Huckabee Campaigns in Alabama

BIRMINGHAM - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made his first campaign appearance in Alabama Saturday. The former Arkansas governor seemed to feel right at home in this Southern state.

Huckabee brought his down-home campaign style to the campus of Samford University -- a Baptist university in Birmingham -- pushing his campaign message and defending his faith as a badge of honor.

Huckabee referred to a question from Thursday night's Republican debate in Boca Raton, Florida (Jackson, 2008) in which he was asked to respond to a critic's statement that "Huckabee's faith makes me queasy." While voicing support for freedom of religion, Huckabee asked, "...have we degenerated to the point that belief in God is a liability and not an asset? I hope not."

Huckabee touched on four other campaign themes - the need for the nation to feed itself, become independent from foreign oil, develop a better immigration policy and revamp the tax system. He promised to help the U.S. continue as a major agricultural producer, while making the nation independent of foreign oil in ten years.

Huckabee said he would bring "some sanity" to immigration policy. "There's something wrong when it's harder to get on an airplane in Birmingham . . . than to slip across the border illegally," he said.

His tax spiel repeated his basic mantra on eliminating the income tax and replacing it with the "fair tax," his version of a national sales tax. Under the current system, he said, "the harder you work, the more we tax you." As president, he added, he wanted to be person who "nailed the 'going-out-of-business' sign on the door of the IRS."

Huckabee's speech demonstrated the casual speaking style that propelled him to a win in the Iowa Republican Primary earlier this month (Nagourney, 2008). He told of growing up as the son of a hardworking family that made its own lye soap. "I was in college before I learned that it's not suppose to hurt when you take a shower," he said.

He described his father as an old-style patriot who believed in punishing a misbehaving child. His father was patriotic, he added, because, "He'd lay on stripes and I'd see stars."

Huckabee's visit was announced with only 24 hours notice and initially scheduled for 400-seat Brock Hall, but planners quickly realized they had underestimated the response. His speech was piped into the Wright Center Concert Hall where another thousand-plus supporters waited. When the candidate finished his speech, Huckabee walked next door to address the second gathering.

Huckabee was accompanied by his long-time friend, Samford President Andrew Westmoreland. Before joining Samford, Westmoreland was president of Quachita Baptist University - where Huckabee once studied - in Arkadelphia, Arkansas (Dean, 2008).

Huckabee's visit to Alabama came three days after the candidate cut back his campaign efforts in Florida due to a shortage of campaign cash (Kirkpatrick, 2008). Alabama, which holds its primary on Super Tuesday (Feb. 5), offered fertile ground for his campaign message. A recent report by the Birmingham News found that Huckabee and McCain were the two strongest Republican candidates in the state ("State split on candidates . . ., 2008).

The size of the crowd and its enthusiastic response obviously pleased the candidate. "For an Arkansas Razorback to come to Alabama and be this nicely received, it's a day I will not forget," he said. "It surely doesn't happen in football."

References

Dean, Charles J. (2008, Jan. 25). Huckabee, Obama to visit city. Birmingham News, 1A, 6A.
Jackson, David (2008, Jan. 24). Taxes take precedence as 'No. 1 issue in Florida'. USA Today, 2A.
Kirkpatrick, David D. (2008, Jan. 23). Huckabee, short on cash, curtails effort in Florida. New York Times, A20.
Nagourney, Adam (2008, Jan. 4). Obama triumphs in Iowa contest; Huckabee rolls. New York Times, A1, A13.
State split on candidates of both parties (2008, Jan. 20). Birmingham News, 9A.