Mike Huckabee speaks at AFP. He starts with populism. "Getting the economy moving for everyone." But then he switches to talking about the defects with the tax code. He is so interesting. This is anti-government populism. "The average American is more afraid of an audit by the IRS than getting Read more…
After Ames, Mike Huckabee was a rockstar. His campaign manager said that the fundraising calls were coming fast and furious. And now he has only raised $1m? Only $200k more than the previous quarter? Surely Ames and all that free media was worth more than that, no? And, as Marc Read more…
Hotline has the story. Apparently Fred Thompson turned down Mike Huckabee’s invitation to debate. While I understand why Thompson wouldn’t want to do this, doesn’t this play into the narrative that he isn’t engaging in real campaigning? Especially with New Hampshire groups offering to host the debate?
I love this. The release:
“I am aware of your comments on Fox News that you would like to participate in a series of Lincoln Douglas-styled debates. I would like to officially accept your offer,” wrote Huckabee in a September 7, 2007 letter to Senator Thompson"
With would be a lot of fun. Huckabee invoked Newt too:
“I share your view of the debates and agree that Newt’s ‘Nine Nineties in Nine’ concept is a far better way to make sure America’s next President has the character and capacity to lead our nation forward, that’s why I have already signed that pledge. I agree that what is needed is a real discussion by the candidates about their vision for the future of our country,” wrote Huckabee.
I hope they do this. Full release after the jump. (more…)
Governor Huckabee answered some questions about health care after the debate. This came out of a discussion in which he expressed some frustration that health care, education, trade, and jobs were not being discussed:
One of the more interesting parts of the debate was the exchange between Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. After the debate, Governor Huckabee offered some reflections on that exchange.
John McCain did well with the national security focus. Mitt Romney always does best with a domestic security focus. I suspect that the commenters will say that McCain won. I was going to say that I am not sure that his position on Iraq was going to resonate with voters. Read more…
Ross Douthat ends a discussion of Mike Huckabee with: The most important thing, to my mind, is that a Huckabee-Giuliani-Romney race would be a lot healthier for the GOP than a Thompson-Giuliani-Romney race, which is reason enough to wish the Huckster well. Now, assuming that these aren’t battles over personality, Read more…
Excuse the disorder of my notes. This should have somewhat more organized thoughts. In some real sense this was my first exposure to Huckabee as a candidate. I had interacted with him previously through the Young Republicans, and I knew that he was doing what he was doing to move Read more…
Mike Huckabee is holding another blogger conference call. This is my first. These are notes. I will have a seperate analysis post. First, notes from his opening statement: The last two weeks have been intense. "The straw poll has been phenomenal for us." "On a non-stop tour in terms of Read more…