Huckabee plays 'Fortunate Son' at campaign rally

I happened to be channel surfing tonight and stopped at C-Span -- mostly because I couldn't stomach the wall-to-wall coverage of Britney's Breakdown.

And there was Mike Huckabee at a campaign rally in a college town in New Hampshire. Except he wasn't speaking. He was playing the bass in a rock band performing for the crowd.

So I'm watching this and not really paying much attention to the song they are playing until it suddenly hits me -- he's playing "Fortunate Son," John Fogerty's 1969 anthem about the unfortunate men who had to fight and die in Vietnam and couldn't get out of the draft by virtue of being a senator's son or a millionaire's son. Not exactly Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless the USA."

If that isn't a direct slap in the face to the Fortunate Son In Chief currently occupying the White House, I don't know what would be.

So I figure there are two possibilities:

1. Huckabee has no idea what the lyrics mean and thinks it's just a cool Classic Rock song.

2. Huckabee knows exactly what the song means and is telling the Republican establishment that is in hysterics over his Iowa win to go fuck off. That he is not only burning his bridges to the Bush Administration, but napalming the shit out of them.

I have no idea which is correct, but I have a gut feeling it's No. 2.

If that's the case, it means the Republican Civil War is on.

Pass the popcorn.

•  Some lyrics

  Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
  Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
  And when you ask them, how much should we give?
  Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,

  It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
  It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one.

  by quaoar on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:45:45 PM PDT

  •  Funny, I always heard that as

    they always answer "four more" [i.e. years].

    Anyway, one of my favorites, and this news confirms the fact that Huckabee scares me.  He's got something.

    by renaissance grrrl on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:54:11 PM PDT

    •  found out today there's a word for that...

      a mondegreen

      is the mishearing (usually unintentional) of a phrase as a homophone or near-homophone in such a way that it acquires a new meaning

      examples:"Excuse me while I kiss the sky" vs
              "Excuse me while I kiss this guy"

      "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night" vs.
      whatever the hell you thought the line was.  usually something with "douche" in it.

      by gooners on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 11:41:05 PM PDT

      •  And the one that I can't shake, even though

        I know better: "Secret Asian Man."

        by renaissance grrrl on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:17:55 AM PDT

•  I think its number 2 also...

  and why does this popcorn taste like squirrel?

  by PBCliberal on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:46:19 PM PDT

  •  Must be the artificial butter flavor

    by quaoar on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:47:24 PM PDT

•  And Huckabee, having been drafted

  and sent to fight the rich man's war, would for sure be on solid ground to use that song.

  by Birdman on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:50:17 PM PDT

  •  i don't think he was drafted nt.

    by blueterp on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 11:24:59 PM PDT

•  Popcorn?

  Huckleberry scares the shit out of me as a GE candidate for the rethugs. Lets hope he doesn't get the nod.

  by Drewid on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:55:06 PM PDT

  •  He'll split them.

    Bloomberg will run for sure if Huckabee gets the nomination.

    by Danjuma on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:54:11 PM PDT

•  Fortunate Son was a theme against Bush in 2004.

  Also, CCR's best song.

  by Geekesque on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:57:02 PM PDT

  •  Though Fogerty has some good stuff

    out on his new album.

    by Birdman on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:59:21 PM PDT

  •  And the title of a book about Bush

    by J.H Hatfield, who later committed suicide.

    Link

    by quaoar on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 08:59:53 PM PDT

  •  Yea, everyone with a guitar has covered this song

    within the last several years.  Okay, maybe not Toby Keith, but almost everyone else....

    by Ericwmr on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:10:57 PM PDT

  •  No way

    "Lodi" is much better.

    by Old Left Good Left on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:26:32 PM PDT

•  Any musician over 40 should know...

  at least part of the story behind this song. A musician involved in politics during a time of war.....there's as much of an indirect message in this as there was to his "brother of Satan" comments, or the negative commercial screening..um...press conference  There's no coincidence here, and that is interesting. Mike Huckabee may be a conservative wet dream and ignorant on foreign policy, but this guy is no dumb hick.  

  by Ericwmr on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:01:20 PM PDT

  •  correction..."evangelical" wet dream

    My mistake in terms here, but the two have been fused for so long.....The danger is that Mike Huckabee may be doing a damn god job of separating the two and thus have some crossover appeal to more evangelical and conservative Dems/indies.

    by Ericwmr on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:07:09 PM PDT

•  Um, there's another meaning

  Wasn't "fortunate son" the title of the Bush biography which discussed his cocaine use?
  Karl Rove played a dirty trick on the author which distressed him so much that he committed suicide.
  If I'm correct, I have no doubt Huckabee is taking a dig at Bush.

  by BoringDem on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:25:18 PM PDT

  •  Ok, it was "Fortunate Son"

    by BoringDem on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:46:48 PM PDT

•  Chicken hawk?

  I checked to see if Huckabee was one, if like Cheney and Bush and many other Republicans, he'd dodged Vietnam despite supporting it. He isn't a chicken hawk. He was born in 1955, so he wouldn't have been draft age until 1973. And he went to college, of course. By the time he graduated college, the draft had been discontinued. He didn't need a long string of bullshit deferments. He was just too young for Vietnam.

  by Korkenzieher on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:32:56 PM PDT

•  that IS too weird...

  '...and when the tax man come to the door
     ahh, the house look like a rummage sale..."
  song seems to me to be about nothing less than Republican hypocrisy, I'd love to hear his take on it.
  I'm curious about something here.
  A big part of his program up to now has been his goofy Forbes-like flat-tax scheme, right? And that's got all the Grover Norquist deep pocket goofballs all aroused over him, right? I mean , along with all the 'values-voters' crypto-fascists.
  So, as we get into 2008, with real estate tanking, and any HINT  of eliminating the home-mortgage interest deduction perceived as a mortal threat by the real estate industry...who does he throw under the bus? Panicky soccer moms or his new found country-club benefactors?

  by sldulin on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:43:25 PM PDT

•  interesting

  I have to say, I admire his scrappy spirit, what with the Chuck Norris support and his anti-establishment talk and now this. He really does sound like a preacher, which doesn't surprise me but surprises the MSM. Maybe they've not been to a church service in the South before, but that's just how those preachers talk. You're from Alabama, you should know what I'm talking about, right?
  And I must admit, I admire his speech about love and inclusiveness. He won't be getting my vote, that's for sure, but as far as family political squabbles over Sunday dinner go, Huckabee supporters in the family will get far less vitriol from me than any other of the candidates' supporters would. And his populist rhetoric may open up their minds a bit more to where they may actually sit and listen to what Edwards has to say, and that would be a good thing.
  And oh yeah, I've been waiting for the Evangelicals to figure out they've been played for fools. I've been stocking up on popcorn to sit back and watch this fight!

  by rioduran on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:50:18 PM PDT

  •  Oh, he most definitely comes across

    as a Baptist preacher.

    That's not always a good thing down here. Preachers are mocked as much as they are admired.

    by quaoar on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 09:59:56 PM PDT

    •  he reminds me of my pastor

      just a little more southern ...

      i think he'd be dangerous for D's to run against. hopefully he won't be after the R establishment destroys him.

      by blueterp on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 11:23:04 PM PDT

      •  i've been in/around 'the ministry' my entire life

        and i KNOW this guy... he is what i grew up around.

        what scares me about his possible candidacy is that he's mixing the traditional republican religious values (anti-abortion, anti-gay) with a form of economic populism that has been absolutely anathema to the republican establishment for years.

        by RSA TX on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:42:29 AM PDT

        •  Gowing up baptist,

          I feel like I know him too.  The fact that he won't release any of his sermons to the public should tell you everything you need to know about how he'll run the country.

          by techiechick on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 05:05:08 AM PDT

          •  in fairness though,

            would you?  all it would do is give people plenty of ammunition to pick him apart...and it's not like he's hiding state secrets.  idk.  of all the things to disagree with him about, i'm not sure i'm feelin' that one...

            by RSA TX on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 08:45:43 AM PDT

  •  you're exactly right

    the evangelical base is supposed to shut up, get fired up about abortion, and go out and deliver elections to the republicans so the corporate-cons can get on with their fleecing of america.

    they're SURE as hell not supposed to have the audacity to run one of their own that strays from the traditional economic policies that actually goes to make up the heart of the republican party!

    politically, i love it.  personally, though, i know quite a few (especially in my own family) who are going to have a helluva political existential crisis once they realize they've been used for the past 30+ years.

    by RSA TX on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:47:03 AM PDT

    •  I've been trying to tell 'em

      Ever since my dad called me before the 2004 election, after I'd already sent in my absentee ballot, and asked me if I really want to support someone who would, in his words, "push the gay agenda" and "support(s) killing babies," I've been trying to explain that Bush and the republicans really have no interest in evangelicals once their vote is cast.

      Come to think of it, it's pretty much the same as the republicans' interest in preventing abortion. As long as you don't have the abortion, they're happy and think they've won the battle. If you decide to continue the pregnancy, they couldn't give a shit about you or the fetus, and they definitely couldn't give two shits about the kid once he's born. Their focus is to "save a life" by preventing abortion. They don't look beyond that at all.

      I'm curious to hear what my relatives think of Huckabee. I don't know what Faux News has been saying about him, but if they've been saying anything bad about him, my dad is not as likely to support him. Faux News = Word of God as far as he's concerned, I sometimes think.

      by rioduran on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 01:38:32 AM PDT

•  Reagan used Born in the USA. Huckabee is a user

  and he will take our culture and bend it to his purposes, that's what thecons do. They are just as nasty and connivingly unprincipled as Neocons. Don't kid yourself. Think of Pat Robertson-- the Huckster is that type. He is clever, but not anti-war, just trying to look cool and get votes.

  Look at that video of him duck hunting with reporters and it reveals him to be the cynical, manipulative, cold blooded killer jerk that he really is, a bona fide Rethuglican. Don't kid yourselves.

  by doinaheckuvanutjob on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 10:34:24 PM PDT

•  Damn, he's good....

  ....if he wins the nomination, we are in a whole HEAP of trouble!

  Thanks,

  Mike

  by LordMike on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 10:44:53 PM PDT

•  It's gotta be 2.

  Huckabee is damned irreverent for a fundie, and has a wicked cutting streak.  

  by Mother of Zeus on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 10:59:49 PM PDT

•  In the context of 2008,

  this is as much a song abut Mitt Romney as it is about Mister Shrub.

  Romney's dad was at one point considered the front runner for the 1968 GOP nomination. I won't say that Mitt's only qualificatin for public office is his last name, but I would imagine it has opened more doors for him that his ideological courage or his  innate ability.

  by textus on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 01:35:46 AM PDT

  •  Ding! Ding! Ding!

    we have a winner. It was most definitely directed at Romney, who is a caricature of the fortunate son, and so are his sons.

    by dhonig on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:39:58 AM PDT