I am beginning to wonder if Mike Huckabee is the Republican Barack Obama. Obama's appeal is based, in no small part, on his optimism, on the sense of hope that he offers. He doesn't come across as a jaded pol. He is real world.
Mike Huckabee is doing the same thing. Where the other Republican candidates seem tired and seem not to wear well at all, Huckabee is the opposite. The more people see of him, it seems, the more they like him. And what he is offering to Republican primary voters is something they want - he is offering them the chance to "believe":
All that being said, I really dislike the ad. This attempt to sell his religious faith as a political virtue cheapens his faith and cheapens politics. I understand the politics behind it - the religious right has no candidate. Huckabee is a former Baptist preacher. Giuliani's greatest weakness with social conservatives is his lack of social conservatism. Romeny's greatest weakness is his Mormon faith. This ad takes straight aim at both. I still don't like it. You can do better than this Mike.
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Let's hope Huckabee doesn't believe in silencing dissent like so many other political players.
If they improbably both became the nominees, I could see them getting together for a Lincoln/Douglas (or, as rumored before the assassination, JFK/Goldwater) type barnstorming around the country.
Larry, I know this shows bias, but if the two parties nominate Huckabee or McCain and Obama or Biden, they are much healthier institutions than I think they are. Romney, Giuliani, Clinton and Edwards for whatever they're right about are demagogues and pandars. The fact that the latter are 4 of the top five candidates confirms for me what I've suspected: That Americans generally want a healthy, prosperous and moral nation but partisans are satisfied to be congratulated on their wisdom.
Had a problem with YouTube over the weekend ...
David's right about the commercial, I think. It's like Huckabee's trying to be angry because some political consultant told him it will play well, but it's not in his nature. So it comes across half-hearted.
IMO, I would like to see political candidates stop listening to their consultants about what 'sells'. It's so demoralizing and it ends up with everyone seeing the other side as a charactiture [sp] instead of the multi-dimensional people that they are.
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