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Home Front: Politix
Huckabee Flip Flops on Going Negative
2008-01-01
The Huckabee campaign has taken a bizarre turn this afternoon.
Realize they peaked last week, do they?
The former Arkansas governor announced a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa Monday afternoon to launch a negative attack ad on his rival former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and go after what he thinks are Romney's flip-flops. But then, Huckabee said, he changed his mind. He didn't want to launch the ad.
"Pull the ad, Bob! I've decided not to go negative!"
Huckabee now says he will run a positive campaign, even though he's been calling Romney a low-down miserable cur who should be traded in on a dog and the dog shot "dishonest" since Friday, spoke to the press surrounded by placards slamming Romney, and has a passage on his website comparing Romney to the Marquis de Sade Seinfeld's lying friend George Costanza. "It's never too late to do the right thing," Huckabee told reporters.
"That's why I waited until after I'd peaked."
Huckabee took the unusual step of showing the media the anti-Romney TV ad, the one he said he told TV stations to pull from the airwaves.
"See? I wuz gonna say all this, but now I'm not. You'll never see negative ads like this come outta my campaign, no matter how many come out of my Godless opponents. I'll never accuse him of holding up liquor stores in his youth!"
The ad began like this:
HUCKABEE: I'm Mike Huckabee and I approved this spot because Iowans need to lock up their wimmin and children when that hound Romney's around have the right to know the truth about Mitt Romney's dishonest attacks on me and even an American hero, John McCain.

NARRATOR: Romney's record? Over 700 illegitimate children million in new taxes. Left office with the gubernatorial silverware a deficit. A 3-card monte artist. No executions. Supported gun control. And Romney's government-mandate health plan provided for mandatory a $50 co-pay for abortion.

HUCKABEE: If a man's made his living sharping cards and selling gold bricks dishonest to obtain a job, he'll be dishonest on the job. Iowans deserve me better.
Huckabee said he knows some will view the decision to show the media the ad with skepticism -- a way to get TV play for the ad, regardless -- but he says he wanted to show the media there was indeed an ad, which campaign adviser Ed Rollins said cost the campaign $30,000. "The tone of the campaign has gotten out of control," Huckabee said.
"And it's all that cur, Romney's fault!"
Huckabee acknowledged that Romney's steady barrage of negative ads against him has hurt him in Iowa. But, he says, "the decision had to be made" to change the tone of the campaign.
Posted by:Fred

#12  Old Spook:
I definitely do not support open borders or coddling Mexico, or special privileges to aliens but we can't turn our back on our own elderly, infirm, or disregard the social consequences to all of society when babies are born out of wedlock to children, corporate greed imports cheap labor and exports jobs, slashes health care benefits and generally creates stress that cause families to disintegrate. Functioning responsible adults are the fabric of society and it seems only candidates of faith really "get it". We may need the nanny state for our own citizens to keep America from imploding, and my brain tells me we cannot afford illegal immigration, taking in all the world's wartorn refugees, and educating kids speaking hundreds of foreign languages in public schools funded by property taxes on homes depreciating rapidly. In general, people want someone who understands real life of Americans outside New York and DC. The caucuses are protest votes by cynical people tired of the status quo.
Posted by: Danielle   2008-01-01 18:53  

#11  Iowa is not good at picking the final candidate either. I think that whoever wins Iowa, will fail to get the nomination for the Republicans. For the Dhimocrats, Iowa is enough of a social tit area that the winner might fully well get the nomination nod.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-01-01 18:11  

#10  didn't mean you personally, but you "in general" (plural) if the fakery of Romney and Huckabee are enough to fool yas.

And Iowa seems to be disproprtianately full of such self-important self-deluding idiots.

Put Iowa LAST next cycle - it is hardly represnetative of the Nation at large, nor of the Republican Party in general. c.f, the large portion that Buchanan, Robertson, Keyes, et al pick up there - fools pushing thier unelectable half-empty candidates on a half-empty pack of morons in Iowa. Small wonder nanny-stater Huckafraud and Flip-Flop Multiple Choice Mitt (the chosen one of the Country Club Elite) are in the lead, and boobs like Ron Paul are pulling large percentages.

Posted by: OldSpook   2008-01-01 17:10  

#9  Danileee - you are a MORON if you don't look to consequences of such policies that Huckabee espouses - amnesty for illegal aleians, loose borders, coddling Mexico, nanny-state policies...


Nothing wrong with being a social conservative - I an myself. But I am not an unthinking boob who jerks the lever for Huckabee without looking to the truth about the man and his record.

Same for Romney an his socialized medicien. If you want to see the end result, look at England, look at Canada.

Fool.

God gave you a brain. Use it.



Posted by: OldSpook   2008-01-01 17:04  

#8  Someone close to me went to a huck rally and said he gave a good show, no cue cards or anything. I mentioned that it isn't the message but the messenger. Thanks, shucksonme, for proving me right. Same crap as clintoon, arkansas farking politics.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-01-01 15:13  

#7  Y'know, Huckabee's right. From now on I'm not going to call that drug addicted black Muslim Obama a drug addicted black Muslim. And if my staff does it, I'll be really pissed off...
Posted by: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton   2008-01-01 13:36  

#6  Iowa has a lot of compassionate conservative Christians and may be considered morons to those who only look at the bottom line and dance to big corporate interests. They tend to put family first.
Romney's co-pay sounds like a good plan to me...otherwise we will pay at least 18 years of social costs and/or incarceration or medical costs for disabled and premature babies born to drug addicted moms who do not or cannot care for them. Iowa also places a heavy emphasis on education for our future generations and hardworking bluecollar families barely making it on two part-time jobs without benefits deeply resent subsidizing anything for illegals. Midwesterners also have a lot of children serving in the Armed Forces and the Republicans have a real shot at picking up anti-liberal Dems dissatisfied with Pelosi and Reid. Likewise, Bloomberg and Hillary's big business ties don't play well, either, and Ron Paul actually has a real following over abolishing the income tax. Anything can happen this year.
Posted by: Danielle   2008-01-01 13:31  

#5  "I'm Mike Huckabee, and I vehemently disapprove of this message! Look at it, folks, does that look like something I would say? I mean, really!!!"
Posted by: Seafarious   2008-01-01 13:14  

#4  Even the MSM press laughed at how baldfaced this lame effort was...

I think it'll backfire, big time
Posted by: Frank G   2008-01-01 11:01  

#3  FYI Romney's "negative" ads simply out Huckabee on his record of being a pro-amnesty, instate-tuition-for-illegals, tax raising, weak on crime, murderer-pardoning nanny-stater.

WHat the hell is wrong with Republicans in Iowa? They vote for this asshole, last time they gave Buchanan 30% and prior to the Pat Robertson got 25%.

Iowa is full of morons, and the Republicans are cutting thier throats by letting a pack of idiots like that set the leaderboard for thier campaign in 08.

Posted by: OldSpook   2008-01-01 10:51  

#2  Ditto, OS. I might even vote for Bloomberg over him - Nanny B. is at least up front and lacks the hypocrisy & sanctimony.
Posted by: lotp   2008-01-01 10:49  

#1  The lying asshole Huckabee then showed the negative commercial to all the press, and then his staff LEAKED IT. All guaranteeing that his negatvie ad woudl be a hot topic.

What a 2 faced slimy bastard.

Huckabee is the only guy other than Ron Paul that would have me NOT vote Republican.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-01-01 10:47  

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