GOP Clown Car Part 7: Mike Huckabee

  If Rick Santorum is the reluctant culture warrior, then former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is a full on Christian warrior suited up in armor ready to go to battle for the cause of religious liberty. At least this version of Huckabee is wanting a holy war to make America a Christian nation again. In 2008, we saw a much different candidate. He was trying to win with an aw shucks down home approach, and with a gentler populist appeal that was trying to focus on jobs and the economy over social issues. Huckabee had a fairly good run in 2008, but chose Fox News money over another run in 2012. He decided to run again in 2016, but has had trouble getting much notice in the crowded field. Huckabee hitched his wagon to the controversial Kentucky clerk, Kim Davis, as a means to get more national press, and used gay marriage as a way to create an overall message for his 2016 campaign. The kinder gentler 2008 Huckabee was gone and was replaced with the Christian warrior Huckabee - full of talk about judicial tyranny and religious liberty. This approach just feels like he is working an angle more than stating true beliefs. There seems to be an air of desperation in the 2016 version of Huckabee that you didn't see in 2008. In addition to feeling a bit desperate, the strategy has not really worked all that well. He is not only towards the back of the pack nationally, but he is languishing in the Iowa polls, as well. I have a feeling Huckabee didn't really think he had a chance to become president, but with some of the candidates that were running this cycle, he figured what the heck.

  At the end of the day Mike Huckabee has the look and feel of niche candidate, that will not get past his slice of the Republican pie. Like his run 2008 and Santorum's run in 2012, a win in Iowa did more to extend their campaign more than an actually giving them a chance of winning anything. Having the evangelical base his a huge bonus in the Republican party, but having just them is not enough to put together a winning coalition. You can look through all the numbers and break it down, but at the end of the day, it simply comes down to Huckabee not having enough juice to win the nomination of the Republican party.

  This leads to the question: does it even matter that Huckabee has no shot? The 2008 run gave Huckabee a national audience, and he turned that fame into a high paying gig on Fox News. The 2016 run is a long shot, but Huckabee has done nothing that would cause him to lose his core audience. Even with the noise of a huge field, the right people are hearing what he has to say. Huckabee, at this point, is playing with house money and he is way ahead, at the very worst, he goes back to his gig on Fox News or some other high paying gig on the right wing gravy train.