Contrary to pundits, not everybody loves Huckabee
THEY'VE found him! The punditocracy believes it has spied a rare species: a moderate Republican who's candid, funny, charming, and doesn't think the earth is flat or Bush has a clue. Eight years ago, it was John McCain. This time, it's Mike Huckabee. Channeling the 2004 hit comedy movie, they heart Huckabee.
We expose Huckabee. In Salon.com, reporter Max Brantley recounted his years covering then-Governor Huckabee for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Reporters considered him petty, thin-skinned, self-righteous, and ethically challenged.
Brantley reports that Huckabee used campaign funds to pay himself as his own media consultant. (Personally, I consider this a hanging offense.)
According to Brantley, "Huckabee raked in tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, including gifts from people he later appointed to prestigious state commissions. Inauguration funds were used to buy clothing for his wife."
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone found Huckabee had a $60,000 taxpayer slush fund for personal expenses like dog food, pantyhose, and meals at Taco Bell. Taco Bell?
Huckleberrys heart swag. When "Huckleberry," as he's nicknamed, left the governor's office, the furniture he'd been given to spruce up the place left with him.
When he and his wife decided to renew their wedding vows, they set up a registry at department stores so citizens could bestow gifts upon the First Couple. The list included Lenox china, a KitchenAid mixer, and a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. You try losing 100 pounds without a LaLanne.
The heart of Huckabee. When a retarded 15-year-old was raped by her stepfather, she needed state Medicaid funding for an abortion. Governor Huckabee defied a federal judge's order and blocked the abortion.
Evolution went missing from the textbooks and classrooms of Arkansas during the Reign of Huckleberry. In May, he raised his hand at a presidential debate when asked which of them did not believe in evolution.
He opposes embryonic stem-cell research, but this year accepted a fat speaking fee from drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which conducts embryonic stem-cell research. Over protests from churches, he pushed through a bill allowing video poker at the state's racetracks, then took a cool $10,000 campaign contribution from the owner of the state's biggest track.
In 1992, Governor Huckleberry, in calling for forced isolation for AIDS patients, declared: "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population."
He tried to paint Arkansas Democratic US Senator Dale Bumpers as a pornographer for supporting federal arts grants.
He quietly pressured the Arkansas parole board to release a convicted rapist who had converted to Christianity in the joint. After his release, the guy killed one woman and probably another.
The heart of Romney. Fresh from mowing down his lawn workers, Mitt Romney fled to Texas to defend Mormonism. He had to. Huckabee has surged past him in Iowa and nationally. (Romney's Iowa lead was always illusory, based on huge TV spending.)
Romney's religion speech had one mission: blur the distinctions between his faith and that of evangelicals. A tall order. Mormons believe, for example, that Christ will return to a new Jerusalem in Jackson County, Mo.
Romney made a high-risk play and lost. All that most voters know is that he went on TV and gave a Mormon speech.
Now as Romney launches the year's first TV attack spot against Huckabee, I ask: Where's the Christian love?
Crowds heart Oprah. Oprah Winfrey is the most popular woman in America. Her three-state blitz for Barack Obama blotted out the media sun for all other Democrats, captured the attention of women who should be for Hillary, and gave white people tacit permission to vote for a black president.
A puzzling New York Times/CBS poll finds that Bill Clinton's support for his wife is more likely to move voters than Oprah's for Obama. Who did they think Bill would support, Joe Biden? And Oprah generated the kind of buzz Hillary's campaign would kill for.
N.H. heart Hillary. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll shows that while Hillary was struggling in Iowa -- it's her worst state, especially among men -- she had a comfortable lead in New Hampshire. Maybe not anymore. A brand new CNN poll has Obama catching her in New Hampshire, trailing by just one point. I don't know if it's the Oprah Effect, but nothing else happened that could explain it. Of course, those Clinton TV spots aren't helping. It's hard to sell a 2008 presidential candidate with 1958-looking spots.
Arkansas heart Hillary. Who would win if Hillary ran against Huckabee? A recent Arkansas poll shows Hillary crushing Huckabee 35 percent to 8 percent. To know Huckabee is to not heart him.
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country.
( Correction: A column by Dan Payne on Thursday misidentified the author of a Rolling Stone article about former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. The writer was Matt Taibbi.) 