The following piece was produced by HuffPost's OffTheBus.
Des Moines, Iowa---Mike Huckabee's getting all the sugar these days in Iowa - big poll numbers and an adoring press singing his praises. As the insurgent candidate in this GOP race, Mike Huckabee, has captured 29% of likely caucus goers who prefer him as their first choice, according to the latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll.
While his main competition -- Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani -- continue their precipitous fall into the slippery underworld of pollster doom-and-gloom, the ever smiling, guitar strumming former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister, Mike Huckabee is starting to turn heads.
However his recent fame and reversal of fortunes hasn't been a seamless transition for his small state staff and under-funded campaign.
"I'm not the cruise director for Love Boat!" said an exasperated Eric Woolson, Iowa Campaign Manager for Mike Huckabee.
It is past 10 o'clock at night and Woolson is calling me from his cell phone in the car, explaining his logistical problems tomorrow as he tries to shuffle a large retinue of reporters to an early morning event in nearby Newton on Tuesday.
"I just couldn't find a van to rent. No vans in Des Moines. Can you believe that? Sorry, but you'll have to drive yourself to the event," says Woolson.
"My Blackberry messages are filled. My office cell phone messages are full. My personal email messages are full. It's a good thing you left a message for me with the receptionist. The press dinner tomorrow night is totally out of hand. Instead of a small group of 10-12 journalists, it's grown to about thirty," said Woolson, his voice a bit hoarse after talking as much as his candidate on this cold Midwestern day of campaigning. He sounded tired.
"Did you see Huck on TV?" asked Woolson.
"How can you avoid him?" I respond. "He was featured in a segment with Anderson Cooper tonight."
"He was?" asked Woolson. "I missed it. I've been with Huck all day and I have to pick him up in another 30 minutes. Are you coming to the press conference tomorrow?"
"Not unless I'm going to the press dinner tomorrow night!"
[Woolson laughs] "One more won't hurt."
Mitt Romney's travels around the state garner less press notice than last summer when he was "the inevitable presidential nominee" for the GOP ticket, and now Woolson is in the enviable position of organizing a thirty to forty member press pack stuck to Huckabee like flees on a barn cat.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee ('Huck' to friends) is back in Iowa for two days this week, followed by local, national, and even, international press.
"The usual suspects were all there today," said Woolson.
"The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Des Moines Register, NPR, NBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and even an Irish television crew along with diplomats from the German and French consulates. The Dutch reporters are coming in tomorrow."
There was a time, not so long ago, when I'd drive by the Huckabee for President Headquarters located in downtown Des Moines on the corner of 6th & Locust Avenue. It was always late at night and I could see Woolson through the large windows.
He was sitting at his desk - alone - usually typing at his computer. No other staffers were there. No phone call center teaming with young volunteers. But now, the office is filled to capacity. Volunteers and a few more staffers are answering ringing telephones, making copies, and handing out press releases and printed literature. Television ads went up two weeks ago and radio spots hit today.
I reminded Woolson of those days in mid-summer, before the Iowa Straw Poll, and even through most of the fall.
"Yeah, those were lonely days - and nights," said Woolson.
Seemingly everyone's in love with Huck these days, especially the social conservatives who are less than comfortable with Mitt Romney's brand of Christianity or a twice divorced, thrice married Rudy Giuliani and his former liberal views.
It's not just Evangelicals who want some of the 'Huck' love. The press is clambering for interviews. Other social conservative groups are banging on the door. Woolson says he's been fielding calls from the homeschoolers today.
"We're trying to break out of that narrative," says Woolson.
"As the person in charge of strategy, we have to have crossover appeal and that is starting to happen. One guy in Newton (a small town about 30 minutes from Des Moines) told me that he's switching party affiliation and caucusing for Huck. That's what I want to hear."
Woolson's main job is to organize all 99 counties in the state, guaranteeing Huckabee supporters attend the 1784 precinct caucus meetings. It's a big job and Woolson is committed to the cause.
Woolson says he has field organizers out around the state but no field offices, unlike the heavily financed top tier of the Democratic Party candidates, who have field offices scattered throughout the state and as many as 500 staffers managing the offices.
Just as Huckabee has turned out to be an effective retail politician, he has recruited a crack team of close confidants in his ambitious goal to win the White House and many have been with him since his days as governor. Woolson is an exception.
Woolson is one of those experienced Iowa pols who know where the bodies - and the votes - are buried in this state. He was GW Bush's Iowa press secretary in 2000 and he's worked on a half dozen statewide campaigns before and since. He was a respected political journalist before his current campaign career.
When Huckabee was considering a presidential run last February, Woolson was one of the twelve people he invited down to Little Rock to 'discuss' his chances. Woolson met Huckabee years ago when he was showing him around the state during a Governor's Conference. Huckabee sent Woolson a handwritten letter thanking him.
"I was impressed," said Woolson. "He really is a nice guy and that's part of why he's appealing to voters."
Yep. It's that old likeability factor that Woolson first noticed - and remembered - that is compelling Iowans - and GOP voters around the country - to jump ship from other candidates like Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, who appear either too slick and inauthentic or too thuggish and angry.
The latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shocked the nation when Huckabee, running on a shoestring budget, outdistanced Mitt Romney, who has spent million dollars and devoted most of his time campaigning in Iowa, expecting to be crowned on caucus night.
The latest Rasmussen Poll shows Huckabee in second place nationally and he's tied for 3rd in New Hampshire. All the good poll numbers have raised Huckabee's chances for raising more money, especially if he can pull off a win here on January 3
"But can you raise the money to run a viable national campaign?" I asked Woolson.
"I'm so tired of that question. About seven or eight times a day, some reporter asks if we've got the money to stay in this race. Listen, we raised $2 million last month just online! If we have a good showing here, we'll raise the money."
Woolson admitted that the race between Huckabee and Romney in Iowa is still too close to call.
"The race is just too fluid. We'll know on January 3 who wins Iowa. After that, the real work starts," said Woolson.
It's doubtful that few, if any liberal Democrats will caucus or pull the voting lever for someone like Huckabee, a diehard social conservative -- anti-choice, pro-creationist, pro-national sales tax, and wanting to eliminate the IRS -- but the GOP may have found their beloved in a former governor born in the little town of Hope, Arkansas.
Stranger things have happened.
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Yet again, Huckabee's surge shows a man backed by ordinary folks who believe in him. Whatever is short comings he is clearly the "Mr. Personality" in this race.
See comments on a "Dark Horse Emerges" at
www.vernasmith.blogspot.com
If you live in small town Iowa and you drive past the home of some far right religious nut job that person will have a Huckabee sign in the yard. Nobody normal will have such a sign. Nobody.
His rhetoric is not hateful. Some people can take away your rights with a smile and a joke and a complete dismissal of your being. That's what they call a good old boy. If he was mean he would be a bad ass old boy.
I just can't believe the state of news-critique upon the upcoming pres election and competing candidates ! The USA has nearly fallen into turn of the century economic condition with social conditions rapidly approaching 'victorian'...anyone who hasn't the presence and perspective to see how badly mismatched the US country is to "serve" its citizens in this time of global, planetarial,economic, and sociological massive flux and major challenge should not be working at any major news corporation.
JUDGE THE CANDIDATE BY THEIR PREVIOUS ACTIONS: HUCHABEE AS GUV OF ARKANSAS LEFT THE STATE'S POOR IN DESTITUTION, THE PHYSICALLY DISABLED AND OVER 18-YEAR-OLD'S IN THIRD WORLD CONDITIONS OF LIVING AND HEALTH, HE DENIED MEDICAID HEALTHCARE TO DISABLED PEOPLE IN DIRE NEED WHO WERE ELEGIBLE BY FEDERAL STANDARDS, AND HE TOLD THE CONSCIENTIOUS SENATOR FROM ARKANSAS, BLANCHE LINCOLN, HER PROGRAMS AND HELPS FOR THE STATE AND FOR THE STATE'S POOR WERE NOT WANTED BY HIM FOR THE STATE OF ARKANSAS; AS A RESULT, THE POOR OF OTHER STATES BENEFITTED FROM HER HARD WORK IN CONGRESS, BUT ARKANSANS WERE DENIED ANY/ALL FEDERAL HELPS BY THE HEART-LESS FORMER BAPTIST MINISTER GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS DURING HIS MEAN-SPIRITED AND HATEFUL TIME IN THE ARKANSAS GOVERNOR MANSION. THAT THAT THAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT CANDIDATE HUCKABEE WHICH SHOULD BE REPORTED BY RESPONSIBLE NEWS REPORTERS.
A credible candidate should have demonstrated good public service to ALL US citizens in his/her care. Hillary Clinton fails this sniff-test likewise, since she and her husband not only left Arkansas in a state of thrid world destitution, but proceeded to apply the same principles of deprivation to the rest of the US poor/lower middle class as they eliminiated/cut all federal helps designed by democrats and republicans from 1945-1970 during the clinton 8 years in the white house. She already stated she doesn't believe much "change" can be effected against the powers that be which control the USA.
Just tell Americans you hear directly from God and they will follow you to the ends of the earth. To think that Fuckahillbilly can even be considered to be in the lead. A guy who does not believe in evolution- a reality based on legitimate science. With fact to support it! Says a lot about the ignorance of the American people. Go ahead and elect Fuckahillbilly. Let him finish running the USA into the ground with his life based on fantasy and myth. You deserve what you get.
Got to give him his due. Huckabee is working his "I'm a Christian candidate" angle.
Just what we need, a 21st century Elmer Gantry, say the right things in front of the right people. Get 'em all fired up and filled with the holy voter spirit.
Can't get that song out of me head now..
"Operator - information - give me Jesus on the line !"
huck's quite charming but i want a guy who at least thinks the sciences are important. huck's a real religious guy and i think that's swell but i've had enough of [chrisian]religion bumping shoulders with politics. there's some really serious stuff coming down the tube [ global warming, diminishing petrol, social security, medical insurance, and on and on ] and i don't want a guy who got a rapture plane ticket in his back pocket.
Huck is a great Republican candidate. He has all the issues right and a charming presence.
You and I may not vote for him, but then again we are not core republican voters, are we?
I liked him until I heard his speech at the NRA convention. Smart, plays base, good smile (compare to Cheney's) .. However, it seems that he is a chameleon and, most likely, will not have the guts to resist the deadly influence of PNAC/war-profiteers.
Just what our country needs another Prez who talks to GOD! Show me the border!
There is a little known passage in the bible that tells us when the End Times come, a man named Huckabee will lead us. In fact, he will make sure the End Times come.
Huckabee: A GOP presidential candidate that takes cell phone calls from God...but he's likeable.
Oh great. Sound familiar? Like Muddle Amurikka - or the MSM - has learned anything in the last 8 years?
Iowa GOP die-hards will (just, maybe, possibly, in some polls) vote for Huckabee because he's a foaming anti-illegal-immigration rhetorician (I'm no fan of it either). But when you look beneath the media's kindergarten-level, keep-up-the-horse race analyses, that's the only reason Huckabee's current, preliminary straw poll numbers are up....Aside from the fact that Giuliani's obviously a crook, and Romney's a Mormon who believes in 'ghost-shirt' underwear and the garden of Eden in Missouri.
But once the MSM has reintroduced a little dramatic tension into the 2008 election script, they'll start investigating Huckabee's AR ethics charges, and switch their coronation efforts to another right-winger. Gotta keep those ratings up.
Don't be fooled by the aw shucks Huck. Just another evangelic who wants to change the Republicon logo to Jesus riding a dinosaur.
Huckabee vs. Paul (part du)
Iraq
Huck "Iraq is a battle in our generational, ideological war on terror." and "I am focused on winning." Need I say more?
Ron knows Iraq was a huge, costly, unconstitutional mistake and wishes to end the debacle asap.
National Security
Huck "I will expand the army and increase the defense budget." and "this new war requires us to be a phoenix, rising reborn to meet each new challenge." (I think I'm gonna hurl.)
Ron wants the armed forces HERE to protect and serve the nation, not patrolling the streets in Iraq. Insists that nation-building, supporting oppressive regimes and undermining democracy abroad is counter-productive, expensive, and eventually leads to hate and blowback - the roots of terrorism.
Israel
Huck "The United States must remain true to its long-standing commitment to the Israeli people." and "will always ensure that Israel has access to the state-of-the-art weapons and technology."
Ron "Good luck and be sure to write!" (not an actual quote, but you get the idea.)
Constitutional Rights
Huck "The top priority of the President as Commander in Chief is first and foremost protecting our own citizens." I humbly disagree, protecting the Constitution is top priority, and is in the president's inaugural oath.
Ron is regarded as the "Champion of the Constitution" by many. Works tirelessly so all American's can enjoy the rights granted therein.
you decide
Huckabee vs. Paul (part 1)
In General
Huck is a likable Baptist minister from the south (oxymoron if I ever heard one), running for president (though he doesn't say WHY exactly.)
Ron is a 10-term congressman and physician, looking to restore the Constitution and shore-up both civil liberties and our national account. All of which are currently in peril and in need of rescue.
Economy
Huck wants to replace income tax with the FairTax, which will jack up prices on everything you buy. No details as to how you enforce this when wealthy folks buy stuff overseas. Huck (much like Bush before him) says congress must greatly reduce spending, but offers no details on HOW or WHAT will go. Actually says we should INCREASE military spending.
Ron want to eliminate the income tax because it is unconstitutional. The income tax was instated as a temporary measure during WWII, why are we still paying?! Ron wants to reduce the size and scope of federal government as it is too large and cumbersome to be effective in many areas. Ron wishes to dismantle expensive U.S. military bases around the world and bring the troops home. This alone will save us $1 trillion a year.
Upcoming Social Security Crisis
Huck (I can't find his stance on this. anybody?)
Ron says this will be the mother of all crisis' as the population grows older. Has sponsored a bill keep Social Security funds in the account to collect interest and grow, not used as a slush fund for Congress each year.
Heathcare
Huck has good yet vague notions like "We need to fix the broken system" but not many details on HOW. (Anybody?)
Ron has definitive plans such as making health insurance premiums tax-deductable for individuals, and repealing laws which only benefit employers and insurance companies.
to be continued...
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Posted December 4, 2007 | 07:51 AM (EST)