Following his surprising second place showing in the Ames Straw Poll, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is drawing bigger crowds and getting more free media, writes Jared Strong for The Des Moines Register:
Mike Huckabee's meet-and-greet event on Wednesday - his first in Iowa since a strong finish in the Iowa straw poll earlier this month - was similar to, yet strikingly different from, dozens of such events he has held all over the state.His message at a Pizza Ranch in this community of about 10,000 was mostly the same one the former Arkansas governor had offered many times in the days leading up to the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames.
* * * * *
For one thing, the media presence was exponentially larger than usual. Four video cameras and a photographer captured the glad-handing. National media are closely following the man who was once just a blip on the Iowa caucus radar.
Then there were the people - about 50 of them on a dreary Wednesday morning.
"Everywhere we're going, our crowds have been two to four times the crowd we were expecting," Huckabee told the group
Read the whole article at the link above. The odds remain against Huckabee or any other "second tier" candidate breaking out to run with the big dogs in either party's primaries. But with McCain's campaign faded to a shadow, Thompson wasting his spring momentum by not entering the race yet, and Romney stuck in the low teens nationally despite forging leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, the opportunity just might be there for someone else to emerge as the principle challenger to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
If Huckabee seems unlikely for the role, we must ask, "Who else, if Thompson or Romney can't gain traction?"
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Huckabee, Primaries, Republican
Tags: Huckabee, Iowa, presidential campaign, Republicans
Comments (5)
Well if Thompson doesn't ma... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Glenn Koons | August 30, 2007 2:43 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Well if Thompson doesn't make a Veep stance , perhaps the Huck could fill the Southern role. Frankly, the Huck seems more alive than Fred.
1. Posted by Glenn Koons | August 30, 2007 2:43 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2007 14:43
2. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 9:45 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"The odds remain against Huckabee or any other "second tier" candidate breaking out to run with the big dogs in either party's primaries."
The "big dogs" inside the Republican fence are mostly fur.
I speak of the Mormonism and Catholicism of Romney and Ghouliani.
Since you brought up "odds" and since the New Right (largely Catholic, wayward sons of Buckley) are too busy whistling and looking away. Why?
The New Right-Neoconservative axis (nat'l GOP) is actually more concerned with finding a candidate who won't overtly shun the policies of their patron Bush. To lose in the general is more bearable to them than a cold rejection by the party in the primaries.
Why? Because coaxing their version of history will be that much easier to do if the republican electorate confirms a like-minded candidate.
It dilutes top-down responsibilty and can thus be assigned to "cycles" or to our epoch.
2. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 9:45 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 09:45
3. Posted by kim | August 31, 2007 10:08 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Except in sharia loving la la land, it will be hard to demonize Mormons or Catholics, which does not mean the Democrats won't appeal to our most primitive instincts in order to try. Just watch the sorry bastards.
bD, get your vision checked first.
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3. Posted by kim | August 31, 2007 10:08 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 10:08
4. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 11:23 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
kim==jim mentioned odds. I'd say Huckabee's protestantism combined with his traction after Iowa has already put him even with the Moonman and the Ghoul.
Factor in his FAIR Tax plank and his ease in his own skin, and I see him as the odds-on favorite.
Anyway, the religious question: still alive (the silence is deafening), but more religio-cultural than doctrinal these days. But this is still a protestant culture confirmed in the Ohio Valley when the state churches could no longer interfere. It's been a basic Methodist-Baptist pathway since.
Yeah, German Catholics of the 1840s and Poles and Hungarians are strong on the west side of the Great Lakes (that's the A-Team), Tammany Hall culture between Mannhattan and Boston (BAD!), and Loserana , the only state my southern ancestors refused to live in; a 0 in the CSA muster rolls.
And Sharia? Ha Ha Ha! (Flip the record!)
4. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 11:23 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 11:23
5. Posted by kim | September 1, 2007 10:58 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Your mainstream protestants find it absurd to demonize the Mormons and Catholics among their neighbors.
Yes, there may be traction, the pull of demagoguery, first cousin to sharia, you dhimmi you.
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5. Posted by kim | September 1, 2007 10:58 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 1, 2007 10:58