The Huckster''s Con: Mike Huckabee PEDDLES 'CURES' For Diabetes, Cancer

[Segami]

The New York Times reports on 2016 presidential hopeful and (sigh) talk radio host Mike Huckabee's "unconventional" fundraising efforts. But they're the same scams and apocalypse-fodder that the whole rest of the conservative movement sends out, so perhaps what they mean to say is that they are in fact very conventional fundraising efforts.

“I’m Mike Huckabee,” he says with all the folksy charm that propelled a career as a preacher, politician and broadcaster.

But this is no campaign ad. It is an Internet infomercial for a dubious diabetes treatment, in which Mr. Huckabee, who is contemplating a run for the Republican nomination in 2016, tells viewers to ignore “Big Pharma” and instead points them to a “weird spice, kitchen-cabinet cure,” consisting of dietary supplements.

“Let me tell you, diabetes can be reversed,” Mr. Huckabee says. “I should know because I did it. Today you can, too.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/us/politics/huckabee-pursues-unconventional-ways-to-fund-a-campaign.html?_r=2

Except he didn't do it via the cinnamon-based dietary supplement, but by losing weight. He himself never tried the "dietary supplement," possibly because the American Diabetes Association considers it bunk. In a better world this is the sort of thing that would get a fellow invited to a congressional hearing, but in this world this is just the most prominent of Huckabee's many links to dubious and/or outright creepy product peddlers. Members of his mailing list may look forward to all sorts of (literal) miracle cures and whatnot, as you can read beneath the fold.




cont'

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/16/1371308/-Mike-Huckabee-peddles-cures-for-diabetes-cancer?showAll=yes

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. The hardest sell to the stupids, the TeaParTY is that their heroes, whether it is a TeaParTY

politician or asshole like Huckabee, are con-men, liars, not at all who they say they are.

[samsingh]

2. i lost the meter on how low these repugs morons can go

[packman]

3. He has an audience that , by its nature, will buy it

they as a group would believe the earth is flat, vaccines are dangerous, Republicans look out for your good and there is no such thing as global warming. So, yah, go to your spice cabinet and cure just about anything with a poultice of bay leaves, paprika and nutmeg. You can damn well bet he'll be selling Huckabee Spice Pills by the bottle soon.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Praise Jeezus!!!1!

[malaise]

5. Let us PREY

Fuckabee is the snake oil salesman's salesman -what a ReTHUG scumbag.

[Segami]

6. "Let us PREY"?.....DUzy!!

[former9thward]

7. This is why I don't think he is really running for president.

Despite speculation. He is making too much money doing this type of stuff.

[Segami]

8. Its a scam reTHUGS understand very well....

The Lucrative Business Of Running For President



In Presidential politics, winning is no longer everything.

Especially for Newt Gingrich, who has used his run for President as a kind of savvy marketing campaign built around his political persona.

In the last five years the former Speaker of the House has lived a life of luxury built around his empire, including millions in private jet travel, paid for with donations to a political group he founded. Gingrich's lifestyle also includes a million-dollar home in suburban Washington and jewelry from Tiffany's.

"You can do very well by running for President," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist. "You don't always have to win."

Sarah Palin, a little-known governor before John McCain picked her as his running mate in 2008, has turned her political celebrity into a multi-million dollar business, with books, paid speeches, and a reality TV show.

"There's a heck of a business out there for ex-politicians that have run," said Reed, who managed Sen. Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. Reed said Palin actually has a "real choice" to make about running in 2012, "because she has a very lucrative career going right now."

But Reed says that for some Republicans this election cycle, running for President seems mostly about marketing -- about creating or enhancing a valuable brand name.

"I mean to me it's kind of a game," said Reed. "It makes their brand have some value."

And no one seems to have realized that more than Gingrich, who has not held elective office since 1999. When he was pressed on the half-million-dollar account that he and his wife Callista had with Tiffany's on "Face the Nation," Gingrich called it a "standard, no-interest account" and said he and his wife live on a budget.

Part of Gingrich's empire, a kind of Gingrich, Inc., includes several for-profit businesses. Gingrich Communications oversees his paid speaking engagements and Fox News contract. Gingrich Group provides consulting services. Gingrich Productions makes feel-good documentaries with themes grounded in religion and American tradition.

This week Gingrich also released his 24th book, with many of his upcoming campaign stops doubling as marketing events for his book and movies, raising more questions about the true intentions of the campaign.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/newt-gingrich-win-make-money/story?id=13840722