Thread: Prominent Political Commentator Joins Huckabee Campaign

Prominent Political Commentator Joins Huckabee Campaign
January 12, 2008 9:30 a.m. EST
Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Detroit, MI (AHN) -- Popular conservative columnist and former George H. W. Bush aide James Pinkerton has joined the campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, fleshing out the comparatively bare-bones staff of the presidential candidate and Southern Baptist minister.

Days before primaries in Michigan and South Carolina, Pinkerton left his post as Fox News contributor and Newsday columnist to join prominent conservative Ed Rollins, who is Huckabee's national campaign chairman, according to Politico.com. The move is expected to boost the Iowa campaign winner's momentum, even as polls continue to show him ahead of Republican rivals nationally as well as in both states.

Pinkerton, whose views on immigration and abortion Politico.com says have grown less libertarian and more conservative over the years, had previously compared the Republican presidential hopeful to Reagan in some columns, saying "Huckabee, like Reagan, wouldn't be an 'easy kill," and "will be formidable in a general election."

Huckabee campaigned in Michigan on Friday, and criticized GOP rival former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson for not being supportive of Ronald Reagan.

"It was real interesting hearing Fred Thompson talk about Ronald Reagan last night because Fred Thompson supported Gerald Ford in 1976 and not Ronald Reagan. He supported Howard Baker in 1980 and not Ronald Reagan," Huckabee said. "I appreciate his recent conversion, but some of us were for Ronald Reagan back in the early days; our legacy goes back a little further."

During a Republican debate in South Carolina a day earlier, Thompson had said Huckabee's criticism of President George Bush' foreign policy was "not the model of Reagan conservatism, that's a model of the Democratic Party."

Having Pinkerton, a former Reagan aide, now on board Huckabee's campaign, might deter rival Thompson from using that same argument again.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009694780

Huckabee is going to collect a lot of Bush's People.

He is Bush Incarnate.

Dixie

Obviously a defensive move since Huckabee was thoroughly spanked by Thompson at the SC debate.