Huckabee Aims To Show He's A Real Hunter

(AP)  Presidential contender Mike Huckabee bagged a pheasant Wednesday, offering Iowa voters the image of an experienced outdoorsman on the hunt, shotgun blasting and dogs braying.

Just a campaign gambit? "Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors," Huckabee said. "It's not something we had to go out and get a primer in. It's very much ordinary to me."

The former Arkansas governor said back home he would be duck hunting on the day after Christmas, but pheasant hunting in Iowa - eight days before the state's leadoff nominating caucuses - was a good substitute. He also offered a lecture declaring that hunting is good for wildlife.

"The truth is hunters are the ones who preserve the species," he said, since hunters have an interest in preserving wildlife and their license fees pay for conservation efforts. "In many cases extinction comes from not having some level of hunting. It's the hunters who actually keep the wildlife alive. A lot of people think that when you hunt you're destroying the wildlife."

Huckabee led a motorcade of photographers along gravel roads in hilly rural Iowa, hopping out of a pickup truck to take to a snow-covered field wearing his bright orange vest along with Dude, an energetic hunting dog. Huckabee and three hunting companions tramped slowly across the field and their shotguns were blasting within minutes.

Of four birds flushed by the party, three were felled. Huckabee claimed the third with his .12-gauge shotgun. He proudly displayed the birds and said jokingly, "See that's what happens if you get in my way."

He also jested about Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident in which a fellow hunter was shot. Asked why Cheney hadn't been invited, Huckabee chuckled, "Because I want to survive all the way through this."

Huckabee's folksy approach and familiarity with hunting offered a contrast with leading rival Mitt Romney, who said early in the campaign that he was a lifelong hunter, only to have an aide say he had been hunting on only two occasions. Romney later said he had hunted more than twice but only for "small varmints" and that he did not own a gun or have a hunting license.

Huckabee said he began hunting at the age of 11.

"It's an opportunity to experience Iowa at its best," he said. "Hopefully we'll just shoot pheasants and not each other. We'll name the pheasant for the other candidates. It gives us a real incentive."

Polls indicate Huckabee has moved ahead among Republicans in Iowa, and he's offering contrasts to the very wealthy Romney.

"The people of Iowa don't want to be forgotten when someone goes to the White House," he said. "People in middle America feel like folks will come and campaign in Iowa and then they get elected and they forget that people out here in flyover land still exist. Some of us grew up in the middle of the country and still live here."

[gunownerdan]

You won''t see Hitlery go hunting.
She would in fact ban that very shotgun that Huckabee is holding if she could.

[hwy71so]

Cheney should''ve stayed in his luxury office suite and left the outdoors to people of the outdoors...

[demwatcher]

I told it wrong. I grew up about 65 miles from him. I missed that by quite a bit.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Hwy71So at 09:34 AM : Dec 28, 2007

Not by as much as Cheney missed his quail. ^_^

[hwy71so]

I told it wrong. I grew up about 65 miles from him. I missed that by quite a bit.

[demwatcher]

I guess I should have said ''Richard'' in my last post.

Stupid, censorship-happy, politically correct CBS A-holes.

[demwatcher]

So, the man can shoot a gun. Big deal.

This reminds me of the story when the elder Bush went quail hunting. Quail - Qayle, get it?

It is comforting to know that we might get another person in the White House with the same marksmanship skills as *** Cheney. Did I just say that?

It''s a shame there are no good shooting stories from the Democrats. This is just a good and funny topic. LOL ^_^

[hwy71so]

So you''re saying that a person can''t have any recoup time? He said it was a tradition in his family to hunt ducks the day after Christmas. Well, he''s not in Arkansas, he''s in Iowa. Pheasants are a suitable sub. Why break with a family tradition just to please a few knucklehead critics?

I grew up about 20 miles from him. I KNOW that hunting is a HUGE part of that area. Most families there rely on it (or have in the past) to supplement their meat supply. Between hunting and fishing, I''d say that a quarter of their meat intake is from the product of their own efforts not merely the frozen foods section down at the piggly wiggly.

I have NOT chosen Huckabee as my candidate. He''s got too many questionables for me. Namely his plans for Iraq and other fiscal things. He just doesn''t strike me as a man of action. But, there are those things we have in common and I''ll not silently sit by while you demean them.

[colonieny]

Why do I feel that this guy is a loon ? We are in serious times, we are at war who is ruthless. I truly believe we need serious leadership and not Utube driven debates, or what more can the gov''t do for poor me questions. Get out of their bedrooms.
We need serious men (or a woman), like Rudy, of Mitch, or Biden or Dodd (Democrats) who tell it like it is, and know something about the world, and wiLL PROTECT US from the crazy Islamic Fascist world of real LOONieS. ( I do not include the Big H or O, since one waffles and triangulates, the other is way too far left- although JFK impressive and eloquent)

[hwy71so]

I imagine he''d went hunting even if the reporters weren''t along.

[grammawhamma]

***...this is even news worthy? What a joke.