(CNN) – Several likely GOP presidential candidates have spent the bulk of their time stressing fiscal and economic issues, but Mike Huckabee said Monday that for him the issue of abortion still trumps all other pressing concerns facing the country.
"For me this is an issue that - as I've said before - it transcends all of the political issues," Huckabee said at a fundraiser in Tennessee for the Center for Bioethical Reform, an anti-abortion group.
"I've often said I would gladly lose an election before I would ever yield on the issue of the sanctity of human life," Huckabee added.
The former presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas has not said if he will run for president again, though he is a leading candidate, according to several recent national polls of the hypothetical battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
His comments differ significantly from potential White House rivals who have spoken little of social issues so far this cycle as Americans continue to overwhelmingly point to the economy as the No. 1 issue on their minds.
Anyone thought that he was going to say anything else?
He is, in his mind, a Paladin. Which means that his beliefs are way more important than the actual needs of the population of any place (city, state or... who knows?... country) he might end up governing.
Abortion isn't even on the table. Abortion is legal. End of story.
The BIG story right now is creating jobs in this country. The president is doing everything he can to get our economy back on track and get us working again. The Pubes are doing nothing but wasting time, creating smoke and shouting at the rain.
This is why the Republicans are going to lose big time in 2012. It is the ecnomy stupid.
I've often said I would gladly lose an election before I would ever yield on the issue of the sanctity of human life," Huckabee added.
Keep chruch out of the business of government.
WRONG.... The great majority of Americans couldn't care less about abortion. Besides that, abortion is a social issue, not a political one.
What an idiot. What does he think about the sanctity of life of our troops in combat in 2 wars that are bankrupting this country? You know when Bush did all those supplemental appropriations and did the support the troops bit? How about energy subsidies for the poor and elderly in the North East US? $600 heating bills a month are not uncommon. Or prenatal care for the poor that public health clinics sometimes do? Its time to bury the Republican party under a rock. And put the tax rates for the richest Americans what they were on the day Reagan took office.
Of course the Huckster Bible-thumping pastor would say that. How many of those babies would he adopt before abortion? It's always been my philosophy that if you are anti-abortion great, but you should put your money where your mouth is and adopt one or more. Being an Arkansan myself, ask Huckster how many Mexican illegals did he give free OB/GYN clinics to? Plenty, look it up.
and this is why you will never be President.
When I say he gave free OB/GYN clinics to illegal women, I meant Arkansas taxpayers paid, not out of his own pocket. He also sold for $1.00 a state building to the Mexican Consulate in Little Rock. He's willing to spend other people's money, but then he left our State and moved to Florida, building a mansion there, preventing Arkansas workers some construction jobs.
I give him credit for his convictions. That said, it is why he would not be elected. Right now the economy is the single most important issue we face.
No womb.......No vote. Shut up Huckleberry.
Just what the US needs – a bunch of good ol' boys sitting in the ob/gyn's office telling the doctor and patient what they can do.
Welcome to 1911.
You have got to be kidding me – dude, you have your head where the sun don't shine! As a woman, you, as a man, have no business dictating to women what you believe.
Huckabee might have been a formidable candidate for the Republicans, since he can play to both the cultural and the economic right. But I think pushing the abortion issue to the front is suicidal for him. Republicans can use culture war issues only if they push them in the background, just as they can only win by playing the race card in coded ways, pretending to talk about "crime" or "welfare dependency" or, most recently, the deficit.
"Huckabee: Abortion issue trumps all " On what planet?
Law was settled 30 years ago on abortion, yet the retreads keep condescending to their rabid base and keep them frothing by churing up the same old issues. Move on already, it's 2011.
Where are the jobs??????
For all of those so-called Conservative Christians who think that abortion is either the preeminent or the only issue about which God cares, please read Proverbs 6:16-19 (KJV): "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren..." ..So now before you get up on your high moral horse, realize that God is not only interested in "hands that shed innocent blood", if we want to characterize abortion like that, but ALSO, clearly about a man's personal character and behavior!! Lying, speaking falsely against someone (a la the way Republicans have "murdered" their brother President Obama with their tongue by running him down in the mud), devising wicked imaginations, running to mischief and sowing discord (a la "crosshairs", "2nd Amendment remedies", "socialist/nazi/communist killer of Grandma", etc.) are clearly things that God hates, but for some reasons Republicans who call themselves part of the Christian Conservative Right find it convenient to ignore the other SIX things and focus on abortion (and ignoring the other sanctity of life issues like WAR).
Trying to have cake and eat it too. Can't have government out of your life and try to regulate what people do with their bodies.
Good. I hope he does not win an election for president.
I am glad to hear him say that, it guarantees he has no shot at the White House.
that won't get him far!
Fantastic. So he will only focus on a single issue while our economy, foreign policy and domestic policy will be in the background? Seriously.
Mike Huckabee truly seems to be a nice guy. However, he also seems too far to the right (and might not be electable).
Beyond this, his doubters see him as an ultra-religious version of Gomer Pyle? Not exactly the material one needs to be leader of the free world (but certainly would be a MASSIVE improvement, over an imbecile like Sarah Palin).
Standard-issue right wing-nut.
"it's the economy, stupid" does not ring a bell with them, as they do not believe in history, unless it's written in the bible.
Can't we just go back to the civil war and lose, so the south can be it's own country and leave the rest of us alone?
what a bunch of morons.
I really think he is off on this one... I consider myself conservative, at least fiscally, and as with almost EVERYBODY I know, Abortion and Gay Marriage are the two least important subjects on the agenda. I want to control spending, have low taxes, and not be held hostage by PC special interest groups. This is a ridiculous statement!
It shows the man should not be our President. He's a good guy, but the Presidents job is our financial and physical safety- not that of our personal choice. The reason the Supreme Court has upheld abortion as legel is the Constitutional freedom we are given of choice.