Commentary: The post-Huckabee influence

Arkansas leaders now free to back other candidates

It took an entire state to convince Mike Huckabee what anyone who wasn't on his payroll could have told him months ago.

Huckabee dropped out of the bid for the GOP presidential nomination last Monday after earning support from a paltry 2 percent of those participating in Iowa's quaint caucus system. Rand Paul, who got 4.5 percent of Iowa's backing, withdrew last week, too. Only Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore (Jim who?) and a potted plant did worse than Huckabee. Santorum dropped out Wednesday.

Perhaps Huckabee had hoped to reignite some of the excitement of his campaign eight years ago, when a first-place finish in Iowa invigorated his run for the presidency. Back then, his campaign rocked along for months with respectable, even impressive, showings in GOP primaries. This year, Huckabee was supplanted by other conservatives.

Huckabee can now fade into ... oh, who am I kidding? The former Arkansas governor isn't going to fade anywhere, at least not if he can help it. He'll be on TV somewhere, trying to revive a career in the media he enjoys maligning so much. Of course, he's not media. He's just a spreader of The Truth.

Well, why not? If someone wants to buy it, why shouldn't Huckabee be the guy to sell it to them?

And he'll have some success most likely, because he's got that Huckabee way with words. "Ronald Reagan said, 'Trust, but verify.' President Obama is 'trust, but vilify.' He trusts our enemies and vilifies everyone who disagrees with him," Huckabee once said.

That's why Huckabee's success as a TV and radio commentator has led to more success, at least financially, than his presidential aspirations. He's good at those little quips that people find themselves nodding their heads to. But Huckabee never convinced enough people there was a lot of political substance behind it all. And without substance, even a good quip producer gets tiresome after a while.

Huckabee's departure from the GOP presidential campaign delivered some good news for people in the Republican power structure (in a campaign context, we'd call them the "elite") here in Arkansas. Many of them them had lined up behind Arkansas' native son, respectful of the 10-plus years he was governor, although he's pretty much a Floridian these days. His exit freed all of these state political leaders from their commitments to back Huckabee. If he had lingered in the campaign, Huckabee would have limited any influence these state GOP leaders might have in the remaining three weeks before the March 1 primaries in Arkansas along with Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Huckabee himself hasn't endorsed anyone. Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and U.S. Reps. Steve Womack and Rick Crawford, having read the political tea leaves, were prepared. Not long after Huckabee withdrew, they had already placed themselves squarely in the camp of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

With early voting starting up Feb. 16, other elected officials in Arkansas government are bound to get into the endorsement game this week. Asa Hutchinson continues to consider his options.

Should we listen to them?

The short answer is yes. These are our fellow Arkansans who are engaged in doing the public's business. To some degree, they are often more informed on the complexities of issues facing local, state and federal governments. It doesn't mean they're right all the time, but their endorsements ought to be viewed as one component of a person's evaluation of those who would be the leader of our nation and a major influence in the way the world goes.

Despite Donald Trump's appearance at Little Rock's Barton Colosseum last week, I doubt he'll get much backing from Arkansas' political leadership. Even if he had some substance behind shallow speeches that nonetheless strike a chord with the concerns of many voters, Trump's New York state of mind, to put it kindly, isn't really a good fit for Arkansas' way of doing things. While Trump is entertaining and his comments often bite to the core of some issues, I'd be shocked if someone like Hutchinson, with his deep resume of public service, viewed him as a viable option for governing.

I'd put money on endorsements for Rubio, with a few outliers for Ted Cruz. I wish a few would go John Kasich's way. He's not flashy or entertaining, but on the issues, he's got a balanced mix of views within the conservative spectrum.

Tuesday's New Hampshire primary should add a dose of reality to the oddity of last week's Iowa caucus, and it will have a big impact, as GOP candidate Chris Christie predicted last week at a town meeting there.

"New Hampshire Republicans are the most powerful people in the world right now, bar none," Christie said. "You're going to take this race from 11 candidates probably down to four or five."

Maybe, just maybe, by the time we get to vote here in Arkansas, the GOP race won't be quite as crazy as it has been for months.

Last week, though, it was all overshadowed by real news in Arkansas: Which players Arkansas got on National Signing Day.

Commentary on 02/08/2016

Upcoming Events