Nice interview with the Gov. by Charlie Rose posted on RealClearPolitics.com the other day. They cover plenty of topics including how the Gov's upbringing and faith affect him, along with the usual stuff on taxes, health care, and so on. It's 53 minutes long, so pull up a chair, but it's worth it to hear Huck talk without the usual "sound bite" interruptions we get in most interviews today. When I watched it, the last 6 minutes didn't load, so I missed what was probably his thoughts on his electability, but all in all a good interview.
In this week's Time magazine, there's a little blub in their political section about the Gov. Specifically, they are speaking, to what I will unabashedly say was posted here first, about the more open attacks on the Gov. as he has become more viable in the presidential race. Huck repeats his oft-heard statement about "...you don't put the crosshairs on a dead carcass" to show he relishes the attention.
I was more interested in the final statement, where he says that he doesn't mind if another candidate draws first blood, because then it's game on and all's fair. There is no candidate, on either side, that can go toe to toe with the Gov. in a debate. And I am anxiously awaiting that time when he can crank it up against his opponents. If he wins the Iowa Caucus, a real possibility as Romney won't be able to bus in voters as he has done in the Straw Polls, Huck will get a chance to show his mettle in more direct confrontation with his opponents.
The Gov. will be on the O'Reilly Factor tonite to discuss politics and the growing momentum of his campaign.
Could be fun if Bill will let him finish a sentence.
Update:
Stupid segment. No time spent on the Gov's campaign unless I missed it in the couple of seconds I spent with Trick or Treaters at my door. Bill bugged the Gov. about Creationism trying again and again to get Huck to say something offensive or admit he was going to preach from the White House if elected. Just more of the same nonsense we're getting from the MSM now that they can't ignore the Gov. anymore. pity
Here's a few different media sources on Huck's campaign, the boost from the Value Voters Summit and his overall electability. It's more of the usual "Great guy, can't win" nonsense. But simply by reacting more and more to him, they give the Gov. more credibility.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/10/mike_huckabee_a_campaign_of_st.html
Chris Cillizza
It seems as though every few weeks there is something of a Huckabee boomlet -- usually centered on a news event -- in which much of the national press begins to write about how this just might be Huckabee's time.
Huckabee's showing revealed -- for the umpteenth time -- that the social conservative vote is truly up for grabs in the Republican primary. Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are both appealing to the head of social conservatives -- "I am close enough to you on issues and can beat Hillary Clinton" -- but not yet making a real heart appeal.
"If all the people who I talk to who say 'I'd be for Huckabee if I thought he could win' would actually be for him, he could win Iowa," said Ed Failor Jr., a prominent Iowa Republican activist who is not committed to any of the GOP candidates.
[Chairman Fergus Cullen] added: "the guy has no negatives, leaves everyone with a favorable impression, and his calculated decision to stay out of what he called the "demolition derby" [in Sunday night's GOP debate] keeps his friends."
Watch him in a debate or travel with him to a series of stump speeches and you see a candidate with real star potential; Cullen calls him "best communicator of the field." Huckabee is self-deprecating and genuinely funny; unlike many politicians he has almost no pretense about him - ask around in the political world and you'll always find a good story or two that reinforce the story line of Mike Huckabee: Good guy.
[Failor] "There are people who are starting to potentially separate from their pragmatism and say: "I like Huckabee the most."
Not only is Huckabee a native speaker, he is a surpassingly silver-tongued one. By the time he finished his speech, with a stirring peroration invoking biblical underdogs beginning with David ("that little shepherd boy with five smooth stones"), the audience seemed ready to follow this presidential long shot into the lion's den.
Huckabee has a pure social-conservative pedigree helps him in a race where none of the major candidates do, but much of his appeal is in the sheer nothing-to-lose joie de vivre of his candidacy.
Huckabee is in that golden campaign space once occupied by Pat Buchanan in 1992 and 1996 and by John McCain in 2000 -- dark-horse candidates unencumbered by large staffs or expectations who can afford to act on gut political instincts and enjoy themselves in the process. Buchanan and McCain both were rewarded with upset victories that made them major factors in the nominating contest, and Huckabee -- moving up in Iowa -- could yet enjoy a similar moment.
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppin235428192oct23,0,2990460.column
James P. Pinkerton
So who, if anyone, is burning up the grass roots? A visit to the Values Voters Summit, convened last Saturday by the Family Research Council in Washington, provided the answer. The "hot" candidate, measured by standing ovations, was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. As he said, "I am someone who comes not to the faith community but from the faith community."
And the Values Voters straw poll underscored the power of Huckabee's connection to these innermost voters: Romney won the overall balloting, including online "votes," but of the 1,000 or so activists who cared enough to be in the room, 51 percent endorsed Huckabee - compared with 10 percent for Romney, 8 percent for Thompson and virtually none for Giuliani.
So then is Huckabee the front-runner? Nope. Way behind in money and name recognition, Huckabee is still a dark horse. But he is a buzzing dark horse, lit up by that fourth, white-hot, innermost ring.
Here's a few more tidbits from various sources on Huck's big showing at the Value Voters Summit:
David Brody
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/253694.aspx
Technically, Mitt Romney won the big Value Voters Straw poll but it’s not that simple. The vote was open to people online and in that sense, Romney won with 1595 votes compared to Mike Huckabee’s 1565 votes. It was just a 30 vote difference. But for the people that actually voted onsite, it was no contest. Huckabee won 488 votes to Romney’s second place 99. That’s called a thumpin’.
Here’s what it says. It says that you have social conservatives that are ready to embrace him and he’s ready to embrace them. That speech he made on Saturday was electric. I was there. I saw the crowd. They ate it up.
If social conservatives really want Huckabee so bad, then they'll need to put their money where their mouths are.
Mike Allen
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6465.html
Mitt Romney was announced from the podium Saturday afternoon as the winner of the Family Research Council’s "Values Voter Straw Poll" of Christian conservatives, but it turns out that Huck-mentum was in the air.
Reid Wilson
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2007/10/huckabee_romney_chalk_up_wins.html
Voters could cast ballots both on-site, at a Washington hotel, or online. As expected, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee performed well in front of voters he will need if he has any hope of overcoming chronic money woes in early primary states. No one, however, expected Huckabee to perform this well. Among on-site voters, Huckabee attracted a stunning 51% of the nearly 1000 ballots cast.
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