Huckabee: more momentum needed and FAST!
Mike Huckabee first got my attention on the FOX News debate. He seems like a great guy and a man of principle. There are some people who put him the light of a big government spender (which I don’t like), but then again, plenty of unsubstantiated rumor-mongering exists about Romney, Rudy, Fred, and Ron, so the allegations may be true, but maybe not. Either way, Huckabee is going to have my support should he make it so far as South Carolina.
From the article:
Mike Huckabee, a wise-cracking, guitar-strumming, Baptist pastor has leapt into a conservative void and shot into contention in the unpredictable 2008 Republican White House race. Huckabee, 52, was hitherto best known for being born in the same town, Hope, as Bill Clinton, and shedding more than 100 pounds from his once portly frame.
But, partly by exploiting discontent among Christian conservatives with the Republican field, Huckabee, a witty former Arkansas governor, has powered into second place in polls in Iowa, 65 days before the state’s crucial caucuses.
“The religious right vote in the Iowa caucuses is a substantial bloc, and if you secure that support you are a serious player,” said Cary Covington, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.
“Huckabee is, I think at a tipping point, he is going to need to do something splashy, a big financial haul, or a major endorsement,” Covington said.
Huckabee’s style is to leaven his staunch conservatism — pro gun rights, doubts about the theory of evolution, opposition to gay marriage, and hawkish rhetoric on Iraq and the war on terror, with levity.
At an education forum at Northern Iowa University Wednesday, Huckabee, author of a book “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork,” slipped into stand-up comic mode when a mobile phone rang.
“That’s probably Dick Cheney wanting to take me hunting, and I am not going with him, OK?” he quipped, mocking the vice president’s infamous shooting incident.
Such patter, and the fact that several of his Republican rivals are trying to appear something they are not — lifelong social conservatives — helps Huckabee to come across as humble and at ease.
Though a conservative, Huckabee is an outspoken advocate of spending government money on education, and healthcare for poor children.
