I recently raised some questions about Rev. Huck in a piece on parenting skills, and now an old colleague – the Pulitzer winning John Hanchette, no less – looks at some of the same issues and declares the candidacy dead.
The pattern usually repeats itself every four years:
Obscure candidate announces, and is at first an after-thought, unknown to most of nation. Candidate perseveres. Candidate portrays self as feisty underdog. Candidate highlights positive aspects of personal record. Candidate attracts support and funding. Candidate surges in polls early in process. Opponents begin opposition research. Reporters begin digging. Candidate has feet of clay. Negative stories appear. Aha, candidate isn’t perfect! Process accelerates. Stories reach critical mass. Candidate slides back to after-thought status. Opponents and critics celebrate.
Hanch knows politics and he knows Arkansas, because he spent several years there with Gannett. The Reverend looks like a slick-tongue huckster to me, and it’s good to hear from a credible source that I’m not the only one.
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At the risk of being a skeptic, Romney also had some very serious animal abuse going with the “dog on the station wagon rack” story, and that didn’t seem to stop him.
I think it’d be a great irony if the sins of the son were visited upon the father, though. Almost Biblical, really, which would be a fitting fate–and finale–for the Huckster.
Can’t we just discredit Huckabee based off his views? This is a man whose tax plan calls for shuttering the IRS, a move that even its supporters don’t think will happen. This is a man who shows himself behind on key foreign policy issues. This is a man that Stephen Colbert considered (along with Vladimir Putin and himself) as a running mate. Sure, we can pick apart his faith and family, but in his case, that’s just icing on the cake.
I don’t see this as an either/or.
Based on his win tonight, I wouldn’t write him off just yet. I predict that he will get the nomination and lose in November in a three way to Obama with Paul getting 10% of the general.
Murray Waas is also on the Huck trail.
Huckleberry reminds me of Elmer Gantry.
Martin, he IS Elmer Gantry – he’s a nasty piece of work all around.