During my time at Fox News, I appeared on Gov. Huckabee’s show a handful of times. We always had fiery but friendly exchanges. And behind the scenes, even more than in front of the camera, Gov. Huckabee was always affable and downright, double-me-over funny. He’s simply a hoot. Our political environment today is decisively un-funny and the state of the world is downright tragic, but legions of stiff shirt, stiff personality politicians aren’t helping the matter. Barack Obama broke through the fog, and the expectations of the status quo political machine, thanks to his simply winning, charismatic personality. Huckabee is gifted with a similar charisma.
That Huckabee is mentioned in the same sentence with other aspiring conservative governors, especially Bobby Jindal, is laughable. It’s not just that Jindal lacks charisma; I think he actively repels it. And similar shards of enthusiasm-killing kryptonite are lodged in John Kasich, Mike Pence and Ted Cruz. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker don’t exactly make anyone’s toes tingle, either. In fact, and admittedly I’m a biased judge, but the only thing about most Republican presidential hopefuls that sends shivers up my spine are their policy beliefs.
But personal dynamism alone isn’t the only reason Democrats should worry about a Huckabee candidacy. At a time when more and more politicians never open their mouths before sticking their fingers in the wind, Mike Huckabee has remained amazingly, devoutly principled.
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