Ames: Huckabee

Mike Huckabee gets a nice intro from Laura Ingraham.

Give America back to the people on Main Street. This is an important undercurrent to the language Sams Club Republican thing. Is that really what Huckabee is?

Michael Vick joke was cute

"I’m not the best funded candidate. I don’t have the money. I can’t even rent you."

"Not about electing a straw man." Another David Brooks reference?

Talks about the Fair Tax. Probably a good strategy, given his tax problem.

Huckabee repeats Newt’s FedEx/UPS line. It is a good metaphor, even if it is not quite right.

He calls for ending the dependence on foreign oil even faster. Good politics in Iowa.

Huckabee gets his strongest applause, from what I can see, over his life comments.

His line about sacrificing ourselves for our next generation is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

The story about his daughter Sarah (a member of the DC Young Republicans when I was chairman) and their trip to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem is also fantastic. Also interesting to hear the connection between the story of Israel, the Holocaust, and a conservative Christian candidate.

I tend to be impressed by him, and there were some evocative moments. But….