As I have explained previously, Huckabee is blessed with the gift of gab, one he refined as a teenage radio announcer and further honed as an ordained Southern Baptist preacher. He thinks he is Ronald Reagan, or, actually, even a little more adroit than Reagan.
Unlike the Gipper, Huckabee will venture at times, as he did disastrously last week, to step off the script and into a little jazz riffing.
Today’s question arises from the fact that Huckabee, out on the stump last week selling a book and keeping open his tepid interest in actually running for president, got all wound up on a New York right-wing radio talk show.
Actually I watched Huckabee’s show this week and he seemed to explain away a lot of these mistatements of his. I agree with Brummett that Huckabee does have the gift of gab just like Reagan did.
I do think that Huckabee’s most pressing challenge will be to explain all the pardons he handed out. Those usually have a way of coming back to haunt a governor. I actually was a Tennessee resident when Lamar Alexander had to be sworn into office early because Ray Blanton was practically letting everyone out of prison.
My Democratic relatives in Middle Tennessee used to tell me that they did not consider Lamar Alexander much of a leader because of his whimpy handshake, but I never got a comment from them on how Blanton does in the handshaking department. (By the way, I got to shake Lamar Alexander’s hand and I must be a whimp too because I thought he gave a firm handshake).
As you can see from my blog, I have done a lot of study on Ronald Reagan. Since I have lived in Arkansas since 1983, I have learned a lot about Huckabee too. In fact, I attended a service at First Baptist Church the first day Huckabee became the Governor of Arkansas. We prayed for him. Huckabee had lots of friends across the USA that were ministers. I remember back in 1992 when Huckabee was in a race for Senate against Dale Bumpers and I was at my parents property in Cordova at our annual Easter Egg Hunt. I ran into my former pastor Adrian Rogers and he asked me several questions about his “pal Mike Huckabee” and how the race was going.
I think that Huckabee will probably run for president because he knows he can go back to his job at Fox. We will just have to wait and see.
The Daily Hatch 