Huckabee Talks To Blog Talk Radio

Posted by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief in Politics.
Jan 2nd, 2008 | 4 responses

Ed Morrissey had an exclusive interview with Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who insists pulling the ads was a genuine decision on his part because he felt they were wrong — and that in retrospect perhaps they should not have played them for the press.

Key quotes:

Regarding ads opposing Huckabee: (24:28) “The ads were dishonest …. misrepresentations and outright fabrications of my record.”

–A pattern: (24:36) “The same kind of ads were going against John McCain in New Hampshire. … not an accident or an isolated incident.”

–Why he pulled the ads: (25:25) “The television set (in Iowa) become virtually a cesspool … People keep saying that they want a positive campaign, and let’s give them an opportunity to prove that that’s exactly what they want.”

–On showing the ad to the press: (26:57) “Maybe in hindsight we’d have done it differently, but if we had said that we had an ad that we were going to run but now we’re not going to run it, the press would have said, ‘Oh yeah, right — where is the ad? You don’t have one.’”

Listen to it HERE.

4 Responses to “Huckabee Talks To Blog Talk Radio”

1. Jim Satterfield says:

   January 2, 2008 at 8:45 pm

   –On showing the ad to the press: (26:57) “Maybe in hindsight we’d have done it differently, but if we had said that we had an ad that we were going to run but now we’re not going to run it, the press would have said, ‘Oh yeah, right — where is the ad? You don’t have one.’”

   And you have the ad there off to the side and offer to let anyone who doubts you go over and watch it.
2. Joe Gandelman says:

   January 2, 2008 at 9:04 pm

   I don’t buy Huckabee’s explanation totally either. Yes, I know reports said they were out a huge amount of money. But the bottom line is they DID show the ad to the press and it ranks as a craven political ploy, even if some are now portraying it as an act of course. You’re correct. It could have been there to show those who doubted it. Reporters LAUGHED when he showed it. I was a reporter for years and you don’t laugh at news sources in a group. Even if you think they’re full of it, you show them the respect of hearing them out, then you go back and write your report.
3. pacatrue says:

   January 3, 2008 at 1:10 am

   And why hold a press conference at all unless you specifically wanted to earn brownie points for not running the ad? I assume people in his campaign staff come up with ideas all the time that people decide not to do. Just operate by your morals; don’t brag about them.
4. The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, original reporting, and popular culture features from across the political spectrum. says:

   January 3, 2008 at 3:20 pm

   [...] Gandelman story at The Moderate Voice: read/hear the rest of this article on blog-radio interview of Huckabee with Ed [...]