Friday, February 4, 2011

What the Huck?


In light of polling that consistently shows Mike Huckabee to be among the top tier of aspiring Republican presidential candidates, Patterico asks a damn good question: do you know anyone who is a Huckabee supporter?

They aren’t on blogs, as far as I can tell. So where are they?

I feel like a conservative version of Pauline Kael. who famously said: “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon.”

Well, I don’t know anyone who supports Mike Huckabee.

Anyone.

I see that he consistently pulls numbers in the same ballpark as Romney and Palin. But I do not personally know anyone who supports him. I have never in my life spoken to a single person who supports him. What’s more, I read conservative blogs like Hot Air and Ace of Spades, and sometimes dip into the comment sections. I have never seen a commenter, on my blog, those blogs, or anywhere else for that matter, who says they support Mike Huckabee.

Not one.

Me? I live in San Francisco, so I barely know Republicans. But, among those I do know - whether Tea Partiers, Big Business types, old Reaganites, or members of the Palin Army - I don't know a single die-hard Huckabee man. I don't know anyone who would donate money to him, work a phone bank for him, or walk a precinct on his behalf. The Free Will brother once spoke admiringly of Huckabee's Baptist Preacher stage manner, but I don't think he would go out of his way to support the Hucker.

Patterico's commenters seem to know a few scattered Huckabee supporters, all of whom are evangelicals and, uh, low information voters, if you know what I mean. I note that Huckabee hit the big time with a strong showing in Iowa, a state whose voters like aw-shucks personalities in their politicians and big government farm/ethanol subsidies in their politics, both of which Huckabee has in spades. Also, I don't think we should forget that Huckabee came in third place behind Romney and McCain back in 2008. Not exactly a resume' of destiny.

Yes, yes. It's early. But we're hearing a lot about how Huckabee is one of the front runners for the GOP nomination, at least according to the media. Hard to know how far he can get without an obvious base of support.



1 comment:

  1. The Free Will Brother is not much of a Huckabee fan. I like the flat tax, however, he is too much of a nanny stater. I am more and more a Ron Paul guy, but I'm not sure my candidate has been identified yet.

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