It’s a short walk from our offices to the Mayflower Hotel, where Americans for Prosperity are holding their annual meeting. Republican presidential candidates are getting 7 minutes each at the podium, which leads Mike Huckabee to joke that if Jesus had been invited here this morning he would have said, “Blessed are the brief, for they shall be invited again.” Crafting a jokey beatitude might seem a risky business. But Huckabee is a former Baptist pastor who can pull it off – easily. He had the crowd laughing on that line, and many more. Huckabee has a real talent in that respect: He can keep an audience engaged. Today, visiting with him and several aides, I find a candidate who knows he is a longshot but who is also upbeat about his prospects. Huckabee continues to inch up in the polls, to 8 percent in the latest Washington Post survey. He continues to raise more money than before – in the quarter just ended he pulled in a million dollars, making it his best quarter ever. He continues to work the national media, with Jim Lehrer on the schedule tonight. He thinks the reason for the unsettled character of the GOP race (in contrast to what is happening on the Democratic side, with Hillary Clinton riding high) is that “it’s still too early,” that “Republican voters aren’t yet focused on the race.” At the Americans for Prosperity event, Huckabee has nothing new to say: He stresses his intent to abolish the current tax code and replace it with a consumption tax. He emphasizes that we don’t have a health care crisis but a health crisis, comparing our predicament as a people to what takes place at an NFL game: “There are 22 people on the field in desperate need of a rest, and there are 75,000 watching who are in desperate need of exercise.” (Huckabee, in case you don’t know, lost 110 pounds a few years ago, having been told by his doctor that he really had no choice. He now runs marathons.) Huckabee also reiterates his alliterative formula for what we as a nation must do: feed ourselves, fuel our economy, and fight those who would destroy us. After Huckabee exits from a brief press conference, he’s asked about that James Dobson op-ed in yesterday’s Times, in which the head of Focus on the Family contemplated the possibility of pro-lifers bolting the GOP (should the nominee not be committed to the sanctity of life) for “a minor-party candidate.” Says Huckabee: “The best idea is not to think about a third party [candidate] but unite behind me. That makes a lot more sense.” It also draws laughs from the little posse formed around him, as he hustles off to his next meeting.
