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Monday, December 31, 2007 - 21:17:30
Detente
Hill's Angels, including my daughter Muriel, or is it Martha, who lives in Newark, or somewhere near there, are partying tonight in Des Moines, or maybe Dubuque. She reports that she dropped by Huckabee headquarters first. She writes:
They were as nice as could be, even though I am covered in Hillary buttons. I told their campaign manager to tell Gov. Huckabee that Martha and Max Brantley said hello.
(PS -- You'd have to have read earlier posts, when my daughter corrected me on a trivial factual matter, to get the intended sarcastic humor in this particular item, I just now realize. She's Martha, a New York resident. She was in Des Moines when the photo was snapped. Happy New Year.)
Smokin'!
By the same 2-1 vote that it had earlier approved the plant, the Arkansas PSC today refused to rehear its decision to let an old-fashioned, poison-belching, coal-fired power plant be built in Hempstead County, though most everyone else in the civilized world has taken a dim view of such installations. And most everyone else doesn't have a pristine natural area right next door. This, remember, is a Mike Huckabee PSC, he of the new-found interest in conservation. (CORRECTION: As noted in comments, though the PSC staff, which has been supportive of this proposal, is heavily influenced by a decade in which Huckabee appointed all the commissioners, the two-member majority in this decision was formed by one Beebe and one Huckabee appointee.)
Please read David Newbern's brief and pointed dissent to get what's wrong here.
A Huckabee-McCain Deal?--UPDATE
At today's press conference, Mike Huckabee said that the moment in the campaign that made him make the negative ads that will never run was Mitt Romney's New Hampshire attacks on "an American hero," John McCain. It leads one to wonder whether some sort of deal is being cooked up between McCain and Huckabee in the caucuses here. Thoughts on that on the jump.
Michelle Obama, the Politics of Turnout, and the Politics of Race
We made it out of Des Moines to head about an hour east to the great little college town of Grinnell where Michelle Obama had an event at a retirement center a few blocks from the Grinnell College campus. Check the jump for a report.
Did Huckabee Jump the Shark?
When once-popular television shows reach a point of ridiculousness in story line from which they will never recover, they are said to have "jumped the shark" (a reference to Fonzie's waterski jump moment on Happy Days). Some observers, including ones Max links below, are suggesting that today's fairly interesting press conference when he decried negative ads then showed a negative ad is that moment for Mike Huckabee. One such observer is one my fellow travellers on my Iowa trip, Tom Schaller, writing in the American Prospect. I tend to disagree. While it was a fairly risky strategy, it may pay off for a few reasons. First, Huckabee's truest believers are likely to buy his critique and believe it to be sincere. This will give them energy to stay fired up for the caucuses and remind them of the nonconventionality and faith-based politics that has drawn them to Huckabee. In addition, we know from a lot of research that negative campaigning tends to reduce turnout. The Republican side in Iowa already has a turnout problem, only accentuated by the high energy and generally positive campaigns on the Democratic side. Huckabee knows that if the GOP caucus comes down to turnout created purely through organizational strength, Romney will win. Thus, turnout needs to be relatively high so Huckabee can take advantage of the generally positive views of him among Iowa voters. An all-out negative war probably only benefits Romney.
McFadden will play
But the UA has no intention of explaining any of the details about that Escalade Heisman runnerup Darren McFadden has been trucking in. Its statement today:
“The University of Arkansas has conducted a thorough review of allegations reported in the media concerning Darren McFadden. Based upon the institution’s review, Mr. McFadden remains eligible and will participate in the 2008 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic. The University will have no further comment regarding this matter.”
Huckabee meltdown?
That's how one analyst describes the Huckster's playing a negative ad at a news conference to announce he was not going negative. But he might get the last laugh if all the local TV stations that received the Huckabee ad turn it over to their newsrooms for repeat free airing. It's one more episode that could batter him with the press corps, though.
And another are-you-sh***in'-me reaction.
Joe Klein uses words "Huckabust" and "implosion." Note, however, that he is giving a free airing to the ad Huckabee thought too negative to run.
Ron Fournier wasn't too impressed.
Nor was Daniel Nasaw of the Guardian, late of the D-G, perhaps because The Huckster must be dishonest about Nasaw's past reporting to brand Romney a liar. Seelye of the NY Times again dusts off "jujitsu" for Huckabee. Why not simply "hypocritical blankety-blank?"
And, oh yeah, huckabee was nailed for lying about the amount of time that elapsed before information was out that he should have known when he flunked the NIE question.
And, on another topic, the clamor is growing -- National Review, Slate, American Prospect, San Diego Union -- for a definitive response from Huckabee on whether he had surgical assistance of some form (careful: the question must not be restricted to a single specific procedure) in his weight loss.