The Huckashuffle: How to Win S.C. and Michigan

SPARTANGURG, S.C., Jan. 9, 2008 — -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee talked more about his opposition to abortion in his one 35-minute address to a Southern audience here today than he did in his entire five days in libertarian New Hampshire.

"If you can say the taking of an innocent life isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong," said Huckabee, paraphrasing a famous quotation from Abraham Lincoln about slavery.

Huckabee is polling in first place in South Carolina and expects to win its Jan. 26 GOP primary. "South Carolina is going to be a turning point in this nomination process," Huckabee said, discussing how the support of his fellow evangelicals is important but not the only reason for his success.

"You have to understand, it's not a campaign anymore," he said, "it's a cause."

The crowd of roughly 250 well-wishers who gathered in the ballroom of a local Marriott received him enthusiastically, though before the candidate arrived roughly 50 empty seats were removed so as not to call attention to the lack of fans sitting in them.

While talk was of South Carolina, campaign strategy had turned to the next GOP contest, the Jan. 15 Michigan primary. The Huckabee campaign announced that it had purchased TV time to run ads in the state, where it will face stiff competition from the campaigns of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the son of a legendary Michigan governor.

Romney's campaign disclosed today that it had pulled its TV ads from South Carolina and Florida, focusing on the Great Lake State up north.

"They're putting it all on Michigan," said Ed Rollins, national chairman for the Huckabee campaign.

Rollins said of his campaign's decision to compete up north, "I'd never predict we're going to win, but there's an opportunity for us there."

He said there were two groups of voters who would be amenable to Huckabee's message: Evangelicals open to his faith and values, and disaffected former "Reagan Democrats" who helped then-President Ronald Reagan win overwhelmingly in his 1984 re-election campaign, then helmed by Rollins.