Wolf Howling: huckster

Thursday, January 3, 2008

The Huckster & Obama Take Iowa

With 65% of the precincts reporting, Fox News has called Iowa for the Mike Huckabee with 31% of the caucus vote. Romney, who spent a large part of his budget for advertisements in Iowa, is well behind Huckabee in a second place at 23%. Thompson and McCain are in a near tie in third place at about 13% each.

On the Democratic side, its appearing that Obama has taken Iowa with 37%. Clinton and Edwards stand tied at 31%.

I do not see a Huckabee nomination in the cards. Our President's most important job will be foreign policy and, in that arena, Huckabee seems, to put it charitably, naive. Further, his personal ethics are very much in doubt after the incredibly transparent trick of a few days ago, holding a press conference to show attack ads that he then said he would not show. If he ever tried such sophmoric tricks as President, he would absolutely be eaten alive, and rightly so.
Huckabee's defining characteristic among Iowa voters seems to have been that Huckabee is a Christian conservative. Outside the realm of identity politics, Huckabee has nothing of substance to offer.

As to what this means for the Democrats, the aura of inevitabiity has been shattered for Hillary. For far too long, Hillary refused to answer any questions of substance and tried to straddle the fence on all issues, with the apex of these acts comining during a debate when, in answer to a question about NY Gov. Spitzer's driver's licenses for illegals, she made statements that contradicted themselves. She has been too clever by half. Whether she can overcome the storm of losing Iowa is now very much an open question.

In one way at least, I welcome Obama's victory in a largely white, rural state. Perhaps now we can start to bury the race card as a viable part of American politics.

Update: Arianna Huffington is ecstatic.

Update: With 98% of the caucusus reporting, it appears Edwards has taken scond place, with 30%. Clinton is in third place with 29%.

Update: Joe Biden has dropped out of the race.

Update: Ron Paul came in with 10% of the vote.

A Real Huckster

I never thought that it would be possible for a Republican to come close to the cynicism and hypocrisy regularly displayed by those on the left side of the aisle. Think Harry Reid's political decision to surrender to four al Qaeda suicide bombers in April.

But former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has just proved me wrong. The Huckster has descended to the bottom of the political basement and is, as we speak, digging furiously.

Huckabee's campaign drafted a series of ads attacking Mitt Romney, portraying Romney as being a flip-flopper on several critical issues. Fair enough.

But then Huckabee holds a press conference, playing the ads for the media even as he announces that he is going to take the high road and not release the ads. Thus, Huckabees ads get exposure through the national media while Huckabee simultaneously claims credit for taking the ethical and moral highground. This from the Washington Post:

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee gathered scores of reporters in a room to unveil an attack ad against rival Mitt Romney, then suddenly changed course and renounced the ad he had produced -- but not before playing it for the dozens of television cameras.

Huckabee said the ad -- which attacks Romney for being too dishonest to be president -- was sent to television and radio stations yesterday but will not be broadcast. He said he had made the decision 10 minutes before his news conference, surprising even his top staff. "I pulled the ad. I do not want it to be run at all," he said. The surprise move prompted incredulous questions from the journalists, who pressed Huckabee on whether he was trying to attack Romney in the press while at the same time getting credit for running a positive campaign. Huckabee called that a cynical view of what he described as a heartfelt decision to take the high road. . .

Read the entire article here. There is nothing cynical about questioning Huckabee's actions on this one. There is no other possible way to explain Huckabee's actions. If Huckabee had a true change of heart on this, he simply would have pulled the ads - no news conference, and under no circumstance playing the ads for the news media. Huckabee is playing us for idiots. His is an act of cynicism and hypocrisy that encapsulates the worst of American politics. Bottom line, anyone who votes for this deeply unprincipled man is making a tragic mistake.