Mike Huckabee hopes this pregnancy doesn't encourage other teenage girls to do the same thing

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1578530/20071222/id_0.jhtml

Dec 22 2007 12:47 PM EST

Jamie Lynn Spears Made 'The Right Decision,' Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Says

"Apparently, she's going to have the child, and I think that is the right decision, a good decision, and I respect that and appreciate it," he told CBS News.

"I hope it is not an encouragement to other 16-year-olds who think that is the best course of action. But at the same time I'm not going to condemn her," continued Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has been soaring in the polls lately due to increased support from Christian conservatives. "There'll be plenty of people in line to do that and I always look for the shortest lines. I just hope that she will make another right decision, and that's to give that child all the love and kindness and care that she can."

Huckabee, who is anti-abortion, also said, "It's a tragedy when a 16-year-old who is not really prepared for all the responsibilities of adult life is going to be now faced with all the responsibilities of honest-to-goodness adult life."

This isn't the first time Huckabee has shown his pop-culture savvy

[patrice]

1. I'm worried about this too!! "BOYS and Girls, don't worry about your life. Have a Baby and ALL will

be taken care of."

[enough]

3. Exactly.

[RB TexLa]

6. Get ready to be told teenage pregnancy doesn't destroy lives and it's the best time

for them to birth babies.

[lynnertic]

8. Actually if a kid's family is supportive, it really works out that way a lot of the time

...I know single mothers younger than 40 whose kids graduate high school... and those Moms were able to go to college and now are kicking ASS in really nice jobs and loving life. WITHOUT having to pay through the nose for the fertility treatments that our friends are going through now.

Time to put on my flame-suit-- but I'm not so sure that we're not totally f88king things up by telling women to wait until their bodies aren't optimized for childbearing to have children.

Good business for the fertility clinics though.

[RB TexLa]

10. Great for them but there are plenty of women who could have had much more who due

to a mistake are saying "do you want fries with that?"

[lynnertic]

11. For crying out loud there are plenty of MBA's behind the Starbucks counter

and holding weekly yard sales.

[lynnertic]

12. Dont get me wrong!! Kids who have kids need their family's support

or they're toast. But EVERY kid needs their family's support. Very few young people succeed without their family's support, some kind of setup, whether they have children at a young age or not.

Young motherhood is the kind of handicap that can be overcome, with a family's support. It's nothing to tattoo a scarlet letter on a girl's forehead over, is what I'm saying.

But I'm speaking from a POV of having a sister and friends who had children young, and cousins and friends who are trying to have them later in life, and the fact that I am childless, myself, after years and years of being the Birth Control Poster Child, and have no hope now of conceiving.

It's easier to have them young.

[Grateful for Hope]

18. But there is a middle ground

Waiting until one's late thirties/early forties is probably not a wise thing to do. However, having a child during teenage years is also not wise -- particularly emotionally. A baby deserves to have emotionally and financially viable parents. So many households today rely on two incomes, and, if a daughter becomes pregnant before she is able to support herself, this often just adds a heavy burden to an already burdened household.

[lynnertic]

25. True and agreed. n/t

[Fumesucker]

2. It's telling when a semi whackjob fundie minister

Sounds far more rational than supposedly mainstream Republicans..

And I don't think there is any way in hell that this pregnancy and the Republican reaction to it is going to reduce the number of out of wedlock pregnancies for women who are really too young and lack the support systems to properly care for a child.

[jberryhill]

5. Don't agree with his beliefs, but Huckabee strikes me as a real person

If McCain wanted to please the religious right, he should have gone with Huckabee. He's not the "in your face" sort.

I'd never agree with him politically, but he seems like a nice guy from the interviews I've seen.

[rusty_parts2001]

4. Cool! Keep the discussion up!!

[RainDog]

7. fuckwad fundies want girls stupid and pregnant

at least that's what the reality of their positions are. birth control is reasonable. if a teenager is sexually active, he and she should have precautions because, just because someone knows how to fuck does not mean they are ready to bear and raise children.

this is a travesty that this nation still has to deal with IDIOTS who prefer pregnant teenagers/abstinence only education vs those who want teens to wait to have sex... but IF THEY DO, to have resources to prevent pregnancies.

[lynnertic]

9. you're showing your ass.

and I'm really really tired of the sensational namecalling.

[RainDog]

23. I'm tired of this stupid religious b.s. in my non-theorcratic govt.

I'm really tired of it and there is nothing sensational about it. you don't like it, well, neither do I, but maybe it's good for you and others to hear how those of us who have to put up with the stupidity of the religious right feel about the world as you want it to be.

[RainDog]

24. oh, and tell me how it is "showing my ass" to state the logic of their positions?

if this is not the logical outcome of their positions, then you need to be able to defend such a position with something called facts.

I'd advise you to look up demographic stats for THE ENTIRE WORLD that show that females who have fewer children, who get educations and who are not economically dependent on a man are the BEST MARKERS for increased democracy.

So, it's showing your ass to support more democracy, no matter what your gender?

If you want to start posting insults, you should be able to defend them. - but I already know you can't, other than having an opinion which, we all know, are like assholes.

[RB TexLa]

13. I'm waiting for a GOP delegate to say she's "doing what she's supposed to be doing, birthing her man

some babies." I'm sure some of them will think it can help America's women get back to traditional gender roles.

[wtmusic]

14. So Huckabee thinks Bristol's pregnancy is a "tragedy"

You'd never know in warm and fuzzy Minnesota.

[BlooInBloo]

15. That's a slam. And it means he's still angling for the slot when Palin takes off.

[yellowcanine]

20. Err - It is an old quote of him talking about Jamie Lynn Spears.

[BlooInBloo]

21. Doh! (facepalm)

[yardwork]

16. I wonder what Dan Quayle has to say about this.

[yellowcanine]

22. Dan Quayle would have said, "She should have just gotten a D&C"

Dan Quayle usually had an alternate take on reality, once suggesting that a D&C (a gynecological procedure) could provide an alternative to abortion. Unfortunately the VeeP didn't realize that a D&C was the most commonly used surgical procedure for abortions.

http://www.squidoo.com/quotebook

[AngryOldDem]

17. You know what the REAL tragedy here is, Huck?

<<"It's a tragedy when a 16-year-old who is not really prepared for all the responsibilities of adult life is going to be now faced with all the responsibilities of honest-to-goodness adult life."<<

Palin's kid will do just fine. She will get top-flight OB/GYN care, the baby will be born with no obstetric complications in a nice, clean hospital, everything will be paid for, the baby and mother will go home to extremely comfortable lives and live happily ever after. No dreams deferred, no great sacrifices made.

Other 16- and 17-year-old girls, though, won't be as lucky. Neither will thousands of other women. THAT, Huck, is the tragedy.

And damn, I just HAD to sit my 17-year-old down last night and talk her OUT of getting pregnant.
:sarcasm:

Idiot.

[Alter Ego]

19. Again, Huck shows why he would have been so dangerous to run against.

He's just so damn LIKABLE. I can't help but like him and I think he's a fucking psycho.

[MrCoffee]

26. Agreed 100%

I couldn't be more grateful that he didn't get the nomination. He may be the world's most likeable assclown.

[KatyaR]

27. So we can blame Palin's daughter's pregancy on Jamie Lynn Spears?

Man, talk about INFLUENCE . . . . :rofl:

[jazzjunkysue]

28. Amazing, how republicans and christians don't need boys to get pregnant.

I wonder how they do it?

Because no one ever mentions the boys who impregnate the young mothers.

[NNN0LHI]

29. Kick for the huckster

[texasleo]

30. kick