Jason Tolbert had a scathing piece on Mike Huckabee last week. This came before a string of bad publicity, including a hilarious article on how he has flip-flopped on immigration issues, getting caught lying about tax increases he passed as governor, and he made a bigoted ass out of himself for condemning Protestant churches for offering space to Muslims in need of a place to worship. This is of course after all that messy clemency stuff, of which Huckabee is now saying “I made the right decision”, and his previous flip flop on cap and trade.
Now I don’t think Huckabee is going to run, though as always I reserve the right to be wrong. He like attention and he likes money. I think he’ll stick to the tv program. However, if he were running, I’d diagnose his campaign as being in some serious trouble. Most of that stuff will seriously hurt him with the tea party, and while they may eat up his anti-Muslim bigotry there’s a segment in the general election that won’t take too kindly to it, much less his transparent moves to the right. Still, the immediate danger is in the Republican primary.
Remember, Huckabee surprised a lot of folks when he came out of nowhere to upset Romney in Iowa. Republican caucuses there are dominated by the far right. In the game of expectations politics, Huckabee has to win Iowa again in order for his campaign to advance seriously after that. If he’s upset there by another candidate, regardless of who it is, his campaign is over.
