Huckabee Sets the Record Straight in Des Moines Stop
December 19, 2007
Mike Huckabee, the Iowa frontrunner came to West Des Moines Wednesday and decided it was time to fight back. He’s had enough of Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson mischaracterizing him as some sort of liberal. Huckabee likes to call it “clarifying a few things”. Call it whatever you want, the bottom line is that he and his campaign know that they must forcefully push back or else he will get defined in a way that will hurt his run for the presidency.
Basically, he told the audience that Romney is deceiving people about his record on pardons. While it’s true that Governor Huckabee pardoned or granted clemency roughly 1,000 times, Huckabee points out that 8,000 requests came in. That’s a 90% denial rate. He points out that Romney only had 100 requests.
He said that the other candidates are throwing the kitchen sink at him but he’s determined to not run negative ads. Instead he will continue to clarify the record and even told the audience that he will put his judgment up against Romney’s judgment any day of the week.
Speaking of Romney, he is outspending Huckabee 20 to 1 and yet Huckabee is leading in the polls and now has a boat load of media attention. A lot has been made of his connection with Evangelical Christians and of course, that’s a big deal. But Huckabee seems to be appealing to a wider audience than that. Here in West Des Moines he said he represents the “crackers and cheese’ crowd, not the “wine and cheese crowd.” He’s talking in populist tones and his right to center message seems to be taking. We’ll find out soon enough.
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