Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and made up saw this news article:

Huckabee Didn’t Know He Couldn’t Win

Republican makes startling admission in NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” television program. Experts are astounded.

By Rim Tutten, Los Angeles Dog Trainer Staff Writer
February 24, 2008

In a startling admission, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee stated Saturday night that he did not know he has no mathematical chance to win the Republican presidential nomination.

The admission came during an appearance by the dark-horse candidate on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” television program. Huckabee, who trails far behind front-runner Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said: “The media loves to throw around the term ‘mathematical impossibility,’ but no-one can ever explain exactly what that means to me.”

The anchor explained to Gov. Huckabee that “even if you won every remaining unpledged delegate, you would still fall 200 delegates short.”

“Wow. Seth, that was an excellent explanation,” Huckabee replied to laughter from the audience.

Huckabee then explained that he was counting on “the all-important superdelegates,” at which point the anchor reminded Huckabee that there are no superdelegates in the Republican primary process.

“Uh-oh,” Gov. Huckabee replied, clearly taken aback. “That’s not good news. I was, uh, I was counting on those superdelegates.”

Huckabee declined to state that he would exit the race despite the fact that he cannot win the required number of delegates: “I’m not a math guy. I’m more of a miracle guy.”

Thaddeus Q. Entwhistle, associate professor of political science at UCLA, expressed astonishment at Huckabee’s statements. “I haven’t seen the show, but if his remarks are as represented, that shows an astounding ignorance of the process. I’m just stunned.”

Ernest P. Earnest, communications director for Gov. Huckabee’s campaign, attempted to explain away Gov. Huckabee’s confused statements by portraying them as a joke. “Saturday Night Live is a humor program,” he insisted. “You people are idiots. You really are. It was an obvious joke.”

But representatives from Sen. McCain’s campaign were having none of it. “The only joke in this race is that Mike Huckabee thinks he still has a chance,” said a McCain advisor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a telling and ironic moment at the end of the appearance, Gov. Huckabee failed to leave the stage, despite having been given a clear indication that it was time to leave. After an uncomfortable period of time during which nervous laughter could be heard from the audience, the anchor finally leaned over and quietly told the candidate: “I think we’re done now, sir.”

At that point, Huckabee waved to the audience and awkwardly pushed his chair aside, disappearing from view.

You can view the video of Huckabee’s appearance here and judge for yourself whether this story is accurate and fair.

Here is the response I received from Dog Trainer “Newspaper’s Representative” Gamey Jold to my angry e-mail:

Dear Mr. Frey,

I received your e-mail complaining that Gov. Huckabee’s remarks were in fact an obvious joke. Editors do not believe that the point warranted correction. They say (and I agree) that the view of the Huckabee campaign was disclosed in the article.

Also, we have previously pretended that President Bush was speaking “erroneously” when he in fact used a metaphor; told readers that documents don’t exist when they do; told readers that Vice President Cheney said the U.S. has tortured prisoners when he said the exact opposite — all among countless other misrepresentations. We didn’t correct any of those; what makes you think we’d correct this one?

Gamey Jold
Newspaper’s Representative

She has a point.