Huckabee Defends Without A Wink And A Smile

CANDIDATE USING BUSH'S 2000 PLAYBOOK

Does Mike Huckabee think his faux ignorance is charming, somehow endearing in its innocence?

First he garnered guffaws from the press when he announced he was foregoing planned attack ads against Mitt Romney and then showed the ads that he wasn't going show, anyway. Then, he claimed without a bit of irony in his voice that it was because the press wouldn't believe such ads existed.

Yesterday, Huckabee said he was "absolutely" backing the striking Writer's Guild, but will cross the picket line, nonetheless to appear on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.

Later, he claimed erroneously, that the striking writers had made a deal with all of the late night programs. When he was corrected by reporters that only David Letterman's production company had secured a deal with the writers he said, "Oh", followed by "hmmm".

Was this another occasion where Huckabee's campaign has been sorely behind the news as when it was a day and a half behind the news that an NIE report said Iran was not actively producing nuclear weapons or is he plainly lying or spewing double talk about his support for labor.

How else could Huckabee answer a question about crossing the picket on a highly publicized strike and still appear to care about the working man? He can't truthfully and therefore he ducked the question with sound effects and quickly answered another question.

I believe Huckabee is not as unprepared as recent press accounts have made him out to be. That's not to say his candidacy is rooted in good policy, either. He feign ignorance on the Iran NIE account and the writer's strike questions because he can't answer them without rustling some feathers.

Many voters, I hope, will place their candidates attributes against the idealogy and personality of President Bush for guidance in how not to choose a president. If so, remember that Americans found a sly, smiling, personable double talker who glazed every issue over with Jesus in 2000 and the rest is history.