Huckabee's Overlooked Comments on Obama

He's no longer running for president, so it's no surprise that the comments of former Arkansas Gov.

He's no longer running for president, so it's no surprise that the comments of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, didn't get more than passing notice when he spoke out Friday on the controversy involving Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But Huckabee's comments may surprise a lot of people.

In an interview with MSNBC, Huckabee was asked about criticism of Obama for not disavowing Wright many years. go. He said, in part:

"As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say 'That's a terrible statement' -- I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you -- We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie, you have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant, you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus.

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And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment, and you have to just say, 'I probably would, too.'"

His complete comments were reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mark Willen
Senior Political Editor, The Kiplinger Letter