Thursday, January 03, 2008

Memo to Huckabee: How to be competitive in Utah (if it comes to that)

Mr. Huckabee:

Congratulations on the win in Iowa. I was glad to see that money doesn't always win. That's refreshing. I noted in a CNN article that you won 45% of the evangelical vote and they comprised 60% of caucus goers. That's an impressive bloc.

You won't have that cushion in Utah. In fact, some of your comments and campaign so far may have alienated LDS voters in our fair state. You'll need to overcome that perception.

Here's a five step plan for becoming competitive in Utah:

1. take the Al Sharpton VIP tour of Temple Square. Meet with some LDS leaders for a private consultation. Ask them tough, but sincere, questions (the "Jesus and Satan are brothers?" thing won't cut it, ya'll have been asking that for at least 17 years. I first heard it on my LDS mission in 1990).

2. go to an LDS family home evening somewhere in the valley.

3. come with me unannounced to my LDS ward on a Sunday or Wednesday night (for youth activities). Don't worry, very few people will recognize you.

4. assuming that all goes well for you, have a press conference where you say "you know what, I didn't know much about those crazy Mormons, but now I do. We have deep doctrinal differences but, you know what, they are pretty normal people trying to do what's right"

5. quit being so dumb about stuff! Get your facts straight on foreign policy. Know about the writers strike. You don't have to know everything, but your staff should. Be decisive. No more "I made an ad, I pulled the ad, I showed the ad" tricks.



CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Schneider: How Huckabee won � - Blogs from CNN.com

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting ideas, but of course Huckabee won't worry about being competitive in Utah. He has no chance of winning the primary (not in Mittville), and in the general election, we all know the state will vote for the Republican no matter what.

dawnawanna said...

That's a good read, I really liked it. I won't be voting for Huckabee no matter what. Huckabee vs Obama would certainly make my decision easy.

PS - I'm wearing a lovely Militant Progressive shirt today, Thanks!

Scott Hinrichs said...

VoU is right that Huckabee can blow Utah off in the primary. But what if he were to win the GOP nomination? Would Mormon Republicans hold their noses and vote for him over a Democratic opponent? Probably. Even if he doesn't campaign much in Utah. So, either way, I don't think Huckabee is or will be in a position where he has to spend much time trying to make nice with Utahns.