This is a major, Macaca-level gaffe in that it will live with Huckabee for the rest of his political career.  I can't believe that came out of his mouth.

...republicans have a pretty mean sense of humor don't they?

But that was cheap even by republican standards.

Eh. Just a bad joke. I'll be surprised if it has any legs. Huckabee is a bit of a nut, but he was one of the saner voices on the right defending Obama's association with Wright. I don't think he's a hate monger like Coulter et al. I'll give him a pass.

Don't look now Huck, but you will never be McCain's running mate..oops.

I'm in the minority, I guess, but I just don't see this as anything to get worked up about.

His boilerplate apology was weak, though.

I would add that, to me, Lieberman/McCain's attempt to make Obama the Hamas-endorsed candidate is far more distasteful--primarly because those remarks are part of a designed line of attack. Huck just went for a spontaneous zinger and failed.

Very Christian isn't it? Aiming at a gun at Obama is crass and very dangerous. This is a dangerous country we don't need that kind of jokes.

He is finished.

I wonder if the republicans would have thought it was just as funny if a top democrat talked about pointing a gun at their candidate. We would never hear the end of that one.

He just "joked" that an assassination attempt was being made on Obama.

Thats funny, how?

He's an idiot.

Huckabee continues the Republican meltdown. Its wonderful.

I hope he's torn to shreds for this. I never trusted his hate-filled theocratic bs. Just because he comes off as a nice guy doesn't mean he is. It also doesn't mean he should get a pass.

He is no friend to many of us in the minority.

and unlike most Republican apologies, I believe it.

He made a ghastly bad joke. I wouldn't hold it against him for all eternity, unlike the detestable, deliberate  and premeditated remarks from McCain/Bush.

Not even a chuckle from the crowd.  That was way over the line.

He should have known better. Bad, bad form.

what an idiot!

He could have left out the last part and maybe had a good (but stupid) laugh line. Seemed even the crowd quieted a bit after the stupid "dove to the floor" line.

I was thinking he would be the best bet for a mccain VP, but this may have hurt him with the republicans and their ethical candidate john mccain. ...

.... ha .... ha.... hahahahaha!!!  HAHAHAHA!!! I can't believe I said that!  hahahahahaha!!!

Progressive Blue

He was one of the few Repubs who defended Obama and even Wright during the Wright debacle.

It was just an unfortunate joke he made and he obviously wasn't thinking.

He has apologized and I forgive him.

I don't understand the punchline to the joke.  What part of that remark was supposed to be funny?

I think he just simply royally fucked up.  It looks like he was trying to spin the NRA, guns and the noise which interrupted his speech, started with an ad lib and well, went down a path he knew was really bad and it was too late.

Not that I like Hucklebee's policies but I don't believe for a second he planned or meant or even believed what he just said.  I think he became humor ambitious and went way beyond "putting his foot in his mouth on it".

Sorry, I mean let's discuss changing the constitution to appease a small segment of our society and void all of the principles upon which it is based, but I have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one after watching it.

I was in high school for JFK's assassination, and in college for RFK and MLK. Don't forget Wallace. This country has a wrenching history of political assassination, and Black Americans have an understandable sensitivity to the idea of a charismatic black man being cut down (MLK, Malcom X, Medger Evers). This isn't funny on any level.

Political consequences. Unfortunately, they are probably slight. I'm just not concerned about Huckabee's future. (I do think that because he has a long history of making offhand jokes, he might weather this better than most. If you tell enough jokes in the moment, you are bound to really screw one up sometime.)

My question is why can't Democrats make this a political question about the true heart of Republicanism? We are drowning in the Republican ideals of authoritarianism, hostile and threatening male models, demeaning women, simplifying of other cultures, languages and religions to the point of caricature, love of war and profit wrapped into one. How can we help regular Americans really understand the nihilist core of this movement?

Huckabee showed his dark (really dark) side during the SC primary campaign. He knew exactly what those BJU types want to hear and gave it to them ... loud frowning hostlity aimed squarely at the servants of satan as embodied by Democrats.

If he had become the nominee he'd make InsaneMcCain look like a voice of moderation and reason.

Picture Obama speaking:

"That was Mike Huckabee, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak. Somebody showed him Darwin's On the Origin of Species and he dove for the floor."

This comment was absolutely revolting, but unfortunately not at all surprising. Republicans will be making all sorts of these "jokes" during the fall campaign, because an uppity negro doesn't deserve their respect.

Yeah, that was about as funny as "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."  Mike Huckabee is old enough to remember the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations first hand.  He must know that Michelle didn't want Barack to run because she feared for his life.  Yet, this "Huck up" made the remark at an NRA function.  I don't care if he's sorry or not.  What I care about is some unhinged, wingnut, James Earl Ray wannabee just thought he just got green lighted.  WV should remind us all that knuckle dragging racism is still with us and doesn't need encouragement.

haven't we had enough?

Huckabee's remark was ungentlemanly, wrong and inexcusable.  It had the tone of racist remarks I've heard about fellas getting "spooked."

I had been kind of sympathetic to Huck as a refreshing, direct, and clever personality (if politically wrong-headed). No more. Huck's dead to me.

Or anyone else here.  If we did it in public and it was reported we'd have G-men emptying our dresser drawers and carting our computer equipment out the front door.  Seriously.  At the very least we'd have one scary afternoon.    One thing all we intelligent Americans seem to get -- you don't make jokes about bombng stuff or offing a president/presidential candidate.  

But because it's Mike Huckabee and not Hickville Joe  it will be treated as nothing more than a "gaff" even though the real threat with gaffs of this kind  is what it potentially inspires.

For many months i've been worried about Obama because he has that sort of dynamic magnetism that draws the scariest kooks out of the woodwork.  (the only anomoly there has been Jerry Ford...go figure)  

This joke is just too close to home for comfort.  Huckabee should be hung on a fence for it.    

We tried to warn people. Huck is a real piece of work. We are still wondering why he destroyed a bunch of hard drives here in Arkansas when he left. What was on them that he had to go to such length and cost the state so much to replace them?

We are also wondering what happened to the backups.

He probably should be incarcerated.

He was completely off the reservation with that remark.  It was stupid, offensive, and just frankly out of his goddamned mind.

That being said, he is pretty thoughtful for an evangelical leader.  As a Jew growing up in South Carolina, I could have better dealt with people like him than the actual ministers I met.

He's good people.  He's wrong on most every policy issue their is, and I find his particular brand of Christianity frightening, but he really does seem to care about regular folks, and my friends from Arkansas, even the Dems, say he's a decent enough guy.

I expect he really does feel horrible for having said it.  He defended Obama over Wright when no other Republican I can recall would do so.

He'll pay for the remark, but I don't damn him for it.  He thought up a joke off the cuff, and it went really poorly.  It happens.

In all fairness he wasn't joking that he was going to assainate obama, just that someone else pointed a gun at him.  but what a weird ass thing to say.  I mean does anyone beleive that Huck wouldn't fall to the floor and ball like a baby if someone pointed a gun at him?  The man can't even have a little dignity.