Thanks for the article.KyCardinalFan wrote:I did like Huckabee's elimination of the IRS and creating a national sales tax, but really that's all I knew of his platform.
There really wasn't much too his platform. Fair tax and energy independence within 10 years regardless of the price were his main stump speaking points along with some social issues...preventative healthcare was big. Obviously, abortion was big though I only heard him talk about it once.
After one of the stops he was making on a cross country tour, he was walking around, shaking everyone's hand. A couple minutes passed and most of the atendees had left or were walking out and he was getting ready to get back to his entourage. I just walked up as close as I could get to him and stood at the rope they had. He saw me looking at him and came over and I shook his hand and introduced myself and asked him how everything was going and we talked for a minute or two. He said he was tired and needed sleep more than anything and felt bad for his wife because she was just as tired as he was. By this point a couple more people had come over and we were all just kind of kidding around.
He asked what I thought of the stump speech. And, I was completely taken aback. Had no idea how to respond so i stuttered something stupid like, uh, it was good, uh, yeah, uhhhhhhhhhhh. He's like no, honestly, do you agree with what I'm saying, do I come across as well-informed, can you relate to my message, what don't you like? I was so blindsided by this, I didn't know what to say, so I was honest and told him I thought the fair tax was less likely to happen than America starting a colony on Mars during his Presidency and if a miracle happened and it did get passed that it couldn't possibly work. And, he kind of chuckled and in what I believe was a sincere honest answer that wasn't politicking trying to get me to vote for him he said this "Well, I think it can. And, even if it can't, we need ot change the system we have today. It's crippling our lower and middle classes and by eliminating taxes on used goods (cars/houses/etc...he didn't say that, just throwing it in so you all know what I'm talking about), goods that these classes usually rely on, and offering them checks that will refund what taxes they do pay, I think we can help them out. How it all works, I'm not 100% and I have to learn it front and back by the time the debates roll around, but there are some really smart people, much more intelligent than myself, that have studied it and have crunched the numbers and are sure it will work. Not to say I don't know what I'm talking about, I do, or that it won't work, it will, just that there are people that formulated this and they know a heck of a lot more about it than I do. If you are so inclined, please look them and their idea up at FairTax.org."
He shook my hand and thanked me for coming out and the honest answer and I wished him luck and he shook everyone elses hand there (now about 40 people) and they left the building to go to another town. I assume it was on a plane, though I never saw it.
After that I was like, well, I guess he has my vote, regardless of what his social views are.
