Saturday, January 19, 2008

Don't count out Huckabee

I am so tired of hearing the pundits count out candidates. The latest to be counted out is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who is giving his South Carolina concession speech as I write these words.
"It's not a time to start asking 'what if,' Huckabee said, "but 'what now?" And if anyone can do it, it is Huckabee, who these same pundits counted out from the beginning of the race until his victory in Iowa.
Even then, it was seen as a one shot. They said Huckabee did not have enough money to compete (despite the fact that he was outspent by Mitt Romney 15 to 1 in Iowa and still handily won). They said Huckabee couldn't appeal to anyone outside of the evangelicals, and while his support there has been solid, it is still a mistake to confine Huckabee's appeal to that segment of the electorate.

Huckabee's humorous note that Americans want someone who looks more like someone they work with than the person who laid them off, has plenty of truth to it.

They're counting out Huckabee and they shouldn't be; they're counting out Rudy Giuliani and they shouldn't be; they're counting out Fred Thompson...and well, they probably should be counting out Fred Thompson.

Anytime your front runners are 72 years old, and an almost too smooth to be true former governor, you cannot count anyone out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I disagree Randy: It probably is time to count out Huckabee. South Carolina was the state he had to win - he'll never get a bigger base of Evangelical voters.

Unfortunately for him, he has been unable to expand his base beyond the Evangelicals. But he's in a tough spot: if he talks religion too much, he turns off more mainstream voters. But everytime he veers away from the God talk, his base bristles.

At this point all Huckabee can do is play spoiler for McCain - a strong showing from Huckabee will weaken McCain in other states and open the gates for Romney. If Huckabee goes away...McCain probably pulls away.

Randy said...

Perhaps, but I am betting Guiliani will make things a bit more difficult for McCain in Florida, which could open the door for either Huckabee or Romney. And Huckabee has shown a marvelous instinct for cashing in on free publicity and not needing as much money as his competitors.