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“I’m very aware that most of you came to see Chuck,” Mike Huckabee told a crowd last week in Rochester, N.H. A group of boys who did not appear to be of voting age confirmed this: “We love you, Chuck!”
Back when Huckabee first announced that Norris would be doing some fund raising for him, America laughed. At, not with. If anything, Norris’ involvement confirmed Huckabee’s candidacy as a fringy three-ring circus. Then Norris appeared in a TV spot. Then he started traveling with Huckabee. Then, when Huckabee won Iowa, there was Norris, peering over the governor’s shoulder during his victory speech.
But now Norris has become a defining face in Mike Huckabee’s campaign, so much that today’s announcement—“Mike Huckabee’s Band To Play and Martial Artists to Join Forces During Jan. 20th Online Texas Fundraiser Hosted by Chuck Norris”—feels utterly ordinary. Just another barbecue/political fund-raiser/rock concert/ninja demonstration.
Watching Norris speak in New Hampshire, I wanted to pinch myself. I am actually writing down words coming out of Chuck Norris’ mouth. It feels silly until you realize that what he says is no sillier than the ideas expressed by Huckabee’s other endorsers. (One possible exception: Norris’ anecdote about throwing an American soldier in Iraq into a sleeper hold and accidentally suffocating him.) Norris tries not to overshadow Huckabee, but he can’t resist talking about the time he sky-dived with George Bush Sr. Or the several times he visited Iraq. When Norris is working the crowd, it’s easy to forget that Huckabee is the main act.
Once you consider that Jesse “the Body” Ventura got elected governor of Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger is being credited as a transformational figure in the Republican party, it’s not a leap to imagine Norris seeking—and holding—elected office. He’s ex-Air Force. He served in South Korea between ’58 and ‘62, where he became a black belt in Tang Soo Do. He founded a program for at-risk children. He has become a semiregular Fox News commentator, where his conservative ideas are taken as seriously as anyone’s. Elections have been won with a lot less.
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Here's Mike Huckabee giving his acceptance speech, flanked by future Secretary of Defense Chuck Norris:
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An Iowa State ROTC student named Jessica explained to me how most of her friends, conservatives all, were swayed to the Huck side.
Initially, most of them supported Thompson because of his traditional conservative stances on abortion and taxation. But a couple months ago, they almost all switched to Huckabee. Was it because of his even more conservative pro-life positions? Was it his loony but still arguable FairTax ideas? Or maybe his views on immigration, compassionate in some cases but also strong when it comes to border security?
None of the above. They switched to Huckabee, according to Jessica, when they saw his Chuck Norris ads.
It's stories like these that make you question the campaigns' claims that they have Iowa's student population bent to their will. Sometimes I wonder if you couldn't sabotage the entire "youth vote" by organizing a Phish reunion concert for Jan. 3 in Des Moines.
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Chuck Norris, speaking to Mike Huckabee in a recent Web video:
“They all have good points. But I think you’ve got the big package—I think you’ve got the
whole package here, Mike, and I really want to encourage the people to really check you out.”
Reminds us of that time Duncan Hunter told
the gay brigadier general at the YouTube debate that American soldiers shouldn’t
be forced to “work in a small tight unit” with homosexuals.
See here for
the full video. The magic happens right around the 1:00 mark.
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Mike Huckabee's YouTube page lay fallow for most of his campaign, but in the past few weeks it's added some new offerings. First came brief clips of Huckabee and Chuck Norris talking policy. Then today Huckabee's camp unveiled a new Web-advertising campaign that aims to ensnare supporters of other candidates.
The "Switch to Huckabee" campaign has a bare-bones premise. A person stands in front of a beige screen, talks about why they like quirky Mike better than the other candidates, and suggests you might like Mike, too, if you just gave him a shot.
Sound familiar? Compare that with Apple's "switch" ads a few years back: A person stands in front of a white screen, talks about why they think Macs are better than PCs, and proudly declares that they've made "the switch." The two ad campaigns even have the same music.
It's a fun analogy, but it's also flawed. While the Apple ads were catchy, they weren't that successful. Macs still had a low market share because Apple hadn't had its "iPod moment" quite yet. Plus, Mac's operating system was still too weird-looking for Windows-trained office drones. Apple was asking people to make a switch to the Mac before there was any glowing media coverage to grease the wheels.
Huckabee, in contrast, has momentum on his side, and voters are already taking a second look. He has boosted his poll numbers (market share) on his own, thanks to a series of strong debate performances ("iPod moments") and positive media coverage
At this stage, it would make more sense for Huckabee to adapt a different Apple campaign: The popular "I'm a Mac" spots. He is¾for now¾still the quirky upstart. But he's also got the poll numbers to prove he's a major player. And his media glow hasn't yet worn off. All of that sounds similar to Mac's status these days.
Spoofing the ads would be easy. Just set Chuck Norris and a stuffy, well-coifed guy (Whom are Justin Long and John Hodgman supporting, anyway?) against a white backdrop. Norris would say, "I'm Mike Huckabee" as he give a menacing look to the other guy. The Romney stand-in would then respond, "And I'm Mitt Romney." Run through some policy points, make Romney sound like a flip-flopper who is trying to buy the nomination, and voila! You've got yourself a sales pitch; maybe even one that will be as popular as the other Mac ad spoof.
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Mike Huckabee returns to Iowa for the first time in 24 days today, and the time away seemed to do him some good. When news first broke that Huckabee was going to campaign outside of Iowa during the majority of November, a senior Romney aide showed me the headline with a pleased smile and a glimmer in his eye. Pundits cautioned that Huckabee was ruining his momentum in the Hawkeye State. But they were wrong: Huckabee's charm lingered.
So today he arrives in Des Moines to glowing headlines of his continued surge in the state. A glimpse back at the main themes of Huckabee's three Iowa-free weeks:
- Bump in the polls: When Huckabee left, Iowa polls had him trailing Romney by double digits. Now he holds a margin-of-error-proof lead over Romney. Romney, feeling vulnerable, has decided to hold The Mormon Speech in response.
- Aggressive endorsements: Huckabee picked up support from both Chuck Norris and Ric Flair over the past few weeks. College Republicans nationwide made pained puns about "hearting Huckabee."
- Advertisements: Huckabee compensated for his lack of face-to-face visits with two new ads, one touting his conservative and Christian credentials and one touting Chuck Norris' fist.
This isn't to say Huckabee had a stress-free vacation. His opponents have begun to attack his pro-immigration record. Ethical questions from his time as Arkansas governor have also begun to dog his campaign. But the attacks seem to have added fuel to Huckabee's rise.
Huckabee's success creates a dilemma. Does he spend the rest of December in Iowa, trying to make sure that Romney doesn't sneak back into first on caucus night? Or does he look past the state--at the risk of alienating caucus-goers--and try to make his candidacy viable in other early primaries? It's unlikely New Hampshire Republicans will flock to the polls to support a Southern Baptist, so Huckabee really needs to make a choice between Iowa and South Carolina. Given that he was still a dark horse just weeks ago, it's what you might call a high-end problem.
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With many of the big-name donors tapped out, campaigns have turned to the Internet to try and wrangle up new funding in the fourth quarter. And what's a fund-raising campaign without a few gimmicks? A roundup of some recent offerings:
John Edwards: If your mother's stuffing recipe isn't good enough, then try the Edwards family's. Taking a page out of Ann Romney's book, the Edwards campaign offers recipes as a reward for making a donation to the campaign. Dishes include: macaroni and cheese casserole and sweet potatoes with apples. Unclear if milquetoast is on the menu.
Mike Huckabee: Million-Dollar Homepage, meet Mike Huckabee. Huckabee launched his "Discover Huckabee" campaign on Nov. 5 to try to boost his fund-raising numbers this month. The more money Huckabee supporters give, the more tiles are revealed to show a photo collage of Huckabee's life. Along with learning more about Huck's life, supporters are treated to little tchotchkes like Huckabee buddy icons, blogger badges, and videos. No word on whether a digital Chuck Norris bobblehead doll will be the grand prize.
Barack Obama: Obama's campaign wants its supporters to put Obama back on the trail in Iowa rather than have to trot around meeting with funders all over the country. The fundraising drive is simple: Raise 850 grand in a week, and they'll cancel a terrestrial fund-raisier so Obama can spend the day in Iowa. For some context: Mike Huckabee wants to raise about $2 million in a month, while Obama wants $850,000 in a week.
Mitt Romney: Mitt Romney hopes you're willing to sell your junk for his benefit. The campaign has partnered with auctionPAL, an eBay knockoff, to offer "Mitt Market," which is basically a forum for Romney supporters to clear out their garages. auctionPAL sells your items for you on eBay and takes a cut of the earnings. Then you can elect to send the rest of the proceeds toward the Romney campaign, which will be happy to profit off of that eight-track player your spouse made you get rid of.
Have ideas of what kind of fundraising drives the gimmick-less candidates should be holding? Visit our suggestion box.
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When we wrote about Chuck Norris fundraising for Mike Huckabee last week, we didn't realize that was only the first glimmer of a major Norris-themed media blitz. Huckabee has now unleashed a new TV ad in which the candidate and actor-turned-pundit take turns stating "facts" about the other. Norris tells us that Huckabee will "protect our Second Amendment rights." Huckabee informs us that "there's no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard--only another fist." The $60,000 ad buy starts airing on Iowa television today.
The spot has already drawn flak from unlikely sourpuss Fred Thompson, whose campaign tells Politico that "Mike Huckabee has confused celebrity endorsement with serious policy." Because Fred Thompson would never, ever favor entertainment over substance.
But my question is, will people in Iowa get this? Unless he's trying to target college kids who can recite "Chuck Norris facts" like poetry, it's unclear to me why he would base his first Hawkeye State TV campaign on an outdated Internet meme that might not have trickled up to most caucus-goers. Sixty-four percent of Iowa caucus-goers in 2004 were older than 55. Chances are they don't know that "Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer--too bad he never cries," let alone find that concept funny. So Huckabee will have to hope that the ad is amusing on its own, or that Iowa voters are Web-savvy enough to get the reference. Because otherwise, it's just a mildly confusing spot with that guy from Top Dog.
And in the meantime, can someone please start LOLcandidates?
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Last week we noted how Rudy Giuliani seems slightly squeamish about making Pat Robertson a major part of his campaign. The evangelical leader’s endorsement was great and all, but it’s too risky to keep him around on the trail. Mike Huckabee, in contrast, has no trouble flaunting his assets. Especially when it comes to his greatest asset of all: Chuck Norris.
When the martial artist/actor/poster boy for irony itself, who now moonlights as a conservative pundit, endorsed Huckabee for president in October, most people probably figured that was the last we would hear from him. The stunt worked once, we figured. Dragging it out would just come off as desperate. (Norris is, after all, the only presidential endorser I first knew as a fully poseable action figure.) But instead, Norris is back. The kung-fu legend sent out a fund-raising e-mail today laying out “facts” about the former Arkansas governor:
Fact: Mike Huckabee is my choice for President of the United States. …
Fact: Mike Huckabee needs our help. …
Fact: Working together on Mike's behalf we can make a great difference. …
Norris assures us that after spending an afternoon with Huckabee, “I can say with complete certainty that Mike is mentally and physically up to the challenge.” I’m picturing some sort of brutal obstacle course training regimen in the Himalayas.
That Norris serves as anything but a circus act is impressive. That he’s a viable fund-raising vehicle is stunning. I’m curious to hear what sort of response the e-mail gets. But in a weird way, the pairing makes sense. Huckabee is known for his humor, and Norris has been a remarkably good sport about inspiring an entire genre of jokes. Plus, I imagine there are people out there who would give money to Chuck Norris just to say they gave money to Chuck Norris. Or because they're afraid to say no ...