Enter the faux populist
The populist 1 percenter
As he launches his second presidential bid, Mike Huckabee insists he hasn’t changed. But his pockets are much, much deeper.
Mike Huckabee was not a millionaire when he ran for president in 2008, and liked to let people know it during his underdog campaign against wealthy rivals like John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Now, after hosting his own Fox News show and a syndicated radio program, while authoring several books, the former governor is solidly – and, some would say, ostentatiously — a part of the one percent.
There’s the 10,900-square-foot beachfront mansion he built on Florida’s Panhandle, worth more than $3 million. There are regular trips on private jets, often to elite events at which he has given countless paid speeches.
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More than anyone else in the 2016 field, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the former Southern Baptist minister decries the influence of “corporatists” and “globalists” over the GOP. Still, hints of his fabulous new life bleed into his rhetoric. He raised eyebrows during a speech in New Hampshire two weeks ago, for instance, when he recalled a recent conversation with a Russian limo driver.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/mike-huckabee-2016-wealth-117627.html#ixzz3ZHyj9QOL