Though Imus Liked the Fat Mike Huckabee Better, This One Ain't Too Shabby

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who shed more than 100 pounds a few years ago, told Imus he thinks the mistake people make in trying to lose weight is that they focus too much on, well, losing weight.

Imus, however, thought Huckabee’s mistake was getting skinny in the first place. “We liked the fat Huckabee better,” he told his guest, the host of the newly syndicated “The Huckabee Show,” which is in a six-week preview on some Fox television stations.

Despite Imus’s assertion that the Governor was angry and irritable when he was thin (he’s put a few back on, according to Charles), Huckabee recalls no such thing.

Yet he does recall running for President in 2008, when he lost the Republican nomination to Senator John McCain. Had the American people “completely lost their minds,” as Imus put it, and elected Huckabee president, he would have defined a clearer mission for the United States in Afghanistan.

“I honestly don’t know what in the world victory looks like there, because there’s no infrastructure,” he said. “It just looks like the land of the Flintstones. It is the most primitive place I have ever seen.”

In addition to containing terrorist activity in Afghanistan, Huckabee said the U.S. needs to ensure the Pakistani government is focused on rooting out Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

While President Obama has been focused on Afghanistan, he recently stated his intentions to withdraw all but 50,000 non-combat troops from Iraq.

“I always wonder, what does that mean?” said Huckabee. “If they get shot at, they’re going to send a strongly-worded letter?”

A licensed, ordained Baptist minister, Huckabee thinks it’s incredibly insensitive and highly offensive to build a mosque near Ground Zero. “If the whole goal is to build bridges of friendship and relationships, they’re going about it in a way that is not exactly appropriate,” he noted.

As for his own religious beliefs, Huckabee, a Christian, believes Jesus is the only route to salvation. But he acknowledged the exclusive nature of religion, and how people narrowly defining their sense of God can seem intolerant, even though it isn’t.  

“Do I accept other people? Of course I do,” said Huckabee. “Do I accept the tenets of their faith as my own? No. Then my faith would be meaningless and void. One has to believe in something or, really, you don’t believe in anything.”

He tried explaining to Imus  that Christians encouraging others to embrace Jesus Christ as their savior has little to do with arrogance and everything to do with humility.

“It’s one beggar telling other beggars where there’s bread,” he said, thought Imus pointed out that such a comparison naively assumes the other beggars are breadless.

So Huckabee tried another analogy, saying that if he went out onto Sixth Avenue from the studio and tried to get to Central Park, the only true direction that will get him there is north, which was so stupid it frustrated Imus, and he decided to go back to the fat issue.

Having regained a few pounds, Huckabee’s back on what he called a “real simple” plan to get fit again by combining healthy eating with regular exercise and a positive attitude.

But the I-Man issued a stern warning: “Don’t get down to the real skinny, grumpy Huckabee again. We like you just the way you are.”

-Julie Kanfer