Lyssa Beyer“You know, Chuck (Norris) could’ve looked at the snow and melted every bit of it right now.”
While typically reserved for college students, this joke didn’t come out of a mouth you would expect, as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got a laugh out of the crowd of around 600 at his rally on Monday in the Council Fire Room in Davies Center, making reference to a political endorsement by the actor.
Huckabee stopped in Eau Claire to campaign the day before Wisconsin’s Republican primary, but fell short to Sen. John McCain with 37 percent of the vote to McCain’s 55 percent.
He gave Wisconsin residents admiration for their abilities to weather through the snowy conditions.
“I don’t know of a person in Arkansas personally . that owns a snow shovel,” Huckabee said. “There’s no need, first of all we don’t get this much snow. And if we do, we just stay home because tomorrow, it’ll all melt.”
Chairman of the College Republicans, senior Tom Burton, said this is the first time a Republican presidential candidate visited the UW-Eau Claire campus while campaigning.
Burton said he hoped the rally would influence voter turnout at the primaries.
Despite the stop being last minute, Burton said he thinks it was important to have another candidate on campus and that Eau Claire students have been fortunate to have so much recent exposure to politics.
“I’m glad for the students,” he said. “It’s a good time to be a student (at Eau Claire).”
Huckabee also shared a unique experience with audience members that no other candidate in the presidential race has had the opportunity to do.
“I promise you I’m the only candidate running for president who was invited to sing the national anthem at Lambeau Field,” Huckabee said, explaining that he went on a trip with two other governors to Green Bay and they were invited to tour the facilities, where they ended up on the 50-yard-line. “I told one of the security guards to ask us if we wanted to sing . I told him we’d be delighted.”
Huckabee addressed some of the concerns the national media have had about his continuation in the race even though it seems as though McCain had all but wrapped up the Republican nomination.
“You’ve probably heard some of the national pundits and some of the establishment of the Republican party act as if we all should give up and not even bother because this is supposed to be all over,” he said, “And after all, the people of Wisconsin don’t need to show up and be heard from because the people of New York and California and New Hampshire and Florida have already made the decision for you and we already have the nominee of the Republican party … I think there’s a Wisconsin word for your response to that – bologna.”
He added that elections involve campaigns and the exchange of ideas and can also be “pretty messy.”
“This is not a coronation, it’s an election,” he said. “I didn’t write the rules but I’m playing by them. Until somebody gets 1,191 delegates we still have an election.
“The party is not well-served if it doesn’t have an honest discussion of who it is, where it’s headed. And if the party can’t handle having more than one point of view, then it’s not a very strong party.”
Despite Huckabee’s optimism and no-quit attitude, political science professor Geoff Peterson said he is all but out of the presidential race.
“The only way McCain loses is literally if Huckabee wins all the remaining states by huge numbers until the convention,” Peterson said. “There’s an outside chance, but it’s really virtually zero.”
But Peterson said that Huckabee is staying in the race for similar reasons to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). He said that both are spending a lot of money to vie for a spot they can’t win.
“The fact that (Huckabee’s) still getting 37 percent and pulling in a third of Republicans does send a message to McCain,” he said. “He really clearly needs to try and appeal to that certain chunk of voters if they’re willing to vote for candidates that can’t possibly win rather than vote for him.”
Peterson added that it is possible that Huckabee could be a candidate for vice-president.
Huckabee also used something he called “Huck-a-math” to refute the criticism he’s received for staying in the race.
“We need to be adding to our borders for security … We need to subtract the idea of government spending … we need to be multiplying answers to the real problems we face in this country … and then we need to do some dividing,” he said. “We need to divide up the nonsense in Washington and separate the children from the adults … Somebody’s got to be willing to divide the divisiveness in Washington.”
Sophomore Dan Mason said he felt the rally went really well, adding that Huckabee sounds like a candidate that would take the initiative with policy implementations.
“I like how he sounds compared to other candidates,” Mason said. “He seems more down to Earth and would actually do things instead of just saying it.”
Freshman Lindsey Crooker said Huckabee addressed more than a few issues that stood out in her mind.
“I really liked his stance on pro-life and taxes,” she said. “He sounded like he was very passionate about what he believes in.”
Huckabee also discussed his belief in a fair tax, a complete overhaul of the U.S. tax code and the ultimate extermination of the Internal Revenue Service.
“I don’t want to just tinker with the tax code,” he said. “I want us to kill the IRS before it kills every business in this country.”
Junior Darren Strong said he was impressed that Huckabee actually came to campus and that he didn’t try to bolster support before his rally. He said he liked how forward and open Huckabee was with his beliefs.
“He can get a lot of issues out there that a lot of other (candidates) can’t,” he said.
Sophomore Eric Deans, a Huckabee supporter, said he liked the atmosphere of the rally along with much of the Republican candidate’s message.
“I just liked the fact that his arguments affect education,” Deans said. “I can identify with his economic views too, which is probably the biggest thing for me.”
Huckabee spent a good amount of time discussing his plans to increase the arts and music in schools nationwide, saying that students frequently get bored with math and sciences and need to stimulate both sides of their brains in order to keep the country educationally competitive throughout the world.
“It’s virtually a criminal act we have not stimulated the creativity that is natural to every human being and instead we have stifled it,” he said. “We need music and arts education for every student.”
Junior John Kopp went to the rally to get a feel for Huckabee’s positions before making a decision on whom to vote for.
He added that education and Huckabee’s “no quit” attitude was a big plus, although Kopp wasn’t sure if all of Huckabee’s ideas are possible in practice.
“He had a decent amount of ideas, but I don’t know how effective they could actually be,” Kopp said. “I’m going to be a teacher so obviously education is a big issue for me and he doesn’t give up, which is what I like about him.”
