Iowa Poll: Huckabee attack on Obama parenting went too far

Iowans may or may not like Beyoncé, but one thing's clear in a new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll: Mike Huckabee went too far when he suggested that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were bad parents for allowing their daughters to listen to the singer's music.

Huckabee, who won the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2008, leveled the "mental poison" accusation at Beyoncé in his new book God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy. In an interview with People magazine published in January, Huckabee went on to knock the president and first lady for allowing their daughters to listen to the singer.

Sixty-one percent of likely Republican caucus-goers and 95 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers said Huckabee "went too far" in his critique of the Obamas, according to the poll. Read more about the poll from Bloomberg Politics.

Huckabee, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was ranked as likely GOP caucusgoers third choice, behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in an Iowa poll conducted last week.

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Huckabee talks of gay 'lifestyle'

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday said being gay is akin to choosing to drink alcohol or use profanity — lifestyle choices he says are appealing to others but not to him.

The former Baptist pastor also claimed that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage as policy is on par with telling Jews that they must serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." That dish would run afoul of kosher rules in the same way Huckabee sees asking Christians to accept same-sex marriages.

"We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years," Huckabee said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Huckabee has made cultural issues the cornerstone of his likely White House bid.

He also said he appreciates different viewpoints on gay marriage, adding that he has gay friends.

"I accept a lot of people as friends maybe whose lifestyle I don't necessarily adhere to, agree with or practice. Doesn't mean that I can't have a good relationship with anyone or lead them or govern them," Huckabee said.

— Associated Press

About the poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted Jan. 26-29 for The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on phone interviews with 401 registered Iowa voters who say they definitely or probably will attend the 2016 Democratic caucuses and 402 registered voters who say they definitely or probably will attend the 2016 Republican caucuses.

Interviewers contacted 3,813 randomly selected active voters from the Iowa secretary of state's voter registration list by telephone. Responses were adjusted by age, sex and congressional district to reflect all active voters in the voter registration list.

Questions based on the subsamples of 401 likely Democratic caucus attendees and 402 likely Republican caucus attendees have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the percentages shown here by more than plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age — have a larger margin of error.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics is prohibited.