by publius
Mike Huckabee is delivering a fantastic speech. I don't really understand why McCain didn't give him more serious consideration if he wanted to win over social conservatives. It's not merely that he's a good speaker -- he has a compelling populism weaved into it.
He was also re-elected as governor and could have made a more plausible claim on the executive experience front.
Making a claim in executive experience is irrelevant. No one other than Palin can really claim any.
The focus has to be changed to more important issues.
Posted by: toml | September 03, 2008 at 09:48 PM
yeah. a great speech.
so great, in fact that i just gave another $100 to Obama.
Posted by: cleek | September 03, 2008 at 09:50 PM
The reasons Huchabee was passed over are: 1) he has some problems from his terms as governor with "gifts" such as chain saws 2) to the best of my knowledge, he isn't a woman.
Posted by: EL | September 03, 2008 at 09:50 PM
The answer is easy...Huckabee would show McCain up. Both as a speaker, as to his resume (executive experience) and as someone appealing to the "base".
Posted by: bemused | September 03, 2008 at 09:52 PM
"could have made a more plausible claim on the executive experience front"
A more plausible claim than Obama's?
Posted by: Adam | September 03, 2008 at 09:56 PM
someone needs to explain why we care about the VP nom's executive experience.
how much executive power does the VP have ? next to none.
Posted by: cleek | September 03, 2008 at 10:00 PM
The Club for Growth *loathes* Huckabee. I assume the plutocrat end of the Republican Party blackballed him.
Posted by: Doctor Science | September 03, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Because the goal was to placate the christian right base, not to let them have an extra set of keys to the car.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | September 03, 2008 at 10:07 PM
"how much executive power does the VP have ? next to none."
Except when he becomes president in a crisis. While most presidents take power under normal situations, a vice president must take control under what is by definition a crisis situation. You want a steady hand in that situation.
Posted by: fostert | September 03, 2008 at 10:09 PM
The Club for Growth *loathes* Huckabee.
It's tough to thread the needle between fundamentalisms.
Economic on one hand, social/cultural/religious on the other.
McCain's got his work cut out for him.
Thanks -
Posted by: russell | September 03, 2008 at 10:10 PM
Because if Huckabee were the Veep, McCain would actually have to listen to the evangelicals, rather than cynically ignore them after getting their vote.
Posted by: Sasha | September 03, 2008 at 10:12 PM
Huck got shot down form being too much of a populist.
Posted by: wonkie | September 03, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Proponents of Gov. Palin's executive experience as a positive feature ought to identify the ways in which the prior executive experience of Presidents Clinton and Carter was useful in the White House.
I think a pretty credible case can be made that their greatest weaknesses as Presidents stemmed from their having been small state governors.
Posted by: CharleyCarp | September 03, 2008 at 10:27 PM
Man, I totally agree. Huckabee is a compelling speaker. He's always seems to be at his best when he's telling stories as he did tonight with the story about desks in the classroom. He also singlehandedly manages to be more compassionate and connected to ordinary people than rest of the Republican field combined.
He's also great in front of a camera and he even has enough wit and humor to do well on the Colbert Report (Texas air hockey!). I would love Huckabee if he could just never talk about politics.
Posted by: Meditative_Zebra | September 03, 2008 at 10:31 PM
The story about the desks just made me think about what an a**hole the teacher was and how annoyed I would have been.
Posted by: KCinDC | September 03, 2008 at 10:37 PM
I think the personal element has to be in play here. I think John McCain, convinced of his own reasonableness, takes political opposition very personally.
Posted by: Anthony Damiani | September 03, 2008 at 11:12 PM
I can't listen to any of these people, find it much more bearable and time-efficient to read the high/low points after the fact.
But I'm intrigued (and agree that Huckabee has a genuine-y-ness that the other R candidates of this season lacked entirely). Is anyone willing to relate/paraphrase the story about the school desks?
Posted by: Nell | September 03, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Nell, search for "desk" here (after getting an anti-glurge injection).
Posted by: KCinDC | September 03, 2008 at 11:37 PM
KCinDC: The story about the desks just made me think about what an a**hole the teacher was and how annoyed I would have been.
Oh, yeah. But the first thing that occurred to me at the punchline was: "how did she get 20 veterans to go along with her silly prank?" (Then I looked it up in Snopes and found it was a military history class and the teacher was the daughter of a WWII veteran and regularly had veterans visit her class as part of the lesson: that made it more explicable.)
Posted by: jesurgislac | September 04, 2008 at 01:36 AM
I agree. I don't like his positions, but the man is exceptional at connecting with an audience. He was the only VP candidate I was actually a little afraid of, and after tonight, my opinion hasn't changed.
Posted by: Mark Kawakami | September 04, 2008 at 03:34 AM
James Fallows had the same thought I did: don't schoolchildren in dictatorships have desks too?
Posted by: Mike Schilling | September 04, 2008 at 12:12 PM