Thread: Huckabee Pitches Economic Populism in Ad

Huckabee Pitches Economic Populism in Ad

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 5:00 PM

-- TITLE: "Understanding"

LENGTH: 30 seconds

AIRING: Michigan

SCRIPT: Huckabee on camera: "When you grow up and life's a struggle, you have a whole different understanding of what most people are going through."

Huckabee voice-over: "We're losing manufacturing jobs. Homeowners face a credit crisis. High fuel costs are spiraling. And families are hurting. I cut taxes, built highways, reformed health care and education and achieved record job growth.

"I'm Mike Huckabee, and I approved this message, because I believe most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with _ not the guy who laid them off."

KEY IMAGES: Huckabee, wearing a dark blue button-down shirt, talks into the camera before the ad switches to images of a troubled economy, including a for-sale sign and a sad-looking couple surrounded by moving boxes. The ad shows Huckabee greeting supporters on the campaign trail, mugging with a baby, speaking the night of his victory in the Iowa caucuses.

Text includes: "Cut taxes over 90 times," "Health care coverage for 70,000 uninsured children," "Better schools, higher test scores," and, "One of America's best governors."

ANALYSIS: Huckabee concludes with one of his best-received lines _ about the guy people work with, not who laid them off _ which distills his message of economic populism.

That theme helped him to a decent third-place showing Tuesday in New Hampshire after winning the Iowa GOP caucuses last week. The primary campaign moves next to Michigan, a manufacturing state he hopes to woo with the blue-collar appeal of this ad. At the same time, the socially conservative Huckabee is running TV ads that emphasize his opposition to abortion.

Huckabee likes to tell voters about his hardscrabble upbringing; his father worked two jobs, as a firefighter and mechanic, to pay for their rent house in Hope, Ark. A favorite joke on the campaign trail is that the family used Lava soap; Huckabee didn't know till he grew up that showering was not supposed to hurt.

The spot also emphasizes Huckabee's record as governor of Arkansas, an attempt to answer critics who question whether a small-state governor and former minister really has the experience to be president.

And it fends off criticism of his record on taxes, which is decidedly mixed. Huckabee signed into law a broad-based, nearly $100 million income tax relief measure for poor and middle-income residents, but he also advocated a series of tax increases. The road construction cited in the ad was funded by a $60 million-a-year fuel tax increase he signed into law.

In addition, Huckabee advocated a 1/8-cent increase to pay for conservation programs. He favored a 1/2-cent sales tax increase that was tied to a voter-approved constitutional amendment trimming property taxes by $180 million.

He also allowed a 7/8-cent sales tax increase to go into effect without his signature in 2004, a response to a court order to improve schools. Later, he signed legislation that cut state capital gains taxes by 30 percent.

___

Analysis by Libby Quaid.

http://www.newsmax.com/politics/huckabe ... 63069.html

most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with _ not the guy who laid them off."

I was amused by this as it was run the same day he crossed picket lines to get to the Leno show. So, who is it he identifies with?