as flip-floppers joking "It’s important that someone doesn’t have more positions on issues than Elvis had waist sizes."  He then stressed that electibility must not trump values saying "I don’t spell G-O-D, G-O-P."