Huckabee fluent with the NRA

The Campaign Spot has info on today’s speeches at the NRA convention

Fred wowed ’em, the crowd loved McCain’s rejoinder to the Code Pink protester, Mitt Romney’s video went over well, and Rudy Giuliani earned their respect. But the guy who absolutely looked the most at home before the NRA today was probably Mike Huckabee.
Beginning with a jab at Rosie O’Donnell, and saying that because he was underdressed, he felt “as out of place as George Soros at an American Legion post”, Huckabee used humor and homespun anecdotes to prove his bona fides as “one of them.”
He made a fairly sharp observation when he mildly mocked other politicians who answer a question about the Second Amendment with hunting stories, pointing out that the Second Amendment, while guaranteeing a hunter’s right to own a firearm, is not about establishing a right to hunt, it is about a right to own a firearm for personal protection. The NRA is made up of two distinct groups (with a bit of an overlap) – hunters (usually owning shotguns and rifles) and those who own handguns for personal protection. The latter is often forgotten about, lives all over the country, and is often not terribly motivated by rhetoric about hunting.
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Huckabee to participate in PBS debate

Media Advisory: Gov. Mike Huckabee to Attend PBS’ Debate in Baltimore, MD on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007

September 20, 2007

Little Rock, AR – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will participate in the “All-American Presidential Forum” hosted by PBS between journalists and Republican presidential candidates, it was announced today.
The primetime forum, to be moderated by Tavis Smiley, host of TAVIS SMILEY, PBS’ late-night talk show, will be held Thursday, Sept. 27, at 9 p.m. EST, at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland .
“I’m really looking forward to participating in the debate in Baltimore . I’ve always been willing to debate the issues that are important to the people of America – not only critical topics involving the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but our domestic issues as well,” said Huckabee, who has a long history of addressing the needs of the African American community.
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Huckabee the hipster

GetReligion.com has an interesting look at Huckabee as the hipster.

In many ways, the news coverage of GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reminds me of the type that would be given to a city’s new young, hip youth pastor. He’s got all the right moves, says all the right things, draws praise from nearly everyone, including his opponents, and — guess what? — he strums the guitar. One more thing: he’s got a great personal story of losing nearly enough weight to make up another person.
The focus on the new guy is primarily on how different he is from the typical image people have of pastors. To those writing profiles of him, it’s somehow shocking that a pastor could be, like, normal.
Huckabee’s media coverage has all these elements, and he’s a pastor nonetheless. The news profiles give off a tone of amazement as they describe what could be the new face of the religious right.

Still loving this interview on the Daily Show:
“I’m a conservative but I’m not mad at everybody over it.”
“I’m pro-life and I believe life begins at conception but it doesn’t end at birth..”

Huckabee is getting some unusual coverage from many different media outlets. His humor and religion are mixing together in a not-so-unusual way, at least outside of politics in the last couple of decades, and the media’s picking up on it. Is Huckabee, in his efforts to be the evangelical right’s new political leader, changing the image of the group? Or is he some kind of exception to the rule in the eyes of the media?

Digg the story here