The Gospel According to Mike Huckabee

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee seems well-suited to win a core Republican constituency: conservative Christians and other "values" voters. The Arkansas preacher and former governor is pro-life and opposes same-sex marriage. He's also articulate and amiable, and he plays a mean bass guitar. So why doesn't he get more backing from hard-core conservatives? Even as his poll numbers inch up—he's at 12 percent in Iowa, and has 7 percent support nationwide in a recent Gallup poll, up from 4 percent in August—he hasn't attracted significant financing. He raised only $1 million in the last quarter, compared to $11 million for the front runner, Rudy Giuliani. Recently, Huckabee met with a group of correspondents and editors in NEWSWEEK's Washington bureau to make his case. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Do you think if you can do well in Iowa, you'll get a big bounce that will take you through?
Mike Huckabee: Yeah, what we have to do is the whole slingshot effect that people talk about. And I know there are a lot of questions as to whether or not it will happen this time, because of the packed and front-loaded primary [schedule]. But obviously for me it needs to happen, and I still think it will, because, frankly, now more than ever, the entire election process can literally turn in a 24-hour news cycle.

Why don't you seem to be doing better with the Christian conservative crowd? They're out there saying they are desperate for a candidate; they don't like Giuliani or other people. You seem to fit in most ways what their ideal candidate might look like. And yet when we raise your name with them, they say, "Well, he can't win."
Well, you keep telling them that and that will help a lot. [Laughs.] It's beginning to change: In Iowa I'm tied with [Fred] Thompson; I'm several points ahead of [John] McCain. People are beginning to realize that with a very limited level of resources, we're in the same hunt as these guys ... Sometimes people will pose the question to me: is it disappointing about the money you've raised? And I say, "No, from my perspective, I'm amazed at how far we've gotten. When I look at how much money some of these guys have spent, if I were them, I'd have to be on a couch getting some serious counseling, because it would be very depressing to [have spent] tens of millions of dollars …" In some cases they've written checks out of their own accounts for a bunch of dough, and they're barely polling ahead of a guy who has been tagged as "he's not raising much money."

You're making that argument to the leadership and the Christian conservative community, and what are they saying?
Some of the people in leadership positions among the social conservatives have become more process-focused than they are principle-focused, and that's unfortunate because they will marginalize themselves out of any relevance if they continue in that vein.

The first argument they seem to making about you is, "He can't beat Hillary. He doesn't have the chops to beat Hillary. He doesn't have the money to beat Hillary. He can't do it." Lately, we're also hearing, "He doesn't have the foreign-policy credentials, he can't fight the war on terror."
Well, I think I would probably be poised to beat Hillary more than any other candidate in the race. One, because among the things I'll bring to the race will be a more intimate knowledge of her and what she's likely to do. I know her better than any of the other people running for president … and therefore have a healthier respect for her. On foreign policy … a lot of people underestimate the exposure that governors have to an international stage. We're dealing with trade issues and cultural exchanges, and in the case of the war, we've all been responsible for being a part of helping send out National Guard troops into Iraq. Most of us have been there—I've been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait.

What were your dealings with Hillary?
Personally, I didn't have a lot of dealings with her; I had more with her husband. And even those were somewhat limited, because it wasn't like we were hanging out together. But I understand something about some of her passions and priorities. I know a lot of the people she was very close to. Arkansas is a small enough state so that everybody knows everybody. Heck, most everybody is kin to everybody, so it even gets more intimate than that. So, I know her to be a person of incredible discipline, extraordinary focus. Very different from her husband, who is the ultimate accommodator. She is not a natural accommodator. She may evolve into that for the campaign, but it is not her basic nature to accommodate the opposition … You know I always had, frankly, a decent and good relationship with her and with Bill Clinton and see no reason that I wouldn't continue to, even if we were opponents. It doesn't have to be uncivil. But I do think the Republicans tend to underestimate her, because I hear a lot of them say things like, "I hope she's the nominee; boy, that will energize the base." What they don't understand is it will energize her base, too, and that's a pretty good-sized base.