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On Saturday I saw Gov. Huckabee for the 4th time at the TownLynne Grill. He spoke on a broad range of issues, education, national security, energy policy, etc. I guess I had a better spot to listen than others. While his discussion on each topic was not extensive as this was only a 45 minute stop, he gave a general overview of each of his policies. What I found on interest was that each of these policy statements were intertwined demostrating he understood the complexity and interconnections of the issues. There were no sound bites and promises of single issue solutions through a costly "new program". An example was his view on jobs, energy independance and national security. His points were America is exporting its manufacturing base, and at the same time our economy has become totally dependant on foreign sources of energy. In the ever shifting tides of foreign relations, having our national security tied and dependant upon free and unfettered access to this manufacturing and energy is irresponsible. He then wove in that in pursueing energy independance, our direction should be a combination of multiple sources of clean energy as well as our own natural resources. Thus we can solve multiple issues with one single combined vision. No promises to single special interests, just an overall global plan for solutions.

As a side note: His answers at the TownLynne Grill were very similar to his speech before the International Association of Machinest union back in August. As a union member, I received our Fall Journal just a few weeks ago. In it was announced a historic change, that since union members are both liberal and conservative, the IAM would endorse a candidate from each party. They chose Mike Huckabee as the Republican candidate. This is what union President Thomas Buffenbarger stated as the reason for this endorsement. 

"I was impressed with former Governor Mike Huckabee,"..."He had the guts to tell us where he disagreed with us and the brains to figure out where we might work together". "He didn't tell us what we wanted to hear. He told us what he believed, even when not a single one of us would have agreed with him. That tooks guts. That took conviction - not a bad combination."

Republican, Democrat or Undeclared, if he's in town, go have a listen.