The Arkansas Project

More on Huck’s Book

By David Kinkade - November 17, 2008 5:40 pm

A couple of follow-up notes on Mike Huckabee’s new book “Do the Right Thing,” slated for release tomorrow:

Jason Tolbert at The Tolbert Report blog spent a little time on a conference call with Huck this afternoon, and he asked about the “score settling” sections of the book that have been the focus of much of today’s advance reporting on the book. The Tolbert Report, uh, reports:

Huckabee said that the book does not focus heavily on these topics and “hopefully people will read the book for themselves” and see this. These articles pulled the most controversial passages out of the book and do not represent the book as a whole. He did say that the book does “get specific about things that took place during the campaign” and talks about these things with “some degree of candor.”

Now, keep in mind that this is a classic (and clever) Huckabee move, to consciously provoke a controversy and then to discount the controversy as being beside the point, suggesting that those who focus on the controversy are just trying to stir up trouble. And then reaping the public relations benefits of the controversy nonetheless….

For example, remember the “cross in the background” business around his Christmas ad last year? Which he pretended was just a coincidence, but his consultant Ed Rollins later admitted was a conscious decision?

Meanwhile, the Wonkette blog in D.C. has a mean but funny look at the new book that’s worth a look.

Update: Occasional Arkansas Project contributor Freeman Hunt—no Huckabee fan, this one—lays out her brief against Huck.

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