Dec. 18, 2007
Huckabee Hits His Target
National Review Online: Candidate's New Christmas Ad Is A Perfect Appeal To Christian Voters
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Play CBS Video Video Huckabee Besieged By Opponents Mike Huckabee's meteoric rise in the polls has drawn national attention. His Republican opponents have also taken notice, and now they're taking aim. Nancy Cordes reports.
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Video Huckabee On The Move Nancy Cordes speaks with Mike Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager, Eric Woolson, about the challenges facing the GOP candidate as he moves ahead in the polls.
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Video Huckabee's Christmas Ad Mike Huckabee hits the airwaves in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina with "What Really Matters," a Christmas message for early primary state voters.
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Republican presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, speaks Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007, at the New Hampshire Community Technical College in Berlin, N.H. (AP)
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Photo Essay Mike Huckabee A look at the life and times of Mike Huckabee.
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In The Spotlight Campaign Watch '08 Check out the latest campaign ads in the race for the White House.
In late November, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee sat down with Chip Saltsman, his campaign manager, and Robert Wickers, his media adviser, to confront a two-part problem. The first part of the problem was Christmas. With the new, condensed primary schedule, what should normally be the most intense period of campaigning before the Iowa caucuses would now come at Christmastime. What kind of political ads - if any - would be effective? The second part of the problem was Huckabee’s success. He was beginning to rise in the polls and knew he would draw attack ads, mostly from Mitt Romney. How should he respond?
“We started talking about how the whole Christmas season is changing the deal for all the presidential campaigns,” Saltsman told me last night. “I said Santa Claus was the great equalizer.” By that, Saltsman meant that the deluge of Christmas advertising, Christmas parties, and Christmas shopping, along with the general holiday rush, would dilute and reduce the effectiveness of ads put out by the far better-financed Romney campaign; there would just be too much noise for a politician to break through. “I said we’ve got to think of a different way to talk about the governor during Christmas than just the usual campaign ads,” Saltsman recalled.
And if they figured out a different way, how would it work in the face of “contrast” commercials from Romney? “How do you run an attack before Christmas?” Saltsman wondered. “And how do you respond to one?”
The men decided that the best way was to go positive - and seasonal. Saltsman suggested that Huckabee “sit in front of a camera in a red sweater and wish everybody a Merry Christmas.” Huckabee agreed.
The result was that a few days later, after returning to Arkansas late at night from an exhausting campaign swing through Iowa, Huckabee found himself in a private home in Little Rock, sitting in front of a camera in a red sweater, wishing everybody a Merry Christmas. The ad was all concept; there was no script. The camera rolled, and Huckabee ad-libbed the message. The first take was two seconds too long. Huckabee did it again, hitting the time right on the money, and the ad - called “What Really Matters” - was done.
“Are you about worn out of all the television commercials you’re seeing?” Huckabee began. “Mostly about politics. I don’t blame you.”
“At this time of year, sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family will have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God bless and Merry Christmas. I’m Mike Huckabee and I approve this message.”
The ad begins running this morning in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. But its impact is being multiplied by discussion of it in news reports and the blogosphere. Reaction has been strong - and immediate. More than one observer has called it brilliant and effective. Others said it crossed an important line. “Mike Huckabee pretends to put politics aside,” wrote the blogger Matthew Yglesias, “[and] starts conducting his campaign as an explicit appeal to Christian identity politics.” Fox News’s Brit Hume, opening a discussion last night, said it was “not exactly a non-denominational Season’s Greetings card.”
One prominent Republican pollster - not affiliated with any campaign - agrees. “In his ads, Huckabee was clearly laying out a Christian brand,” David Winston told me last night. “He has focused on part of his brand as being Christian, and now, I think this ad is intended to soften that, to talk about family and friends and enjoying Christmas.”
Of course, it’s one thing to wish people a Merry Christmas. But is talking specifically about the birth of Christ a little much? “I think that’s who he is,” Winston said. “You’ll find a lot of people who like it, and you’ll find some people who are uncomfortable with that phraseology.” But probably not a lot; from a political-strategy viewpoint, perhaps the most effective thing about the ad is that it openly appeals to Christian conservatives - and indirectly plays into the “War on Christmas” theme that pops up every year - but likely does not alienate large numbers of other voters.
Saltsman maintains it shouldn’t alienate anybody. “The birth of Christ is what Christmas is,” he told me. “When you say, ‘Merry Christmas,’ that’s what it is.” When I asked whether the ad is exclusionary, Saltsman said, “Do you exclude people when you send out Christmas cards? Do you exclude people when you see ads where they’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ and have Santa Claus? I just don’t agree with that.”
In October, when he addressed the Values Voters summit in Washington, Huckabee gave the most overtly religious speech I have ever seen any candidate give. He didn’t simply say, as other candidates did, that he shared a common Judeo-Christian heritage with the audience. Instead, his speech was filled with Biblical references. He talked about David and Goliath. About Daniel in the lions’ den. About the loaves and the fishes. About Elijah and prophets of Ba’al. It was serious churchgoing stuff.
I saw Huckabee a week or so later in Iowa, and I asked him whether the speech was too hot to give before a general audience. He seemed a little surprised by the question. “The ultimate purpose of any speech,” he told me, “is to hit the target, and the target is your audience. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh that was a brilliant speech, I didn’t understand it, it was way over my head, but it was a brilliant speech.’ Well, it wasn’t a brilliant speech. If a shooter consistently hits over the head of the target, it doesn’t prove that he’s a good shooter. It proves he can’t shoot. So the whole point is you aim for the target. The target in that room was people for whom faith was the motivating factor to be involved in public policy.”
Now, in “What Really Matters,” the target is bigger: a large part of the electorate in the early-voting states. But there’s another target, too: Mitt Romney, the man who planned his campaign so carefully, who conducted painstaking strategic audits to analyze the tasks involved, who invested millions of his own dollars in the effort, and who now finds himself flummoxed by the clever ad-libber from Little Rock, who may not know an enormous amount about being president, or about foreign policy, but sure knows how to hit the target.
By Byron York
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.
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See all 42 CommentsWe need to think logically right now. Will a republican nomination such as Huckabee with a record of increasing taxes, a record that is weak on immigration, and with a record of pardoning over a thousands criminals including murderers win against the Dem''s. Of course not.
I believe that this so-called huckaboom is going to turn into a huckabust just as soon as well reasoned people begin looking at his record of accomplishments.
I do not doubt that Huckabee is a great guy, I just can not bring myself to support him, because I have come to the conclusion that Mitt Romney is what this country needs. He has the values that Huckabee has, plus he has a record of success that is unmatched by any other candidate.
We need to rally around Mitt with support right now. I believe that the American people are inherently good and well reasoned, and that they will come to see Mitt Romney as I have (The Next President of the United States).
Mitt Will Win!
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41 PM : Dec 20, 2007
Ye old moral relativism. christ teaches us to love everyone not just those who wwe agree with. I love my brothers and sisters even though we have serious political differences. On the other hand I believe theri are certain moral absolutes that you do not believe in. do you have respect for the views of the car bombers or the kamikaze. do you believe I should respect people who adhere to things I believe are morally wrong ie assisted suicide or those who condone abortion on demand
You can express your beliefs without reference to other people''s and holding up your belief system as a superior model, as the only one worthy of trust and following. I can understand that you''re against premarital s-e-x and people of other religions do as a matter of fact. That is just part of your beliefs and I wasn''t concerned with the those details. When you''re promoting the idea that other people are no good when they don''t share your beliefs, you''re inviting a response. It is a line of argument that cannot be allowed to hang unchallenged and to proliferate to continue to fuel Christians'' efforts to overturn the separation of church and state.
I don''t consider one set of religious beliefs "better" than another in so far as the believers'' goal to please their God is concerned. Because none of us has the ultimate answer really.
Please explain? is it because he is a christian?
Posted by jcr103 at 08:02 PM : Dec 18, 2007
Are you an atheist or simply anti-christian
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Posted by CBS_Oliver at 09:31 PM : Dec 18, 2007
It may be an arbitrarily chosen date but as you are well aware its because we don''t know when he was born. I know the history behind it but celebrating the birth of christ if you are a christian is celebrating your own salvation and that of the world
Posted by jon2012 at 08:23 PM : Dec 19, 2007
What the heck do you mean by respect. If you mean totally not. If you believe that adultery or premarital *** is appropriate then no. If you believe that mohammed is a prophet well again what do you mean by respect. As a christian I think they are wrong. Do you respect christians that believe in adam and eve? Should we love those we disagree with certainly. should we help people when they are in need certainly. do i respect people who believe in the right to choice. No I don''t but would I do anything to hurt or attack them. No I would make it clear that I disagree with them if it became an issue.
Posted by drivelphobe at 06:28 PM : Dec 18, 2007
Typical Christian thing to denigrate other people''s beliefs while setting oneself up as morally virtuous. Religion or no religion, people still lie, cheat, kill and go to war. Don''t you consider that other people might find your statements offensive?
Forget humility. Doesn''t your religion teach you to respect other people''s beliefs?
asking for at least one volunteer from each church
in the nation to call all the members of their
church and tell them about his candidate for
president, Mike Huckabee (mikehuckabee.com).
Will you be the one??
(PS: Make sure all your sister churches have a
volunteer as well!!)
Posted by pjacobsuk at 06:30 PM : Dec 18, 2007
I have mixed thoughts on this. When people who know me and know I am a Christian wish me a Merry Christmas I appreciate it.
When people who don''t know me wish me a Merry Christmans during Hanuukkah I wonder what they are about.
The date of the Christmas celebration was almost certainly selected for symbolic and political reasons.
The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun."
December 25 was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice. (In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21 or 22.)
If you are familiar with Constantine''s claimed vision which includes the cross over the sun and "By this sign you will conquer" you can see how December 25 might be selected for Christmas.
I am always pleased about Christ''s birth.
I see no reason to impose or abuse others because of this during a really quite arbitrary period of celebration.
Just like any CEO, he will rely on advisors with expertise to give him input. The decisions are made with compassion, wisdom, integrity and keeping in mind the will of the people, our laws and our language.
Huckabee is the man for the job. His faith only means to me that he is reasonable in maintaining perspective with regards to moral behaviour. I don''t care what faith, other than Islam, the candidates have. I feel any faith, other than Islam, tends to improve the odds of decency.
Go Huck, the peoples'' choice.
Well, the Dems are SCREWED then, Hill, Obama, and Edwards combined have, well, ZERO experience, despite what HIll''s handlers would have the mainstream media spew out. I''d love a battle on who''s executive, military, or forign policy experience is better in November between any of the 4 potential GOP candidates (McCain, Romney, Giuliani or Huckabee) and Hill, Barack, or Edwards. If the Dems really cared who had the best experience, they''d nominate Joe Biden or Bill Richardson; either one has 5x the experience of the "top tier" combined.
What do you expect from the NRO flack brigade?
Huckleberry may do OK in tent revival country, but when he moves out of the Arkansas / Missouri / Iowa axis, folks might wonder about his ability as anything except a Holy Roller.
Please nominate him, Repugs! I''''m beggin'''' ya!
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Posted by gkc99
Please nominate Hill and Bill; I''M BEGGING YOU!!! Nothing better than Hill and Bill to draw out the entire GOP base; and I''ll gladly match any of our candidates experience to Hill''s as hostess-in-chief and no accomplishment senator anyday. Nothing better than a no-principled, half the country hates her, liberal to run against in November. Nominate Hill, I beg YOU!! I''ll take most of the GOP candidates against the Fem-bot with the mechanical cackle who the country hates anyday.
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