mike huckabee's got to make a living, we all do. ke explaining his latest hustle to the longest-running, out-right crazy person in broadcasting, pat robertson. >> former governor mike huckabee joins us now from little rock. mike, good to have you back on "the 700 club," welcome. >> thank you very much, pat, it's a delight to be here. i know you too are a student of history and like me are frustrated so many kids don't have a clue about the real american history and how great a country we really have. >> what are you teaching in this series you're doing? >> well, one of the things we want to do is to show that american history is very positive, that this is a good country. so many kids today, 25% of high school seniors surveyed did not know who the first president was. less than 3% of high school students could answer even three out of ten questions on the citizenship test. we have really a history deficiency among young people, so the purpose of this is to take these animated videos, they are very watchable for kids, they are designe

he's throwing his full support behind pawlenty, that is meaningful. >> former arkansas governor mike huckabee is going to join gospel singer and presidential candidate herman cain on stage at the iowa straw poll in ames this weekend. what? (laughter) >> jon: huckabee you double booked the ames iowa straw poll? for rick santorum will be there. his tent boasts rick santorum summer dance party which, by the way, is the lowest testing bet pilot ever. (laughter) (cheers and applause) >> jon: hi, everybody, who here likes to cha-cha. remember leave room for jesus. (laughter) of course, if summer dance parties are not your thing, perhaps you would like some of rick santorum's homemade peach jelly. they're handing out samples of their peach jelly. wow. rick santorum must really be trying to change the search results that come up when people google santorum and jelly. now rick-- (applause) rick, it's the ames straw poll. it's all about the tent. please tell me you've got something different that's going to bring people to your tent. >> how about mike huckabee, remember him the former governor of arkan

up next, huckabee. ♪ >> mike: welcome to huckabee.onight what america's credit downgrade really means to you and what does it take for us to get upgraded again. charlie will be with us to explain it all . did congress and washington make that debt ceiling deal to avoid a downgrade or get reelected. democrat charlie rangel and republican david dryyer are here and much more on special edition of huckabee. glad you are with us tonight. plause plause >> mike: let me say after friday's view that standard and poor's downgraded the credit rating for the first time ever there is a scramble to understand and interpert. the news came out of the a tepid jobs report. even that was tained by revelations that it was largely because so many people simply quit looking for a jobb. maybe that is not the entire story. in a week of bleak economic news, president obama celebrated his 50th birthday with a 35,800 dinner in chicago and then blew out the candles on the cake and the walls of the white house with stevie wonder and tom hanks and a listers from h

i guess the question is why isn't mike huckabee running this year?s is a guy who would be walking away with this, wouldn't he. >> he doesn't want to. >> i think if he had gotten in, he would have been very strong in iowa, very strong with south carolina. strange a guy with that much strength didn't run. now he's looking at a race, two guys in the race that will be left with a party that dominated by two guys e who he doesn't particularly like. >> there's no do it though the people of iowa love mike huckabee, don't they? these caucus-goers love the guy. >> no question he's got a constituency here. he did pretty well in south carolina last time. he had a lot to build on. the big question, as i said before, can rick perry come in? he's got a great historical relationship with religious leaders, a lot of whom tried to get huckabee in the race. home schoolers, religious conservatives, social conservatives. there's been a vacuum not just for a romney alternative but a strong plausible -- >> if i were mitt romney three years ago i would have tried to make p

huckabee. ♪ >> mike: welcome to huckabee.onight what america's credit downgrade really means to you and what does it take for us to get upgraded again. charlie will be with us to explain it all . did congress and washington make that debt ceiling deal to avoid a downgrade or get reelected. democrat charlie rangel and republican david dryyer are here and much more on special edition of huckabee. glad you are with us tonight. plause plause >> mike: let me say after friday's view that standard and poor's downgraded the credit rating for the first time ever there is a scramble to understand and interpert. the news came out of the a tepid jobs report. even that was tained by revelations that it was largely because so many people simply quit looking for a jobb. maybe that is not the entire story. in a week of bleak economic news, president obama celebrated his 50th birthday with a 35,800 dinner in chicago and then blew out the candles on the cake and the walls of the white house with stevie wonder and tom hanks and a listers from h

>> mike huckabee, one-time presidential candidate and full-time fox news contributor profiting from 9/11. we ask a firefighter who lost his son on that tragic day. >>> moments ago, president obama signed into law a bill to raise the debt ceiling and stave off a historic default. and now the halls of congress are spilling out, and lawmakers heading home after a fractious race to reach an agreement. the senate signed off earlier this afternoon voting in favor of the measure by a count of 74-26. before the historic vote was cast, senate majority leader harry reid summed up what this fight may best be remembered for. >> the new senators and the new members of congress who came here, i welcome them all, but a result of the tea party direction of this congress in the last few months has been very, very disconcerting and very, very unfair to the american people. >> and the bill then headed to the desk of the president for his signature, but not before he stepped to them cameras in the rose gardenb and said it is time to move on, and that there is so much more work to be done. >> when congres

mike huckabee. let's welcome governor huckabee. >> great to be here sean.atch your show. what a weekend for politics. anybody who is a political junkie, this is the place to be. >> sean: iowa has been a very good state to you. >> yes. i did a chapter in a book the first chapter was called "i love iowa." >> sean: i'm not surprised. every state seems to have a different dynamic. iowa, family values, a big, big part of people's concerns in government. new hampshire, live free. you go to south carolina and move around the country. is there a certain -- for example, to win iowa, what does it take? >> first iowa people have an knowing when someone is real and authentic and when someone is not. one of the things that is of benefit to the rest of the country, people gripe how come iowa gets so many attention? the people of iowa do america a favor by filtering the candidates. star struck because somebody is running for president. you walk up and say i'm running for president they go oh my gosh. they say yeah i haven't met you six times yet. people here will ask toug

because mike huckabee came in second, not romney. >> that's true.understand he talks to a higher authority. so he got the word from a higher authority. he did make the right decision. as you know, if you come back eight years later, nixon came back eight years later after losing in 1960. reagan actually came back eight years later, lost, but stayed with it. he finally won in 1960. george bush lost in 1980. to reagan. was vice president under reagan. he came back. so the four-year itch is what has gotten romney and all of the other individuals, 14 of them, who failed to get the nomination the first time. and thomas dewey and adelai stevenson both nominated for president, losing, came back four years later, nominated again, lost again. >> and what is it about the four years later that -- is it just too soon to ask voters to change their mind about you? because, i mean, if you lost four years ago, that means a lot of people voted against you four years ago. >> i think you're right. let's just take romney for an example. fascinating situation. in 2008,

like allen keys, a very good thing for paul robertson's career, also good for mike huckabee, mike huckabeewas he going to win the republican nomination? who cares, when all was said and done, he was a host. four books, plus audiobooks, got his history dvds for kids. one of the reasons mike huckabee said he wasn't going to run this time is because he'd be walking away from a pretty good income. there is a reason there is not a broad democratic party parallel here. i mean, there are individual democratic candidates here and there that have tried to do the same thing, but the republicans do this wholesale, every year, a lot of their candidates are following this path, that's because the conservative movement that overlaps with the, is in constant need with conservative celebrities. they've created this market. becoming a conservative celebrity, speaking things and the publications and direct mail and giant tv network and religious tv networks, the conservative movement needs celebrities, people who whether or not they have won political offices are famous for being conservative. they just nee

former alaska governor mike huckabee won the iowa caucuses. now he is playing a very different role in this year's iowa straw poll. that of entertainer, not candidate. he also, of course, hosts a weekend show on this network. governor huckabee joins us live from little rock. >> good to be with you, bret. i look forward to get back to iowa and i understand it's nice weather so we have a lot to look toward to and politics with the straw poll. >> bret: governor, it's great already. you can feel the excitement here. listen, you not running this year. but there is a new fox news poll out, just today. 3% of respondents to our fox news poll volunteered your name as their choice for president. more support than tim pawlenty, rick santorum and jon huntsman. the question is are you coming back to get back in? >> well, the question is what is wrong with the rest of 297% that did not name -- rest of the 97% that did not name nein the poll? that's what hurts my feeling. at 3% i'd hardly call it a stinging mandate to jump back in things. i am frankly lookin

vicious attack on mike huckabee for putting together an educational cartoon of 9/11.overnor will be here. how is god doing? new poll asks americans to rate his job performance moments away. videos, the newest one on 9/11. >> who could do something like this al qaeda led by object. >> the time for jihad is upon us. death to americans. >> bill: obviously the dvd is directed toward children. the far left doesn't like them at all. they are featuring people who are slamming governor huckabee. >> i think he has no shame at all. it's like blood money. i saw this video. i mean, going out there and trying to make money off the bodies of dead people. i mean, i saw the video. the video is -- it should be done by educators and child psychiatrists. not done by politicians. >> bill: now, that man jim riches is a retired new york city deputy fire chiefs who son also a fighter was killed on 9/11. joining us from little rock, arkansas is governor huckabee. so, were you surprised about the reaction and negative reaction on the left about these dvd's? >> bill, nothing surprises me anymo

. >> mike: we have time for one more question. >> governor huckabee, what advice do you have for presidentbama in case he's watching in terms of immediate action he needs to take? >> mike: i know he watches this show every week. he pays no attention but get rid of geithner. even if it doesn't change the policy you got to give the american people a sense you are doing something different than what you are doing . the next thing he has got to call in people from the republican party and say guys, i know we have been fighting. we are in this together and figure out what to do to get a treasury secretary we can believe in and get the country back track. good policy is good politics. this period - president thinks that god politics is good policy. he needs to take care of the policy and i wish he would take this piece of advice. maybe he will. charlie, thank you for being here. always a pleasure. speaking of charlie and new york representative charlie rangel said christians ought to be liberals. he is having a hard time [ male announcer imagine all of your missed opportunities in one place. ♪ t

mike huckabee said that. well, i have great respect.ct for mike huckabee. he was terrific. i think he would have gotten the nomination. but he had lots of considerations. so if he said that, i'm greatly honored. >> gretchen: would you do it? >> it would be very painful for china and opec. it would be very painful for many of the countries that are just ripping us off. when you look at brazil and all of these countries. we gave $2 billion for brazil to drill oil wells in brazil! it's hard to believe. so well i just appreciate mike huckabee very much. >> eric: what should geithner do? >> i think he should move to another position. i think he should go into the private sector because he certainly hasn't told this nation how to get rich. i think it's time for a change. obama always said, time for change. you know what the change is? close to default, downgrading, lots of other things. we had some change with obama. i think it's time for president obama to bring in somebody new that knows what he or she is doing. >> gretchen: but that would

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guest: i had a conversation this morning with mike huckabee from arkansas. very fond of iowa and and he won the caucus here. he had very sharp things to say about governor perry. on the one hand, he seemed irritated that he was raining on the parade of iowa, using his words, and taking that underwear from what had been organized and promoted as the biggest political event of the summer for the political party nationally. he did not understand strategically why gov. harry should share the spotlight with the winner of the straw poll by giving a speech in south carolina when the vast majority of the political media is here. it did not make sense to governor huckabee. i thought was interesting. clearly, he enters with a lot of potential and excitement and he will be a serious candidate from the beginning. he will tour i was starting tomorrow and will be watched very closely. host: according to your colleagues over at "the new york times," money will not be a factor in he has raised and it -- in excess of $100 millino. -- million. guest: in as a lot of people who

to announce the same day because of the importance of ames and i will former arkansas governor mike huckabee who came in second in ames and went on to win the iowa caucus last time around is calling it a major tactical blunder by the way the huckster will be making it very clear who he supports tomorrow by playing his bass guitar for santorum and herman cain but joining us now from the ground in ames iowa. for the straw poll that has had a better sense of why this event is given such importance we are joined tonight by artie's artie america's own christine for is out there saying thanks so much for being with us tonight and adam aria outstanding so from what you're seeing there do the people of iowa this year in this in this particular election especially those in ames of course do they have a sense of the extra weight that their votes carry what americans put so much stock in the results of early primary or caucus states like iowa. yeah it's really interesting out and when you think about it i mean when you look at the fifty states in this country iowa ranks thirty in terms of population so

there's mike huckabee playing backup for him. all right. let's go to break on a little music.ave i got a surprise for you! [ barks ] yeah, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. >>> we've been talking online today about the challenges president obama faces with a faltering economy and his approval rating at an all time low. even some democrats now pushing him to do more. will it mean a liberal challenger in the democratic primary? patrick miller writes in ses, no way. all we want is president obama to show the republicans right wing extremists and the tea party that he is boss. we still have hope and want to see the complete change in washington that we were promised. cheryl writes, as an avid supporter of obama its saddens me to say yes, i think another democratic could and should challenge him in the primary. my choice, hillary clinton. couldn't we all just tell her we made a terrible mistakes. another

. ♪ ladies and gentlemen, governor mike huckabee. [applause] >> mike: thank you very much . a great audience we have got and welcome to huckabee from the fox ews studio in new york city. i like music a whole lot and you know we use music on the show and so tonight, i thought i would give you the weekend news, but i am doing it from help with favorite songs if you thought the stock market had a bad week it was nothing compared to the past week for president obama. he had such grand plans that were supposed to be intended to be something special. ♪ ♪ traveling salvation show. >> mike: yes, brother love traveling salvation show was the attempted approach on the bus tour and despite tanking job numbers the u.s., taxpayers bought a couple of buses from a canadian company. ♪ >> mike: the magic bus . mitt romney called it the magical misery tour. ♪ every day is a winding road. >> m <> ike: and it was certainly a winding road for the president out there, but even though he had bumps, he traveled all over the upper midwest. ♪ he was a bus rider for a few days out there and even so he

mike huckabee who lost the 2008 straw poll, won the caucus had this to say. >> he may decide he's not play iowa at all. maybe that's what this decision by announcing on the day of the straw poll is about. but i guarantee you, you watch, the other candidates will beat the daylights out of him for not respecting the straw poll, so will the iowa republican party. out there the conversations on the streets will be it's bad form to make the announcement on the day that the attention was in iowa. >> iowa expert mike huckabee, how can you argue with that? >> i love how he refers to the streets -- the streets of iowa will rise up against you. >> a very strong conservative base in iowa that will play well for whom rick perry is going to play well. whether there's going to be fist fistacuffs, he's overplaying how much of a tactical error this may be. >> thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks. >>> rick perry was not the first person to think up ways to draw attention away from the debate, guess whose butts just rolled in to iowa? that's coming up. but first, steven colbert is usin

. >> frfs from mike huckabee.s not pulling any punches about the treasury chief and is not the only one. many republicans are fired up and we're going to talk to one of them live, straight ahead. bill: what does this mean, consumers across the country trying to figure out how this downgrade will impact them. some experts say it may not be as bad as you think. >> i don't think interest rates are going to skyrocket but they'll certainly go up. but if somebody is serious about making a big purchase, i think there's still enough strength & in the consumer -- strength in the consumer psyche it's not going to affect them. if it happened four years ago, consumers felt they had to take care of themselves anyway. bill: what do you think? does the u.s. deserve a downgrade? that's the question of the day, foxnews.com slash "america's newsroom", log on, tell us what you think. at the moment, more than 1200 votes and 96 percent of you say yes, we live beyond our means, and this was deserved. so throughout the next hour, contin

today's question is mike huckabee's cartoon needed for the historical record?s year marks the tenth anniversary on the september 11th act. how is it being remembered? if you ask mike huckabee, not accurately. >> schools across the country have turned their backs on our children by distorting facts and imposing political biases and changing the lessons behind the lessens of our important history. >> so he produced an educational cartoon about 9/11. >> no! >> who would do something like this? al qaeda is led by osama bin laden. >> death to the americans! >> the u.s. and allies broke apart al qaeda and cut off bin laden from his followers and his money. >> i can hear you. and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon! >> although in this preview, the cartoon does say osama bin laden is deceased, and it negligents to mention who gave the order to kill him. you did see president bush speaking at ground zero however, and it's charging $9.95 of the history lesson. that has some advocates up in arms. the fire chief said rolling out the video

hate to say i told you so but i told you so, not nearly so modest, former presidential candidate mike huckabee who says this deal was over-the-top. >>governor huckabee: the best description is someone who said when people said we resolve the the debt crisis because we got a debt deal is like saying we raised blood alcohol level which you are drink so we have solved drunk driving. that's really the way we have approached this. if we lift up the ceiling, the debt and all the problems in the economy are resolved. no. we extended the inevitable train wreck we are all riding the train and expecting to happen. >>neil: what do you mean by that? i was told that 400 pounds was my ideal weight. there was a moment, some republicans were buying the notion, and you do not get the dole done there will be hell to pay not market and we were chatting about this, i think the markets are more pressingly concerned with a slow down or double dip the stuff that has been in evidence the last couple of weeks. having said that, why can't they say oops? >>governor huckabee: that is the question. the white house is unab

let's ask a former campaign manager for mike huckabee. great to see you.rt out by talking about some of the candidates who are not spending a lot of time in iowa you think of romney, huntsman, johnson are they cutting their also? >> they are. but i think it is a huge mistake to skip the early primary states, especially iowa. as you saw it give mike huckabee to get in the national arena and do well. governor romney gets a little buy since he participated the last time. for these other candidates a great chance to test organizational skills. >> shannon: there are folks who are not taking part in the straw poll because they are not in yet. sarah palin, perry out of texas. do they miss out by not being in on this early activity? >> i think sarah palin is such a big name she can stay out and be okay. governor perry is the same way. here's been so much buzz with governor perry. i think governorbkd perry playig smart politics and maybe you will start hearing about him five minutes after the straw poll. talking about when and what he will do to get in the race in

former arkansas governor mike huckabee rejoins me. governor rick perry is in.s that shake up this race, number one? number two, does it matter that he's not here in ames and debate thursday night? >> it changes the race in that you have a very strong candidate coming in. he'll have lots of money. he's the governor of a large state. he'll have a lot of grassroot support not just from texas, but attracted to the tea party and fighting with michelle bachman to be able to sort of garner that and become the candidate of the tea party. here is the challenge: he made this decision on the day when the centre of the political universe is not in south carolina. it's in ames, iowa. the press a team, the varsity from every news organization of the world is here today. he has made this announcement with basically the b team coverage. he shares what ever announcement he made with the bigger story of what's going on in ames. it seems to me that that was a tactical error. i know people will say, i'm -- i'm one of the people saying that. he's smart, he took away the steam of it

>> critics accusing mike huckabee cashing in on 9/11 selling a cartoon about the attacks. today. a party in the rose garden at the white house. we are told no public money will be used to pay for it. last night the president flew to chicago to celebrate the milestone and had two campaign fund-raisers. you're caught up on today's headlines. "american morning" will be back after the break. ♪ >>> good morning, indianapolis. partly cloudy there. a beautiful morning there. 70 degrees and mostly sunny. an awesome day. >> we are working around the places in america that are beautiful, 70 and 80 today because a big section that is not. >> cameras are melting in all of the other places. >>> a star on the gridiron and big screen, bubba smith has died. the l.a. coroner's office has not determined the cause of death and not believed to be suspicious. smith won a super bowl with the baltimore colts. whole new generation of fans knew him as moses hightower from the "police academy" movies. he was 66 years old. >>> he battled against muscular dystrop dystrophy. now jerry lewis is out. mda

mike huckabee won iowa the last time around.cular voters not voting for him, let's worry about that in about a year. i think that rick perry can appeal to evangelicals is a big bonus to him. by the way, he will go up against michele bachmann who also has a claim to that constituency and i think rick perry because of his executive experience and his appeal to the establishment of the gop can kind of appeal to growth groups. where i think bachmann might be more limited to the grass roots. >> matt, you and i usually debate. but you are right that it seems that he is coming into this formidable because look at the polls. he has come in and just the early indications says that he is pulling up. pulling ahead. mitt romney is at 23. he is at 18. michele bachmann down to 13. so he can't be somebody that you sneeze at. but isn't he kind of like, stepping on everybody else's story? the first big poll is the aims poll this weekend and he just happens to decide on the day that everyone's in iowa waiting 07b the straw poll, he is going to ne

what won it for mike huckabee back in 2008 was the christian community coming to mike huckabee's side reagan and mike huckabee. in reality neither one of them really reached out so overtly to the christian community. the christian community, however, reached out to them. the moral majority ronald reagan didn't drive to and say, please support me. they came to him because of his views. and the governor of texas would be smart to let people come to him instead of many overtly going to them. shannon: there is at least one group that has filed a lawsuit. this is going to happen this weekend. they are trying to get it stopped. they think it's improper. they've lost at initial level. they've gone to the next level, appealed it to the fifth circuit hoping to get it stopped before it takes place this weekend. does that actually serve as a benefit to the governor? if you can say you're being attacked and being able to fight back does it make it look like he's the good guy here? >> well, in many ways it does. the old reality is, at least spell my name right if you're going to be talking about m

>> well, the thing is who is supporting mike huckabee for 2008 who has not come out for michele bachmannhows that there is a lot of evangelical leaders and national evangelical leaders standing on the sidelines and i have talked to some of them getting phone calls from rick perry's people and in touch with the campaign and quite literally waiting for perry to get in, and bachmann's play is the mike huckabee play, and he sort of shores up the social conservative vote and gets the tea party and moves forward and if perry comes in, he is going to compete with her strong for the social conservative vote, and have something that she is not going to prove that she has which is not going to play in the national election. >> and the portrait of michele bachmann has generated controversy, and i have written about myself, and editor tina brown said that michele bachmann's intensity is galvanizing the voters in iowa and "newsweek's" cover captures it. >> that was not intensity, but crazy eyes, and that photo made her look kind of crazy, but it would be inappropriate if the michele bachmann didn't m

last time around mitt romney spent more than $2 million to win the straw poll, only to lose to mike huckabeee'll be up in new hampshire perhaps ceding the state to michele bachmann or surprise comeback from tim pawlenty or ron paul, and with sarah palin rolling in with the bus tour and rick perry jumping in the race, it is sure to be one of the most unpredictable straw polls in years. all of this in a crucial swing state where president obama is vulnerable in 2012. let's get more now with the democratic strategist julian epstein in san francisco, and julian, thank you for being here. i want to first ask you about the debate last night. you have actually debated michele bachmann in the past. and how do you think that she did? >> i thought she did very well and last night's debate exploded the myth among the democrats that we have a weak republican field, and the democrats ought to disabuse themselves off that, and most of the republican candidates and particularly people like newt gingrich and bachmann and pawlenty all showed they debate very, very well, and they are quick on the feet and sub

mike huckabee won the caucus us four years ago on the strength of his support from the social conservative part of the party but a lot of those folks today are just as worried about economic issues as some of the social issues. gwen: especially after the week we just had. >> right. we have a different environment this time than we've had in the past. gwen: let's talk about expectations for the straw poll and whether the straw poll matters. there's a lot of mixed debate about that, whether it's really that important or a showcase for the most committed and engaged voters. >> well, you can argue that the straw poll has passed its prime. the frontrunner, mitt romney, is not actively competing. rick perry, who is high in the polls, even though he's not an official candidate, will be elsewhere and you have some of the people who are well down in the polls actually exeething. so what comes out of this? the other reality is that somebody who doesn't do as well as they are expected to do could find themselves threatened to be driven out of the race. and it's unclear whether an event like this shou