The Associated Press has an article about how Mike Huckabee is blaming the “Hollywood media” for distorting his comments – which, in this case seems to mean reporting exactly what he said. His beef with Portman was that she’s pregnant out of wedlock and that sends “the wrong message.”
“One of the things that is troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, ‘Hey look, we’re having children, we’re not married, but we’re having these children, and they’re doing just fine.’
Earlier in the week, Huckabee criticized Obama for, in essence, being un-American.
Huckabee suggested in a radio interview on Monday that President Barack Obama’s childhood in Kenya shaped his worldview — even though Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
Later, he corrected himself by replacing Kenya with Indonesia, and doubling down by saying that Obama didn’t grow up going to Boy Scouts, so that means he’s Different.
Simply put, Huckabee needs to pick better targets. I’m not sure he could’ve picked two people who better exemplify what you can do with hard work and talent. Obama’s improbable rise and (at least apparently) story book family is pretty well known at this point.
Portman, in addition to her well known acting efforts, appears to be crazy smart.
As a student, Portman co-authored two research papers that were published in professional scientific journals. Her 1998 high school paper, “A Simple Method To Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar,” co-authored with scientists Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward, was entered in the Intel Science Talent Search, in which she was named a semifinalist. In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called “Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence” during her psychology studies at Harvard.
And, of course, she’s got good comedic chops:
If Huckabee wants to criticize media portrayals of the prospects of single mothers, I suppose he could start with Bristol Palin. But, even if he doesn’t want to wade into that political thicket and just wants to make political hay criticizing the lives of movie stars, it’s a target rich environment. But Portman is not that target. His attempts to portray Obama as The Other is just cynical politics. Even if you hate his politics, Obama’s personal history is pretty much in line with what we tell our kids to do — work hard, excel, choose a good spouse, raise your kids right.
In short, I used to have an impression of Huckabee as someone with whom I disagreed but who was essentially likable. This past week has seen him throw his likability into the toilet.
The epidemic of pre-marital pregnancies transcends morality. Most unmarried mothers are not millionaire movie stars. They are teens with little life experience and education. Many have no family infrastructure to support them or their children.
Mike Huckabee’s assessment was dead-on accurate: Portman IS sending the wrong message.
Let’s play the bigot card in defense of Obama. The Red Team hates him because he is “different.” Shallow.
In no way is Portman a relevant target. She’s also glamorizing being ridiculously smart and talented and not having kids until you’re self-sufficient. Under those conditions, her marital status means nothing except to a guy like Huckabee who has decided to be judgmental for profit.
In “defense” of Obama? I’m attacking Huckabee. The only reason for his nonsense about Obama’s Kenyan upbringing and lack of Boy Scout activity is to stir up fear of the Other? Don’t like his policies? Fine. Identify one and explain why it’s wrong. This business about how he’s Different and so we can’t trust him is crap, and Huckabee is to be blamed for trying to use that tactic.
Sometime difference makes a difference.
If Obama was raised to hate American ideals of liberty, that difference makes a difference from the Boy Scout (or Viet Nam veteran) who was raised to respect American liberties.
Portman’s patience in getting pregnant may resonate with you and me, but how does it play with the starry-eyed 15-year-old whose wisdom ceiling is capped by “what’s cool”?
Kids can’t copy Portman’s intelligence but they can immulate her behavior; be “cool like the movie star.”
I still think Huck’s observation was appropriate.
I will grant the Portman comments raise a valid point, legitimate for discussion. But the constant effort to portray Obama as “different” is intended to remind people that he’s black, and therefore automatically “other.”
One smart and responsible parent is better than two married shitty parents. I see both scenarios every day. It’s about quality of care and not about a vow taken before God, a judge, or anybody.
Sheila makes a good point. It’s called “race baiting.”
Doug, I often wonder why liberals never complain when blacks attack Whites or Asians because they are different.
Your thoughts?
According to Scouts International, the parent organization of Boy Scouts, Indonesia has approximately 17 million registered scouts to the U.S.’s roughly 4 million as of Dec 2010. http://scout.org/en/content/download/22261/199900/file/Census.pdf
And Bart, it isn’t race baiting when someone just volunteers an opinion as Huckabee did. Your argument is basically that he is different – therefore his patriotism is in question. If that isn’t the definition of prejudice, I don’t know what is.
And all the liberals I know would answer your last question the same way: any violence based on race, creed, religion, etc. is unacceptable. You seem to be the one with the hang up on race. Nobody is baiting you. You are flying your prejudiced colors all on your own.
America needs to have a serious conversation about race WITHOUT liberals racebaiting and WITHOUT liberals accusing White people of being bigots and WITHOUT excusing black-on-White and black-on-Asian crime.
Yes. I’m hung up on race when hatred is involved.
But, first, America needs to have a serious conversation about income inequality and its effects without accusations of envy and sloth.
We’re unlikely to have any discussion without bringing our own prejudices to the table as measuring sticks. Every argument YOU bring up will be measured by MY metrics before I respond. And let’s be honest, we all have our easily digested ideas about who’s right/ wrong/ good/ bad/ like me… or OTHER.
If we honestly started any of those debates with laying out our own mindsets, maybe we’d have a chance of getting beyond them to see the way the other person sees it.
But then we’d have to abandon our Idea that only one way is right – ours.
Just in news yesterday.
Ohio had done away with all corporate income tax so that’s why they have to get rid of collective bargaining and have retired public employees pay more money out of pocket.
Ohio has to balance the budget.
There’s two ways to look at income redistribution.It would have been just as simple to reinstate the corporate income tax as it would have been to go after public pensions.There’s way too much ideological non-thinking in government. At least let’s think in the terms of shared
sacrifice.
The last President who was a Boy Scout was Ford. I am going to assume you had no issues with Bush 43, Bush 41, or Reagan not being scouts. So what are we left with for Obama’s difference?
Honestly, explain what is different about Obama that makes you think he was raised to hate American ideals as you said.