Huckabee: I'm Serious and Informed

GRINNELL, Iowa, Jan. 3, 2008— -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rejected the notion that his mistaken belief that he would not be crossing a picket line to appear on "The Tonight Show" last night — along with his mistaken belief that Pakistan had not yet lifted martial law and his admission that he knew nothing about a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program — meant that he was less informed and serious than a presidential candidate should be.

"I'm a very serious candidate. I'm very informed," Huckabee said, "and the fact is we had talked to the Leno people and they had an agreement with the president of the Writers' Guild that they were not going to bring replacement writers in, and the strike is really against the producers and the network, not against Jay Leno. What Jay Leno did is put 160 people back to work and, you know, make sure that they have a living."

Huckabee, who expressed support for the writers in their strike against Hollywood producers, suggested Wednesday that he didn't think he would be crossing a picket line because he believed that "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" "had been given some special dispensation." But when he arrived in Los Angeles, angry strikers greeted him with signs expressing disappointment.

Actor Jon Cryer from CBS's "Two and a Half Men" was one of them, saying, "I am actually a conservative at heart, and I didn't have anything against him until today. It says something about the governor's character if he is willing to do something that a lot of people consider to be immoral, to get publicity just before the caucuses."

Huckabee suggested it was "not a matter of not knowing" he would be crossing the picket line. "It's a matter of how people want to interpret and have come to view different events taking place."

As to the larger issue, Huckabee said he was "more than aware of the things that are important. And the thing that I'm aware of the most is that there are a lot of people in Iowa who want a president who's concerned about them and concerned about their job losses and concerned about their future."

"I think if you go out I think you'll find that people believe that what I am paying attention to is what matters the most to these folks here," he continued, "and that's critical."

Huckabee, once the front-runners here, seemed to be lowering the bar as to what election results he needed Thursday night in order to be successful for him, and did not project the confidence voters have seen in previous weeks.

In Burlington, Iowa, he said "over the last few days there has been a lot of negative stuff thrown at us. Sometimes that tends to get you a little nervous; but as the Air Force guys say, 'If you're not catching flak, you're not over the target.'"

Yesterday, during a bus ride from Fort Dodge to Mason City, when Huckabee was asked about the difference for him between a first- or second-place finish, he said, "Either one are pretty remarkable, just given the disadvantages we had financially and organizationally. A No. 2 finish is, I think, one that pushes us forward and gets us on down the track. And No. 1, I think, will be stunning. I mean, it has a sort of almost show-stopping effect because of the fact there's no way it should happen if you just take a look at how things are supposed to play out. So I think it will have, I've used the term repeatedly, a seismic impact on the political Richter scale."

Today in Grinnell Huckabee added the bronze to his list for the first time in weeks, saying, "I don't know if I'll win it or not. Frankly, if I come in first, second or third in this thing it's going to be a magnificent kind of victory because nobody has ever been outspent 20 to 1 and done as well as I have already in the caucuses."

It's hard to think of a primary or caucus state more hospitable to a Huckabee candidacy than Iowa, with its personal politics and large percentage of social conservatives.

-- Huckabee's campaign has succeeded because of what he's been able to channel in and out of the air — message, charm, faith and popularity. He does not have much money, staffing or institutional support.

Without a solid showing tonight, the gains he's made in polls in other states such as South Carolina and Florida could vanish in an instant, with little to prop him up.

A win could help him create a tangible campaign. Having recently held the lead here, a weak showing might send the message to Republicans that he cannot run an efficient campaign or take a punch.

He has not been closing strong or rallying crowds today. His tone has been subdued, with homilies and little policy. He has been tapping into a socially conservative and populist message, saying to voters that "you need a president who believes something and will do what he believes" — an advertisement for his faith and consistency, and a dig at the well-documented shifts in views of his chief competitor here, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose attacks on Huckabee on TV and on the stump have eroded his lead.

Avery Miller, Kevin Chupka, Richard Coolidge and Laura Coverson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.