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Don't Discount Huckabee

Politizine wrote a great piece on how the liberal talk show hosts in New England are giving short shrift to Mike Huckabee even in the wake of his first place Iowa caucus finish:

"[Democratic Consultant Michael] Goldman starts talking about how his evangelical positions again and I counter that they are no different than Bush but that actually Huckabee is better than Bush. So, I asked a question: What red state that Bush won in 2004 does Huckabee lose?

...

"He then flips to Ohio, saying Huckabee can't win there. I counter, All a fair trader like Huckabee has to do is campaign in every closed factory town in Ohio, talking about lost jobs, and he could win the state and hold Bush voters. They both laugh and decide to take other callers. So, there you go. It isn't just the Beltway where the mentality is totally clueless about what regular folks in the real world think about politics. I was pretty shocked that both of them could just write off the guy, saying he is another Robertson when in actuality, Huckabee is much more compelling and serious candidate. We'll see what happens."

We should be worried about Huckabee. He's charming, a persuasive talker, coming across as an everyman. And, yes, a fair trader who could make jobs his major platform, taking John Edwards' talking points away from him. And he has been steadfast in his social conservatism, unlike Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who have "liberal" pasts on abortion and civil unions respectively (unlike John McCain's steadfast record, which serves him well when he campaigns).

Things are looking very good for Huckabee right now and Democrats should be worried. Governors generally do better than senators in presidential races, and NONE of the frontrunning Democrats can boast a gubernatorial background (only scanty Senatorial experience). His governorship was one of the reasons I believed Howard Dean was a better candidate than John Kerry and why I still do believe he would have done better than Kerry in the 2004 general election.

Full post as published by Wicked Words on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).