December 31, 2007
Huck in a Nutshell
I’ve refrained from posting too many articles and blogs critical of Mike Huckabee, mainly because I didn’t trust myself to offer a balanced perspective. My feelings on his candidacy have been amply demonstrated in the comments section. But, I can’t help but reference the absolute whopper of a move Mike Huckabee made today. He held a press conference, announcing that he had intended to air an ad critical of Romney, but he ultimately held back, because he didn’t want to “lose his soul”. Then of course, he aired the ad to a roomful of reporters. The absolute stunning absurdity and cynicism of this move might well eclipse anything we’ve seen in this campaign thus far; Mitt Romney’s most egregiously political moves look like good faith measures in comparison; even the traditionally anti-Romney media class exploded into hysterics when Huckabee announced his decision. But, I can’t say I’m surprised. Huckabee has spent the last few months bursting with cynical, self-righteous, deviously constructed moves. Most have been considerably more subtle, but it’s been a defining aspect of his campaign. He blares Christian Leader ads, and then denies this is meant as a contrast to his Mormon opponent. He innocently wonders whether Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are brothers, and then claims that he felt a reporter would be more informed on theology issues then a pastor. He places a floating cross in the background of his ads, and then insists everyone, who seemingly noticed the cross simultaneously, must be paranoid. It’s despicable, and I think it’s reached an absolutely untenable level. Shame on you Mike Huckabee. Here’s the video.
http://race42008.com/2007/12/31/huck-in-a-nutshell/trackback/
December 31st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
This mornings thing was very bizarre. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt if he hadn’t actually shown the ad. Very strange.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Ugh! Mike what the heck are you doing? You are making it increasingly hard to support you. Geez, why do this non-sensical stuff? You could have easily won without this? This kind of stunt gets legs and unfortunately I think it is damaging. I still he wins but it maybe closer now than I thought. Ugh!!!!!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I think this may be Pastor Mike Huckabee’s “Dean Scream” moment.
Unbelievable.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Matthew – there’s no audio to this video.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I AM MAD AT YOU HUCK!!! YOU ARE SCREWING THINGS UP!!!! UGGHHHH!!!!!!!!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Even without the audio to this video, my thoughts are this. This is why Huckabee’s tactics keep backfiring.
They’re so amateurish, so transparent, so stupid, that everyone sees through them, scratches their head and says, “Heh??” He’s just not up to the big time and it’s becoming obvious to everyone, one stupid move at a time.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Jason,
I have audio.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I have audio as well.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Huckabee the comedian just got the biggest laugh of the campaign. What a transparent, duplicitous jerk.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:57 pm
add this to this morning’s Fox & Friends program, where Huckabee said Romney was overstating his his resume, and you end up with a real slug of a politician.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I am happy at you Huck. Thanks for showing your true colors before Iowa!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I can’t believe it. He could have won without this?!?!?!?!?! WTH! I am so PEEVED!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Make sure to watch the shorter video here:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/huckabees-remarkable-play/
The footage is a little better so you can see all the faux sincerity and innocence in his eyes.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Hey – lay off on Huckabee you guys – he didn’t actually air the ad! Sheesh. And I can only have respect for him because afterall, as Huckabee shared with us in the press conference, “If you gain the world and lose your own soul, what does it profit you?”
I think everyone needs to give Huckabee a pass here – his motives are as pure as the driven snow.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:01 pm
LOL.
Romney and Huckabee.
Those Iowans sure know how to pick ‘em!
December 31st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
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I am so dumbfounded by this move. He should have done the presser as normal AND then cancelled the airings after the fact. And explained his change of heart at a different presser. This is beyond belief.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:06 pm
STOP SPAMMING.
Christ!
December 31st, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Sorry, I am just so fricking, flamming MAD.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
FCOH, he tried an old trick – air the ad to the media with the hopes that they will run it non-stop for free. See how that saves him a ton of cash. Well, it didn’t really work.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:10 pm
nowandlater,
It’s not beyond belief if you’ve been paying attention to the campaign. This is what Huckabee does; it’s his modus operandi. He passively attacks and passively advocates liberalism. Robert Hahn over at Redstate had a wonderful quote on Huck awhile back that is pertinent here.
“Huckabee is a master of using the passive voice to sound like he’s advocating something that others can then deny he said.
He doesn’t say “Investigate Bush.” He says the allegations “deserve to be thoroughly examined, investigated, and the truth brought to the American people.” See that? He isn’t going to investigate, things just “deserve to be investigated.”
He doesn’t say, “I support protectionism.” He says “We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed.” See that? He isn’t going to fix it; it just “needs to be fixed.”
He doesn’t say “The government needs to set corporate salaries,” he says “We can’t have the kind of economy where CEOs make 500 times what their workers make.” See that? Nobody can say he proposed setting CEO salaries because he didn’t. But “we can’t have it.”
He doesn’t say, “I’m selling snake oil” either. But somehow, snake oil is being sold.
He’s doing exactly what Hillary Clinton is doing: he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. He’s just better at it than she is.”
Congrats Huckabee. You’ve now moved below John Edwards on my list.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Well, yes it was a rather obvious stunt, especially with the reporters laughing out loud in the room. Despite that, I think Huckabee has certainly been a very good campaigner, going from zero to near-hero in no time. Will he win Iowa? I sure hope not, but a lot of people will still vote for him despite this episode. People make mistakes, it’s okay, even for presidential candidates.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Isn’t this just like McCain releasing that ad the other day on the Web, but not on TV?
Not sure I see the big deal with this.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
ROFLMAO – HAHAHAHAHAHAH
What a stooge!! The sad thing is, is that I can totally believe he would do something as smarmy as this, and I think he is the slimiest SOB in the race. Godd riddance loser.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
He’s finished!!!
Its no longer worth the time to describe the low opinion I have of this person because he will have his ass handed to him on Thursday.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Nowandlater, don’t worry. He’ll still win.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I don’t know this stuff is Howard Deanish. It’s one thing to flub something. It is another thing to get the entire press corp to laugh at you. He had them eating at out off his hand. No they are laughing at him. Geez!
December 31st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I love how the reporters were laughing at him. He keeps talking, and then there is no sound!! Did anyone else catch the irony there?? It seems that when Huckabee opens his mouth, nothing of substance ever comes out. Why add the sound to the video, you get the same effect. What a total loser!!
December 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
On #22. No, b/c McCain didn’t say “I’m not going to attack Romney with a negative ad” and then immediately (and by immediately I mean in the next 10 seconds) say “oh and btw, here’s the negative ad i’m not going to run”.
Even if Huckabee’s intent was noble (and I’m skeptical) he looked like a fool and very unpresidential.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
ajay, agreed.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Very strange move indeed. If he really did decide to pull the ad at the last minute, then good for him (though making it in the first place was a dumb idea). That said, it is stupid to announce a press conference for the release of a negative ad.
The other curious thing is that he sounded like he was campaigning for McCain rather than himself. Who is he tryin to get elected?
December 31st, 2007 at 6:37 pm
And does he know that rank-and-file Republicans hate McCain?
December 31st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Ol’ Huckster is going out of his mind. I can’t believe he actually had the phrase enough is enough printed 9 times behind him.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:54 pm
#30,
I think Huck’s plan is to win IA, pump McCain up so McCain wins NH and beats out Romney, effectively ending Romney’s campaign, and then Huck thinks he’ll just have to face off with McCain–he’s probably counting on the fact that McCain is more unsuitable to the base than Huckabee is to win the nomination.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Am I the only one who thought the Romney ad was effective, powerful, and that Huckabee should have let it air? If I was a Romney guy, I’d be thinking twice after watching that.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
What struck me even more than the video stunt itself was the indecisiveness, the incompetence, the lack of organization, the sense that this guy does NOT know what he is doing. The sense that he thinks he has us all fooled, that it doesn’t take much to pull the wool over our eyes. It’s that same “tattle-tale” mentality. Childish.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:15 pm
#34, Brian,
Yes, you were the only one.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Oh my god what a deuchbag!
This sums up Mike to a tee.
The Dean of 08 coming up.
It was obvious for months that Mitt would win Iowa, but Huck is handing it to him.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Metro, one of the problems with what Huckabee did was that he created the ad, and then showed it to the media – hoping that they would play it and talk about it all night and tomorrow morning. Essentially, he tried to fool the media into giving him a ton of free advertising.
needless to say, they didn’t bite.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
i’ve been positive in the past. but i f’ing hate this guy. he is such a tool. this post nailed on the head why i hate huckabee. he is a slime, and likes to pull moves and then act like he didn’t do nothing. im ok with romney mccain rudy ron paul, thompson, but not this guy. he is a piece of crap.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:34 pm
i hope mike huckabee gets raped by a man and becomes gay and condemns himself .
December 31st, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Im I missing something, or are you part of Huckabee’s campaign or some other way in the know about his motives. Just because those would have been YOUR motives doesn’t mean that they were his motives. I am not saying that weren’t …. just that we (that includes you) don’t really know his motives. It is one think to state your beliefs … but quite another to pretend to know someone elses. I would not have shown the video… and he didn’t seem to state his motive.. pehaps he just spent all that money on an ad which he thought was really well done… but inapproprite to show and he wanted someone to see it. If it was a strategy — to get free press or to have an opportunity to show he is holyer than thou… then that would show bad judgement. I think I will go to his site and ask him his motives. Check there for a response!
December 31st, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Thank you Huck! Libertarian Republicans nationwide are thankful for your blow-up today which will now send you to the dustbin of political history, going down with all the other Howard Dean/Edmund Muskie famous flame-outs.
Now, the Republican Party can get on with the business of election a Fiscal Conservative First candidate who will unite all GOP factions:
Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Eric, if you think Giuliani can unite the party, you are seriously mistaken.
December 31st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
even the traditionally anti-Romney media class exploded into hysterics when Huckabee announced his decision
Nice negative spinning. I guess you didn’t hear Huck’s jokes which caused the media to “explode into hysterics”
December 31st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
#44 – WiseGuy – I saw the video and it didn’t look like Huckabee was trying to cause the media to “explode into hysterics.” It looked like he was dead serious about trying to look sincere.
I am so glad this happened today. It’s almost too easy after this. But then, this is what Huckabee does. He shoots from the hip, puts negative statements out there and then tries to pretend that he didn’t mean it. He’s been doing this all along, and thinking he was getting away with it (which he was, with most people), he really stepped in it today. Big time!
He is really an arrogant SOB – and all in the name of Jesus. This is the kind of person that gives Christianity a bad name.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I had a sense that this wouldn’t be believed the first time I saw it this afternoon (no, not figuratively speaking!). I believed him, because he spoke much like my grandparents and their generation of large industrious families. But the sincerity of that generation — the one that had come of age in the Great Depression — has not matched the cynical age that arose from the ‘68 revolution and still informs our modern worldview.
As a country and society we have moved from accepting any claims of a common-sense perspective to believing immediately these are tactics adopted opportunistically only to gain power and glory.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:12 pm
What a stooge. Huckabee is a joke. He has not shot at the nomination now that most educated voters understand how ridiculous the guy is.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:14 pm
nowandlater, you never liked Huckabee. Stop with the stupid, whining crap. =P
December 31st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
The Huckster just shot himself in the foot for the last time. Thank goodness! Abe it looks like the Huck-A-Bust is very near.
January 1st, 2008 at 1:08 am
John S.,
Thanks……
January 1st, 2008 at 1:56 am
Huckabee should stay in Arkansas. The only federal post he would deserve is that of court jester at this point.
Huck has ABSOLUTLY NO CHANCE. He might win over a few Iowans, but Floridians, Californians, and others will not want this intellect and character to go up against Iran, N. Korea, and be in charge of over half of the worlds military power and world business capitalization. That would be a disaster!
January 1st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Good Ole’ Huck cannot even stand up to the political pressure Mitt Romney has advertised about Hucks political record. This is not attack. Nor is it being dishonest. It is OK and appropriate to debate each others political record. However, Huck chose to say Mitt is dishonest. It would be better for Huck to stand up, as a President of the US would, and defend his record. But then again, Huck cannot even do this. How do we expect him to be President of the US. When verbally attacked by other nations is he going to say, “They are being dishonest”. Get real Mr. Huckabee and go back to being a preacher!