The volume of Republican presidential candidates and the length of the campaign run before this year's primaries has led journalists to assign each contestant an identifying characteristic. One or two words, often cited in variation, the descriptors have remained pretty much the same over the months. In reports from the hustings, you read that Mitt Romney is "polished," Fred Thompson is "tired," Rudy Giuliani is "tough."
The shorthand spares efforts in reintroduction but is so abbreviatory that it fails to match what is obvious on film. Romney is instead vigorous and exacting; Thompson is quiet and succinct, not somnolent; Giuliani, voluble and enthusiastic. The same evidence best serves judgment of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, regarded as affable and politically moderate. It is one thing to consider the headline "Huckabee Pulls Attack Ad," another to watch how Iowa's caucus victor actually conducted himself.
Huckabee, just before the New Year, filled a room with several dozen reporters expecting to watch a videotaped retort to Mitt Romney. Interior decorations were by the Huckabee campaign and followed one theme: Romney's tergiversation on abortion, gun laws and health insurance. The Arkansan stepped behind a podium. "Conventional political wisdom," he said, in a four-minute exposition, "is that when you are hit and it's beginning to do damage, the smart play is to hit back." An ad was made and delivered to television stations. And then, at the last minute, Huckabee reversed his staff's orders: "I told them that I do not want it to be run."
Renouncing political derogation, Huckabee promised only advertisements for "why I should be president," and not, the caucus-goer might otherwise expect, "why Mitt Romney should not." Huckabee continued. "I know that some of you are saying, that, well, it can't be that bad." He shrugged his shoulders, looked directly at reporters and insisted, "I'm going to show you the ad. You'll get a chance to find out." The audience capsized in laughter.
What amused the attendant press was Huckabee's use of preterition, or raising a matter by claiming not to raise it. What should disquiet the observer is the man's undertaking such a familiar rhetorical maneuver straight-faced — then answering frank, skeptical questions with a homiletic air.
The advertisement played from a laptop to a projection screen, and kept rolling without any volume. Huckabee, annoyed, urged "We need sound," and before his aides sorted out the audio problem, the video had played several times over two minutes. Next apprised of (but, of course, not openly offered) a stack of documents in support of the ad, reporters were incredulous. The first one called on asked as much: Governor, you said you weren't going to run an ad, and you ran it to the media who will ensure its publication, so what gives? Huckabee replied with a terrific paralogism: the press would have demanded to see what wasn't going to be aired. "You'd say, 'Where's the ad?'" Huckabee explained, as if a political campaign produces unfavorable charges any less innately than a silkworm emits silk.
The room got louder in crosstalk. "Governor, why not just not run the ad?" someone shouted. Two questions in a row: Why were the posters, the tracts, still up? Because "The tipping point was this morning," there hadn't been time to remove them. What about the campaign website? from a fourth reporter. "It's never too late to do the right thing," assured Huckabee. Two more: the former governor had spent the week condemning Mitt Romney as "dishonest." Huckabee? "I've said what I've said."
Interviewed by Jay Leno two days later, Mike Huckabee was ribbed by the host over his justification for the event. "I hope I have a conscience," the former governor said, "which would be very unusual for politics, to have a conscience." The apothegm "all politicians are liars" is a dangerous misdirection, since it devalues those in office with integrity and condones wrongdoing of others. In the discrimination of personality is a distinction of each of the men running. But all character being equal — that is, zero — preferences turn on choice statements and then, failing that, the tactics of charm.
Caucuses took place yesterday, whereas the balance of states will hold direct primaries. Iowa's exalting of Mike Huckabee could turn out to have been the decision of a tiny electorate caught in a particular moment of ardor. If not, the Republican Party will act on sentiment, not reason, by endeavoring to replace a tongue-tied man with a pietistic one.