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Republican Mike Huckabee, and his wife, Janet, reacted to a question yesterday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
MASON CITY, Iowa - One week ago, the laughter died for Mike Huckabee as he bristled under a barrage of criticism by Mitt Romney and flirted with negative campaigning. In his last two days of campaigning before today's Iowa caucuses, the Republican front-runner tried to get it back.
Huckabee - whose cheerful demeanor helped win over many state Republicans and fueled his rise in the polls - gave an upbeat speech in northern Iowa yesterday before heading for a caucus-eve appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Huckabee ran into picketers outside the studio because, contrary to what the candidate said he believed, Leno had not reached a separate deal with the union representing striking TV and movie writers.
The writers guild urged Huckabee not to cross their picket line after he flew out to California. But Huckabee appeared on Leno, even showing off his electric guitar playing with the band.
"Huckabee claims he didn't know," chief union negotiator John Bowman said. "I don't know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."
On Tuesday night, Huckabee held a rally in West Des Moines with actor Chuck Norris and played guitar with a rock band.
Banished from Huckabee's lighthearted repertoire was bitter discussion of the Romney ads that have accused him of being soft on crime, immigration, spending, and taxes. Huckabee disposed of the counterattacks in Mason City and he emphasized his shift in tone at the rally with Norris.
"I hear people every day say, 'You seem like you're pretty happy - this stuff that's thrown at you doesn't seem to bother you that much,' " Huckabee, an ordained minister, said in West Des Moines, insisting that he was instead "overwhelmed with joy and excitement."
For Huckabee, it was a return to form. While other candidates unveiled new closing arguments ahead of the caucuses, the former Arkansas governor reprised his original message of strong social conservative values mixed with humor, as summed up in his disarming signature line: "I'm a conservative, but I'm not mad at anybody about it."
For much of the previous week, Huckabee had dwelled with increasing anger on Romney's attacks, allowing ever more of his speeches to be consumed by rebutting the former Massachusetts governor's accusations point by mirthlessly detailed point.
Huckabee also had veered into negativity, denouncing Romney as "dishonest" and demanding an apology from him for distorting his record - an apology that never came. Huckabee told an audience in Ottumwa that Romney, despite claiming to be an abortion foe, had signed health insurance legislation that included a $50 co-pay for abortions - but Huckabee didn't mention a court ruling requiring the Commonwealth to include abortions in healthcare benefit packages.
Huckabee also made a series of misstatements about Pakistan following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. On Sunday, Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press" grilled Huckabee about foreign policy, underscoring the candidate's weakest credential. The Romney campaign then e-mailed the show's transcript to reporters, characterizing it as a "very defensive appearance" for Huckabee.
The clouds over Huckabee's once-sunny campaign darkened further Sunday afternoon when the candidate made a sharply critical ad aimed point-blank at Romney. The next day, Huckabee called a press conference to announce he wasn't going to air the ad after all - then played it anyway for reporters and TV cameras. Seeing the maneuver as a transparent ploy, some reporters who had once laughed with Huckabee now laughed at him.
But the strange press conference may have been the end of Huckabee's display of cantankerousness - at least in Iowa. Romney's name vanished from his speeches, and Huckabee's good-humored, optimistic persona resurfaced just in time for the final push.
In Mason City yesterday, Huckabee returned to talk of "protecting life," switching to a "fair tax" that would eliminate the IRS, and using the presidency to ease partisan tensions among Americans. At this and other final-week rallies, he mixed in self-deprecating references to his humble origins and plenty of jokes about such matters as shoveling snow into the driveways of neighbors who support another candidate on caucus night.
The appearance with Norris was also a reminder of a memorably goofy commercial Huckabee shot with the actor in mid-November, during his quick rise from fifth to first place in Iowa polls.
Viewers saw Norris voicing earnest praises for Huckabee's conservative views, as Huckabee in turn hailed the action-movie hero with absurdities: "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard - only another fist."
Reunited at the rally, Norris was again serious, letting Huckabee entertain. When someone shouted "We love you Mike," Huckabee quipped, "Well, I love you, too - but we've got to stop meeting like this."
He paused as the crowd chuckled, then added, "We've got to meet at the caucuses Thursday night."
The approach seemed to pay off. One member of the audience in West Des Moines, Cindy Anderson, said she preferred hearing Huckabee "put a strong emphasis on life and marriage" and expressing "what his campaign is about and who he is" instead of trying "to get back at Romney."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
