Huckabee Wins Iowa

Against all the odds cited by the political pundits, Mike Huckabee pulled off a landslide victory in Iowa, surpassing Mitt Romney's well funded, highly organized, aggressive campaign by almost double digits. Message beats money.

Some interesting analysis from a UK news source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml...

Believe it or not, all the precincts have still not reported in yet. We are waiting on 5% of them. As soon as the results are completely final we will list them here on the weblog.

Huckabee Projected Winner

Fox News: "Mike Huckabee Wins Republican Race in Iowa Caucuses"

CNN News: "Republican Mike Huckabee will win the Iowa caucuses"

ABC News: "Huckabee wins Iowa GOP caucuses"

NBC News: "Huckabee winner in Iowa caucuses"

"We are headed for a Huckabee McCain battle for the nomination" - Pat Buchanan

The media is buzzing with speechless commentary. We are talking about an unprecedented victory of a long-shot candidate winning with virtually no money and no organization. If he is this potent without resources, imagine what will happen when that changes!

Live Caucus Results

Politico.com is hosting live results of the iowa caucuses:

http://www.politico.com/

At the time of this post we are 8 minutes away from starting time.

Huckabee Stays Positive

In this five minute speech Mike Huckabee is at his best as he demonstrates he is a genuine candidate with sincere character and vision. The recent surge of his campaign is no accident.

P.S. This was recorded on December 31, 2007.

Huckabee Press Conference: No Stunt

On Monday Huckabee held a press conference to announce he had suddenly reversed his decision to start running negative ads against Romney in Iowa hours before they were scheduled to run.

The press has been fairly cynical about the event, calling it a "stunt." He is being criticized for trying to "release the ad without really releasing it." Such a claim is unreasonable if you understand what was really involved with the decision that had to be made.

The first clear evidence for such a case is that Politico.com is reporting that the last minute decision may have cost the Huckabee campaign up to $150,000. That is big sacrifice for a campaign that has been strapped for cash.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7665.html

The media has displayed some awkwardness handling this story. They want to report that Huckabee is a fool for not running negative campaign ads, but that forces them to imply that he must have been sincere (something they hate to admit even more). So the reaction of the press has been very interesting.

You must realize that negative ads work. During a barrage of attacks, it is simply impossible for the mind not to be eventually influenced by it. So in one sense you could say that Huckabee had nothing to lose by running the ad. But he did. He would have lost his character.

Huckabee has Character

It is not all peaches and cream though. There are several other factors that demonstrate this decision would have been impossible if "doing anything to win" was the motive behind this decision. The campaign not only lost money, but precious time to prepare the ad.

If you're only pulling a stunt, none of this makes sense:

» Losing almost $150,000 in campaign funds.
» Canceling your ad buys only hours beforehand.
» Refusing to give a copy of the ad to the media.
» Admitting you were about to do something wrong.
» Taking a huge political risk when you're ahead.
» Knowing that the press is going to figure out your stunt.

Huckabee has Character

If the character of Mike Huckabee, or his honesty as a candidate was ever in question, these concerns were demolished during a monday morning press conference in which he decided to reverse a decision suggested by his campaign advisers to go on the attack against Mitt Romney in Iowa.

We suggest that you read about this story as reported by the Washington Post. More specifically, we recommend that you watch the video highlights of the press conference available in the article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

Mike Huckabee is a rare breed in the political realm. He is someone who has not been changed by politics. You can still see the average, everyday american in him. For this reason his campaign has baffled the modern political media, and charmed so many of us who support him.

Consider the dedication he has to the principles of his christian beliefs. Many candidates have a religious background, but how many of them faithfully practice what they believe, let alone in their campaign? One does not need to be a christian like Mike Huckabee to at least appreciate the traits of honesty, kindness, humility, and self-control that his faith requires of him. I look forward to having some of that in the oval office.

Huckabee Leads in Latest Iowa Poll

From the heart of Iowa: the Des Moines Register released today the most recent polling data showing Mike Huckabee still maintaining a 6 point lead over Romney, with 4% of voters still unsure.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...

"The size of Huckabee's lead is virtually unchanged from the last Iowa Poll taken in late November, despite Romney's hard-charging effort to regain the top spot that he held earlier in the year."

32% Mike Huckabee
26% Mitt Romney
13% John McCain
9% Fred Thompson