Huckabee Rising
The Sept. 10th edition of the National Review will feature Mike Huckabee:
The last edition of National Review featured Fred Thompson, but Huckabee came out looking like the better candidate. In the opening paragraphs of the story on Thompson, Byron York describes the scene at the American Legislative Exchange Council's meeting (I've confirmed with several fellow legislators who were in attendance that this description is spot-on):
Is He for Real?
Assessing non-non-candidate Fred Thompson
BYRON YORK
Philadelphia
It's late July, and even though he's been on the non-campaign trail for five months, Fred Thompson has yet to appear on the same dais with any other Republican presidential candidate. That's about to change here at the Marriott Downtown, where both Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, are scheduled to address the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC. Its members aren't just any voters; they are state senators and representatives and other plugged-in politicos, mostly conservatives, from around the country. They're good people to know: If you're a Republican running for something, it never hurts to be tight with the top officials in Georgia, or Virginia, or Missouri. They're all here today, and a lot of them have been waiting for months to get their first up-close look at Thompson.
The event, a lunch in a hall packed almost beyond capacity, isn't really a contest, but it is a contrast. At this point in the campaign, Huckabee has performed well in three GOP debates and has polished his stump speech in hundreds of appearances. A man who has famously gone from obesity to running marathons, he's in top shape, on his game. He gives a speech that is tight, well-constructed, and impassioned, all from one scribbled notecard. By the time he's finished, the ALEC members are on their feet.
After a break, Thompson enters to great applause; the crowd is clearly ready to love him. But this, as it turns out, is not his day. He's just flown in overnight from San Diego, where he appeared at one of Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts, and he appears a bit tired. Then, instead of delivering a rousing declaration of principles, he launches into a dry treatise on federalism. It's an important topic to these state officials, who agree with every word Thompson has to say about keeping the federal government out of state affairs. But it's just not what they expected, or were hoping to hear. To make things worse, the teleprompter goes on the blink for Thompson's speech, forcing him to put on his reading glasses and spend a lot of time peering at his text. And finally, when Thompson works a crowded rope-line after the speech, he becomes so overheated that when he ditches his suit coat he reveals a shirt soaked completely through, looking much the worse for wear. Huckabee, for his part, is shaking hands and posing for pictures on the other side of the room, coat on, looking cool.
When it's all over, most observers agree that the former governor has run rings around the former senator. "The consensus of the crowd was that Huckabee wowed 'em," John Wiles, a state senator from Georgia, tells me. "Thompson's speech was a disappointment."
"I thought Thompson really blew a good opportunity," says Bill Howell, who is speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. "In my mind, Huckabee is right on, has a great delivery, is very articulate - all the things Thompson wasn't." Others are a bit more diplomatic - they say the speeches were just too different to compare - but they often add that they think Mike Huckabee is quite a speaker.
The last edition of National Review featured Fred Thompson, but Huckabee came out looking like the better candidate. In the opening paragraphs of the story on Thompson, Byron York describes the scene at the American Legislative Exchange Council's meeting (I've confirmed with several fellow legislators who were in attendance that this description is spot-on):
Is He for Real?
Assessing non-non-candidate Fred Thompson
BYRON YORK
Philadelphia
It's late July, and even though he's been on the non-campaign trail for five months, Fred Thompson has yet to appear on the same dais with any other Republican presidential candidate. That's about to change here at the Marriott Downtown, where both Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, are scheduled to address the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC. Its members aren't just any voters; they are state senators and representatives and other plugged-in politicos, mostly conservatives, from around the country. They're good people to know: If you're a Republican running for something, it never hurts to be tight with the top officials in Georgia, or Virginia, or Missouri. They're all here today, and a lot of them have been waiting for months to get their first up-close look at Thompson.
The event, a lunch in a hall packed almost beyond capacity, isn't really a contest, but it is a contrast. At this point in the campaign, Huckabee has performed well in three GOP debates and has polished his stump speech in hundreds of appearances. A man who has famously gone from obesity to running marathons, he's in top shape, on his game. He gives a speech that is tight, well-constructed, and impassioned, all from one scribbled notecard. By the time he's finished, the ALEC members are on their feet.
After a break, Thompson enters to great applause; the crowd is clearly ready to love him. But this, as it turns out, is not his day. He's just flown in overnight from San Diego, where he appeared at one of Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts, and he appears a bit tired. Then, instead of delivering a rousing declaration of principles, he launches into a dry treatise on federalism. It's an important topic to these state officials, who agree with every word Thompson has to say about keeping the federal government out of state affairs. But it's just not what they expected, or were hoping to hear. To make things worse, the teleprompter goes on the blink for Thompson's speech, forcing him to put on his reading glasses and spend a lot of time peering at his text. And finally, when Thompson works a crowded rope-line after the speech, he becomes so overheated that when he ditches his suit coat he reveals a shirt soaked completely through, looking much the worse for wear. Huckabee, for his part, is shaking hands and posing for pictures on the other side of the room, coat on, looking cool.
When it's all over, most observers agree that the former governor has run rings around the former senator. "The consensus of the crowd was that Huckabee wowed 'em," John Wiles, a state senator from Georgia, tells me. "Thompson's speech was a disappointment."
"I thought Thompson really blew a good opportunity," says Bill Howell, who is speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. "In my mind, Huckabee is right on, has a great delivery, is very articulate - all the things Thompson wasn't." Others are a bit more diplomatic - they say the speeches were just too different to compare - but they often add that they think Mike Huckabee is quite a speaker.