link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071223/ap_on_el_pr/huckabee_clinton_comparisons;_ylt=AsVOuchCEBAQAFwfFAgxJGms0NUE
A day earlier, in Spartanburg, S.C., Romney assailed Huckabee as soft on crime, and then suggested he was even more of a liberal than Clinton on the issue.
"Now in the case of Governor Huckabee, he also faced a number of individuals coming forward for pardons and commutations and he gave out 1,033, even more than the prior three governors combined — and one of those prior governors was Bill Clinton," Romney said.
He's far more direct in literature mailed by his campaign.
"The Audacity of Hope" one mailer says, a play on the hometown Huckabee and Clinton share — as well as a book written by Democrat Barack Obama. "Two former governors from Hope. One was president. One wants to be."
It then asks a series of questions, including which governor "raised taxes by $880 million to pay for 8,000 new bureaucrats," and "supported amnesty for illegal immigrants." The mailer says Huckabee is the answer to all.
Looking to break out in Iowa, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson also has distributed his own literature plastered with pictures of Huckabee and Clinton.
"Mike Huckabee wants to hide the fact that he and Bill Clinton share a D lifetime rating for their tax & spend policies," it says, referencing the Cato Institute's scorecard for governors. It also adds: "Mike Huckabee talks like a Republican but taxes like a Democrat."
Huckabee, for his part, is seeking to inoculate himself against such comparisons and turn a vulnerability into an asset. He counters Clinton comparisons with a ready, though exaggerated, response at just about every campaign event.
"I'm the only person running for president who has actually run against the Bill and Hillary Clinton machine, and I didn't just run against it. I beat it four times in Arkansas," Huckabee says now as part of his standard pitch. "They campaigned against me every time. They raised money for every opponent I ever had."
"Against the headwinds of their machine, I not only won the election every time — I didn't just win it one time and say oh I won't do that again — I kept going up against them and kept winning, and by the largest margins that any Republican had ever won," Huckabee said.
The line always draws applause — but it's a stretch.
Huckabee never ran against either Clinton for elected office. They moved to Washington after Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 — four years before Huckabee, then lieutenant governor, assumed the state's top job when Democratic Gov. Jim Guy Tucker resigned after his conviction in the Whitewater investigation.
The Clintons did support Huckabee's opponents and raised money for them, and they still had a lot of connections and supporters in Arkansas after leaving the state. But they had little to do with politics in the state after they left and hardly controlled a political machine.
These days, Huckabee preemptively uses the Clinton
line not only to try to distance himself from comparisons but also to argue that he's more likely than other Republicans to beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Huckabee didn't appear to sway Dan Bunnell who told him recently at an event in Newton, Iowa, that he was concerned Huckabee was "too nice" to go up against the Clintons.
The 63-year-old from Grinnell expects Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee and says he's leaning toward Rudy Giuliani, whom he called a street fighter.
"The Clintons run an awfully rough campaign. I'm troubled by the fact, I guess, that Huckabee is a nice guy," Bunnell said, noting that Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. "I'm looking for somebody that rather than turning the other cheek, is going to haul back and punch him right in the face."
This is silly.
Huckabee gets condemned for raising a question about Mormonism and now he's going to be condemned for not being a tough enough campaigner.
I believe Huckabee's ability to govern in a Rat environment is a plus. He was tough enough to deal with the typical ethics charges the Rats used to chase Gingrich and Delay out of DC. He does not seem to be suicidal over immigration policy. He did raise sales taxes and excise taxes, but did not raise income taxes and cut capital gains taxes. He is pro life and does not support same sex marriage. He was known to be a tough governor who pursued his agenda despite opposition.
It appears he does have a serious problem with his son, who probably needs psychiatric help. He has made some dumb comments about foreign policy and the WOT.
Who do you support and why?
primary voters often are forced to choose between their hearts and minds, ideals vs. electablility etc. with an eye on the other side's selection. deciding between who they would want to win in the fall versus who they think has the best chance to win in the GE.
the Huckaboom has served to remind DEM primary voters of the possibility of a GOP nominee from the religious right, which when combined with the words obama/hussein/muslim/madrassa etc. serve to give potential DEM primary voters a subliminal pause when they consider how obama's background could be used against him by such a GOP nominee.
and the ever-present possibility of another terrorist attack during the fall campaign must never be discounted.
Huckabee's ascendance in the polls has not translated into windfalls of money, as would be expected (especially with a tax-exempt base of supporters/networkers) Huckabee's early trickle of money has only doubled, or tripled at most.
the more one learns of Huckabee's history in Arkansas (the master tobacco settlement, the curious dimunition of other potential GOP rivals for the state spotlight, even the peculiar circumstances by which Huckabee gained the Governor's office initially), the more one could make a powerful case that Mike Huckabee's candidacy (and media-driven ascendancy) benefits the Clinton's.
the most curious question then becomes, "on purpose"?