Excerpts from Mike Huckabee at the CNN Reagan Library Debate

Huckabee wins GOP debate with fiery optimism at Reagan Library

Huckabee: "Reagan didn't tell everyone how great he was. He got elected telling the American people how great they were. And he empowered them to live their dreams."

SIMI VALLEY, Calif.- Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee delivered a winning performance that channeled a strong, optimistic vision at tonight's GOP presidential debate.  Huckabee's positive message, coupled with humor, clearly demonstrated he has a positive vision for our future. The following are excerpts from his winning debate performance:

Ronald Reagan: "We're sitting here in the Reagan library that most of us would like to pay tribute to a guy who when he got elected, didn't tell everyone how great he was. He got elected telling the American people how great they were. And he empowered them to live their dreams, which is what I would love to see us do."

Supreme Court litmus tests: "You better believe I will (support litmus tests). Because I'm tired of liberals always having a litmus test and conservatives are supposed to pretend we don't. Do you think that the unborn child is a human being or is it just a blob of tissue?  I'd want to know the answer to that.  I'd want to know: Do you believe in the first amendment?  Do you believe that religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms of this country are based? Do you really believe in the 2nd Amendment?  Do you believe that we have an individual right to bear arms to protect ourselves and our family and our country."

FairTax:
"We ought to get rid of all the taxes on people who produce.  Why should we penalize productivity?  It's why I'm an unabashed supporter of the FairTax, which would be a tax on our consumption rather than a tax on our productivity.  We're not going to tax anyone for what they earn whether it's a worker who is working by the hour or it's a hedge fund manager."  

Religious Freedom/Kim Davis:
"We made accommodations to the Fort Hood shooter to grow a beard.  We made accommodations to the detainees in Gitmo.  I've been to Gitmo.  I've seen the accommodations that we make to the Muslim detainees who killed Americans.  You're telling me that you cannot make an accommodation for an elected Democrat county clerk from Kentucky?  What else is it other than the criminalization of her faith?"

Healthcare:
"Why doesn't this country focus on cures rather than treatment? Why don't we put a definitive focus scientifically on finding the cure for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's -- a disease alone that will cause us $1.1 trillion by the year 2050."

Abortion:
"Abortion would be no more.  It would be as much of a scourge in our past as slavery is."  

Future:
"At the end of my presidency...People wouldn't bully us anymore because they would know that that is an invitation to their destruction...We would have a peaceful country, where people respected each other and people respected law enforcement...We would make this country not only safe from our enemies without but safe from our enemies within.  It would be a good place to raise our kids and our grandkids.