Thread: Huckabee Flip Flops on Going Negative

Huckabee Flip Flops on Going Negative
December 31, 2007
The Huckabee campaign has taken a bizarre turn this afternoon.

The former Arkansas governor announced a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa Monday afternoon to launch a negative attack ad on his rival former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and go after what he thinks are Romney's flip-flops.

But then, Huckabee said, he changed his mind. He didn't want to launch the ad.

Huckabee now says he will run a positive campaign, even though he's been calling Romney "dishonest" since Friday, spoke to the press surrounded by placards slamming Romney, and has a passage on his website comparing Romney to Seinfeld's lying friend George Costanza.

"It's never too late to do the right thing," Huckabee told reporters.

Huckabee took the unusual step of showing the media the anti-Romney TV ad, the one he said he told TV stations to pull from the airwaves.

The ad began like this:

HUCKABEE: I'm Mike Huckabee and I approved this spot because Iowans have the right to know the truth about Mitt Romney's dishonest attacks on me and even an American hero, John McCain.

NARRATOR: Romney's record? Over 700 million in new taxes. Left office with a deficit. No executions. Supported gun control. And Romney's government-mandate health plan provided a $50 co-pay for abortion.

HUCKABEE: If a man's dishonest to obtain a job, he'll be dishonest on the job. Iowans deserve better.

Huckabee said he knows some will view the decision to show the media the ad with skepticism -- a way to get TV play for the ad, regardless -- but he says he wanted to show the media there was indeed an ad, which campaign adviser Ed Rollins said cost the campaign $30,000.

He said he knows some will view the decision to show the media the ad with skepticism -- a way to get TV play for the ad, regardless -- but he says he wanted to show the media there was indeed an ad, which campaign adviser Ed Rollins said cost the campaign $30,000.

"The tone of the campaign has gotten out of control," Huckabee said.

Huckabee acknowledged that Romney's steady barrage of negative ads against him has hurt him in Iowa. But, he says, "the decision had to be made" to change the tone of the campaign.

blogs.abcnews.com



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Romney stated that he could not be trouble for his ads because they were correct in what they stated. I think that Romney may be right.

"Here, let me show you the ad I'm not going to show you."

What a flim-flam artist!!

It's like a skit on Saturday Night Live!!

It would be funny if it weren't for real and the stakes weren't so high.

To me it sounds like the Mike Huckabee Campaign is being cheap they wanted the news media to run his ad for him for free.


"If someone is dishonest to obtain a job" what a self indictment. What an indictment of the illegal aliens.

Wow Richard. You are right on the money.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007 ... able-play/

December 31, 2007, 1:44 pm
Huckabee’s Remarkable Play
By Katharine Q. Seelye


Mike Huckabee’s news conference Monday in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times)DES MOINES — Talk about political jujitsu!
Mike Huckabee is holding a press conference right now in which he was supposed to unveil a new negative ad against arch rival Mitt Romney.
Video
But Mr. Huckabee came to the press conference and announced he’d had a change of heart and would not be broadcasting the ad after all.
But wait! It gets better.
He then broadcast it for a room crammed with reporters, photographers and television cameras.
The assembled media found the display hilarious and at several points laughed out loud.
Telling you what’s in the ad, of course, plays into Mr. Huckabee’s strategy of getting his message out — Mr. Romney is bad — while being able to say his hands are clean.
He spoke at a dais in front of a huge banner that said, “Enough is Enough.â€

December 10, 2007, 6:33 pm
Romney Ad Hits Huckabee on Immigration
By Leslie Wayne


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hei8iDK61do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M0orIN3Pyc


Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign plans to begin running negative ads Tuesday in Iowa highlighting Mike Huckabee’s record on immigration, escalating the warfare between the two Republican candidates as they scramble for support in the nation’s first nominating state.
The ad starts by saying both men are “good family menâ€