A Huckabee jab at Minnesota

This is interesting.

About 60 minutes into the debate, fresh from a commercial break, Chris Wallace T-boned Mike Huckabee, calling him on the fact that taxes were higher in Arkansas when Huckabee left office than when he first became Governor, and why did that happen. Huckabee gave a minute and a half answer, and did not deny the Wallace assertion. Instead, he gave a laundry list of what he spent the money on, everything from schools to roads, and how much better the state was for it.

But what really frosted me was the fact that he threw a little jab at my Minnesota brethren in there, saying, looking at my record in Arkansas, with the roads we had to build, “no bridges fell in Arkansas.” As soon as the video hits YouTube, I’ll find it and post it.

If you look at any Electoral College map, you know that whoever the Republican nominee is, he will have to expand the map to cover the upcoming loss of Ohio to the Democrats. The greatest possibility of a Republican pick-up is in the Upper Midwest, most likely Minnesota, Wisconsin or Iowa. How in the world does Mike Huckabee expect to help flip Minnesota when a Democrat operative finds that soundbyte and uses it to alienate the Minnesota voters?

It was a cheap shot, and an ill-advised one, especially for a candidate who should have at least a marginal understanding of what he’s going to need to do to win the White House in November.

I know that there are some readers of the BBA that are supporters of or sympathetic to Mike Huckabee. Unfortunately, the man isn't ready for the prime time. This is a prime example of his political clumsiness. When you are running for a state office, you can poke at other states and get away with it. When you are running for president, you cannot.