Mitt Romney for President My Man Mitt: Huckabee's theology degree? Now says ain't necessarily so

I already posted this at NY for Mitt, but knew we'd get a larger audience by posting here, too.

I saw this story earlier in the week at Evangelicals for Mitt. Here's today's story:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told the Christian Broadcasting Network he had a theology degree, he told voters in Iowa he had a theology degree, he repeated the claim in last month's CNN YouTube debate ... but, his campaign now says, it was not true.

Huckabee's claim began unraveling following his offhanded comment about Mormonism in a New York Times interview last weekend.

In the interview, Huckabee's account of his education made no mention of his having earned a theology degree.

Chafets wrote: "If young Mike Huckabee was ever rebellious or difficult, there's no record of it. He preached his first sermon as a teenager, married his high-school sweetheart and went off to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. There he majored in speech and communications, worked at a radio station and earned his B.A. in a little more than two years.

He spent a year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex., before dropping out to work for the televangelist James Robison, who bought him his first decent wardrobe and showed him how to use television."

This preacher--without a theology degree--has a lot of expaining to do.

Update by Slick Willie:

As if getting caught once weren't enough, it appears Huck is continuing to fabricate his resume.

When questioned about the fact that he has no theology degree, Huckabee responded,

"I have a bachelor of arts in religion and a minor in communications in my undergraduate work. And then I have 46 hours on a master's degree at Southwestern Theology Seminary.
So, my degree as a theological degree is at the college level and then 46 hours toward a masters -- three years of study of New Testament Greek, and then the rest of it, all in Seminary was theological studies, but my degree was actually in religion."

If Huck's degree is in "Religion" as he claimed, he should suffer some ridicule.

But if WorldNetDaily is right, and Huckabee's degree is actually in "Speech & Communications," not "Religion," he has moved from puffery to flat-out lying.

Almost having a theology degree does not equal having a theology degree no matter how much New Testament Greek you study.

This type of deception is an absolute application killer when applying for a job or graduate school. How could it be acceptable for a president?


	4 Comments: Interesting. As this campaign has progressed, I have been reminded more and more of how Bill Clinton used to just say any old thing that sounded good when he was caught in an uncomfortable situation. He wasn't bound to the truth. I have worked with a few people like that. For the most part they eventually get pushed of the organization. Mike Huckabee has given me vibes like this a number of times - especially when he's trying to talk his way out of something he should just be apologizing for. Pardons and commutations, raising taxes and such. "Mike, we were here in 1992. All of us remember learning about AIDS like, 7 years earlier. What you just said sounds good, but it's completely vacuous." The parallels continue - Huckabee is like Harriet Miers in that he isn't qualified for POTUS (or SCOTUS in Miers' case) Huckabee = Bill Clinton in that he isn't bound to the truth. Huckabee = Howard Dean in that Huckabee, like Howard, would be a gift to the competing party in a general election. By Anonymous, at December 15, 2007 at 6:58 PM I will be interviewing prospective employees on Tuesday. If one of them told me they had a different degree than what they really had, I would be livid. I would look for someone else for sure. The nice thing about this election cycle is, we get to pick someone with far better credentials, experience, and accomplishments. By Anonymous, at December 15, 2007 at 7:53 PM I read comments where some people are saying that it's not big deal that Huckabee said he's got a theology degree, but he doesn't. I have to say that lying about a theology degree is a big deal. It could get you fired from a job. I have a BA in Bible, but I would never misrepresent myself as having a theology degree. Why does Huckabee? A Bachelors degree (which Huckabee does have) is a prerequisite for a Masters of Divinity, or as Huckabee likes to call it, a theology degree. He said several times in different places that he had a theology degree, probably hoping that no one would check into it, or know the difference. Obviously, he is lying and misrepresenting himself to promote himself politically. He seems to have the same tendencies as his predecessor, Bill Clinton, who is a sociopathic liar. That’s how both Bill and Huckabee can look you straight in the eyes, smile and say their lies without even flinching. Sociopathic liars believe their own lies. And Huckabee supporters think when things like this come out, it is persecution coming from the devil. It's not -- it's Huckabee's own doing -- or maybe I should say -- undoing. By Anonymous, at December 16, 2007 at 8:36 AM Sounds like a famous anti-LDS/anti-cult writer and speaker-- "Dr." Walter Martin. He paraded around the falsehood that he was a PHD. The college he alleged to have attended....never existed. A college in the area of Cal State Fullerton named Western State University College of Law did show his attendance for less than a semester or up to a single semester--that was it. "Dr." Martin's books still sell well, are respected but have been discredited by current scholars of the Evangelical persuasion--Carl Mosser and Paul Owen both are PHD's. By Anonymous, at December 18, 2007 at 6:08 AM Post a Comment