The Many Cheeks of Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee just held a press conference where he announced that he made a negative ad against Mitt Romney -- Lord forgive him -- but at the last minute he decided to turn the other cheek and not broadcast it. But just to show he wasn't sh*ttin' y'all, he decided to show it to a few of his closest friends at a press conference that included Tim Russert, Joe Klein and a few hundred journalists and bloggers of varying degrees of notoriety.

The ad attacks Romney for his multitude of ever-changing opinions, his healthcare plan, being mean to John McCain and just being Mitt.

Campaigns make ads all the time that they don't air, but they rarely feel compelled to show them to people. It seems like Camp Huck was answering a question that nobody is asking -- would anybody have asked for proof that the ad had been made, or demanded to see it?

It raises the question -- what was he thinking, doing something quite this wacky three days before the caucus? Does Huckabee not have enough money to run the ad? Is this a cheap way to get the message out there, and still make a claim to have (*ahem*) clean hands?

The Romney campaign was instantly spinning the Huckabee presser as a "meltdown," even as the Huckabus made its way over to his campaign headquarters where the sideshow included anti-war protesters singing "who would Jesus bomb," a throng of supporters waiving signs for rival Ron Paul and a Minuteman in a wheelchair.

The Huckabee campaign called the police and three anti-war protesters from Iowa Occupation Project and Voices for Creative Nonviolence were arrested and taken to Polk County Jail.

Huckabee was on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer shortly thereafter and he seemed shaken. I guess he wasn't prepared for the guffaws that arose from the press who saw a little more Elmer Gantry than Jesus Christ in all of his schtick.

Huckabee reiterated his decision to put an end to negative campaigning. "Let it begin here," he said. "If it costs me the Iowa caucus, so be it."

Amazing that some might doubt his sincerity.

Comments

[starboymikey]

From what I've seen of Huckabee he's a lot smarter than Bush, and his "likability" is real enough.

He could get elected under the right set of circumstances, but it would be a very divisive campaign and he would be a more divisive president than W., because he is so in-your-face about religion.

Given the cultural make up of this country, any president on either side of the "cultural divide" who strongly goes on the attack against the other side will bring about disaster.

Right now, religion in American is a major powder keg waiting to blow, and any of a number of events could set it off.

[americanwhocares]

Huckabee is simply a snake oil salesperson from the bigoted south. Bet he loves NASCAR more then Jesus.

[JerseyBob]

Reminds me of the butcher who could it slice thick or thin. He was a charmer. He’d look you in the eye and have a finger on the scale as he was weighing your baloney.

[Tankan]

Did, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, come to mind?

Or, did he fear the inevitable retaliation!

[Jonahson]

It dosen't matter whether he took up the ad. The point is he has the intention and a hypocrite.

[Qbear]

Maybe if you went to Arkansas public schools this little brain teaser would baffle you, but when the press LAUGHS at your press conference, you have done something on the magnitude of dunce that rivals saying "there are no gays in Iran."

[Qbear]

Huckabee demonstrated two things in his press conference on the ad he wanted seen for free but not look like someone who has attack ads.

1.) He's mean

2.) He's cheap

[janvoght]

all in all, i dont feel like the huckster is the monster that this current administration has proved to be. my reservation is who he would have to do business with once he was in the office of the president. the rest of the republican candidates and their peeps, are showing themselves to be shady, "business as usual" types

[MinerSam]

One thing the Ad said that needed to be said is that Romney left behind a $1B deficit, after claiming that he ballanced the budget.

But this is not new among the "conservatives"

Of the 9Trillion in deficits accrued since George Washington, $7Trillion in debt was heaped upon us by Reagan, Bush#1 and Bush#2.

And the Republican controlled Talking Heads never even thought to inform the electorate that Bush left Texas bankrupt to the tune of $3B.

The Republicans hate the Government of the United States and are looting its treasury.

[seeblue]

Yeah, and that product placement cross was really a bookshelf. How stupid do the neocons think we are? Oh, wait.

[musselmanm]

Thinking about Huckleberry and Romney as POTUS is very scary!

[TMIDGE66]

AS I SAID I DONT WANT SOME BIBLE THUMPING, HOLIER THAN THOU PHONY IN THE WHITE HOUSE, WE ALREADY GOT ONE. HUCKABEE SHOWED HIS TRUE COLORS WHEN HE PULLED THIS STUNT. THE GUY THAT THOUGHT IT UP SHOULD BE FIRED. BUT AT LEAST NOW WE KNOW WHAT A BSA HUCKABEE IS.
SORRY, WE NEVER CELEBRATED MASS IN THE WHITE HOUSE WITH KENNEDY AND WE DONT WANT PREACHING IN THE WHITE FROM HUCKABEE. WE WANT T PRACTICE OUR OWN RELIGION OUR WAY AND NOT BE DIRECTED BY SOME HUCKSTER.

[LightningJoe]

Honestly (sorry, bad joke!), this is nothing compared to Governor Huckabee pressuring an Arkansas parole board to release convicted rapist and murderer Wayne Dumond, who raped and murdered two more women shortly after his release.

Huck's office said there was no way they could have known, despite the flood of warning letters from Dumond's victims to the parole board and even to the Governor's office.

It seems as though topical politics drives the good preacher's ethics-of-the-moment. In the case of Dumond, the political factor was that the cheerleader he was actually convicted for raping the first time (only one of many the investigators were pursuing him on), was a distant cousin of then-Governor Bill Clinton.

Well, as we all know, conservatives lose all sense of proportion and ethics when it comes to pursuing the "Clintonistas." For Arkansas conservatives, then, freeing a rapist and murderer became just another way to strike a blow for the Right. Huckabee was just along for the ride.

http://tinyurl.com/2u3e5v
http://tinyurl.com/2q9okc

It seems as though Huckabee is yet another conservative who talks to God -- and God is just another politician, telling these guys what they want to hear.

Makes you wonder: What's in it for God?

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Kill your TV, and free your mind.

[Sciguy]

When the Huckster says "if it costs me the Iowa caucus..." then I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's just a statement that he can use after losing Iowa. It would make him look prescient, as in "Aw shucks, I was right! I did the right thing, and by golly, it cost me the caucus!"

If he wins Iowa, we'll hear no more of that "if it costs me..." until... um... New Hampshire.

[richw23]

The Elmer Gantry comparison is great, I hadn't thought of it. Actually I think he's all the "great" Sinclair Lewis characters rolled into one. I'm from Arkansas and I'm about 10 years older than Huck Free-Of-Sin. I've sat in pews and been bored by guys like him.

As I always like to say, if God said "Mike, give me a son", he'd comply in religious ecstacy. "God's talking to me and I know it's not just voices in my head this time". What happens if he's elected and things are going south (get it) in about 6 months and God says it's time for Armageddon.