Mike Huckabee, who picked up the endorsement of the founder of the Minutemen today; took the press conference opportunity to personally respond to the attack against him by Mitt Romney:
“I'm somewhat flattered as I seem to be the recipient of the first negative attack ad in the Republican Primary," Huckabee said. "That's usually a sign of desperation on the part of an opponent who feels that his only way of winning is to attack and to destroy."
“The people of Iowa, especially I think, are turned off by negative attack ads, and that campaign can call that [ad] anything it wants, but that's what it is, and it's the first one of the season, and we feel honored to be in the middle of it. My experience is people here kind of want to vote for somebody not just against somebody, and they like to believe that a candidate has enough of a platform that he can stand on it not knock the props out from under the guy next to him.
"If the basis of running for the presidency is, 'Let me tell you what's wrong with the other guy,' not 'Let me tell you what I'd do for America,' I think the people of Iowa -- who have been through this so many times, will say, 'I vote for the guy who has a plan for the future of America' not just somebody looking around and saying, as the tattle tale in the third grade, let me tell you what this guy's doing. We didn't like it when we were in the third grade. I don't think we like it electing a president either."
"I think they're going to make every allegation in the world. Look how many press releases come out of some of these camps per day. It's kind of like, we found something else, here's something. As long as you guys will report it they'll keep fishing it out there, so we understand that.
"This is politics and everybody understands it. Look I've been through this so many times in Arkansas, you got to understand. I swam through about as turbulent a body of water as anybody ever swims through to get elected to something. Being a Republican in my state was, as I often say, tantamount to being a fire hydrant in a neighborhood full of dogs, so this isn't the first time I've experienced this, and I've experienced it in a lot harsher ways and it'll get worse before it gets better.
"The more desperate and frantic campaigns get when they see how much money they've spend and we're winning, that causes people to do some sometimes desperate things, and that's part of the deal."
Voters are often glad that they've been educated about their choices as opposed to voting solely on the basis of religious affiliation. If Huckabee sees this as negative, he needs to look at his own subtlety in his "Christian Leader" ad. What does he say about his not so subtle anti-Mormon antics and speech in SLC? Thompson had a similar ad about him (Huck) and Romney; it's part of the "game". Plus, it's the truth about his position and Romney's on Immigration. So huck off!
Posted by: Matt | December 11, 2007 3:14 PM | Permalink to Comment