Monday, May 23, 2005
Huckabee Will Run, Reporter Says
John Brummett, columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, published a column on Sunday in which he claims that "a person close to" Governor Mike Huckabee told him "matter-of-factly" that Huckabee will run for president in 2008.
Bummett then says that Huckabee, who has gotten little attention among national pundits, is generally misunderstood and proceeds to break down Huckabee's chances in a remarkably favorable light, considering the fact that Brummett is no friend of Huckabee's.
Sprinkled throughout the column are many, many items regular readers of this blog are already familiar with.
"Our Boy Mike looks like a Santorum-styled social conservative only because he came out of a Southern Baptist pulpit and talks the talk on abortion. When he's traditionally right wing, he's combatively so and overstatedly so. Otherwise, though, his positions on immigration and Medicaid spending ... make him something akin to the compassionate conservative that Karl Rove helped George W. Bush contend falsely that he was."
In addition to honestly being a compassionate conservative, Brummett says, Huckabee potentially enjoys a number of other advantages.
"The essence of a Huckabee candidacy would be a compelling biography, convenient geography and a philosophical straddle linking social conservatives who'd like his pulpit background and less strident conservatives who'd like his moderation."
Finally, Brummet says, there are "rampant impracticalities" among the current forerunners in the Republican field. By design we have spent little time talking about other potential Republican candidates on this blog, preferring instead to focus on introducing you to Mike Huckabee. Brummett, however, gets it right (mostly) regarding the other candidates.
"Giuliani is pro-choice, pro-gay and anti-gun, and Republicans who embrace him as a celebrity and hero wouldn't overlook these matters if he ran for president. McCain is famously temperamental and he currently is being unforgivably friendly with moderate Democrats in trying to fashion a filibuster compromise. Frist appears to be cold and inept. Hagel's problem is that senators don't get elected president. Romney is another little-known governor. Santorum is an extremist. Pataki is about as liberal as Giuliani. Condoleeza is wholly untested in electoral politics and it remains to be seen whether Republican primary voters would embrace an African-American woman for president."
Before concluding, Brummett takes a moment to correct his previous speculation that Governor Huckabee might resign early in order to give Arkansas Lt. Governor Win Rockefeller the advantage of running as an incumbent in the 2006 election. We noted at the time that that scenario, if Huckabee were planning to run for president, would be highly unlikely since it would require him to give up his chairmanship of the National Governor's Association, a very powerful position from which to launch a presidential campaign.
BSR
