Huckabee on the Lessons of His Campaign for GOP | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008

POTOMAC PRIMARY
Perfect Game
Arian Campo-Flores 2/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
Before the polls even closed Tuesday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton was moving on. She scrapped a planned campaign stop in the Washington, D.C., area, where she was supposed to make a final pitch for her candidacy in the Potomac Primary, and instead focused on reaching out to voters in the upcoming contests of Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas. At her campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., she plopped down in a chair, wired herself with a mike and plowed through one satellite interview after another with local TV stations in those three states, according to a pool report. "We're going to work hard and campaign hard in Ohio," she told an interviewer from Youngstown, her voice hoarse and cracking. "I'm absolutely coming to Green Bay," she assured a Wisconsin station. Though she declared herself "very optimistic" and "excited," her uneasiness came through. "I think we have an uphill challenge," she told a Milwaukee anchor, referring to the Wisconsin contest next Tuesday. "I'm the underdog in that race."
CAMPAIGN 2008
A Fly in the Ointment?
Matthew Philips 2/9/2008 12:00:00 AM
After barnstorming Kansas on Friday in hopes of rallying "values" voters to caucus for him on Saturday, former Gov. Mike Huckabee landed in Washington, D.C., at about 1 a.m., just eight hours before he was scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Conference to remind them he's still running for president. Sensing the disconnect between social conservatives and de facto Republican nominee Sen. John McCain—one echoed by Huckabee's landslide victory in Saturday's GOP caucus—Huckabee dove right into the breach Saturday morning, brandishing his religious right credentials, first by telling the crowd that Biblical scripture is the root of his political views, and then by quoting Ecclesiastes: "A wise man's heart directs him toward the right, but a foolish man's heart directs him toward the left."
Projecting Power
Daniel W. Drezner 1/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's a truism among foreign policy wonks that during the Bush administration America has seen an erosion of its ability to persuade other countries to do what it wants them to do. The unilateralism, the blunders in the Middle East, and the Manichean view of the rest of the world have been so off-putting that, as poll after poll shows, the attitudes of people in other countries toward the United States have declined precipitously. To borrow Joseph Nye's phrase, the country has suffered a loss of its "soft power." Once Bush leaves office, the argument goes, America's image abroad will improve—but that won't happen until January 2009.
Campaign 2008
‘The Status Quo Lost’
Michael Hirsh 1/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
It was the night of the insurgents. Whether Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama can carry their dramatic victories in the Iowa caucuses all the way to their parties' nominations will not be known for weeks or perhaps months. What is certain is that neither the Republican nor the Democratic presidential races will ever be the same after Thursday night.
CAMPAIGN 2008
In The Shadow of Bush
Evan Thomas
We are all stars in the movies that play in our minds: not true-life stories, exactly, but life as we imagine it could or should be. Little imperfections are conveniently forgotten or smoothed over, messy relationships downplayed or deep-sixed. The future beckons brightly, even if the past was dark or dreary. This need to believe in an idealized self is especially strong in politicians. They must get up every day and sell a vision—fanciful, perhaps, but inspiring: Morning in America, or a Bridge to the 21st Century, a New Frontier or a New Deal. To fulfill these myths, our leaders must be Born in a Log Cabin, or be the Man From Hope, or Speak Softly But Carry a Big Stick. A certain amount of hooey is tolerated, even required. In real life, Teddy Roosevelt didn't speak softly at all. He more often brayed like a donkey. But he could make people listen out of fear and respect.
POLITICS
The Dirty War Moves South
Michael Isikoff
Sunday may be a day of rest, but not for the political dirty tricksters. When Mike Huckabee emerged from the Cornerstone Family Church in Des Moines on the Sunday before the Iowa caucuses, he found that someone had papered the cars in the suburban megachurch's parking lot with fliers asking, MIKE HUCKABEE—A 'TRUE' CONSERVATIVE? The leaflet accused the former Arkansas governor of, among other sins, releasing a convicted rapist who raped again (and murdered) and saying nice things about Bill Clinton. "Don't be fooled by that smooth voice," warned the flier. Credited to an anonymous group called the Lynchburg Christian Students for the Truth, the circular had been spotted first at Huckabee rallies in South Carolina in the fall. This time the flier listed an e-mail address: TruthonHuck@gmail.com. When NEWSWEEK e-mailed it to find out more information on the group, no one responded.