Huckabee Blogcall -- 7/11/07

I participated in a blogger conference call for Huckabee today, and have a couple of observations. I asked two questions on the call, both related to Sen. Sam Brownback--Huckabee's main competition for Conservative Republicans.

First I asked Huckabee to comment on Brownback's votes last week in favor of and then in opposition to cloture on the "Immigration Reform" bill. Huckabee's response was very gracious, but substantive. He said (and I'm paraphrasing),

"It demonstrates the difficulty of running for president after having served in the senate–you are vulnerable to challenges for having taken both sides of issues."

Later I asked his Iowa Campaign Chair, Bob Vander Plaats, what his reaction was to the Brownback campaign's announcement of his "Faith and Family Leadership Committee"--a group of 50 Iowan Religious Conservatives backing him for president.

I have to admit I was surprised by the news report ("Religious conservatives get behind Brownback in Iowa")--though I wouldn't be able to judge--from looking at the names, how "impressed" I should be by the announcement.
But I was more surprised to hear Vander Plaats say that he wasn't aware of the announcement, an announcement that I heard about on July 7th. Like me, Vander Plaats said that he would have to see the list of names to be able to comment on the import of the announcement. (Here's the list.) But he also said (and I'm paraphrasing) “Iowans aren’t as impressed with who endorses a candidate as they are with the candidate.” I suppose that's true in most campaigns aside from certain EXCEPTIONAL endorsers.

All in all, another great opportunity to witness Huckabee's noteworthy ability and willingness to answer any and every question posed to him.