Huckabee Generating The Buzz

Mike Huckabee was on Fox News Sunday and by my account did a great job. Along with Chuck Norris's endorsement, he's collected some other, ah, interesting endorsements, including Wrestler Ric Flair, and Authors Zig Ziglar and Jerry Jenkins. He's also visited my home area, the northeast suburbs of Cincinnati collecting campaign cash and firing up the troops. This area of Ohio is deep red Republican and a great place to kick start a campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination.

Given all that, what do I make of Huckabees candidacy and his chances? I'll admit, as should any other honest observer, that I have no idea who is going to win the Republican nomination. I will tell you what it's going to turn on for Huckabee and what he is up against.

The fact is that the nominee will be up against Hillary Clinton. The Clinton machine are proven winners. They are tough, they are ruthless, they are disciplined. I like Mike Huckabee, I think he's a decent person and I am fine with 90% of his positions. But I am not sure he has the fire to go up against the Clinton machine and take them down. In fact of all the candidates, the only one that is good in the tough campaigner category is Rudy Giuliani. This alone is probably explanation enough as to why he is leading the pack.

But for Huckabee, he's done good, he's managed his resources skillfully and well, he's gotten the GOP electorate to take a serious look at him and his candidacy and they like what they see. To go forward he needs to show a tougher side to prove that he can take on Hillary.