Dishonest Huckabee Ran That Negative Anyway

The Whistler  •  January 5, 2008

Huckabee has made a lot of noise about qualifications to be President, and a lot of those qualifications have had to do with his history as a religious leader. In fact, his morality was a reason he gave when he said he’d decided not to run a negative ad against Mitt Romney.
But it turns out that Huckabee’s morality is somewhat suspect. Not only did he show the negative ad he pledged not to run to reporters, he also went ahead and ran it on television anyway.

Update, Jan. 4: The ad ran at least 10 times on four different stations in Davenport and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Huckabee campaign called those airings a mistake.

That’s not a mistake. Huckabee flat-out lied.
He’s a slick, manipulative politician and don’t let his “Baptist preacher/country bumpkin” routine fool you.

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  • http://Array Marty

    don’t let his “Baptist preacher/country bumpkin” routine fool you.

    Why? Was he not a Baptist Preacher? Is he not a country bumpkin?

    He’s not fooling anyone — he’s running for president.

    That game IS played with hard balls, and chin music. I’m sure you know.

  • Neiman

    Marty: All the charges made against Huckabee, here or elsewhere, real or imagined, fair or unfair, kind or unkind, right or wrong; that is, part and parcel of a Presidential campaign, and Huckabee has to take responsibility for his entire campaign, and if someone has done something wrong in his name, he needs to disavow those actions and be swift and direct in taking steps to prevent a reoccurence.

    It was asked in one thread what it takes to run for the White House, I think every candidate has emotional problems in that everyone of them must be to varying degrees masochistic; that is, getting some positive benefit our of constant pain..

  • http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

    I agree with you there, but it doesn’t mean they can’t change things.

    In fact it seems that they MUST fill out the song list as they go. (Of course it’s different now since they don’t have a live DJ, but it works out the same).

    Still some stations must do requests and that by itself would show that they can react without the required forms bogging them down.

  • http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

    Bike Bubba, come one the guy even showed the ad in his press conference where he announced it was too dirty for his campaign.

    I suppose that was an oversight too?

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    Romney isn’t truly running negative ads

    We are talking about Willard Milton Romney, aren’t we?

    Regardless of your choice for president, who has done more negative campaigning: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Fred Thompson?

    A: Romney 35%, Thompson, Huckabee, Guiliani, McCain combined 26%

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    All radio stations have to submit a traffic report to the FCC by 12:01AM before they go on the air that accounts for every minute of their broadcasting day.

    Since when? I worked in a number of radio stations and we never logged more than the briefest of outlines of station i.d.s, etc. We logged the commercials so that we could show the advertisers that we’d fulfilled our contracts.
    “every minute of their broadcasting day”? Again…since when?

  • http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

    It aired seven times in the following two days

    Let me bold that for you.

    Huckabee shouldn’t have pull his little “I won’t attack you” stunt in the first place. He puts together a press conference announcing that he is not going to run the ad, then ends up running it anyway, and chalks that up to an honest mistake.

  • Marty

    Huckabee has to take responsibility for his entire campaign…

    Right. Like how Hillary’s camp gets volunteers to release smears and rumors about Obama to the press, and the next day they “fire” those volunteers. Bad, bad volunteer!

    Yeah, I can see how that works.
    ;)

  • http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

    That’s funny as I happen to know that you can get an ad on the radio on the same day, if you really need it.

  • http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

    I am not sure what qualifies as “negative campaigning” these days. I do not see how you can run without compare and contrast ads about your opponents.

    And quite honestly, given what we know about Huckabee and McCain at this site, if one of us were running, how could we not run ads highlighting what these folks are all about? Amnesty, higher taxes, and so on.

    But I guess it is OK for us bloggers to speak our mind about the candidates, but the general public calls it negative “attack ads” when politicians say the same things we in the blogosphere have been saying for months.

  • http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

    Update, Jan. 4: According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence, the ad aired three times on the day Huckabee made his announcement, and it aired seven times in the following two days. As of Jan. 2, the most recent date for which CMAG has tallied information on the ad, Huckabee’s attack ad had run four times on KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, and had appeared on Davenport stations WQAD-TV, three times; KLJB-TV, twice; and WHBF-TV, once.

    Yeah, honest mistake. For the next two days. And not just radio, but TV.

    And of course, Huckabee claims it was the stations that made a mistake. But ultimately, he is in charge of ensuring that this does not happen. He is the guy in charge. And his folks needed to verify things.

    Are you telling me that his campaign has so much money and Iowa has so many TV stations that his campaign did not verify that the ad had been pulled, however, they had time to put together a press conference? Time enough for a press conference, but not time to actually pull the ad.

  • http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

    Justin, I don’t know what you claim is BS, but I do know for a fact that exactly what I’ve said is exactly how radio stations work. It’s simply too expensive to have your “on-air personalities” there all the time.

    Again, what happened here is totally understandable in light of how radio stations actually work. If you’re running hundreds of radio spots on dozens/hundreds of radio stations across an entire state, and try to pull one add there, you are going to get some slipping through.

    Is it too darned hard to understand what’s going on in the context of how radio & TV actually work, especially in the small markets that are endemic to Iowa?

  • http://www.willsperspective.com/ Will

    It was brilliant politics.

    More striking to me is the fact that Romney isn’t truly running negative ads. They usually start out with compliments.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    Bike Bubba – Or are we saying that Huckabee should have, as a requirement for the office, a thorough knowledge of the radio business?

    No. I say that Huckabee shouldn’t have pulled this stunt to begin with. And now I’m watching it come back and bite him in the ass. He deserves some criticism for making such a pandering boneheaded move. It serves him on right on this one.

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    Sorry! Left out the link on the above poll! LA Times Bloomberg

  • http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

    Since when? I worked in a number of radio stations and we never logged more than the briefest of outlines of station i.d.s, etc. We logged the commercials so that we could show the advertisers that we’d fulfilled our contracts.

    From what I remember, radio stations that play music are required to keep a list of what songs they play for royalty purposes. Add in the ads, and you have about 75-90% of what a radio does everyday…ignoring the bits where they talk.

  • http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

    Lik, reality is that the spots are pre-bought, and most radio stations are automated. So if, as is the case, Huckabee made the decision to cancel the spots at the last minute, it’s virtually guaranteed that a few would slip through.

    That is just bullshit. But if you are blinded by the Jesus endorsement of Huckabee, you cannot see what a flim flam man he is. But he has already convinced you he is a “Conservative” so given that your judgment is already compromised, it is probably much easier to convince you to overlook this “mistake” than it was to convince you not to look into his time running Arkansas.

  • http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

    Lik, reality is that the spots are pre-bought, and most radio stations are automated. So if, as is the case, Huckabee made the decision to cancel the spots at the last minute, it’s virtually guaranteed that a few would slip through.

    Or are we saying that Huckabee should have, as a requirement for the office, a thorough knowledge of the radio business? It might be helpful, but to claim he “lied” on the basis of a known consequence of how radio stations run isn’t hardball, but rather beanball.

  • http://ewebsmith.com/ ews48

    All radio stations have to submit a traffic report to the FCC by 12:01AM before they go on the air that accounts for every minute of their broadcasting day. Some radio stations and affiliates are no more than a couple of people. Making changes requires another report.

    Regardless, most politicians would refer to this as professional skill and joke around about it over drinks. The same lawyer that lost your case today will meet his opponent for a drink tonight and rib each other at your expense. Imagine the jokes and stories Bill and buddies share.

    to the Republic for which it stands

  • http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

    Oh, and making a “merry Christmas” ad with a cross behind him was an oversight too.

    The guy is full of shit. Lying about his record of raising taxes in AR. Lying about his record on immigration. Then pulling his little press conference stunt.

  • http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

    The concept that Huckabee may have pulled the ad at the last minute, and had trouble getting it pulled on every station in Iowa, hasn’t occurred to the fine folks at FactCheck, or for that matter, our host.

    Sorry, but this isn’t a lie. An oversight, yes, but had Huckabee intended to give this one a full run, YES, it would have run a sight more than ten times, even with Huckabee’s mediocre campaign warchest.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    The guy has trouble controlling his own campaign commercials?

    Yeah, sure! Let’s give him the Presidency!

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