Mike Huckabee in Fox News Sunday, "Choosing the President" interviews

On Foreign Policy: Protect US sovereignty, but earn respect abroad

In fact, I’d want to strengthen this country. I think the greatest way to export democracy is not to force it, but rather to build the best possible version of it right here so people are attracted to it.

There is an important role that the United States has as the most powerful nation on earth militarily and economically, to act in such a way that people respect us and that people also realize that we are a great nation, not one that wants to push ourselves on others.

One of the things that I would do as president is clearly try to make sure we get some better intelligence-gathering, and that we have more consistency, and that we have intelligence with greater credibility than we obviously have now.

On Health Care: Called for isolating AIDS carriers in 1992, not quarantine

A: I didn’t say that we should quarantine. I said it was the first time in public health protocols that when we had an infectious disease & we didn’t really know just how extensive it could be, that we didn’t isolate the carrier. Now, the headlines started saying that I called for quarantines, which I did not. I had simply made the point that in the late ‘80s, when we didn’t know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness than we were about the normal public health protocols that we would have acted--as we have recently, for example, with avian flu--I spent months as a governor dealing with a pandemic plan that we were looking at which called for isolating carriers if they contracted that disease. I’m not going to recant. Would I say it a little differently today? Sure, in light of 15 years of additional knowledge, I would.

On Homeland Security: Torture is unproductive, and should not be US policy

On Homeland Security: Kick rear ends if documents destroyed to protect rear ends

A: When we start destroying documents, what are we destroying them for? Are we doing it for security purposes or to cover somebody’s rear end? If we’re covering somebody’s rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end for doing something that’s against the best interest of the US and the responsibility and the respectability of this country.

On Homeland Security: Opposes waterboarding; close Guantanamo as a bad symbol

A: Well, I wouldn’t let foreign opinion determine our policies, wouldn’t let it dictate it. But we do have to make sure that we live in such a way as Americans that we have friends, not enemies, across the world. And over the past several years, it seems as we’ve made even our friends our enemies. We’ve got to change that. There is an important role that the United States has as the most powerful nation on earth militarily and economically, to act in such a way that people respect us and that people also realize that we are a great nation, not one that wants to push ourselves on others.

On Immigration: Pathway to citizenship must start at back of line, out of US

A: I don’t think there’s an inconsistency. When I said a pathway, I didn’t say what the pathway was. I now believe that the only thing the American people are going to accept--and, frankly, the only thing that really makes sense--is a pathway that sends people back to the starting point.

Q: That would take years.

A: No, I don’t agree. Look, if we can get a credit card application done within hours, it shouldn’t take years to get a work permit to come here and pick lettuce. So part of my plan is that we seal the borders. You don’t have amnesty and sanctuary cities. You do have a pathway to get back here legally that would take days, maybe weeks, not years.

On Immigration: Send illegals home so all in US can hold their heads high

1. The American people say, “Do something. Do it now. We don’t want to have this country ignoring the illegal problem.” I get it.
2. I want people who are in this country to hold their heads up high. You know, right now there are a lot of people who really are here because they’re trying to feed their families. I don’t begrudge them that. But let’s give them a means by which they can get here through the door legally, and when they’re here they don’t have to hide, they don’t have to keep their heads down and hope nobody catches them, they have their heads held high. Everyone living within the borders of the United States ought to do so with dignity and with a sense of pride, not a sense of fear.

On Principles & Values: Judge Romney, & any candidate, by record, not by faith

A: I’ve not tried to say anything about Mitt Romney or anybody else. I’m happy to talk about my faith, but I’m not going to evaluate someone else’s. In fact, if people will look through the record, they’ll see me defending Hillary Clinton and her faith in this campaign--when asked to make a comment when she had talked about her Methodist faith, I defended her, saying I have no reason to doubt her sincerity. I’ve done the same thing with Mitt Romney and the same thing I’ve done with any other candidate.

Q: Do you think it’s intolerant for voters to consider the tenets of Mormonism in judging Mitt Romney?

A: I do think that’s inappropriate. I think people should judge Mitt Romney on his record.

On Abortion: No states rights for moral issues like abortion

A: Well, it’s the logic of the Civil War. If morality is the point here, and if it’s right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can’t have 50 different versions of what’s right and what’s wrong. Again, that’s what the whole Civil War was about. Can you have states saying slavery is OK, other states saying it’s not? If abortion is a moral issue--and for many of us it is, and I know for others it’s not. So if you decide that it’s just a political issue, then that’s a perfectly acceptable, logical conclusion. But for those of us for whom this is a moral question, you can’t simply have 50 different versions of what’s right.

On Principles & Values: I’m a conservative, but I’m not mean about it

A: I’m not a conservative that wants to be a wholly owned subsidiary of anybody. I’m an independent conservative. When I think we’re right, I’m with us all the way. And I think my record reflects that. But you know, I also believe that the purpose of government is to function. It’s not to just stand at one side, throw stones at the other guys and act like they’re wrong all the time. Well, I say Republicans aren’t right all the time. Democrats aren’t wrong all the time--now, maybe most of the time, but not all the time. And America is looking for leadership that’s not so much about beating up the other guys. They really want this country to move forward and upward. It’s what I call vertical politics, going up, not down, rather than just saying, “Let’s go left, let’s go right.”

On Tax Reform: FairTax is 23%; Bush’s study missed prebate & other aspects

A: Right.

Q: This would be a sales tax of 23% on almost every good and service you buy or anyone buys. But a bipartisan panel named by President Bush say to raise enough money, the rate would have to be 34%.

A: They didn’t really study the FairTax. They simply studied a type of consumption tax, not the actual proposal that was designed by some of the leading economists in this country. It is a rate of 23%. It’s not 30% or 34%, as some of the critics complain.

Q: They said that a FairTax would reduce the tax burden on only two groups, those making less than $30,000 a year, because there’s a rebate for people under the poverty line, and those making more than $200,000 a year. So the rich and the poor do better, but the vast middle class ends up paying more taxes.

A: They had a fatal flaw. They didn’t understand that the “prebate” applies to everybody, including the middle class. Everybody comes off better off.

On Gun Control: Second Amendment is about freedom, not about hunting

A: Voters want someone whose views on the Second Amendment understand that the basic issue is one of freedom and it’s not hunting.

On Principles & Values: N.H. strategy: stick with convictions & straight answers

A: Well, I wouldn’t call the strategy “ambush.” We’re going after a victory there. And it’s not an ambush. It’s straight up--we’re trying to win. I think we will win.

Q: Why New Hampshire?

A: Because voters there are very savvy. They look for a person who truly has the convictions and sticks by them. Even if it’s not necessarily what they agree with, they want you to look them in the eye and give them a straight answer and give it to them the same way tomorrow as you gave it to them today. People like those kind of ideas that are bigger and fresher than the carefully tuned and tweaked sort of version of minor reform. That’s just not what New Hampshire voters, I think, are expecting and looking for in their next president.

On Principles & Values: Not thinking about Vice Presidency despite heavy speculation

A: Well, I’d like to think I’m presidential material. You know, the point is I’ve never seen a guy say, “I’m going to the Olympics and, man, my goal is to be the silver medalist.” Nobody says, “That’s what I spent my whole life working toward, is being number two.“ So, no, I’m not sitting around thinking about, ”Gosh, what if I could be vice president?“ I’m thinking about, ”What would happen if I could become president,“ how I would lead this country, what I would do to reform taxes, what I would do to try to bring a domestic agenda that builds this country back so we have some strength. And I think the voters are still going to respond to me when they get a chance to hear the message.

On Tax Reform: Gut this incredibly complex and arcane tax code

On Tax Reform: Attacked as tax-and-spend by several anti-tax groups

A: I have to be a little flattered that the Club for Growth targeted me with $100,000 of ads. But there are nuances of a state government--I’m quite proud of having navigated a ship through trouble waters in Arkansas.

Q: It’s not just the Club for Growth. The Cato Institute gave you a “D” on taxes for your 10 years as governor. Americans for Tax Reform said that state spending during your first 8 years as governor increased by 65%.

A: But if you look at our state spending, budgeting during my time as governor increased about 0.5% a year. When you look at the things that I actually had control [over, you would ignore] these wild accusations that I’m a tax and spender.