One of the most vivid incidents in Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer was the inimitable fence-painting incident (commemorated annually in Twain’s boyhood home of Hannibal, MO – but I digress) in which Tom managed to present the job in such a light to his passing friends that they ended up “bribing” him to do his work for him.
After telegraphing his intent to punch out Romney for having the nerve to actually go to the political historical record to see what policies had actually been followed in the Huckabee administration (IMHO, this record is anything BUT conservative), the Arkansas Huckster called a major presser to announce that he had “suddenly changed his mind”, and would NOT use the attack ad against Romney, that will now be shown to you all to broadcast for me as “news”. Thank you very much!
The reporters were NOT impressed – and generally refrained from turning themselves into so many Tom Sawyers willing to wield the political paintbrush for Huckabee’s campaign.
Despite changing his mind, Huckabee still wanted to show the press one of the negative ads he wasn’t going to run. A transcript of the event will show this response from the press corps:
“Bwahahahahaha!” [sound of reporters falling out of chairs, doubled over in laughter]
Reporters saw the spectacle as a transparent charade to get them to run Huckabee’s ad for him while allowing him to maintain the high road. The ad was a standard attack ad with pictures of Romney and claims about his record on taxes, the death penalty, and the deficit he left in Massachusetts after his term as governor. Despite Huckabee’s switcheroo, the room was also filled with easels displaying Romney distortions, which Huckabee and aides said couldn’t be pulled down because the candidate had made his decision so recently.
The “whooosh” sound coming from this quick-change may well be a signal of implosion.
The Chief only hopes so.