Money matters

— It happened on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Just after the results of the Republican Party's presidential straw poll were announced, and Mike Huckabee had finished a surprising second to Mitt Romney, and the press had gone ga-ga over the former governor of Arkansas, Team Huckabee was celebrating in the parking lot outside Iowa State's basketball arena-aka Straw Poll Central.

As I was angling past the woo-hoo'ers, I heard one of them yell out: "Message over money!"

Things sure seemed that way in August at Iowa State. Huckabee had spent like a political pauper in the runup to the straw poll, some $150,000 or so. Meanwhile, the eventual winner, Massachusetts' former governor, Money Bags Mitt, went in for well over $2 million. Other candidates like Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Sam Brownback of Kansas also outspent Huckabee. Heck, after three nights of hotel charges and a day at the moneyburning Iowa State Fair, I may have outspent Huckabee.

But the Huck had shoe-stringed his way into second place, which suddenly looked a lot better than Romney's pricey victory.

His message in Iowa? There were two general themes: (1) Huckabee really was a compassionate conservative, with rocksolid bona fides on social issues like abortion and a moderate streak when it came to governing; and (2) As he said at campaignstop after campaign stop: Nobody Owns Me. Just look at his campaign coffers.

Well, he can still make that claim. This week, the Huckabee campaign reported only a little more than a million bucks in donations over the past three months-including the month-and-a-half after the straw poll. That ain't good. In fact, it's about one-fifth of the amount reported by Ron Paul, the Texas congressman with a libertarian streak wider'n the Red River.

Nobody Owns Me may play well in places like Indianola, Iowa. But that's the real world. And this is politics. In politics, it's a catch-22: A presidential candidate can play the political-independence card only until the money runs out. He's got to have investors. Lots of them. Having money keeps you in the race, and raising money helps you in the polls. Which are all about perception at this stage. It's the second-oldest saying in politics: Perception is reality. (The oldest saying? Money is the mother's milk of politics.)

If you're attracting the big bucks of a Hillary Clinton ($23 million in the third quarter) then the perception is that you are an electoral fait accompli. Because you've wooed the power-brokers and influence-peddlers and decision-makers to your side. You've got a bankroll come time for the TV commercials. Money both attracts and repels. It attracts more money, and it scares off the competition.

At least that's long been the rule in electoral politics. And it certainly seems to be working for Miss Hillary. But, so far, the Huck motors along trying to be an exception to the rule. A day after he announced his modest third-quarter donations, a new Washington Post poll showed Huckabee rising steadily if not dramatically among GOP contenders. He's now nearer 10 percent nationally and ahead of John McCain in Iowa.

Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign may be the most baffling of the two or three dozen out there. He seems to be succeeding everywhere but at the bank. Consider: He shines in the GOP debates; on thehustings, he's as tireless as the Other Man from Hope; his post-Iowa reviews in the national press have been embarrassingly glowing; and he has no 'splainin' to do to social conservatives when it comes to their litmus-test issues.

His major weakness has been foreign policy. So the other day at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,Huckabee attempted to do something about that. In an in-depth speech-it runs 13 single-spaced pages-he drew on his background in theology to explain the roots of Islamic terror and outlined the approach he would take in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. He finally seems to understand that he has to more fully engage in the debate when it moves beyond domestic issues.

But what's all his go-going got him? Only about a million bucks. That won't buy many television ads.

It doesn't seem to be discouraging him much yet. Friday morning, there he was again on national TV being loved on by the talking heads of MSNBC.

But because money matters most, Huckabee is still not considered a viable candidate in some important circles. Example: Those social conservatives who are so turned off by the Rudys and Freds would rather toy with forming a third party than back a Baptist preacher from Arkansas.

In short, Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate has done pretty much everything well except . . . raise money. Which is like saying a football team ran some great plays but didn't score any points.

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Kane Webb is a Perspective feature writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at kwebb@arkansasonline.com.

Editorial, Pages 98 on 10/07/2007

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