The following piece was produced by Huffington Post's OffTheBus.
Shortly after GOP presidential hopeful Governor Mike Huckabee walked into a house party in Loudon, New Hampshire on Saturday he was asked whether he would commit to helping the UN reach its goal of 50 billion in AIDS funding by 2015.
Smiling, Huckabee replied he would need to look over the budget, and have to be fiscally responsible. A second questioner followed up, asking for clarification - would Huckabee's religious views get in the way of him supporting the methods of prevention that such money would support?
Huckabee, in a lengthy answer, replied that encouraging safe sex was
similar to encouraging people to not "drive as drunk" or telling domestic abusers to not hit "as hard":
"If we really are serious about stopping a problem, whether it's drunk driving...we don't say "Don't drive 'as drunk'?" ...This is an illogical thing that we apply to that one area that we don't
apply to any other area. And I'm open-minded to all the arguments, if someone can convince me a little reckless behavior is OK. Maybe that's the message. But it would seem to me that if we're consistent in saying reckless behavior is undesirable we should ask people to move their behavior to the standard and not move the standard to the behavior...We don't say that a little domestic violence is OK, just cut it down a little, just don't hit quite as hard. We say it's wrong."
The questioner said in an interview after the event that he was impressed with Huckabee's demeanor in answering the question (a similar question directed at Romney last week had been mocked) but very disappointed with the answer.