Huckabee - Too Cute By Half

The Huckabee campaign crafted an attack ad targeting Mitt Romney. And then they decided not to use it. However, they made sure to tell a press gathering that one existed and showed it just to them - ostensibly to prove that one actually existed.

Some in the Huckabee campaign even seemed surprised by the move calling it "too cute by half."

You probably know by now that Huckabee, rising in the polls only recently, has no damn money. Keeping that in mind, here part of the exchange with the Huckster at this bizarre press conference yesterday:

(via NYT)

(But) He then opened his press conference by saying that while the ad was expected to start appearing on local television at noon, he had decided an hour before to pull it. Conventional wisdom is to attack back if one is attacked, he said, but he had decided there was much negativity and he wanted to tell voters about why he should be president, not why Mr. Romney should not.

Asked if he wasn't being hypocritical by showing the ad to a roomful of cameras that were likely to replay it, Mr. Huckabee said he was showing it only because reporters were so cynical that if he didn't show it, they would not believe that he really had made it. "You'd say, 'Where's the ad?' " he said.

"It's never too late to do the right thing," he said.

Too cute, indeed! He makes an attack ad, has no money to buy spots for it and then gladly hands it to the press who he KNOWS will write about it and run it all over the place; all the while saying he changed his mind and decided not to be mean. Iowans don't care much for attack ads. But I think Iowans might be a little smarter that Huck thinks and will see right through this one!

Here's a short of the presser and a grainy representation of the ad. The New York Times has a better quality video.