2008 Pres: Why Is Anyone Taking Huckabee Seriously?

Atrios flags an AP report wherein presidential aspirant and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee complains about John McCain’s campaign finance reforms. Bottom line is that senators can transfer unlimited amounts of campaign cash to their presidential warchests, but governors can’t do the same. It’s crap, and it’s one of the many reasons I oppose much of our current campaign finance regime. But that’s not why I’m penning this post.

Rather, what I want to know is why Mike Huckabee’s presidential chances are taken any more seriously than Felix Macaca’s at this point. Just take a look at this:

2006 Ark. Gov. Results (Open Seat)

Mike Beebe (D): 55
Asa Hutchinson (R): 41

Hutchinson, the Republican candidate who sought to succeed Huckabee, got utterly pounded. And yeah, 2006 may have been a good Democratic year, but several Republicans in much bluer states hung on: Arnie in CA, Pawlenty in MN, and Carcieri in RI just to name a few. Sure, those guys were incumbents, but Arkansas went to Bush by ten points in 2004 – Rhode Island went to Kerry by twenty. Consequently, I consider Hutchinson’s loss to be one hell of a shellacking.

Now can you imagine if Tim Kaine (VA) or Chet Culver (IA) had gone down to defeat like this? Mark Warner and Tom Vilsack would have been laughed off the presidential wannabe stage. Indeed, the victories of their successors were crucial to both Vilsack and Warner, as it keept their future ambitions alive.

So could someone please tell me why Huckabee isn’t a joke? At least George Pataki and Mitt Romney can offer lame reasons for their own failures (northeastern open seats should never be easy for the GOP to defend). But what’s Huckabee’s excuse? He’s got none. I know Arkansas has traditionally been more hospitable to Dems than other Southern states, but right now it’s got three of four Dem Congressmen, two Dem Senators, Dems in control of the entire state legislature, a Dem Governor, and Dems elected to every other statewide office. This guy has clearly done jack to build his own state party.

My only answer for now is that the Gang of 500 must love him. I won’t bother to speculate as to why that might be (though feel free), but in a just world with a thoughtful, critical media, Mike Huckabee would rate no higher than Screaming Lord Sutch.

42 thoughts on “2008 Pres: Why Is Anyone Taking Huckabee Seriously?”

  1. The party, in the 90s. It started with him being elected Lt. Governor, and, once Jim Tucker resigned, Huckabee became Governor… This led to Tim Hutchinson beinig elected to the Senate in 1996 as well… Plus, with Asa Hutchison being elected to Congress beforehand, and with the state legislature going less blue than before, and with its electoral votes going to Bush in 2000, hopes looked great for the Republicans…

    However, Pryor won back Hutchinson’s senate seat in ’02… In ’04, the Republicans were hoping to win back at least one house of the legislature… instead the Dems won a supermajority. Now, All statewide offices are Democratic…

    Is Huckabee to blame? Perhaps… he was sort of elected as a fluke, but Arkansas is still one of the most Democratic states in the nation locally.

  2. Huckabee will try to fill the void with Republicans who do not like Rudy, McCain or Romney for various reasons. He would be the type of candidate who could appeal to the extreme right and evangelicals. He might have some appeal in the South and West if he can get off the ground.

  3. did prove that a life-long failure can win the Presidency.  And he should get the support of the core of the christofacists. 
    Plus, there’s the weight loss, which our fluff loving MSM is going to nuts for. 

    And look at the so-called front-runners.  They all have major questions and problems.  The republican race is wide open.

  4. Well, from a red state perspective Huckabee was a successful Governor and Governors make the best Presidential candidates.  Neither McCain nor Guliani has been a Governor.  Plus, he left office as a reasonably popular Governor while the remainder of the state was trending Blue.  He therefore appears to play well with Democrats.  And he is a Baptist Minister, and that will play very well throughout the South.  Southern Baptist Huckabee should be able to take down Roman Catholic Brownback in the South, which means the foundation of the 2008 GOP is ripe for the plucking by Southern favorite son Huckabee.

    However, the current buzz about Huckabee is mainly negative at the moment.  He and his wife of (I think) 32 years recently re-affirmed their marriage vows to popularize “covenant” marriages.  Problem is, they then set up a marriage gift register on the internet to accept “marriage” gifts from their adoring public.  Why a couple of 32 years needs a marriage register, especially when he is running for President, is what is creating the (negative) buzz. 

  5. but I think Hutchinson is considered to have run an awful campaign.  This was projected to be a serious race, but reading between the lines of press accounts, I have the impression that Hutchinson shot himself in the foot, not unlike Beauprez in Colorado.  If Huckabee had invested heavily in Hutchinson and he had lost despite a well-run campaign, that might reflect poorly on Huckabee.  But if Tim Kaine had, say, run his mouth foolishly in January of 05, gotten a week of bad press, destroyed his own fundraising potential, and generally made a series of mistakes that were obviously not reflections on Mark Warner, then I don’t think the press would be holding that loss against him.  Similarly, I think Hutchinson is thought to have been done in by his own piece-of-shit campaign, not by the political climate of Arkansas nor by the lack of political capital of Huckabee.

    Disclaimer: I came to these notions by reading between the lines of stuff like Hotline and WaPo, and they’re often totally wrong.  But there it is.

    Also, I don’t WANT Huckabee to get put away.  I think he can be a serious pest in the primary, especially to McCain because Huckabee is also considered honest, and of course he’s utterly hopeless in the general election even if by a miracle he should win the primary.  On one hand, I don’t want to crowd the anti-McCain slot, but on the other hand, I think Huckabee can do some real damage on the right wing of the Iowa caucus especially.  Go Huckabee!

    Is Brownback even still running?  The press talks about him even less than Huckabee these days. 

  7. Kerry Healey’s loss did little to nothing to damage Romney’s presidential prospects because Romney spent more time campaigning for Nussle than he did for Healey. The same thing with Huckabee, as far as I know he didn’t do a lot of campaigning for Hutchinson.

    I want Huckabee to stick around too for the reasons previously stated but also because I think he’s the only person that can beat Pryor

  8. Over saw the whole sale slaughter of their respective  State Parties.  While KYL did survive in Arizona, Napolito got a ridiculously high Number for a Democrat in Arizona.  There are really no Republicans left who can say they have a stellar record building their state parties. Florida is their Best swing state and unless Jeb runs they have no candidate from ther.

  9. Perhaps you have been too busy to properly research Mike Huckabee and his credentials, as we have record of you visiting our blog (www.mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com) which provides in-depth details about his qualifications. Allow me to share.

    Among the reasons Mike Huckabee will make a fantastic and formidable candidate is:

    1) Very popular and long-serving southern Governor
    2) A strong (and lifelong) social conservative
    3) A former Baptist minister
    4) A practical (and compassionate) fiscal conservative – which means he believes in a fair tax system and keeping taxes low but not at the expense of the weakest members of society such as those on Medicaid, etc.
    5) A remarkable record on education, infrastructure, public health, economic development,reform and more
    6) Demonstrated leadership in times of crisis
    7) A gifted (and I mean GIFTED) public speaker — he absolutely melts people from the stump and he will do very, very well in a debate format

    I invite you to explore our blog.

    BSR

    1. I forgot about the weight loss thing. You’re right – it’s a perfect story. It’s both about “human accomplishment” and also lets the press crack jokes, especially if Huckabee is self-depracating about (which I imagine him to be).

    1. didn’t help Cruz Bustamente-D in CA, he got slaughtered in spite of that new trim figure and those sexy ads.
      ;-}
      Huckabee, what a laugh.
      He’s posturing for a VP slot.

  11. Why pick on S.L.S.? He was better than the average Republican stuffed shirt. “Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?” et al.

  12. The list below came from an AP news story written by Andrew DeMillo published 22 Nov 2006 in the Kansas City Star.  Story linked below:

    http://www.kansascit…

    The state Ethics Commission has investigated 14 complaints against Huckabee and validated five. Two pertain to unreported gifts – a $500 canoe and a $200 stadium blanket – and three to cash the governor or his wife received but did not initially report:

    _$43,150 from his 1994 lieutenant governor’s campaign for use of his personal airplane,

    _$14,000 Janet Huckabee received from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign, and

    _$23,500 from a tax-exempt organization he incorporated with others in 1994, but whose funding source isn’t known. The Action America organization, Huckabee said, was set up to coordinate parts of his private-sector speaking schedule during his three years as lieutenant governor.

    Huckabee appealed the stadium blanket sanction and a judge threw out the $250 fine.

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