Pure Horserace: Huckabee Lashes Out
On paper, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee sounds like the kind of presidential candidate the Republican base would gravitate toward. He has executive experience, holds conservative positions on every major issue, has served as a Southern Baptist minister and has even entered with his wife into a covenant marriage, which make divorce more difficult to obtain.
Yet Huckabee finds himself mired in the low single digits in polling and raised only $500,000 in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the thrice-married Rudy Giuliani continues to lead in the polls. In this environment, it wouldn't be surprising for Huckabee to go on the offensive — and that's exactly what he did Thursday in a conference call with reporters.
Invoking the name of his most famous predecessor, Huckabee warned Republicans to not lose focus on the issue of personal character or else they would risk looking like hypocrites. According to The Associated Press, he said some in the GOP behave as though candidates won't be "held to a standard of personal accountability and responsibility for their personal lives." He then said, "If that's true, there are going to be a lot of Republicans who will owe Bill Clinton a great big public apology."
He didn't say it, but Huckabee was obviously referring to Republicans who harshly criticized Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. What was also unsaid, but obvious, was the candidate his remarks were aimed toward: Giuliani, who aside from being married three times, also has strained relations with his children and whose personal life was fodder for New York tabloids during his time as mayor. The remarks also might serve as a warning shot for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who isn't officially running but has generated a lot of buzz among conservatives despite admitting to an extramarital affair during the Clinton impeachment proceedings.
There's been a lot written about Giuliani's personal character, but Huckabee is the first candidate to even come close to addressing it directly. And this won't be his last attempt at raising the issue — he plans on re-releasing his first book, which focused on character, later this year.
Raising the character issue could definitely hurt Giuliani down the road, especially if it's brought up during debates. But will doing so help Huckabee? That's unclear. John McCain has one divorce, but that never stopped Ronald Reagan. Mitt Romney is still married to his high school sweetheart. So while Huckabee might not be able to bring down all the front-runners by focusing on family values, he could introduce enough chaos to create an opening in the future.
How To Run For President On $40 A Day: California Rep. Duncan Hunter might be the longest long shot in the Republican field. His national name recognition is insignificant, he's barely a blip in polls in the early primary states, and he raised only around $500,000 in the previous quarter of this year. But he wants people to know that he has a plan to win.
Hunter called CBSNews.com earlier this week to talk up his strategy, which revolves mostly on retail politics in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and trying to win the informal straw polls scheduled to take place throughout this year, culminating in the crucial straw poll in Ames, Iowa, this summer.
Hunter said his close third-place finish in the straw poll in Spartanburg County, S.C., shows that, when given the chance, he can build enough support to make a strong showing. (Hunter won 158 votes, losing to McCain's 164 and Giuliani's 162.) "Where we're able to zero in on a constituency, like we did with the South Carolina poll, we were able to demolish Romney and come close to McCain and Giuliani, and they've worked the state for years," he said. "We're going to work the Iowa straw poll. We're gaining traction with these things every day."
But it will take quite a bit of traction for Hunter to win the Iowa straw poll, which is many times larger than similar informal contests. With that large a crowd, money definitely helps. In the last contested straw poll in 1999, a well-funded George W. Bush and billionaire Steve Forbes gobbled up 52 percent of the vote.
Clinton's Caribbean Getaway: If Hillary Clinton truly is shaking in her boots after hearing of Barack Obama's fundraising, she isn't showing it. Instead of spending the Easter weekend attending fundraisers and church services in Iowa, Clinton, along with Bill and daughter Chelsea, will take a few days off at fashion designer Oscar de la Renta's home in the Dominican Republic, according to The Associated Press.
Even Clinton's staff got a little bit of a breather: Before departing for the weekend, she hosted a retreat for her staff in New York.
Editor's Note: Pure Horserace is a daily update of political news as interpreted by the political observers at CBSNews.com. Click here to sign up for the e-mail version, coming soon to an in-box near you.
By David Miller