Huckabee : Category on Electapres.com

...On “Weekend Update,” Mr. Huckabee appeared as himself.

After Seth Myers, the co-host of the news-show satire, told him that it was mathematically impossible for him to win the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Huckabee said he would not overstay his welcome and would “exit with class and grace.” At which point he remained on the set. He had to be prompted several times to leave. Finally he got it, mumbling that “normally I pick up on those things.”

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Television]

February 18, 2008

Huckabee Takes a Break and Heads to the Islands

The unusual detour in the middle of a campaign, on the weekend before the Wisconsin presidential primary, had raised many questions: Is it appropriate to take a speaking fee while running for president? Is it appropriate to pick up cash in an offshore tax haven when routinely criticizing that haven for putting a burden on the American economy? Was this detour more or less an admission that he was not serious about his campaign?
Before his speech, Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, met with reporters, popping into a hotel salon in his tuxedo. He had gone running earlier — seven miles in a humid 85 degrees — and his face was scorched, except where his sunglasses protected his eyes.

Mr. Huckabee said the matter was simple: He came here because he needed the money.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

February 11, 2008

Obama Sweeps, Huckabee Hangs On

Time Magazine

Pundits may well marvel that, for once, participants in Tuesday's D.C., Maryland and Virginia Democratic Potomac Primaries will be casting votes that "actually matter," but yesterday's results among Republicans show that even if a party's nomination is all sewn up, votes can still matter quite a lot. John McCain's losses in Kansas and Louisiana — and his narrow win in Washington state — suggest that, at the very least, the Republican party will not be able to begin preparing for the general election as soon as leaders would like. At worst, Mike Huckabee's insistence on staying in the race undermines McCain's precarious status as a consensus conservative candidate. The longer that anyone-but-McCain voters have an option in the primary voting booth, the less likely they will be to turn out to vote in the general at all.
Huckabee has little chance of actually winning the nomination. He would have to win each one of the next primary contests with better than 50% of the vote just to keep McCain short of the 1,191 delegates needed to nab the GOP nod. And even then, it is unlikely that a brokered convention would work out in his favor. Remember, the only Republican whom traditional conservative leaders distrust more than McCain is Mike Huckabee. (This distrust might stem from Huckabee's independence from traditional conservative organizations; the Club for Growth's opprobrium means little to his loose coalition of homeschoolers, economic populists, evangelicals and socially moderate, young Christians.) Huckabee's best hope — as he admitted in a speech on Saturday — is for divine intervention: "I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out...Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too." Unfortunately, miracles are not yet an approved nomination vehicle. (This might change should, for instance, Huckabee accept the consolation prize of party chair.)

Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, Obama]

Why isn't Huckabee throwing in the towel?

The LA Times

WASHINGTON -- A day after John McCain appeared to have nailed down the Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee clung Friday to the faint hope that he could snatch it away.

He gamely pleaded for support at "Huckabee for President" rallies in Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City, Kan.

But for many who have watched Huckabee rise to the top tier of candidates only to see McCain emerge as the presumptive nominee, the question has become: Why keep going?

"I still believe that we can win," Huckabee told listeners at one of his Friday gatherings.

Few share that view. Many say that Huckabee's only rationale for staying in the race is to gain leverage for the vice presidential spot.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

Huckabee Fires Back at Karl Rove

ABC News

Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee continued to answer question Sunday as to the status of his candidacy. His viability in the race has come into question of late thanks to many inside the beltway all but handing the GOP nomination to Senator John McCain. Huckabee bristles, however, at calls to drop out, arguing that the race is a campaign and not a "coronation."
In a press conference in Lynchburg, Virginia Sunday afternoon Huckabee reacted to claims from Karl Rove that Huckabee simply couldn’t win the nomination. On CBS’ "Face the Nation" this morning Karl Rove told moderator Bob Shieffer when asked if Huckabee could win, "No. Going into last -- after super Tuesday, for Huckabee to win the nomination, he'd have to take 83 percent of the delegates who are yet to be elected or who are unbound. Bob, you heard it from him, himself. He said he could win, provided that there were mistakes made by his opponent, and that some of these bound or pledged delegates would change their mind. Well, even if they change their mind, they're bound or pledged to vote for the candidate who won their primary."

Huckabee responded in kind, "Karl Rove has also maxed out personal contributions to John McCain so I’m not saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about politically, but he’s not infallible either. And the point is, Karl is a supporter of John McCain. And I’ve not had my supporters yet to tell me to get out of race."

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

February 10, 2008

Activists refusing to back McCain

Editor's comment: Why not headline that 70% of activists WILL vote for McCain? Peter Bakke

About 30 percent of conservative activists will stay home or vote for somebody else if Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the Republican presidential nominee, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said yesterday.
The straw poll of activists at the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference showed resistance to Mr. McCain remains strong among conservatives and did not change much with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's suspension of his campaign Thursday.

Before Mr. Romney dropped out, 14 percent said they would not vote, 22 percent said they would vote for someone else and 62 percent said they would back Mr. McCain. After the Romney announcement, 10 percent said they would not vote, 19 percent said they would vote for someone else and 70 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]

Coronation on hold: McCain loses 2

Just days after being anointed the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain failed his first big test, losing Kansas' caucuses and Louisiana's primaries yesterday to Mike Huckabee.
It is almost mathematically impossible for Mr. Huckabee to win enough delegates to claim the Republican nomination outright, and Mr. McCain is still almost certain to win eventually. But yesterday's results suggest conservative voters are still looking to register their anti-McCain sentiment.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]

Huckabee Wins Kansas, La.; McCain Projected to Take Narrow Victory in Washington

In the Republican race, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee was the vehicle for a conservative rebuke of the idea that his rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), had sewn up the nomination.
With all Kansas precincts reporting, Huckabee won 60 percent of the vote, well ahead of McCain's 24 percent and Texas congressman Ron Paul's 11 percent. In Louisiana, Huckabee barely edged McCain for a second win, while in the Washington caucuses, the Associated Press declared McCain the winner with only a 200 vote margin.

"We both made our case, and ours seemed to sell pretty well," Huckabee told reporters last night. "While people in Washington and insiders continue to maybe gravitate to the senator's campaign, people across America are gravitating to our campaign and realizing there is a choice."

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]

February 09, 2008

Huckabee: Dobson's Choice

The Wall Street Journal

Mike Huckabee this week picked up the endorsement of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who reiterated his statement Tuesday that he could not vote for presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain even in November against a Democrat. Speaking of Senator McCain, the Christian broadcaster said "His record on the institution of the family and other conservative issues makes his candidacy a matter of conscience and concern for me."
We haven't endorsed any candidate, and it's up to Mr. McCain to convince Mr. Dobson that he's worthy of his vote. But for the network of socially conservative activists who are now such a large part of the Republican Party, this is also an instructive moment. They have to decide if they care more about achieving their policy goals than they do about being kingmakers within the GOP.

Permalink [Category: Christian Right, Huckabee, Religion]

February 08, 2008

Huckabee on track to play the spoiler

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a tremendous long shot for winning the Republican presidential nomination, but he has the potential to undermine Sen. John McCain's general election prospects, as Pat Buchanan did to President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
"If he stays, he might indeed become like Pat Buchanan — not that he'd represent a serious challenge to McCain, but that he'd be seeking to establish himself as a national representative of largely southern evangelicals," said Hoover Institution scholar and former presidential speechwriter Peter Robinson.

"Why should Huck stay in the race?" he said. "To be honest, I'd been assuming — no inside info here, just an assumption — that Huck would bow out by about this time next week."

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

February 07, 2008

Gamble Paid Off for Huckabee

After a dispiriting loss nearly three weeks ago in South Carolina, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee made the risky decision to sidestep the pivotal Florida primary and turn his attention to a handful of Super Tuesday contests.
Already slipping from the spotlight and with little money to spend, the Huckabee campaign was in danger of further marginalizing itself by skipping the marquee matchup in Florida, where former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had joined the race. But campaign aides did not think the campaign had the money or support to place in the top two, and they feared that a distant finish would cripple Huckabee's chances.

Better, they reasoned, to turn their efforts to half a dozen Southern and Midwestern states that voted Tuesday, hoping a strong showing would propel the campaign back into the thick of a splintered race.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Super Tuesday]

February 06, 2008

Huckabee Strong in South, Romney in West

Senator John McCain of Arizona racked up primary victories on Tuesday night in the delegate-rich states of New York, Illinois, and New Jersey, but he is locked in a tight battle with Mitt Romney for the biggest prize of all: California.
And highlighting the challenge to the Romney candidacy from the conservative flank, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor whose campaign had struggled since his victory in the Iowa caucuses last month, performed strongly in the South, winning the primaries in his home state of Arkansas and in Alabama and Georgia, as well as a convention in West Virginia. He remains competitive in a closely contested race in Tennessee.

Though Mr. Romney was nearly shut out in the Northeast — save for Massachusetts, where served a term as governor — he picked up several wins in the West, including caucuses in North Dakota and Montana and the primary in Utah, which has a sizable population that shares his Mormon faith. He also won the Minnesota caucus.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Romney, Super Tuesday]

February 02, 2008

Gifts apparently part of running Arkansas

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee accepted tens of thousands of dollars in suits and clothes as well as dozens of airplane trips, sporting tickets, country club memberships, fishing rods and jewelry for his wife during his years as Arkansas governor.
Mr. Huckabee was never found to have violated any ethics laws and his predecessors, including former President Bill Clinton, took dozens of similar donations, reports show. State ethics laws in Arkansas don't prohibit such gift-giving.

Still, Mr. Huckabee's years as governor from 1996 to 2007 at times were marked by run-ins with the state ethics board and complaints by political rivals about his practice of accepting gifts.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

Huckabee factor could sap Romney in South

The Boston Globe

ATLANTA - As Mitt Romney prepared this week to enter the Super Tuesday contests, he declared confidently that "in a two-person race, I like my chances."
But the problem with Romney's assertion is evident in the South. Romney is not just facing John McCain, but Mike Huckabee, who is running strongly in polls in the four Southern states voting Tuesday, where he has his biggest base of evangelical support.

The Huckabee factor may be getting relatively little attention nationally in the Republican nomination battle because the former Arkansas governor has failed to repeat his Iowa victory. But in a region that has equal or greater evangelical strength than Iowa, Huckabee may become the decisive factor - at Romney's expense

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Romney]

January 23, 2008

The Weak Huck

The National Review

Mike Huckabee has serious weaknesses. As governor of Arkansas, he raised taxes, backed scholarships for illegal aliens, and secured parole for a vicious criminal who went on to kill. As a wartime presidential candidate, he has a mushy foreign-policy agenda that makes Jimmy Carter look like … Chuck Norris. Expect to learn even more. In days to come, the other GOP candidates will stuff reporters’ Christmas stockings full of opposition research.
The mainstream media, however, are misjudging where his soft spots are. A New York Times analysis says that his Christmas-tree TV spot could backfire outside of Iowa. “[T]he religiosity of the message may turn off more-secular voters elsewhere, and remind them that Mr. Huckabee has been dismissive of homosexuality and indicated that he does not believe in evolution.”

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

Huckabee, Short on Cash, Curtails Effort in Florida

WASHINGTON — Before he won the Iowa Republican caucuses, Mike Huckabee told voters that sending him to victory would forever debunk the conventional wisdom that money could decide a presidential race.
On Tuesday, though, the Huckabee campaign acknowledged that its chronic shortage of money might be catching up to it.

As the Republican front-runners crisscross Florida — the race’s biggest prize yet and a state his campaign once considered essential — Mr. Huckabee is pulling back in the state. He told reporters that he did not plan to advertise in Florida, and his only campaign stops scheduled so far this week were token events at airports. To conserve cash, Ed Rollins, his top consultant, and a few other staff members have agreed to work without pay, and his campaign has stopped arranging transportation for the traveling press.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Money]

January 18, 2008

McCain, Huckabee tied in S.C., poll says

The Boston Globe

A new poll in South Carolina released this afternoon shows that John McCain and Mike Huckabee are in a statistical tie.
The McClatchy/MSNBC survey, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Monday through Wednesday, gave McCain the support of 27 percent of likely voters in Saturday's Republican primary to Huckabee's 25 percent. That gap is well within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Mitt Romney stands third in the new poll at 15 percent, Fred Thompson fourth at 13 percent, Ron Paul in fifth at 6 percent, and Rudy Giuliani in sixth at 5 percent.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain Archive, Polls, South Carolina Primary]

January 16, 2008

Huckabee, 3rd in Mich, Looks to SC

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) -- Mike Huckabee, nursing a second third-place finish in northern states, looked ahead to the South where he hopes his Arkansas roots and Baptist background will put him back on a winning track in South Carolina.
''Ladies and gentlemen we're going to win South Carolina,'' he declared to supporters in Lexington.

Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, has emerged from the back of the pack into an improbable contender. But he has since had to watch John McCain win New Hampshire and, now, Mitt Romney win Michigan. He is staking his new foothold on South Carolina's social conservatives and religious voters as well as young working-class voters attracted to his economic populist message. South Carolina's GOP primary is Saturday.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, South Carolina Primary]

January 15, 2008

Rivals Huckabee and McCain reverse roles

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — John McCain and Mike Huckabee traded places yesterday, with the war-hawk senator preaching Judeo-Christian values and the ordained Southern Baptist minister talking bullets and bombs at an armored-vehicle plant.
"We can't leave people behind. That's not America," Mr. McCain said about laid-off workers in an impassioned speech to students and teachers at a Christian high school here. "We're a Judeo-Christian values nation. We're not going to leave these people behind."

Mr. McCain, who won the New Hampshire primary last week and vaulted into the front-runner position for the Republican presidential nomination, has spent the last week trying to lock down independent voters, including evangelicals, who delivered a win to Mr. Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses two weeks ago.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain Archive]

January 14, 2008

Huckabee Splits Young Evangelicals and Old Guard

WASHINGTON — Much of the national leadership of the Christian conservative movement has turned a cold shoulder to the Republican presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, wary of his populist approach to economic issues and his criticism of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. But that has only fired up Brett and Alex Harris.
The Harris brothers, 19-year-old evangelical authors and speakers who grew up steeped in the conservative Christian movement, are the creators of Huck’s Army, an online network that has connected 12,000 Huckabee campaign volunteers, including several hundred in Michigan, which votes Tuesday, and South Carolina, which votes Saturday.

They say they like Mr. Huckabee for the same reason many of their elders do not: “He reaches outside the normal Republican box,” Brett Harris said in an interview from his home near Portland, Ore.

Permalink [Category: Christian Right, Huckabee]

Analysis: Can Huckabee Broaden Appeal?

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) -- This much is known: Mike Huckabee, a one-time Southern Baptist preacher, attracts fellow Christian evangelicals in droves.
Still a question is whether can he appeal to a broader scope of the GOP electorate and swing voters the Republican Party needs to beat Democrats in November.

The answer could come Tuesday when Michigan votes.

Demographically, the Midwestern state looks more like the country than Iowa and New Hampshire. Independents and Democrats also can vote in the Republican primary. That makes Michigan a test of whether Huckabee's populist pitch can pull in GOP moderates and others uneasy with his hard-right stances on cultural issues, outward emphasis on faith and mixed record on economic issues.

Permalink [Category: Christian Right, Huckabee]

January 10, 2008

The Huckashuffle: How to Win S.C. and Michigan

ABC News

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee talked more about his opposition to abortion in his one 35-minute address to a Southern audience here today than he did in his entire five days in libertarian New Hampshire.
Carolina on His Mind: Huckabee Heads South"If you can say the taking of an innocent life isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong," said Huckabee, paraphrasing a famous quotation from Abraham Lincoln about slavery.

Huckabee is polling in first place in South Carolina and expects to win its Jan. 26 GOP primary. "South Carolina is going to be a turning point in this nomination process," Huckabee said, discussing how the support of his fellow evangelicals is important but not the only reason for his success.

"You have to understand, it's not a campaign anymore," he said, "it's a cause."

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Reproductive Rights, South Carolina Primary]

January 07, 2008

Huckabee's History of Political Antics

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Mike Huckabee's offbeat antics -- what some would call stunts -- helped propel him to the front of the Republican presidential pack after a decade honing that ''bumper sticker'' style as governor of Arkansas.
This is a man who moved with his wife into a triple-wide trailer while the governor's mansion was being renovated. Who wedded her again, before a crowd at a sports arena, to show support for a marriage law he had just signed. Who, five weeks into Arkansas' top job, worked a day in the state motor vehicle office sporting a ''Cashier Trainee'' tag before launching and winning a fight to streamline the agency.

During his decade as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee's style drew criticism from opponents who bristled at his lighthearted approach to serious public policy debates. But it also got the attention and often the support of voters Huckabee needed most.

Transferred to the opening round of the 2008 presidential nominating contest, Huckabee's wit charmed even his GOP opponents -- before they saw him as a threat. Among those listening to the affable Arkansas governor were evangelical Christians, who on Thursday night helped propel Huckabee past millionaire Mitt Romney to win the race's first test of strength, the Iowa caucuses.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

January 06, 2008

Huckabee, Obama face new hurdles in New Hampshire

WASHINGTON -- It was political magic versus machine in Iowa on Thursday, and the magic won, as rookies in both parties scored upset victories over more seasoned candidates by attracting legions of new voters with bold calls for change.
But starting in New Hampshire on Tuesday, the challenge for the winners -- Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee -- is to make their political magic work with voters in other states who may be less receptive to their anti-establishment message.

The risk for Obama and Huckabee is that they may suffer the fate of past insurgents who soared in early tests only to fizzle in late primaries. In 1984, Democrat Gary Hart had a surprise win in New Hampshire, but faded fast and was eventually trounced by the establishment's candidate, Walter F. Mondale.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, New Hampshire Primary, Obama Archive]

January 05, 2008

McCain May Benefit From Huckabee’s Jolt to G.O.P.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mike Huckabee’s defeat of Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses jolted a Republican Party establishment already distressed about the state of its presidential field.
If only by default, Mr. McCain is getting yet another look and appears to be in a strong position competing against a weakened Mr. Romney in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

Mr. McCain is the latest beneficiary of the continuing upheaval in the Republican field that has seen nearly all of the candidates rising at various points. Among them were Mr. McCain, former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York.

Mr. Romney’s defeat in Iowa only underlined concerns that many Republicans had expressed about him, while the success of Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, gave rise to new worries among the Republican establishment.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, McCain Archive, New Hampshire Primary]

In Calling The Race, The Media Miss by a Mile

For most of the past year, the news media treated Hillary Clinton as inevitable and Mike Huckabee as invisible.
In the wake of Thursday's Iowa caucuses, those judgments are looking rather shortsighted.

Until recent weeks, Huckabee was regarded as an asterisk, a former Arkansas governor whose entry into the presidential race didn't even warrant a mention on the "CBS Evening News." He was good for comic relief -- the wisecracking, bass-playing, weight-losing preacher man -- but not portrayed as a serious threat to win in Iowa or anyplace else. The media's chief benchmark is money, and Mitt Romney had truckloads of it and Huckabee very little.

Barack Obama, who beat Clinton in the Democratic contest, was initially hailed by anchors and pundits as a "rock star," but by the summer and fall he was depicted as a dull candidate who seemed to have little hope of catching up. Commentators openly urged him to attack the former first lady. Obama's winning margin was something of a surprise, but not as big, perhaps, as the bursting of the Hillary bubble that may have been inflated by a year's worth of press.

Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton Archive, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive]

Huckabee hits at heart of GOP

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses over Mitt Romney and his vastly better-financed campaign shocked the conservative and Republican establishments to their roots.
Conservatives say the win by Mr. Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, reflects the ongoing divide in the Republican Party between traditional, small-government party members and evangelical Christians — a rift they fear will ultimately break the successful coalition inspired by President Reagan.

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey immediately urged New Hampshire voters to reject Mr. Huckabee and his big-government policies when they vote in the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Strategy]

January 04, 2008

Obama Triumphs in Iowa Contest as Clinton Falters; Huckabee Rolls

DES MOINES — Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a one-term Democratic senator trying to become the nation’s first African-American president, rolled to victory in the Iowa caucuses on Thursday night, lifted by what appeared to be a record turnout of voters who rejected the criticism that he did not have enough experience.
Outside United Steelworkers Local 164 in Des Moines, where Senator John Edwards paid a visit on Thursday.
Mr. Obama’s victory amounted to a significant setback for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who just months ago appeared to be the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, but has watched her position erode over the past several months. The result also left uncertain the prospects for John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, who had staked his second bid for the White House on winning this state.

...

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who was barely a blip on the national scene just two months ago, defeated Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, delivering a serious setback to Mr. Romney’s high-spending campaign and putting pressure on Mr. Romney to win in New Hampshire next Tuesday.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive]

From Nowhere, Huckabee Prevails

DES MOINES — He seemed to come out of nowhere: a former Baptist preacher and ex-governor who was so little known among Republicans that many of them could not even name the state he once led (Arkansas). But Mike Huckabee turned from asterisk-status to giant-slayer in Iowa on Thursday night as he won the caucuses in spite of a paltry political organization, slim dollars and a final week marked by gaffes.
As when Pat Robertson came in a surprising second in the Iowa caucuses in 1988, Mr. Huckabee enjoyed substantial political support from evangelical Christians and took advantage of a muddled Republican presidential field to drive toward an 11th-hour victory over former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who had been considered the leader.

For Mr. Romney, who outspent Mr. Huckabee on advertising here by six to one, the loss will register as a deep blow to his candidacy — a failure bound to worry establishment Republicans and wealthy donors who have viewed him as their man. It will also energize and inspire Republicans backing Senator John McCain of Arizona in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]

At Huckabee Central, Cheers for the Candidate and the Evangelical Base

DES MOINES — The crowd at Mike Huckabee’s headquarters here was ebullient as his rival, Mitt Romney, conceded in an interview on Fox News that he had lost the Iowa Republican caucuses.
One man shouted out, “Serves you right for the negative ads,” as Mr. Romney was speaking on television, and there was applause when newscasters talked about Mr. Huckabee’s success in turning out his evangelical base — polls of caucusgoers showed more than 8 in 10 of his supporters described themselves as evangelicals.

Earlier in the evening, a group of women and children joined hands in a circle in the ballroom at Huckabee headquarters, murmuring fervent prayers for the election of this Bible-quoting former Baptist minister, as about a dozen television cameras with blazing lights surrounded them to capture the scene.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Religion]

January 03, 2008

Huckabee Aide Rollins Has Checkered Past

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ed Rollins, Mike Huckabee's campaign chairman, is no stranger to trouble.
The one-time top political aide to President Reagan has bounced from one controversy to another throughout his political career, sometimes credited as one of the Republican Party's most savvy strategists, sometimes shunned as a maverick.

Rollins is at the center of several recent unorthodox moves by Huckabee, including a decision on the eve of the Iowa caucuses to leave the state and fly to California to appear on Jay Leno's show. That followed the filming of a negative ad against rival Mitt Romney that the campaign subsequently didn't run -- although Huckabee showed it to a roomful of reporters.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

January 02, 2008

Huckabee and Consultant Form an Uneasy Alliance

About three weeks ago, Mike Huckabee received an unexpected e-mail message from the veteran political consultant and television commentator Ed Rollins offering help with his unexpectedly surging dark-horse Republican primary campaign. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Huckabee had signed him up, Mr. Rollins recently recalled.
They were an unlikely match from the start: Mr. Huckabee was a Southern Baptist pastor before he became governor of Arkansas, Mr. Rollins is a cheerfully profane operative who once said he had bribed African-American ministers to surpress black voting. (He later said he misspoke.)

Now, just days before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Huckabee’s reliance on — and then rejection of — Mr. Rollins’s advice to go after his opponent has threatened to throw his campaign into a tailspin, potentially jeopardizing the image of unvarnished “authenticity” that Mr. Huckabee is now making the centerpiece of his closing appeal to Iowa voters.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee]

Analysis: Huckabee May Have Gone Too Far

After running an unconventional, surprisingly strong and sometimes strange race to the top tier of the Republican presidential campaign, the former Arkansas governor topped himself Monday with an eyebrow-raising campaign stunt.
He called a news conference to unveil a negative ad that he had just withdrawn from Iowa television stations because, he told a room full of journalists recording the ad, he had a sudden aversion to negative politics. Quite a convenient epiphany.

''If people want to be cynical about it,'' Huckabee said, ''they can be cynical about it.''

If he loses Iowa's caucuses on Thursday, New Year's Eve will forever mark the day Huckabee blew it -- the day a group of reporters stopped laughing with the witty Republican and laughed at him.

Permalink [Category: Ads, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Romney Archive]

Huckabee Opts for Leno on Caucus Eve

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) -- On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee will trade jokes with Jay Leno on NBC's ''Tonight Show.'' While his rivals will be making a final appeal to the state's voters, Huckabee will be flying to Los Angeles to tape the show with Leno, who returns to the air Wednesday without striking writers.
''It's just an incredible opportunity to be there, particularly the very first night he's back from the writer's strike,'' Huckabee said. ''Besides, if all else fails and this whole process doesn't work out, maybe he needs a sidekick and I'll be auditioning tomorrow.''

A similar late-night appearance backfired on rival Fred Thompson, the actor-politician who irked voters in New Hampshire by skipping a Republican debate last fall at the University of New Hampshire to announce his candidacy on Leno's show.

Permalink [Category: Hollywood, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Television]

January 01, 2008

Can Huck hang on?

The Politico

DES MOINES — Since becoming the Iowa front-runner, Mike Huckabee has been subjected to a month-long siege of media scrutiny and mostly unanswered attacks from his top rival — an onslaught that any presidential hopeful would be hard-pressed to survive.
Huckabee has found himself under the unforgiving glare of the front-runner’s spotlight, and his hopes to win here have now become severely threatened by it.

Although Huckabee remains in the lead in most public polling — and the GOP race is so fluid as to make predictions suicidal — Politico has learned that Mitt Romney’s latest internal polling shows the former Massachusetts governor has narrowed the gap significantly and is now in a virtual tie with Huckabee.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]

Huckabee foes open their wallets for attack ads

The LA Times

DES MOINES -- It's not just Mike Huckabee's top rival in the Republican race who is responsible for attack ads that have damaged his candidacy in the closing days of the Iowa campaign.
Huckabee has been the target of a $550,000 campaign waged by the conservative anti-tax Club for Growth. An Arkansas man who is responsible for a separate low-budget hit vowed Monday to take his anti-Huckabee campaign to South Carolina, which holds its GOP primary Jan. 19.

The independent ads, combined with those funded by Republican Mitt Romney, appear to have stalled the former Arkansas governor's surge in polls here and nationally.

Permalink [Category: Ads, Huckabee]

Huckabee Won't Air Anti - Romney Ad

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Mike Huckabee said Monday he wouldn't run a TV ad he'd prepared blistering Republican rival Mitt Romney as dishonest. Then he showed it to a room packed with reporters and cameramen.
Huckabee, who has sharply intensified his criticism of the former Massachusetts governor in recent days, tried to reclaim the high road in the midst of a news conference three days before Iowa's presidential caucuses. He told reporters the event had been called to announce the hard-hitting new ad but he had changed his mind about running it on TV.

''We are now committed from now through the rest of the caucuses, that we will run only ads that talk about why I should be president, and not why Mitt Romney should not,'' he said. ''The tipping point was this morning. I just realized that this is not how we run our campaign in this state. We have run it positive. We have gotten here by being positive.''

Permalink [Category: Ads, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]

Poll: Obama, Huckabee Leading Rivals

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Presidential contenders rang in the 2008 election year with near-constant campaigning on Monday as a poll showed Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee leading their rivals with three days remaining before the Iowa caucuses.
Anonymous phone calls and a negative campaign commercial that vanished into thin air also spiced the race, and not even New Year's Eve was off-limits to campaign oratory.

The poll by the Des Moines Register showed Obama, an Illinois senator, with the support of 32 percent of those surveyed, compared to 25 percent for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and 24 percent for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive, Polls]

December 31, 2007

Huckabee, Romney Make Sunday Push for Evangelicals