Mike Huckabee in 2007 GOP debate at St. Anselm College, sponsored by CNN & WMUR

On Civil Rights: Address gay behavior if problematic, not gay attitudes

PAUL: I think the current policy is a decent policy. If there is homosexual behavior in the military that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. But if there’s heterosexual sexual behavior that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. So it isn’t the issue of homosexuality.

HUCKABEE: It’s already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. I think that’s what Congressman Paul was saying. It’s about conduct, it’s not about attitude. You don’t punish people for their attitudes. You punish them if their behavior creates a problem.

Q: So you wouldn’t change existing policy.?

HUCKABEE: I don’t think that I would. I think it’s already covered by the existing policy that we do have, in fact.

On Education: I’m running for president, not writing science curriculum

A: It’s interesting that that question would even be asked of somebody running for president. I’m not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book. I’m asking for the opportunity to be president. But you’ve raised the question, so let me answer it. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.” To me it’s pretty simple, a person either believes that God created this process or believes that it was an accident and that it just happened all on its own.

Q: Do you believe literally it was done in six days and it occurred 6,000 years ago?

A: I believe there is a God who was active in the creation process. Now, how did he do it, and when did he do it, and how long did he take? I don’t honestly know, and I don’t think knowing that would make me a better or a worse president.

On Immigration: Allow in professionals as legal immigrants, but seal border

HUCKABEE: I disagree with that. I think that there are a number of people that we should welcome into this country. Certainly engineers and doctors and scientists that we may need legally coming here. What we need to do is to have a border that is sealed and the same kind of process that we have to go through if we go into a stadium. We go in one at a time and we have a ticket. That’s the only thing I think Americans really are asking us for is a sane, sensible system that’s based on the idea that if you come here, that you come here through the same process that we would be expected to go through if we went to another country, which is not happening today.

On Principles & Values: Plenty of choices for candidates who don’t believe in God

HUCKABEE: Whether God did it in six days or whether he did it in six days that represented periods of time, he did it, and that’s what’s important. But I’ll tell you what I can tell the country. If they want a president who doesn’t believe in God, there’s probably plenty of choices. If anybody wants to believe that they are the descendants of a primate, they are certainly welcome to do it. But I believe that all of us in this room are the unique creations of a God who knows us and loves us and who created us for his own purpose.

BROWNBACK: I believe that we are created in the image of God for a particular purpose. And I am fully convinced there’s a God of the universe that loves us very much and was involved in the process. How he did it, I don’t know. One of the problems we have with our society today is that we put faith and science at odds with each other. They aren’t at odds with each other.

On Principles & Values: GOP lost 2006 election because they failed to do their job

A: We lost credibility because we didn’t do what we were hired to do. When you’re elected, you’re hired to do a job. You’re hired to cut spending, lower taxes, bring more government back to the local people. We did the polar opposite, and the people fired us. And I think in many ways, although there are some good people that got caught up in the tsunami of the 2006 elections, the Republican Party as a whole deserved to get beat. We’ve lost credibility--the way we bungled Katrina, the fact that there was corruption that was unchecked in Washington, and the fact that there was a feeling that there was not a proper handling of the Iraqi war in all of these details, and the indifference to people pouring over our borders.

On Principles & Values: Valuing life is the country’s most pressing moral issue

A: If you define a moral issue, it is our respect, our sanctity and our understanding of the value of every single human life, because that is what makes America a unique place. We value every life of an individual as if it represents the life of us all.

Many of us who are pro-life have made the mistake of giving people the impression that pro-life means we care intensely about people as long as that child is in the womb, but beyond the gestation period, we’ve not demonstrated as demonstrably as we should that we respect life at all levels, not just during pregnancy. The unique part of our country is that we elevate and we celebrate human life.

And if you contrast us with the Islamic jihadists, who would strap a bomb to the belly of their own child and kill innocent people, they celebrate death, we celebrate life. It’s the fundamental thing that makes us unique and it keeps us free. I pray we never, ever abandon that basic principle.