Huck? Aw, Be Real.

Says Rich Lowry in The New York Post:

Huckabee is in that golden campaign space once occupied by Pat Buchanan in 1992 and 1996 and by John McCain  in 2000 - dark-horse candidates unencumbered by expectations who can afford to act on gut political instincts and enjoy themselves in the process. [...]

But for all his eloquence, what Huckabee lacks, fundamentally, is a message. Unlike past long-shot crusaders like Buchanan, there is no new direction in which he wants to take the party. He has different mood music than his rivals - acknowledging middle-class anxieties and sounding nationalistic notes - but these are more rhetorical riffs than part of an integrated worldview.

"I don't want to see our food come from China, our oil come from Saudi Arabia and our manufacturing come from Europe and Asia," he said in his Washington speech. There is so much foolishness in that one sentence it is hard to unpack: We import a mere 3.3 percent of our food from China; we're not going to be independent of foreign oil in 10 years as Huckabee promises; and foreign manufactured goods, by keeping prices low, are a boon to the middle class that Huckabee champions.

Lines like this are just part of Huckabee's act - an act not in the sense of being inauthentic, but in the sense of being a rhetorical roadshow. Pundits now say that Huckabee has made the GOP contest a "five man" race. This is overkill. Without organization, money or an agenda, Huckabee is very unlikely to win the nomination. [...]

But he could be running for vice president. He's a natural fit for Rudy Giulani. If Huckabee wins an upset in Iowa, he will deal a potentially mortal blow to Giuliani competitor Mitt Romney. If Giuliani becomes the nominee, he will have to shore up the social-conservative base. A vice-presidential nominee with impeccable social-conservative credentials will be a must, and one like Huckabee - an incredibly talented communicator with crossover appeal to the media - will be a plus.

As for Huckabee's presidential campaign, it's a blast. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Do you think there's a remote possibility that the two campaigns have talked and that Huckabee has agreed to go all-out for the social-conservative vote?

H/T:  T.A.

Comments

[Tom Strong]

What, I wonder, is Rudy Giuliani's agenda? Fred Thompson's? How 'bout Mitt Romney - he must have an agenda, given that he has three opinions for every issue.

As for Lowry's other complaint: there's this thing called rhetoric. Other practitioners include Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Muhammad Ali, and Rich Lowry. Look it up.

[Tom Strong]

As for your question, the term "tacit collusion" comes to mind.

[Ken]

The manufacturing guys over at Evolving Excellence are running a poll on which candidate would be best for manufacturing, and undeclared Bloomberg is right on top. The rest follows a more predictable pattern, at least from a management perspective. Which is also apparent in the "manufacturing issues poll" in the same post.

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2007/11/best-presidenti.html

Ken