Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. endorses Mike Huckabee for President

(Taken from the Liberty University Journal)

When Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. introduced Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee at Wednesday’s convocation, he said Huckabee told university leaders during a visit here last year that “if this candidacy really took off it would have to be a God thing.”

It seems God has done His thing.

Falwell Jr. said Huckabee is in second place this week among the Republicans running for president and a CNN poll has revealed that he would beat Sen. Hillary Clinton by the largest margin of any candidate.

Huckabee, 52, is from Hope, Ark., the same hometown of Bill Clinton. He has been referred to as the “common man’s Republican.”

“He’s one of us,” Falwell said. “A lot of the other candidates try to talk like evangelicals, but he’s actually one of us. He believes like we do on all the issues. He’s really, I think, got a good chance at being the next president of the United States.”

The university as a whole stopped short of endorsing Huckabee, but Falwell gave his personal endorsement in a news conference after the service.

“He’s my top choice,” he said. But, he added, “That could change as it gets closer to the election.”

Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, was friends with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and spoke at LU and Thomas Road Baptist Church at the Super Conference last year. In Arkansas, where he has served as governor since 1996, he became the youngest president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the largest denomination in the state.

It was clear in his speech to a crowd of mostly students, that he tailored the talk to his younger audience. He addressed the major issues of the day, receiving shouts and applause when he mentioned a need for a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution and a definition of marriage and family that is based on biblical principles.

“Believing that there are moral absolutes in this world is critical to the survival of this great republic — and not only believing in but doing something about it,” he said. “In many ways, it is more up to you [the students] than it is to me … that we protect, preserve and we pass on the greatness of this land that the Founding Fathers gave us.”

Huckabee was well aware he was speaking to thousands of students who will be voting in their first presidential election in 2008.

LU freshman Holly Fleshman, 18, said Huckabee would most likely get her vote.

“I like that he is pro-life, because he says he values every life, no matter how big or small,” she said.

Huckabee said it is more important that the younger generation vote in this election than the older generations.

“The impact of the next president’s decisions will be far more on their lives than on mine,” he said. “They will have to live with the Supreme Court justices who are appointed. They will have to live with the decisions on war — if we fight, who we fight and how well we fight. They’ll live with the decisions of economic policy that determines whether they’re going to spend four years here [at LU], get into a job market that will help them pay their loans back or whether they’ll be bankrupt.”

He said today’s younger voters tend to take the ballot more seriously.

“My experience is a lot of younger voters will take time to go to the Internet and they won’t just take somebody’s word — if somebody says I’m a bomb, they won’t accept that until they find out if that’s true. They’ll keep doing their own research.”

And, while the research continues to show Huckabee climbing in the polls, he said the “God thing” will continue to amaze those on the outside.

In a brief question-and-answer period after his talk, one student asked Huckabee what he can attribute the surge in success to. Huckabee replied: “There’s only one explanation for it and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that felt that … two fish and five loaves could feed a crowd of 5,000 people. … There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that little would become much and it has.”

Who are those prayer warriors?

“Ordinary folks … They’re a lot of just people who aren’t big shots, they’re not the people with big names, they’re just people who care about this country, care about their kids, and they’re worried … about the future of America,” he said. “And that’s who my support comes from.”

“I think that’s why it [the campaign success] is just baffling to the pundits, to the insiders, to the people who have always lived in their own political universe.”

Huckabee is the third presidential candidate to make an appearance at LU. U.S. Sen. John McCain spoke at Liberty’s graduation in May 2006 and Alan Keyes, a former Assistant Secretary of State, spoke at convocation in September.

For more on Huckabee’s campaign, go to www.mikehuckabee.com.

posted on Wednesday, November, 28, 2007 by Mitzi Bible | in General News