Part 7 (1/2)

The United States and Israel are fighting the same bad guys-Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran. To tie this complicated bundle of issues into one simple question, how does turning against our friend, and siding with our common enemies, strengthen national security and help us win the war on terror?

Iran President Obama clearly understands the gift of time. After all, he has said that he sent more troops to Afghanistan ”to provide the time and the s.p.a.ce for the Afghan government to build up its security capacities.” It makes sense to give the gift of time to our ally, but why do the same for our enemy? Obama has repeatedly given Iran the gift it most wants and needs from us: the gift of time to produce nuclear weapons.

The president spent months negotiating sanctions, weakening what we originally wanted by making major concessions to Russia and China, until he got another round through the Security Council on June 9, 2010. As of this writing, we're up to round four and counting (didn't Einstein define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?). Russia and China didn't agree to anything they're not certain Iran can weasel around, just as it has all the previous sanctions, or to anything that threatens their own interests. We did not impose any restrictions on China's growing investments in Iran's oil and natural-gas sectors.

Russia can still sell its S-300 antiaircraft missiles, which would make it more dangerous for the United States or Israel to attack Iranian nuclear installations. We also agreed to abandon existing sanctions against Russian companies that worked on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and made illegal arms sales to Syria.

John Bolton, President George W. Bush's UN amba.s.sador, said that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov ”sensed desperation in the Obama administration on this Iran resolution and probably extracted all that the traffic would bear.” And David Kramer, who ran Russian policy at the State Department in the Bush administration, commented, ”Let's not forget that Russia supported three previous resolutions [under President Bush] and didn't get 'rewarded' for those votes.”

The bottom line, after all that effort and spending of diplomatic capital? Asked about the latest sanctions, CIA director Leon Panetta replied, ”Will it deter [Iran] from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not.” He also said that Iran now has enough material for two nuclear bombs. The immediate threat isn't a nuclear weapon on a missile, although Iran will get to that point soon enough, but one placed on a truck for its terrorist friends, Hamas or Hezbollah.

President Obama has been so anxious to negotiate with an Iranian government that has no interest in dealing with him and did not respond with affection to his two love letters that he shamefully held his tongue when Green Movement prodemocracy forces protested the rigged election in June 2009. This is the man who told the graduating cla.s.s at West Point in May 2010, ”America will always seek a world that extends these rights, so that when an individual is being silenced, we aim to be her voice.” But he provided barely a whisper of support to protesters who were risking their lives to make their own voices heard. Iranians who believed in the exceptionalism of American-style freedom, like the martyred protester Neda Agha-Soltan, were beaten and murdered, while the tyrants in Tehran once again thumbed their noses at Was.h.i.+ngton.

How did the respect America engendered in its allies and the fear it inspired in its enemies crumble away so quickly? At the risk of being labeled simplistic, I would suggest that it was nuked by nuance. A vacillating foreign policy convinced our allies that we couldn't be trusted and our enemies that we need not be feared. An administration besotted with its own moral and intellectual superiority believed that a willingness to criticize America's friends and see the viewpoint of its enemies was a sign of their own advanced intellectual flexibility, their ”smart diplomacy.” Their egos couldn't let them accept that perhaps their unenlightened predecessors had been right all along and that the simplest maxims really are correct: Freedom is better than oppression. Democracy is morally superior to dictators.h.i.+ps. You don't stab your friends in the back. Bullies aren't impressed by weakness. And oftentimes, the only way to prevent war is to convince your enemies that you are ready, willing, and able to fight one.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Hope Is More Than Just the Name of My Hometown We Need to Have Faith in the Future, No Matter How Big Our Present Problems Are

I was born and raised in Hope, Arkansas, but to me that name means more than just my hometown; it embodies the att.i.tude I have about America today. I've spent most of this book discussing a lot of big, important, and urgent issues (which I think is appropriate for a book about government). But in this last chapter I want to share some intensely personal observations and also give you a glimpse of things I've been doing since my last book. was born and raised in Hope, Arkansas, but to me that name means more than just my hometown; it embodies the att.i.tude I have about America today. I've spent most of this book discussing a lot of big, important, and urgent issues (which I think is appropriate for a book about government). But in this last chapter I want to share some intensely personal observations and also give you a glimpse of things I've been doing since my last book.

Despite the numerous problems and challenges I've talked about here, I believe that far too many people are guilty of hand-wringing, worry, and despair over the future of America. That's not my theme. Some people have seen the rise of the Tea Party movement as an indication that our country is dangerously lost . . . that our time as a strong, unified nation will soon be over.

I think it's just the opposite: To me, the uprising of ordinary citizens in this movement is in fact an affirmation of everything that is wonderful and positive about America. This country was brilliantly designed by its founders to be a kind of giant self-cleaning oven. When things gunk up the parts and dirty up the works, it's time to turn on the self-cleaning function. What happens then, as you probably know, is that the heat is raised to a level above any temperature ever used for cooking. All of the dross of leftover food and debris is turned into charred ashes. The oven door is opened; that which remains is easily wiped clean.

In essence, the uprising of the Tea Party movement is America's affirmation that it is functioning as it was intended to function. The system is creatively at work because it is self-correcting government excesses, loss of control, and isolation from the real needs of the people.

Americans should not fear these movements as indicating the end. Rather, these are indications of a profound and positive rebirth. I have chosen to disable the gloom-and-doom b.u.t.tons on the dashboard of my life because I believe it is far more important to see where we are going than to remain focused on where we are. As a Christian believer, I have a deep-rooted optimism based on the fact that even if the country should fail, G.o.d's kingdom will not.

Christian believers in this country essentially carry two pa.s.sports. One is their temporal pa.s.sport of U.S. citizens.h.i.+p; the other is their eternal pa.s.sport to eternal life. We are dual citizens of both earth and heaven. While we can hope that both of these kingdoms will survive and sustain, we know for certain that ultimately the kingdom of heaven will survive and sustain.

This confidence is somewhat similar to the experience I've had watching basketball games on tape delay. Several years ago, when the Arkansas Razorbacks were at the peak of the NCAA success that culminated in their winning the 1994 national champions.h.i.+p, the local ABC affiliate in Little Rock, KATB-TV, was not able to obtain live broadcast rights for every game. They'd have to tape some games live, then play them back in their entirety after the 10:00 P.M. news. In order to give the viewer a sense of live action, the sportscaster would encourage those who planned to watch the game to turn down the volume on their TV sets when he read the final score on the air. That way, even though the game was over and the final score determined, those who wanted to stay up late and watch it would not know the outcome until the end. But I never understood why anyone would stay up until 1:00 A.M. watching a taped game without taking advantage of the obtainable knowledge about the final score. I never considered turning down the volume during the sportscast, because I wanted to know the outcome. If the Razorbacks had won, I'd pop some popcorn, put my feet up, and confidently watch the ballgame. Even in the most intense moments, when the Hogs would fall behind, I was never worried: I knew victory was a.s.sured. Even if they were down seven points in the last minute of play, I was confident. If anyone else was up, I could tell them not to worry: ”They are going to do fine.” And of course they did.

Christian believers who have read to the end of the Bible have the confidence that, no matter how challenging things can be, the ultimate outcome will be positive and victorious. That's one reason, among many, that there should be no gloom and doom in the mind, heart, or spirit of a true believer.

Boundary Stones Even if you are not a believer, here's some reasoning you might agree with from Proverbs 22:28: ”Remove not the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.” The verse refers to ancient boundary stones, which were not to be moved because they served as navigation points-the GPS of biblical times. If they were moved, travelers who depended on them might become hopelessly lost, perhaps in an otherwise featureless desert or dangerous mountainous terrain.

Our culture has inherited invaluable political boundary stones from the Founding Fathers. Any culture in which people move the abiding boundary stones of civilization risks becoming lost, confused, and disoriented. What looks to many of us like a great deal of confusion and darkness in America today is the result of moving cultural boundary stones.

We have moved the boundary stones of freedom and, by trading individual liberty for government dependency, no longer find our pathways to knowledge of the true meaning of liberty.

We have moved the boundary stones of marriage by opening the doors to no-fault divorce, making it easier to get out of a marriage than to get out of a contract for purchase of a used car.

We have moved the boundary stones of family by having some judges and some state legislatures redefine what marriage means, thus abandoning the time-tested definition of one man and one woman in a relations.h.i.+p for life to new definitions, such as legalized relations.h.i.+ps between two men, two women, or an individual with two or more partners.

The degree to which we move the boundary stones that form our political legacy, as well as other moral, ethical, and spiritual navigation points, is the degree to which our society, culture, country, and civilization will begin to lose their way and eventually become hopelessly lost.

On the Road Again But as I've said, I'm basically an optimist. Part of the reason is that I'm lucky enough to have contact with so many of you as I travel around the country, sometimes on a book tour, often to make political or inspirational speeches, and, increasingly, wherever I am, remaining in touch with the American reality in my new broadcasting career.

My life has changed dramatically. As governor, on any given day I might experience a tornado that would completely upend my schedule and other priorities. Especially the one on March 1, 1997, which ripped through almost 250 miles from the southwest corner of the state to the northeast corner in what was eventually a series of over twenty tornadoes that killed thirty people and caused millions of dollars in damage. Likewise, a tornado on January 21, 1999, swept through a number of counties, killing twenty-seven people, including one not five hundred yards from the front door of the governor's mansion, and devastating the neighborhood around us. And on top of all of the natural disasters, our state also had to confront some man-made catastrophes as well, like the 1998 school shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro.

Now the challenges I face in my life are almost completely different, requiring that I balance what for me are several virtually separate universes. My daily radio commentaries, the Huckabee Report Huckabee Report, could stand alone as a full-time endeavor. In addition, I'm engaged in the process of putting together my weekly Fox News channel TV show, which is viewed on Sat.u.r.days and Sundays by a larger audience than all the other Cablevision news channels combined in that time slot. (In fact, in most cases, it remains the top-rated weekend show in all of cable news.) In addition to those two highly visible media endeavors, I speak as many as fourteen times a month to various corporate groups, trade a.s.sociations, conventions, and nonprofit organizations. I'm also involved in ongoing writing projects, such as this book, and am directly involved in the operation and management of my political organization, Huck PAC, even though I receive no compensation whatsoever for my involvement with its endeavors to elect conservative candidates to public office.

Some of you may find it ironic that I'm so deeply engaged in media activities, since I have so openly and frankly criticized some aspects of press coverage over the years. I still sometimes fear that our political system is increasingly dominated by the short attention span that is aggravated by the twenty-four-hour cable news channels, bloggers, and Internet news services. Often they are more interested in being first than in being right and more interested in getting ratings or Web site hits than in getting the solid facts. This overwhelming change in the way most people get news has produced unwritten new rules that really should be taught to every student coming into our education system.

A generation ago, a person might have obtained his news from the newspaper on the doorstep or from one of three national TV network evening newscasts. Here's the critically important thing: Before that news was delivered to the end user, the consumer, it had not only been gathered by a reporter but most likely also fact-checked by an editor and gone over repeatedly by copy editors and others checking not only for grammatical errors but also for factual veracity. Now fast-forward to today, when people get much of their news from their smart phones, the Internet, or some other form of new media. Now each end user, each consumer, must become his or her own editor. There is no longer likely to be a thorough review process between the gatherer/reporter of news and the consumer of news. Anyone who accepts purported fact at face value is likely to be duped by wily, inaccurate, or, at best, misleading declarations. That's the downside, but the upside of the new media is that more information is available from a much greater variety of sources; one has the opportunity to access vast amounts of data and information. In the best-case scenario, the careful, thoughtful consumer can become better informed and perhaps draw individual conclusions that have not been filtered by a newspaper editor or broadcast news director.

Some of the benefits of the new technology are certainly helpful to me in a personal way. The Huckabee Report Huckabee Report-which I record three times a day, five days a week, for broadcast on nearly six hundred radio stations-would not have been possible fifteen or twenty years ago. I would have been required to go to a local radio station or other production facility for each commentary, which would then have been transmitted to the network for national distribution. This would have been impossible given the intensity of my travel schedule. Today's Huckabee Report Huckabee Report is made possible almost entirely because of the capacity of the Internet. I carry with me wherever I travel the compact equipment that allows me to broadcast instantly. is made possible almost entirely because of the capacity of the Internet. I carry with me wherever I travel the compact equipment that allows me to broadcast instantly.

Here's how it works. Each day I consult with writers, based in Dallas, who prepare a compilation of news reports and features gathered, literally, from news sources around the world. Once I receive the material over the Net, I edit it, add some personal touches and commentary and perspective, a.s.semble the stories in order to time them, sort them, and piece them together to create the exact to-the-second program that will become that day's Huckabee Report Huckabee Report. My portable equipment allows me to record the program into my MacBook, convert the audio into an MP3 file, then upload it to an engineer at Citadel Broadcasting by way of the Internet. He packages the program for broadcast before uploading it-also on the Internet-to the network headquarters in New York for distribution to the nearly six hundred stations. In other words, every hotel room I stay in becomes my studio, as does my home office or wherever I happen to be. I am literally able to do the Huckabee Report Huckabee Report from anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection available. I've done reports from j.a.pan, Korea, Israel, Ireland, France, Italy, and the Virgin Islands, as well as most of the fifty states. The technology is not only convenient; it also allows me to travel continually, getting the perspectives of locales and individuals across the spectrum of American and international life. It's far better to offer a perspective that is informed by actually touching and talking to people every day than to pontificate from a sterile studio environment, where my perspective might be filtered from traditional news sources. from anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection available. I've done reports from j.a.pan, Korea, Israel, Ireland, France, Italy, and the Virgin Islands, as well as most of the fifty states. The technology is not only convenient; it also allows me to travel continually, getting the perspectives of locales and individuals across the spectrum of American and international life. It's far better to offer a perspective that is informed by actually touching and talking to people every day than to pontificate from a sterile studio environment, where my perspective might be filtered from traditional news sources.

What's It Really Like There?

I'm often asked-in fact, on a daily basis-about the working atmosphere at Fox News channel. Thankfully, I can truthfully answer that the atmosphere there is extraordinarily collegial. In fact, it is a unique environment for a media company, given the typical backbiting, dogeat-dog behaviors at many ego-driven broadcasting centers. While there is a strong ambition within the Fox News channel family to excel and achieve high ratings and success, there is a surprisingly positive working relations.h.i.+p among the team. I attribute much of this to Roger Ailes, who is not only a media visionary but also a person who goes out of his way to encourage all of us to bring our best game to the field. He keeps us all mindful that the compet.i.tion is fierce but not internal. His penchant for spotting and developing exceptional talent is obvious from the stunning and continually soaring success of Fox News.