Huckabee Prays for Strength to Get Through Caucuses
Former Baptist minister needs evangelicals to turn out as race in Iowa tightens
DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 30, 2007 — -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee attended services at Cornerstone Family Church this morning, where the former Baptist minister heard a sermon about the importance of attending the caucuses on Thursday.
"Ninety-five percent have never participated in a caucus," Pastor Dan Berry told the worshippers. "I want to challenge you to go. It is not a hard thing."
Huckabee needs those praying in these pews to soon be canvassing at caucuses. Underfunded and understaffed, Huckabee needs his fellow evangelicals -- who can comprise up to 40 percent of caucus goers -- to keep the faith and vote for him, even as he withstands a barrage of attacks.
After services, Huckabee told ABC News he prayed for "strength for the week" (and yes, ABC News double-checked with his campaign and the strength he was seeking God's help for was for the week, and not the "weak").
For weeks now, Huckabee's chief rival here, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has been criticizing Huckabee on the stump and in TV ads on subjects ranging from taxes to immigration and foreign policy. According to some polls, the charges have had an impact and have eroded his lead in Iowa.
Having previously pledged to wage a positive campaign, Huckabee this weekend began lashing back at the harsh accusations Romney has been waging against his record and that of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., against whom Romney is running negative ads in New Hampshire. After weeks of turning the other cheek, Huckabee all but called Romney a liar.
"He's dishonest toward me; he's dishonest toward John McCain," Huckabee said in Indianola, Iowa. "It's one thing to attack us on our record, but it's another thing to make it up. ... Maybe you have another word for it, but in Arkansas we have only one word for it. We kept it kind of simple. We call it dishonest."
Huckabee said Romney was "making up things not about just our records but making up things about his own in terms of things he saw, marches with Martin Luther King ... endorsements from the NRA that never happened."
He said the race was coming down to "the honesty and integrity with which we're approaching it."
