Amplified Words

Quite a few folks on the campaign trail are learning the meaning behind the old adage, "Choose your words wisely." When you're on the national stage, everything you say is amplified.

The primary example is our favorite presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who recently submitted to a interview with the unbiased folks over at the New York Times. During their long conversation, they tried to bait him into talking about rival Mitt Romney's religion. Fortunately, the former Arkansas governor is a little too savvy to be drawn into that kind of discussion. But, he did offhandedly ask a question that he should have kept to himself and googled it later: "Don't Mormon's believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

Well, the Times isn't planning on printing the entire interview until this Sunday's edition. But, they have been gleefully spreading Huckabee's out-of-context question all over the media. Fortunately, the governor had the opportunity during yesterday's final Iowa debate to cross the stage and apologize to Romney in person in advance for any offense.

My thing is it was a parenthetical question Huckabee was really asking himself. But, now that he's in the "big leagues," he needs to be more careful about his mutterings. The media (not to mention his adversaries) are going to be looking for ANY reason to pounce on him, and he shouldn't be giving them the opportunities. And, the upside of this (which I hope our Mormon friends will appreciate) is that it has given their church a higher national profile, and will result in a lot of non-Mormons doing some googling of their own to find out more about them. I would hope they would welcome people asking for more info.

Ok, that unpleasantness aside, there was an even more awesome example of amplified words out in Austin, Texas, yesterday!

It seems Governor Rick Perry, who made the mistake of endorsing Rudy Giuliani back in October, personally filed the former NYC mayor's papers to put him on the state's primary ballot. While doing this, a reporter asked him about the potential impact the next President of the United States will have on the Supreme Court. Here is his EXACT response:

"The issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is MIKE HUCKABEE."

That's right! I think Governor Perry let his true preference slip! Officially, he is still somewhat obligated to back Rudy. But, in his heart of hearts, I think we know who he really supports!

Or, maybe, we should give him the benefit of the doubt . . . sometimes, folks just slip-up under the glaring media spotlight . . . nobody's perfect.