JOHN BRUMMETT: The lessons of Huckabee - Opinion

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Jan. 06, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN BRUMMETT: The lessons of Huckabee

JOHN BRUMMETT
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Nothing has been more instructive in modern American politics than Mike Huckabee's surge to victory in Iowa and semi-seriousness as a contender for the presidency.

I hedge with "semi" because Huckabee likely will come in a distant third to fifth Tuesday in New Hampshire, which will temper, at least for a week or two, his momentum.

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For the moment, though, here are four powerful Huckabee-demonstrated lessons:

1. Go where the voters are.

The conventional wisdom was that Huckabee was erring by abandoning Iowa on caucus eve to do "The Tonight Show." But consider what James Carville told me the morning after Bill Clinton went on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in Blues Brothers shades to play the saxophone in 1992, and after I had shared my inside-the-box judgment that Clinton had fatally trivialized himself: "They asked Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. He said it was because that's where the money was."

2. Make yourself seem real, more than a robotic political animal, by engaging comfortably and naturally in some common-touch activity with which people can readily, even warmly, identify.

Michael Dukakis tried this in 1988 by getting videotaped throwing a baseball. Alas, he merely revealed his regional limitation.

It may be all about the Red Sox in New England, but Southern males, with whom Dukakis lacked any connection whatever, prefer chucking a football or shooting a gun or stroking a golf ball or casting a fishing rod.

The universal language of music can work, too, as Clinton demonstrated on the sax. Huckabee makes himself seem regular by playing bass guitar in the rock or rhythm and blues genre. That gives him the Lynyrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers connection right there, and maybe even the Chet Atkins and Eric Clapton and Van Halen crowds as well.

George W. managed to be altogether regular by no specific activity, but with his general and altogether average manner. Al Gore was hopeless in this area, making all the more remarkable that he nearly won, or actually did, in 2000.

John Kerry? Let us just say that windsurfing and snow-skiing are not common-touch connectors.

3. Victory goes to the more likable candidate.

The Politico.com blogger, Jonathan Martin, posted a vignette caucus morning from Des Moines. He'd met a fellow that morning in a skywalk and asked the man how he intended to vote. For Huckabee, because he was a nice guy, the man said. Then, without prompting, the man pronounced Mitt Romney a phony.

It does seem, by pure coincidence, I must assume, that guys from Arkansas -- Clinton, Huckabee -- get viewed as more real and likable than guys from Massachusetts, namely Dukakis, Romney and Kerry.

Perhaps things will pick up for Romney on home turf in New Hampshire on Tuesday. They'd better. He'll be in Red Sox and acoustic folk music territory.

And, yes, there's the case of a woman who spent nearly 20 years in Arkansas, and who, if she loses the Democratic presidential nomination, will do so solely on the basis of not seeming likable and of lacking that natural and comfortable common connection.

4. Pay scant regard to political reporters, who live in an insular culture by which they recycle each other's thoughts.

Reporters can laugh out loud, and write disparagingly, that Huckabee would call a news conference to disavow negative campaigning, then show the very negative commercial he was pretending to be disavowing.

The voting masses weren't in that room picking up on the fraudulent dynamic. More of them watch superficial video vignettes on local TV news than read critical commentary, whether in the newspaper or online. Reporters sometimes get to see the inside truth. But it's something else entirely to convey it to outsiders.

John Brummett (jbrummett@arkansasnews.com) is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Eric Worthington wrote on January 09, 2008 09:42 AM: Excellent speech last night by Patrick Kenney of the Nevada Grassroots Huckabee group at the secureborders.com town hall event at Arizona Charlies. Patrick debunked all of the anti-Huckabee spin on his record in Arkansas regarding illegal immigration and pointed out how Huckabee's 9-point Secure America plan is the best of all the candidates. It was a tough sell to a crowd still pining for Tom Tancredo's "stop all immigration now" politics, but firmly placed Huckabee as their best choice in a post-Tancredo, post-Hunter race. Good job Patrick! Eric Worthington wrote on January 07, 2008 01:18 PM: Frank Luntz's "professional" undecided focus group! Amazing research done showing some of the people in the FOX News NH debate dial-a-vibe focus group as having been in the FL debate focus group 6 months ago! I was wondering why non of the Romneybot respondents didn't have NH accents? this link is to RedState.com coverage of it: http://redstate.com/stories/elections/2008/professional_undecideds Eric Worthington wrote on January 07, 2008 01:10 PM: Huckabee and McCain are tied for the number one spot nationally at Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll Here's the link: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/daily_presidential_tracking_polling_history Paul Poyfair wrote on January 06, 2008 10:31 PM: What is it with musicians from Hope,Arkansas wanting to run for President??? So far I haven't cared for the Sax player because he is sleezy and stuck on himself, The Guitar Player is funny but a little thin-skinned and knows very little about what is going on in the world.... What are the Keyboard or Brass Players like? Are they any better? Paul Poyfair wrote on January 06, 2008 10:20 PM: He makes a much better guitar player than a presidential candidate.... If you're gonna run for President it would be helpful to know some of the basics about what is going on in the world, what habeous corpus means, and that it's not cool to set free murderers, etc.... maybe a course or two on current events and conservative politics would be helpful. Tyson wrote on January 06, 2008 08:06 PM: http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/media/mediaplayer.swf?media=http://broadcast.lds.org/newsroom/video/flv/12-10-2007_13_Million_Newsroom.flv&type=FLV David wrote on January 06, 2008 08:01 PM: Very good article Mr BRUMMET until you started the Gore Won whining. I could not trust you to make change because you seem to have a bunch of Florida Dollars in your cash register drawer. All those quarters you keep counting over and over until you get the amount you want. Well to hash all this out again is worthless, but you libs just keep trying to figure out why the number 10 is greater then 9. Glad you are not a math teacher. David wrote on January 06, 2008 07:58 PM: Very good Tarticle Mr BRUMMET until you started the Gore Won winning. I could not trust you to make change because you seem to have a bunch of Florida Dollars in your cash register drawer. All those quarters you keep counting over and over until you get the amount you want. Well to hash all this out again is worthless, but you libs just keep trying to figure out why the number 10 is greater then 9. Glad you are not a math teacher. John F wrote on January 06, 2008 05:42 PM: Huckabee is the guy who exhorted evangelicals to "take this country back for Christ" and has refused to back off that comment. Further, Mike Huckabee doesn't believe in evolution. He also believes that G-d is behind his candidacy. The following quote is from his appearance about six weeks ago at Liberty University (founded by Jerry Falwell): STUDENT: Recent polls show you surging… What do you attribute this surge to? HUCKABEE: There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people. (Applause) That’s the only way that our campaign can be doing what it’s doing. And I’m not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite. There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much, and it has. And it defies all explanation, it has confounded the pundits. And I’m enjoying every minute of them trying to figure it out, and until they look at it, from a, just experience beyond human, they’ll never figure it out. And it’s probably just as well. That’s honestly why it’s happening. Noted political commentator Steve Benen had this to say about Huckabee, and I have to agree: "Frankly, this kind of talk isn’t particularly conducive to a healthy democratic process. Candidates are going to argue that they, and they alone, are the single best person to lead the nation. Occasionally, they’ll even argue that they have stronger character and better morals than their rivals. Fine. But the moment major-party candidates start publicly characterizing themselves as God’s anointed one, we stray from an American system to a theocratic one." No, my problem isn't Christianity. Every Presidential candidate I've ever voted for has been a Christian. ColonelMark wrote on January 06, 2008 05:01 PM: Huckabee is the real deal. Accept no substitutes! Read All Comments