Huckabee rides the Colbert bump

Or maybe it’s more of a wave.

I can’t blame you if you’re not following the poling data for the Iowa Caucus, the official start of the primaries set for January 14th of next year. But you should know that ‘friend of the show’ Mike Huckabee’s numbers have been going up in national polls since his appearance on The Colbert Report and he’s gaining fast in Iowa on front runner Mitt Romney. Notably, he’s using some unconventional campaign strategies – some straight out of Stephen Colbert’s campaign play book. Salon.com’s “08 Roadies” report on his first television ad now airing in Iowa, playing the humor card, and why it might work.

Huckabee’s new humor offensive

“His Majesty knew that a joke is a dangerous form of opposition.”

– Ryszard Kapuscinski, “The Emperor“

A joke is never just a joke, and in politics this is doubly true. It is a force to make tyrannies quiver, campaign aides reach for Rolaids and front-runners lose sleep. Look now to the long-awaited first television ad by the current Republican golden boy, the pastor-Gov. Michael Dale Huckabee, who is ascendant in Iowa.

Here is a serious candidate running for the most powerful post in the world — on the strength of Chuck Norris’ facial hair. “There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard — only another fist,” Huckabee quips. “When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn’t lifting himself up. He is pushing the earth down.” And it’s damn funny. And it makes sound political sense. And here’s why: Most American voters care about politics, but they can’t stand the politicians or the politicking. They know how to spot a phony. At the same time, they are bored stiff. In a recent Pew poll, 55 percent of America said the presidential campaign was “dull,” compared to 37 percent who found it “interesting”; two-thirds found the campaign was too long. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to be bored and exhausted.

Humor cures both ills. After the attacks of Sept. 11, many in the pundit class predicted the end of irony, but the joke was on them. In the modern political debate, the humorist reigns supreme. Exhibit A, of course, is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who can deliver the hard facts of reality in a way that drops the pretension that politics is a serious matter that must be treated like a bris. They call out the BS when they see it, and instantly become more credible.

Huckabee is doing the same thing in this ad. He has taken on the sacred cow of the Republican Party, the ridiculous claim to tough guy, big daddy machismo. Huckabee is calling this hooey out for what it is — a disguise that is about as useful to the nation as the beard on Chuck Norris. He does the unthinkable. He states the obvious, calls a phony a phony. And in the process, he suddenly establishes himself as a straight-talker, as the honest broker, as the candidate equivalent of Jon Stewart.

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Read the full text here.

The post also embeds an online video the authors claim comes from the Huckabee campaign. While I find no evidence of this – in fact, it is from a YouTube user other than the official Huckabee campaign – it’s a look at how Governor Mike could use some of his Comedy Central appearances in his campaign.

• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – February 6, 2010
• Seriously? Only 41%?!
• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – January 27, 2010
• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – The Late Night TV Edition