“Apocalypse is right around the corner”: Rick Perlstein unloads on Mike Huckabee-style conservatives

Author-historian Rick Perlstein tells Salon why the crypto-candidate's avarice fits so well with today's party

Elias Isquith

Earlier this month former governor of Arkansas, Fox News host and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee found himself on the receiving end of some well-deserved ridicule. But although his views on women’s rights (and Beyoncé, apparently?) are so retrograde that it’s almost funny, Huckabee’s mistake wasn’t letting slip that he thinks women sound “trashy” when using cuss words. No, his goof was something even sillier and even more lacking in dignity: He got caught hawking some snake oil cure for diabetes.

As many noted, Huckabee is far from the first ex-presidential candidate to trade his name for some grubby money; Bob Dole and Fred Thompson both carved out nice little niches in their post-politics years doing just that. What was new — or at least newer — however, was Huckabee selling himself to the highest bidder while simultaneously preparing to make another run for president. Reaching for the White House requires all manner of indignities, of course. At least for the time being, though, offering Americans some magic beans in exchange for their money is simply considered unpresidential.