lighten up

i don't get it.

seriously, even as an offensive joke, i still don't get it.

Lets just put into gun nut's heads that they should point guns at Obama. Huck must know that he has had secret service protection almost from the outset since there were credible threats made against him. Nobody makes jokes about McCain being shot, do they? Oh yeah, only Republicans think an opponent getting shot is funny.

...assassinating Barack because there was no way he could stand to have a Negro boy as President.

This, as an Obama supporter, is one of my closely held fears. It would be the greatest American political tragedy since the assassination of Bobby Kennedy...and all it would take is one gun-toting, bigoted NRA redneck.

You'd think the joke would have to do with Obama being black (and thus guns would or should be pointed at him), but rather it's about Obama being scared of guns. Too much coverage and Huckabee is going to get a boost from this.

It doesn't even make any sense. Obama would avoid a gun if it were pointed at him, while a real (Republican) man would...what? Get shot and like it?

Ever notice that Republicans can only take pleasure in hurting and denigrating others? They are sick, sad excuses for human beings.

Ha, ha. Joking about a hypothetical political assassination to the nation's largest and rabid pro-gun organization is so funny. So lighten up folks and make some jokes about assassinating George Bush and enjoy it when the FBI and homeland security show up at your front door to detain you.

/snark off>

It takes a pretty warped mind to think that sort of joke is appropriate under any circumstances, much less publicly when addressing the NRA.

I like Huckabee. He's misinformed on many political ideas (Flat tax anyone?) but I generally like the guy. This was just a bad day for his common joking personality. He does this type of stuff constantly. He just needed to think about 2 seconds longer :

Or I'm gonna start tellin' some ugly jokes about his wife.

I mean, he could have used anyone's name in the joke and it still would have been a really bad joke.

let's hope the secret service arrests the nutjob and roughs him up a little while he's being questioned. I'm pretty sure that's what they'd do to me if I joked about shooting McCrazyPants or Junior.

in the coffin for the Republicans. His off-color comment will not likely encourage someone to fulfill his words, but it will expose the ugly underbelly that festers in the dark of the Republican party.

it is interesting to hear that few laughed about the "gun pointed at his head" comment. In fact, I didn't hear any one laugh at that part at all.

Huckelberry shows his true disgusting colors in front of a massive crowd of bigoted idiots no less. The NRA used to stand for something good. Those days are long gone.

What scares me is not that Huckabee's "joke" is in bad taste but that it may give the idea to some nut with a gun out there.

He will be the VP candidate. That's the only way they can secure the votes of the sheep who will do as instructed by their preachers.

I mean, it was a quip without a lot of real meaning. I'm no fan of Huckabee's, but I've got to say, I've heard a lot worse from a lot of politicians.

. . . you know the Republicans are in trouble. Face it: they have absolutely no gameplan as to how to deal with Obama. And I, for one, am loving it.

...if the unthinkable does happen to Obama, it will be his fault for not carrying a gun. The solution to gun violence is more guns.

...and we all wish we could retract a lame attempt at a joke.

I first saw this "news" item on another site and thought the same thing Mr. Koppelman wrote: goodbye V.P. spot!

i am deeply saddened to hear what mike huckagee quipped at the nra convention today; although i am the polar opposite in political views, in the republican debates he seemed at least to be human and sincere and affable.

words do matter, and i am convinced while racial bigotry and anger still exists in this country, it had become unacceptable to voice them outside of the confines of one's small group. this all changed when first bill, then ed then hill said it was okay to vote and voice your bigotry.

as one old enough to remember november, 1963 then the killing of MLK and finally Bobby, i am horrified someone who even joke about this, let alone a baptist minister.

dear readers, do apologize for my bad typing; i must learn to preview first.

This was really smart of HUCKLEBERRY--give some Dumb-Ass Hillbilly an idea like this !! Maybe even one from Arkansas! And to think they are talking about this GENIUS as a V.P. candidate.I didn't think the GOP could sink any lower than it already is--Guess I was wrong !!!

That Mike Huckabee is an idiot. This will guarantee him a punditry spot on some network or other.

they just keep letting Repukelicans out of their cages.

was him saying "the government should get its hands off of us as much as possible." (Except when it comes to love and reproduction, of course....)

As for the stupid joke he was actually attempting to make, it was dumb and ugly, but not worth spending much time on. More substance, less gotcha: that principle serves us all.

Yikes!!!!! I just figured it out! Huckabee is not actually a Baptist minister. He is an Islamofascist TERRORIST!!! But it's okay, we need not worry, because I am sure he is compassionate!

if you can't beat em, shoot em.

Speaking as someone who has lived around guns all his life, I can tell you that no one in the audience would be taking this joke as seriously as an anti-gun person might. To people who use guns, guns are not that scary. To people who have been taught to think that guns are the very cause of violence, guns are scary as hell.

So, even though Huckabee's joke was tasteless and inexcusable, I don't think he or anyone in the audience was taking it seriously as alluding to an Obama assassination or anything.