Huckabee calls his campaign the "electric car" of the '08 race

I really love the way Mike thinks~especially when speaking about our tax dollars!

Huckabee calls his campaign the "electric car" of the '08 race

By ANDREW DeMILLO
Thursday, July 19, 2007 1:45 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Thursday accused his rivals of needlessly spending campaign dollars and called his small operation the "electric car of the 2008 race."

"I really don't want some folks in charge of the federal treasury if the way they're burning campaign money is indicative of how they would burn taxpayer money," the former Arkansas governor told reporters in a conference call.

Huckabee, who raised $764,000 for his presidential campaign from April through June and had $437,000 cash on hand at the end of last month, called his campaign operation frugal compared to his opponents.

"You will not find a more frugal operation than ours and you will also not find a more efficient, better miles per gallon," said Huckabee, who did not single out any opponents specifically. "If anything, we've become the electric car of the 2008 race. We have gotten more for what we have spent."

Huckabee has tried to present himself as the alternative to front-runners Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, but has lagged far behind their fundraising. Huckabee said his goal in fundraising during last quarter was to raise enough money to make it to the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

"We've been moving upward and forward the entire time, which I still think is better than starting at the top and having nowhere to go but down, as some of the candidates are clearly sliding rapidly down the hill," Huckabee said.

Huckabee also took jabs at two of his home state's leading political figures, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Huckabee said Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, now a U.S. senator from New York, is qualified but would likely raise taxes if elected.

"In health care, Hillary would see the government having more control. I would see more individuals having control of their doctors and the direction," Huckabee said. "I think you would see taxes go up with Hillary. If I were president, I would push toward the fair tax, which means our tax burden would go down."

Huckabee said he and Hillary Clinton would also be fundamentally different on world affairs.

"I see a much deeper threat to Islamic fascism and believe it is at the heart of this effort that we're engaged in, something we cannot simply ignore. We can't leave them alone and they'll leave us alone," Huckabee said.

Huckabee also said his record on education as Arkansas governor for 10 years "absolutely" was better than the 42nd president, who served in the office for 12 years.

"I think that the results if you look at what we did in terms of test scores and what we did in terms of moving our teacher salaries from some of the lowest in the country to some of the best in the country and certainly if you add in the cost of living, we made some of the most dramatic improvements," Huckabee said.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)