Huckabee and the GOP Debate
I have only watched about half of last night’s Republican debatet, but based on what little I saw and the tidbits I’ve picked up this morning, Mike Huckabee appears to have hit a home run. He’s very conservative, which the GOP base is finally figuring out and seems to be making a difference in the polls. If he did as well on all of his answers as he did when asked if he believed every word of the Bible, his opponents don’t stand a chance. His answer on the bible was incredibly good. I’ll get the exact words later.
A new Iowa poll that came out just hours before the debate has Huckabee ahead of Mitt Romney 28 - 25, and Giuliani at 12. Fred Thompson rings in at 11 and based on what I have seen of the debate thus far, I would be surprised if that doesn’t drop.
Here are a few things I picked up this morning.
Mike Huckabee is super conservative, believes in biblical literalism, doesn’t believe in evolution. But, man, that answer to the Bible question was good. Just judging in pure political terms, he knocked that one out of the park.
Made Rudy and Mitt look like idiots that wanted to be anywhere else but on that stage.
"On style, I think that the most presidential tonight were John McCain, who has found his voice again. … And I thought Rudy Giuliani. But the candidate I think that the spotlight was shining on tonight and who really emerged as the most authentic and human was Mike Huckabee. Huckabee continually responded to questions with a compassionate, sort of human quality that I think will appeal to a lot of people in their homes"
Huck gave clear, thoughtful answers to questions about the death penalty, the Bible and immigration. He also had the funniest line of the night, per the WWJD? death penalty inquiry. "Jesus Was Too Smart to Ever Run for Public Office, Anderson." Huckabee also looked more the statesmanlike than his frontrunner counterparts, who sniped about sanctuary cities, illegal workers and more.
Jane Hamsher: Huckabee — good debate prep
Each candidate had an ad they submitted to the debate — and oddly enough, Fred Thompson used his ad to simply attack Romney and Huckabee — with nothing said of himself. Funny — it just shows that his campaign is in desperate mode. Thompson seemed like through the whole debate he was unable to string together coherent thoughts. He definitely missed his cue cards tonight!
The Washington Post’s article on the debate seems to be more driven by what the national polls reflect than by the content or substance of the debate. After the opening sentence, they dedicate the first 387 words of their 1,397 piece (28 percent) to Giuliani and Romney. If you don’t believe the article was poll driven check this out. This is how many times each candidate’s name appears in the article.
Romney - 16
Giuliani - 12
McCain - 9
Huckabee - 8
Tancredo - 4
Paul - 3
Thompson - 2
Hunter - 1
The New York Times plays a ratings game, but not nearly as bad as the Post. The first 70 words of their 1,215 word article (six percent) are dedicated to Giuliani and Romney. Mike Huckabee is mentioned in the third sentence. Here’s the name-count breakdown.
Romney - 18
Giuliani - 13
Huckabee - 8
McCain - 7
Thompson - 4
Hunter - 1
Tancredo - 1
Paul - 1
I’ll watch the rest of the debate a little later, but the consensus seems to be Huckabee won hands down last night.
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