New York Times, The Caucus
November 9, 2007,
By Michael Luo
The Caucus sat down with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee twice, once in New York last week when he was in town for fund-raising and once here, for an article about his candidacy.
The following are excerpts from those conversations.
On his chances of winning the Republican nomination:
“The winner is often the guy at this stage in the game nobody thinks is even in the game. But what happens is the front-runners have in many cases peaked out. They’ve hit the ceiling of their support because people know who they are. People who are going to be with them are with them. You see none of the candidates with enough votes to say, ‘It’s mine. I’ve won.’
“What you do see is a huge number of people who just say, ‘Well, either I haven’t picked a candidate or I’m coming with one but my roots aren’t deep. We’re still looking.’ I’m coming into the sort of, maybe the scope, just at the right at time as people are saying, ‘Is there anybody else?’ ”
On whether his struggles with fund-raising say anything about his management or leadership abilities, as some have suggested:
“I think what it says I’m not as well known as some of these guys. What they ought to be looking at and saying is, ‘My gosh, look how far he’s gone with the resources he’s had.’ That shows better management. I don’t think it’s great management to say, ‘I’ve blown threw $60 million and I’m behind a guy that’s raised 2.5 million.’
“I’d say it’s great management that I’ve raised $2.5 million and I’m ahead of guys who have raised 60. Who would you want running the government? Somebody who can manage something major on a minor budget, or somebody who can manage something minor on a very major budget.”
Read more …
Chatting With Huckabee
