Huckabuzz

Just right now the only interesting story in the Presidential campaign is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  When every Republican presidential candidate wants to trick-or-treat as Ronald Reagan, maybe the Incredible Huck will be the next hot costume.  But so far the only story here is the story itself. 

David Yepsen at the Des Moines Register puts it this way:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's been the hot candidate in the Republican race since he finished second in the Iowa GOP's straw poll back in August.  ...In recent days, that talk has escalated to a new level of buzz: Huckabee's doing so well in Iowa, he just might be able to win the Iowa Republican caucuses.

The Politico wonders whether Huckabee is conservative enough for the Republican base.  The Washington Times wonders whether Huckabee can really keep right wing evangelicals from bolting the GOP to form a third party.  Fred Siegel continues the theme on his Commentary blog.  He calls the new guy from Hope, with his call for "applied Christianity wowing some of the values crowd, William Jennings Huckabee.  According to this view, Huckabee is the candidate for Southern Whites who drifted into the GOP but aren't exactly comfortable with the party's business interests.  Salena Zito at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is impressed at the candidate's "Huckappeal."  That's a lot of Huckabuzz over three days. 

Zito notes what Huckabee's rise doesn't consist in.

Huckabee is rising among the GOP candidates, not by money. (He has little.) Nor by establishment support. (He has none.) And not by slick television or radio ads. (Again, no money.)  Huckabee is there because he has earned it, says Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist in Harrisburg.

But where, exactly, is "there."  Nationally, Huckabee is barely registering the polls.  The Republicans split between Giuliani, with about 30%, and Thompson, McCain, and Romney making up another 40% in total.  Iowa looks best for Huckabee.  He has about half of Mitt Romney's 28%, to give the Huck second place.  But he has no resources to flood the state with, as Romney does.  Beating Giuliani in Des Moines would be cool, but might not be enough to get him the resources he needs.  Romney is also ahead in New Hampshire with the same 28% to Giuliani's 20%; but there Huckabee has about as much support as Budweiser has alcohol.  I don't think he makes it into the top four in any other state. 

It is hard to see that Huckabee is rising anywhere except in the bored imaginations of bloggers and pundits.  As a native Arkansan, I am a little disappointed.  As a blogger, I am very disappointed.  Nobody in the race on either side has a name that so readily lends itself to puns.  But perhaps where there is this much smoke, there really is a fire burning under Huckabee's candidacy.  If he does get the nomination, I am available for the campaign.  My first blow will be a poster of the White House, with the words blazing above it: The Huck Stops Here.