It’s Huckabee Versus Romney In A Fierce Iowa Rumble
December 19th, 2007
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
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The raging political news has been the fierce battle between Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama in Iowa — but now the ferocity of that battle is being matched by warring statehouse GOPers Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
And this battle royal of the elephants — reflecting state and national polls that when taken together now indicate a wide open race for the 2008 Republican nomination — isn’t pretty:
With some of the strongest language he’s ever used — words such as “ruthless,” “dishonest,” “desperate” — Mike Huckabee, the normally sunny former governor of Arkansas criticized his chief challenger in Iowa, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been attacking him fiercely in person, in TV ads and in mailings as Huckabee passes him in polls here.
“He’s been attacking me just ruthlessly in the mail and on television and distorting the record,” Huckabee told a throng of reporters in a mall parking lot. “And I think we need to get the record straightened up. And get the truth out. … The attacks have been desperate, and I think they’ve been dishonest.”
Asked if his and Romney’s fighting might not create an opening for a third candidate, Huckabee smiled. “I don’t plan to fight with him. He’s throwing punches and I’m saying Merry Christmas.”
“You need to look at this with some sense of sympathy,” he continued. “Here’s a guy who has outspent me 20-to-1 here, and he’s behind.”
Polls seem to be driving this latest slugfest. One new poll documents what many Romney supporters have feared: that anti-Mormon sentiment is holding Romney back in Iowa and propelling the Huckabee surge.
The Washington Post notes that the Iowa race has now boiled down to a fight to the political death between Romney and Huckabee:
The race for Iowa’s Republican caucuses has narrowed to a two-person battle between former governors Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, with Huckabee now perched atop the field, propelled by a big jump in support among religious women.
The findings, from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, show how dramatically the wide-open GOP contest has changed over the past few months. Huckabee’s support in Iowa has quadrupled since the summer, while former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuiliani and former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) have lost ground.
Immigration now stands as the top issue for the state’s GOP voters. Many Republicans think voter anger over illegal immigration will be a flash point, not only in the race for their party’s presidential nomination but also in the general election. The emergence of immigration as a major issue in Iowa, where three in 10 GOP voters call it a top concern, creates an early test of its political potency.
With two weeks to go before the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Huckabee registered the support of 35 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers, just above Romney, the longtime Iowa front-runner, at 27 percent. For the first time in Post-ABC Iowa polling, no other candidate registered in double digits.
How has Romney attacked? He has gone after Huckabee for criticizing President George Bush’s foreign policy style in an article in the venerable magazine Foreign Affairs:
Romney, who has lost a big lead to Huckabee in Iowa, sought to raise doubts about his rival’s foreign policy credentials, saying his criticism of Bush’s foreign policy was more suitable for a Democrat than a Republican.
Last week, Huckabee said the Bush administration’s “arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad” and promised that he as president would reach out to the rest of the world.
“I think Gov. Huckabee made a significant error in insulting the president as being subject to an arrogant bunker mentality,” Romney said in Davenport, Iowa. “I disagree with that. I think the president is a man who has acted out of a desire to do what is right for America.”
In this, Romney is playing solidly to the GOP’s still-loyal-to-Bush base — while Huckabee seems to be playing to Republicans critical of Bush 43’s style (which would include members of the Bush 41 administration who relied more on diplomacy than on the military)…and to the general election electorate. Romney has also strongly supported the Bush administration’s warrant-less wiretapping, to draw a contrast between his loyalty to Bush and Huckabee’s.
But it’s the trending in polling that is likely fueling Romney’s attacks on Huckabee: yet another poll shows the Arkansas Governor pulling ahead in South Carolina.
So these two candidates whose beliefs in God have gotten so much attention are battling it out — and where will it end?
Heaven only knows.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, Iowa, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, 2008 Elections, Polls, Republicans, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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