What They’re Not Hearting About Huckabee
by WonkoSteve
In a post from yesterday, a Wonkosphere press release indicates that Huckabee has the highest likability among Republican candidates. Or maybe I should say “had the highest likability.” That analysis was based on data up to the beginning of December. But about 10 days ago Huckabee’s fortunes turned in Iowa and his buzzshare in the Wonkosphere skyrocketed. At the same time the tone of posts about him plunged significantly below the average for all candidates in both the conservative and liberal spheres. Clearly, as a frontrunner there are some things the Wonkospherians are not hearting about Huckabee.
So what are the complaints? To find out, I extracted posts between December 4 (when his downward tone inflection began) and December 12 that had a tone value below Huckabee’s historical average. I analyzed those, separating out the liberal and conservative sources.
In the liberal sphere there was some discussion of his overt religiosity and his support of quarantine for AIDS victims many years ago. But the big feature of the liberal talk was schadenfreude over his role in the parole of Wayne DuMond while Governor of Arkansas. Clearly there was glee at the prospect of payback in the form of a Dukakis/Horton-style slam campaign directed against the Republicans’ candidate.
The concervative sphere worried about the DuMond issue too, but there were many additional issues. In particular there was a lot of negative buzz about a Politico.com posting from December 4 saying that Huckabee was not aware of the recent NIE estimate on Iran. It was quoted and reposted far and wide amid worry that Huckabee is clueless about foreign policy. Conservatives also slammed his support of President Bush’s ill-fated immigration plan. And there was much hand-wringing about Democrats’ hands-off treatment of Huckabee–taken as proof that they see Huckabee as immanently beatable and as an ideal general-election opponent.
Yesterday the tone of Huckabee posts began to improve, so it remains to be seen if all this negative buzz has staying power–or if it was just initial shock at his sudden change in fortunes that will fade and leave him as likable as ever.
