Huckabee has the Fire in his Belly
[Guest post by DRJ]
Mike Huckabee had fun with a big crowd of supporters in Des Moines Tuesday night:
“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) put on a show here Tuesday night, and, in what could be a good sign for his campaign, he had a huge crowd to perform for. Huckabee played bass guitar with a local band and he surprised many by pulling MSNBC host and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) on stage to play along.
Huckabee said there were an estimated 2,000 attendees at the Val Air Ballroom, where the former governor was joined by his wife and Chuck Norris. Huckabee supporters said before the event they were thrilled by the crowd size given the near-zero temperatures outside.”
It sounds like Huckabee enjoyed joking with the audience, especially when it came to ways to keep his opponents’ supporters at home:
“As he often does, the former governor drew big laughs from the crowd when he told them to tell their neighbors who might caucus for one of his rivals that they do not want to miss the Orange Bowl, which is being played the same night as the caucuses.
“Shovel your snow into their driveway,” Huckabee joked. “Let the air out of their tires, disconnect their battery cable.”
I guess this is what it takes to be a Presidential candidate sufficiently consumed with politics that he has the “fire in his belly.”
— DRJ
“Huckabee joked. “Let the air out of their tires,…”
That’s my problem with Huckabee, he thinks like a Democrat.
SPQR (26be8b) — 1/2/2008 @ 8:23 pmWhen Chuck Norris endorses you …
You know you have the endorsement of a second-rate actor.
nk (5221ab) — 1/2/2008 @ 8:32 pmHuckabee gives off that duality, doesn’t he? Being from the Ozarks originally, I can say there’s not a whole lot of difference between the two down there. Except to those that live there and have that triangulation thing down. What? You think Bill Boy invented that? There’s more of a differentiation in whether you live in a trailer or not.
Is that being a trailerist? Well, I can be, for I lived in a real trailer, not a mobile home, for most of my long lost juvenile days. I grew up thinking trailer trash was what you put in that 55 gal oil drum out back.
allan (5cca7a) — 1/2/2008 @ 8:39 pmSo why does the MSM lavish so much attention on Huckabee?
I guess that’s a rhetorical question, isn’t it.
Merovign (4744a2) — 1/2/2008 @ 9:03 pmI’d be interested to hear what others think about Iowa’s influence of Presidential selection. I personally think it’s nuts. Huckabee’s advice to his supporters was only half in jest, I’m sure and here’s what Christopher Hitchens has to say:
“It is quite astonishing to see with what deadpan and neutral a tone our press and television report the open corruption—and the flagrantly anti-democratic character—of the Iowa caucuses. It’s not enough that we have to read of inducements openly offered to potential supporters—I almost said “voters”—even if these mini-bribes only take the form of “platters of sandwiches” and “novelty items” (I am quoting from Sunday’s New York Times). It’s also that campaign aides are showing up at Iowan homes “with DVD’s that [explain] how the caucuses work.” Nobody needs a DVD to understand one-person-one-vote, a level playing field, and a secret ballot. The DVD and the other gifts and goodies (Sen. Barack Obama is promising free baby-sitting on Thursday) are required precisely because none of those conditions applies in Iowa. In a genuine democratic process, these Tammany tactics would long ago have been declared illegal. But this is not a democratic process, and besides, as my old friend Michael Kinsley used to say about Washington, the scandal is never about what’s illegal. It’s about what’s legal.”
Dubium (0a6237) — 1/2/2008 @ 9:45 pmHeh! Also from Instapundit.
nk (5221ab) — 1/3/2008 @ 1:39 amNo one has told Mr. Huck that the Chuck-Norris-never-cries type jokes are making fun of Chuck’s ridiculously infantile and silly swagger, and not actually admiring and boasting at how awesome Chuck is.
It’s sarcasm.
Mike seems like a very greedy and corrupt politician who let murderers go free when attorney gave money to the right people. In front of cameras he acts as saintly as possible. It’s kinda unrealistic, and I think an attempt to compensate for his lack of ethics. He got rich from those who wanted favors from Arkansas. That’s not ok. Mike’s jokes are totally inappropriate. People really do slash tires, etc, on the campaign trail. Someone will probably try to obey Mike’s Nixon-like “joke.”
But I would vote for Mike in Iowa. I think it’s interesting that the one serious candidate that really overlooked Iowa really needed Romney to falter there, and interestingly, Huck shocks all. I’m not claiming Rudy is conspiring. That’s absurd. But it’s fortuitous that the social cons are split and Romney is losing a huge amount of his advantage. I think Rudy is going to be able to recover very well, because there is not going to be a clear leader until Florida.
The media isn’t playing along with reality, but reality doesn’t care very much, Iowa is a small number of folks who should not be our king-maker.
Jem (9e390b) — 1/3/2008 @ 5:55 amI don’t think it’s nearly as great as the press makes it out to be. Only one non-incumbent — from either party — who won Iowa has won the general election. Only a couple more have even won their party’s nomination.
So, its influence is largely the product of vivid imaginations.
Steverino (af57bc) — 1/3/2008 @ 6:16 amThose who have “fire in the belly” should try Pepto-Bismol.
dchamil (ad3d9d) — 1/3/2008 @ 6:39 amLet the air out of Huckabee’s lungs.
David Ehrenstein (da3648) — 1/3/2008 @ 6:58 am“Fire in his belly” and bats in his bellfry.
David Ehrenstein (da3648) — 1/3/2008 @ 11:19 amWell I’m proud to say that this website I found, http://www.fittobepres.com, doesn’t even list Huckabee as a candidate. On this site you can rank any candidate (oh wait, except Huckabee) based on 10 “fit factors.” It shows the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses based on these rankings. I will admit, the site gives an interesting perspective of the candidates.
Katie (7f440f) — 1/3/2008 @ 1:10 pm