Mike Huckabee Campaign Gains Some Steam

Oct. 30, 2007 — -- Could former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee be on the verge of becoming a real contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination?

The Huckabee camp is pointing to positive signs, including a local Iowa poll that has him running in second place and a recent surge in contributions.

The Baptist minister and bass guitarist can tell a one-liner. He also seems to be able to convince Christian conservatives that he doesn't just agree with their views on social issues such as abortion, but that he is one of them.

Former White House aide Dan Bartlett had high praise for him in a speech posted on Leading Authorities Web site.

"The best candidate -- Mike Huckabee. He is the most articulate, visionary candidate of anybody in the field," Bartlett said.

But despite their misgivings about the Republican front-runners, Christian conservative leaders have not rallied behind Huckabee because of concerns he cannot win.

Huckabee accuses these Christian leaders of "being more intoxicated with power than with principle."

But he also said that he appeals to "maturing" evangelicals who believe that a political party has to address a broader spectrum of issues.

"We can't just be, 'We're for sanctity of life and we're for tradition of marriage,'" Huckabee said Tuesday on "Good Morning America." "We also have to be conservationists and be good stewards of the Earth, deal with issues like poverty and aid, and if we don't we're not true to our Christian calling. I think that's kind of what's happening in the movement."

He Knows Hillary

Some fellow conservatives say Huckabee is seriously flawed. Quin Hillyer wrote in the conservative magazine The American Spectator that Huckabee is "a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak, and a long history of imbroglios about questionable ethics."

Phyllis Schafly, the founder of the conservative Eagle Forum, said Huckabee "destroyed the conservative party in Arkansas."

And the Arkansas director of the Eagle Forum, Betsy Hagan, told the Wall Street Journal, "He was pro-life and pro-gun but otherwise a liberal. Just like Bill Clinton, he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."

With his fortunes rising, Huckabee is not surprised by the barbs.

"I expect this week we will have some bumps and bruises with all these people now saying, 'This guy is alive so let's go get him.' And boy, are they doing it, too," he said.

Conservatives are anxious about the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, and Huckabee said nobody knows the Clintons better than him.

"What they sometimes forget is nobody knows her better than me, and nobody has successfully run against the Clinton political machine in Arkansas as I did not once, twice, three times, but four times and won," Huckabee said on "GMA."

When it comes to fundraising, it appears that people are beginning to pay attention to Huckabee's message. In the last six days, his campaign has raised more money online than it did in the first three months of the race.

"It's beginning to catch just at the right time as I had hoped and prayed it would," he said.