Huckabee as McCain’s VP
What about Mike Huckabee as Sen. McCain’s running mate? Politically it’s not a horrible idea.
A potential plus with Huckabee on the ticket would be his ability to generate earned (free) media. He ran for a long time on a tiny staff and little money. McCain’s fundraising has been pitiful. The personable and tireless Huckabee would stretch out the limited funds McCain will have until he gets his public funds for the fall general election.
Another plus is Huckabee might inject some life into McCain’s eCampaign efforts. After Rep. Ron Paul I think his campaign did the best job activating his online grassroots supporters. Huckabee talked directly to allied webloggers; the campaign used a real-time counter for fundraising, highlighted user-generated videos, and pushed people to the activist forum Huck’s Army.
What would be most beneficial to McCain would be Huckabee’s ability to shore up the Christian conservative vote. Such a pick would take advantage of the identity politics displayed by them this season. Those who thought it was the social/Christian conservatives’ time to lead the GOP would be pleased with the #2 slot.
At the same time it would alienate economic and libertarian conservatives who despise Huckabee’s Arkansas tax hikes and his nanny state pronouncements. And let’s not forget about border security conservatives who would be irate with a McCain/Huckabee ticket. And that’s counting Huckabee’s conversion/pandering.
Another downside to Huckabee would be the close scrutiny Huckabee would get from a unsympathetic MSM. Huckabee enjoyed the same lack of vetting that Sen. Obama has recieved. What the media and opposing campaigns failed to point out was Huckabee’s dark side. While governor of Arkansas he had a habit of holding grudges and inflicting revenge on political enemies. That’s a 180-degree contrast with his national media brand of God, sunshine, populist emoting, and smiles. Huckabee’s shine would vanish once reporters started digging into his Arkansas record.
I can understand the anger that would be generated with Huckabee on the ticket, but voting for Sen. Clinton? Yeesh. I’d rather vote for Bob Barr.
We’re seeing McCain trying to build a different coalition. He’s pushing global warming to get some young voters and swing voters. At the same time he’s not reaching out to the conservative base and isn’t generating excitement with the business donors. By choosing Huckabee we’d see McCain going along with Ed Rollins’ claim that the Reagan coalition is dead. It does prove the Right needs to rethink how it approaches government and politics to win elections and advance limited government.
“Report: Huckabee Tops McCain’s VP Shortlist?”
[picture via Jonathan D. Blundell]
“What about Mike Huckabee as Sen. McCain’s running mate? Politically it’s not a horrible idea.”
Lately it seems like all we do is argue. But this is a horrible idea.
Chiefly, there’s no quicker way to fade in the polls than to make the ‘party of progress’ look like it actually is, compared with your old white guys who have nothing in common except they both want to be political top dog.
It won’t only be the MSM who are unsympathetic. Huckabee brings the wrong numbers in inverse proportion to the numbers he’ll repell.