December 31, 2007 12:52 PM
Huckabee flip-flops on whether to attack Romney with ad
View image Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee flip-flopped Monday over whether to use a harsh attack ad to counter-punch against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In an unusual press conference that left a crowd of journalists shaking their heads, Huckabee said he had a last-second change of heart about an advertisement he had come to announce.
The ad, which began running on Iowa television Monday morning, ripped Romney over his alleged inconsistencies on abortion, gun rights, the death penalty and other issues.
Huckabee was supposed to explain it at a press conference in Des Moines, where a hotel conference room was filled with related charts targeting Romney's record. But when Huckabee arrived, he said he had changed his mind that morning, decided he did not want to join the "negative and nasty tone" that has come to dominate politics, and said he had pulled the ad from local television stations.
Huckabee said he prepared the ad because of Romney's recent attack ads not only on himself, but also on Sen. John McCain, Romney's top rival in the first primary state of New Hampshire.
"The conventional political wisdom is that when you are hit and it's beginning to damage you, the smart play is to hit back," Huckabee said. "And frankly, every bit of advice I was getting said that's exactly what we should do. So we prepared a television spot..."
But after the advertisement was prepared and sent to stations, he said he changed his mind Monday morning, saying it was exactly the sort of negative campaigning he often rails against.
"Sometimes we talk about it and then we end up doing the same thing," he said.
Still, he announced that he would show the ad to the crowd of reporters and camera crews anyway, and that provoked several outbursts of cynical laughter and a barrage of questions about whether Huckabee was being hypocritical.
"If people want to be cynical about it, they can be cynical about it," Huckabee told reporters.
Although the ad already had been running on local stations that morning, "It's never too late to do the right thing," he told one questioner. And then he said he would be "happy" to have a one-on-one debate with Romney prior to Thursday's first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.
After trailing in the polls for most of the year, Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, surged into the Iowa lead in recent weeks, thanks in part to the support of evangelical Christians. But Romney, who led Iowa for most of the year, has climbed back into the lead in the latest polls, after ads questioning Huckabee's record on illegal immigration and criminal sentencing while Arkansas governor.
Huckabee said Romney's negative ads have appeared to be effective, and that's why he prepared the counter-attack ads. But he said it went against the upbeat, positive tone he has been trying to set.
He was asked if the advisers who suggested and produced the ads were still on his campaign team.
"If anyone will get fired, it'll be me," Huckabee said.
Romney's Iowa spokesman, Tim Albrecht, reacted with cynicism Monday afternoon.
“To say one thing one minute and then turn around and show an attack ad to reporters the next will, obviously, leave folks with a very cynical view of Mike Huckabee and his message,” Albrecht said in a written statement. "Mike Huckabee has turned from nice to very hot-tempered now that his record has been examined by voters."
It made for an unusual day on the campaign trail with just three days to go before the Iowa precinct caucuses.
And as if that was not enough, when Huckabee left the press conference and traveled just two blocks away to his campaign headquarters in downtown Des Moines, his planned meeting with campaign volunteers had to be postponed because a small group of anti-war protesters had mounted a sit-in inside. Three people from the Catholic Peace Ministry of Des Moines were arrested.
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UPDATE: Here's how it looked in the first Rocky Mountain News of the leap year:
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January 2, 2008
12:47 PM
zeezil writes:
This is basically the gist of Huckabee's immigration plan touchback provision:
He would repeal the multi-year baring of illegals to re-enter the U.S. for illegals who register during a 120-day period with Homeland Security and temporarily exit the country (for only a few days, at most). It is also highly likely that many would not even leave the country but would be allowed to go to their nearest consulate on American soil for paperwork.
They would face no penalty if they apply to immigrate back to U.S. (they'd be back in within just days). He would not utilize the current legal immigration law process for immigration to the U.S. but would set up special processing for these ‘special case formerly illegal’ immigrants. He also would reward these lawbreakers (and their law-breaking employers) by allowing the aliens to keep the very jobs they broke into the country and took. He wants them back in quick to slide back into the same jobs they had before their quick exit and return (touchback).
Huckabee will utilize every trick in the book to legalize illegal aliens. He's just a bit more deceptive, shifty and crafty in how he hides the fact that he will provide amnesty. By all means, don't take my word on this if you are skeptical. Dig deep on Huckabee and look at the man behing the curtain. I'm betting you won't really care for what you see.
Huckabee has stated that our economy would collapse without the presence of illegal aliens here. Really? My oh my...how did we manage to survive as a nation and grow our economy these past two centuries and well into the 1970's before the accelerated mass entries of illegal aliens? In 1986, our spineless Congressmen and Senators decided instead of dealing with the problem, they'd just give amnesty to the illegals so their incompetence, corruption, greed and dysfunction could be just swept under the rug. Then in 2007, they tried the same thing, but this time an educated, forceful, awake and fed up public citizenry stopped them in their tracks. Now their tookus is in a sling as they don't know what to do, so basically they are doing what they've been doing over the last 30 years...nothing as far as border security and immigration enforcement.
2008 is a pivitol year, likely even a tipping point, in the history of America. Will we continue to be a strong, sovereign nation ruled by law or will we let the invasion continue until America's slide into anarchy is unstoppable?
We need to elect a leader as President who will protect the value of U.S. citizenship, work for the citizens of America, fiercely protect our sovereignty, stop the march to globlism and the formation of the NAU, and solve our illegal immigration problem. That does not involve granting amnesty to illegal aliens. Huckabee is not your man if you care for those issues. Neither is McCain, Ghuliani of any of the Democrats.
Just remember to pick a candidate to support not on what they say they will do but on what they have actually done.
For further information regarding Huckabee’s deception and his true intentions, please visit these links:
Leaders Converge on Iowa to Expose Huckabee
http://www.alipac.us/article-2820--0-0.html
84 Leaders Rebuke Gilchrist Endorsement of Huckabee
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-94112.html
Huckabee & Gilchrist Touchback Amnesty Scandal Escalates
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-551344.html#551344
Mike Huckabee’s Shamnesty for Illegal Aliens
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-93987.html
Iowa Republican’s Reject Huckabee Immigration 6 to 1!
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-95799.html
The Huck-a-Bust is Coming
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-566821.html#566821
Will the Real Mike Huckabee Please Stand Up
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-548091.html#548091
Huckabee Liberal on Immigration
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=94568
January 1, 2008
6:13 AM
genuine ricardo writes:
huckabee is the ultimate hollow man. his song has been sung, his flash-in-the-bedpan campaign is over. it was fun while it lasted, but the rest of america will have none of his nonsense. he's wrong on just about everything, and his flip-flop about negative campaigning is hilarious. choose up, mike. you can't have both. it's hard to imagine the hypocrisy, but there it is. as he would say, "enough is enough." ed rollins indeed! push back hard, mike. is it all really worth it?
and the fact still remains that americans will not elect a president with the surname "huckabee" or the forename "dennis." these are immutable political facts.
the winners in iowa are romney and edwards. i'll buy your breakfast at the waveland cafe if i'm wrong.
December 31, 2007
5:09 PM
Dennis Jackson writes:
As much as I hate to agree with the Rebublicans heads, I think Huckabee just pulled off a political campagin move enjoy your blog. keep going. Dennis & Georgia