Presidential candidates get raked over the coals no matter what they do and when they put on some hunting clothes, pick up a shotgun or a rifle and head afield, the cameras come out. What makes it even worse is that photos depicting the moment are hand picked in hopes to reveal whatever the person’s agenda might be.
Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas and republican presidential hopeful, went hunting in Iowa the day after Christmas. To the right is one photo taken of him during part of the trip. This one happens to contain a Reuters branding on it.
Take notice of his clothing and what appears to be inclement weather. When you put all the photos together, along with available videos – one of him actually shooting at a pheasant that was flushed by a real hunting dog – whether this was nothing more than a photo opportunity or not, I think it safe to say that Huckabee actually has hunted and didn’t make a complete fool of himself.
Moving about the Internet, we find all kinds of jabs being taken at Huckabee for a number of reasons. One in particular I read declared that one of Huckabee’s aides hid in the bushes and released tame pheasants on cue. I don’t see too many bushes behind the governor in this shot. Another referred to the hunt as a “Elmer Fudd” moment.
In a video played across most major television networks, Huckabee is seen actually taking a shot at a pheasant that flushes to his left. In that video, the hunting dog actually seems to be doing his job and once the pheasant is down, the dog heads out to retrieve it.
It is one thing to take up arms and head outside so that those members of the press so invited could take photos and have them approved by the campaign manager and yet another to actually plan a hunt, even if it is the lousiest of weather, and stalk game, in this case pheasant.
Nearly every political candidate has at some point during a campaign posed for cameras and come away looking really stupid. In this case, I don’t think Mike Huckabee has come away looking dumb at all. Most would have canceled the event due to the cold and blustery weather conditions. He pulled it off and didn’t embarrass himself by revealing his ineptness with a shotgun and actually showed us he can hunt, at least to some degree.
We are reminded of previous attempts at showing Americans that a candidate is a hunter as the photo to the left shows us how ridiculous a candidate can really come across when attempting to pose at hunting when EVERYTHING is wrong.
Kerry further went on to exclaim to anyone willing to listen that he had crawled on his belly through a lot of mud and poor conditions to sneak up on deer. Yeah, right!
One could say that the lesson here to politicians would be to avoid photo opportunities that involve such things that you are totally a moron over and stick to stuff you know. But, the candidates will continue with this foolishness because they know there are thousands of people as dumb or dumber than they are that will lap this stuff up.
People believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see.
Who’s next?
Tom Remington
